é's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 10 Apr 2025 10:37:42 -0700 60 é's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy, #2)]]> 169485073 This highly anticipated follow-up to The Will of the Many—one of 2023’s most lauded and bestselling fantasy novels—follows Vis as he grapples with a dangerous secret that could change the course of history across alternate dimensions.


OMNE TRIUM PERFECTUM.

The Hierarchy still call me Vis Telimus. Still hail me as Catenicus. They still, as one, believe they know who I am.

But with all that has happened—with what I fear is coming—I am not sure it matters anymore.

I am no longer one. I won the Iudicium, and lost everything—and now, impossibly, the ancient device beyond the Labyrinth has replicated me across three separate worlds. A different version of myself in each of Obiteum, Luceum, and Res. Three different bodies, three different lives. I have to hide; fight; play politics. I have to train; trust; lie. I have to kill; heal; prove myself again, and again, and again.

I am loved, and hated, and entirely alone.

Above all, though, I need to find answers before it’s too late. To understand the nature of what has happened to me, and why.

I need to find a way to stop the coming Cataclysm, because if all I have learned is true, I may be the only one who can.]]> James Islington é 0 to-read 4.69 2025 The Strength of the Few (Hierarchy, #2)
author: James Islington
name: é
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]> 382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 é 0 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: é
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/10
shelves: series-fantasy-scifi-tbr, currently-reading, read-in-2025, read-in-english, read-in-german
review:

]]> The Electric State 38642323 A teen girl and her robot embark on a cross-country mission in this illustrated science fiction story, perfect for fans of Ready Player One and Black Mirror.

In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her small yellow toy robot travel west through a strange American landscape where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, along with the discarded trash of a high-tech consumerist society addicted to a virtual-reality system. As they approach the edge of the continent, the world outside the car window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.]]> 144 Simon Stålenhag 1501181416 é 0 4.42 2017 The Electric State
author: Simon Stålenhag
name: é
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: graphic-novel, read-in-english, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 é 0 to-read 4.62 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: é
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> ٰԱäܴڱ 834698 386 Khaled Hosseini é 4 4.52 2003 ٰԱäܴڱ
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: é
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: cry-fest, read-in-2025, read-in-german
review:

]]> The Garden of Evening Mists 12031532 448 Tan Twan Eng 1905802498 é 0 to-read 4.11 2011 The Garden of Evening Mists
author: Tan Twan Eng
name: é
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Housekeeper and the Professor]]> 3181564
She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him.

And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor’s mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities--like the Housekeeper’s shoe size--and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away.

The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.]]> 180 Yōko Ogawa 0312427808 é 0 to-read 4.04 2003 The Housekeeper and the Professor
author: Yōko Ogawa
name: é
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Left Hand of Darkness 18423 The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.]]> 304 Ursula K. Le Guin é 0 to-read 4.11 1969 The Left Hand of Darkness
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: é
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Library of the Unwritten (Hell's Library, #1)]]> 41961994 In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories.

Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing—a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.

But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell ... and Earth.]]> 384 A.J. Hackwith 1984806386 é 0 to-read 3.78 2019 The Library of the Unwritten (Hell's Library, #1)
author: A.J. Hackwith
name: é
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Once Upon a River 40130093
Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless.

Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison, stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known.

Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned.]]> 464 Diane Setterfield 0743298071 é 0 to-read 3.91 2018 Once Upon a River
author: Diane Setterfield
name: é
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Marvellous Light (The Last Binding, #1)]]> 53217284
For fans of Georgette Heyer or Julia Quinn's Bridgerton, who'd like to welcome magic into their lives...

Young baronet Robin Blyth thought he was taking up a minor governmental post. However, he's actually been appointed parliamentary liaison to a secret magical society. If it weren’t for this administrative error, he’d never have discovered the incredible magic underlying his world.

Cursed by mysterious attackers and plagued by visions, Robin becomes determined to drag answers from his missing predecessor � but he’ll need the help of Edwin Courcey, his hostile magical-society counterpart. Unwillingly thrown together, Robin and Edwin will discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles.]]> 377 Freya Marske 1250788897 é 0 to-read 3.94 2021 A Marvellous Light (The Last Binding, #1)
author: Freya Marske
name: é
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Real Life 46263943
Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.

Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds, and at what cost.]]> 329 Brandon Taylor 0525538887 é 0 to-read 3.79 2020 Real Life
author: Brandon Taylor
name: é
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Year of Magical Thinking 7815
From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."]]> 227 Joan Didion 1400078431 é 0 to-read 3.94 2005 The Year of Magical Thinking
author: Joan Didion
name: é
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over]]> 177148776 128 Anne de Marcken 0811237850 é 0 to-read 3.70 2024 It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over
author: Anne de Marcken
name: é
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Der Thron der Sieben Königreiche (A Song of Ice and Fire #2, Part 1 of 2)]]> 1176682 542 George R.R. Martin 3442249236 é 0 to-read 4.47 Der Thron der Sieben Königreiche (A Song of Ice and Fire #2, Part 1 of 2)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: é
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Crying in H Mart 54814676
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band � and meeting the man who would become her husband � her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

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

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 243 Michelle Zauner 0525657746 é 0 to-read 4.25 2021 Crying in H Mart
author: Michelle Zauner
name: é
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Die Möglichkeit von Glück 122766102
Stine kommt Mitte der 80er Jahre in einer Kleinstadt an der ostdeutschen Ostsee zur Welt. Sie ist ein Kind der Wende. Um den Systemwechsel in der DDR zu begreifen, ist sie zu jung, doch die vielschichtigen ideologischen Prägungen ihrer Familie schreiben sich in die heranwachsende Generation fort. Während ihre Verwandten die untergegangene Welt hinter einem undurchdringlichen Schweigen verstecken, brechen bei Stine Fragen auf, die sich nicht länger verdrängen lassen. Anne Rabe hat ein ebenso hellsichtiges wie aufwühlendes Buch von literarischer Wucht geschrieben. Sie geht den Verwundungen einer Generation nach, die zwischen Diktatur und Demokratie aufgewachsen ist, und fragt nach den Ursprüngen von Rassismus und Gewalt.]]> 384 Anne Rabe 3608121617 é 0 to-read 4.06 2023 Die Möglichkeit von Glück
author: Anne Rabe
name: é
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima (Asia/Pacific/Perspectives)]]> 24507092
To Hell and Back offers readers a stunning, “you are there� time capsule, wrapped in elegant prose. Charles Pellegrino’s scientific authority and close relationship with the A-bomb survivors make his account the most gripping and authoritative ever written.

At the narrative’s core are eyewitness accounts of those who experienced the atomic explosions firsthand—the Japanese civilians on the ground. As the first city targeted, Hiroshima is the focus of most histories. Pellegrino gives equal weight to the bombing of Nagasaki, symbolized by the thirty people who are known to have fled Hiroshima for Nagasaki—where they arrived just in time to survive the second bomb. One of them, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, is the only person who experienced the full effects of both cataclysms within Ground Zero. The second time, the blast effects were diverted around the stairwell behind which Yamaguchi’s office conference was convened—placing him and few others in a shock cocoon that offered protection while the entire building disappeared around them.

Pellegrino weaves spellbinding stories together within an illustrated narrative that challenges the “official report,� showing exactly what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—and why.

Also available from compatible vendors is an enhanced e-book version containing never-before-seen video clips of the survivors, their descendants, and the cities as they are today. Filmed by the author during his research in Japan, these 18 videos are placed throughout the text, taking readers beyond the page and offering an eye-opening and personal way to understand how the effects of the atomic bombs are still felt 70 years after detonation.]]> 432 Charles Pellegrino 1442250585 é 0 to-read 4.42 2010 To Hell and Back: The Last Train from Hiroshima (Asia/Pacific/Perspectives)
author: Charles Pellegrino
name: é
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1)]]> 61612864
A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.

The world has never even noticed them. That's about to change.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty, and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.]]> 559 Mark Lawrence 0593437918 é 0 to-read 3.94 2023 The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1)
author: Mark Lawrence
name: é
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book of Doors 156019739 If you could open a door to anywhere, where would you go?

In New York City, bookseller Cassie Andrews is living an unassuming life when she is given a gift by a favourite customer. It's a book - an unusual book, full of strange writing and mysterious drawings. And at the very front there is a handwritten message to Cassie, telling her that this is the Book of Doors, and that any door is every door.

What Cassie is about to discover is that the Book of Doors is a special book that bestows an extraordinary powers on whoever possesses it, and soon she and her best friend Izzy are exploring all that the Book of Doors can do, swept away from their quiet lives by the possibilities of travelling to anywhere they want.

But the Book of Doors is not the only magical book in the world. There are other books that can do wondrous and dreadful things when wielded by dangerous and ruthless individuals - individuals who crave what Cassie now possesses.

Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is, it seems, Drummond Fox. He is a man fleeing his own demons - a man with his own secret library of magical books that he has hidden away in the shadows for safekeeping. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .

Because some doors should never be opened. ]]> 416 Gareth Brown 0063359006 é 0 to-read 4.04 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: é
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> Die letzte Welt 59971948 399 Christoph Ransmayr 3596522633 é 0 to-read 4.00 1988 Die letzte Welt
author: Christoph Ransmayr
name: é
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Blue Sisters 63888248 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 339 Coco Mellors é 3 "I miss her and I miss her and I miss her," she began. "And I wait for the feeling to end because every other feeling has ended, no matter how intense, no matter how hard—but this won't. There's just no end to the missing. There was life before and there's life now. And I can't seem to accept it. I can't accept that I'll have to miss her forever.
There will never be relief. There will never be a reunion. And I wish I had a God. I wish I believed in an afterlife or something, anything.
But when I try to talk to her in my head, there's no response. I can't hear her. And I can't feel her. All I have is this missing. And part of me is glad it won't end because it's all I have to connect me to her now."

This hit way too close to home. This book made me sob all the way through.]]> 4.13 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: é
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves: queer, read-in-2024, read-in-english, cry-fest, review
review:
"I miss her and I miss her and I miss her," she began. "And I wait for the feeling to end because every other feeling has ended, no matter how intense, no matter how hard—but this won't. There's just no end to the missing. There was life before and there's life now. And I can't seem to accept it. I can't accept that I'll have to miss her forever.
There will never be relief. There will never be a reunion. And I wish I had a God. I wish I believed in an afterlife or something, anything.
But when I try to talk to her in my head, there's no response. I can't hear her. And I can't feel her. All I have is this missing. And part of me is glad it won't end because it's all I have to connect me to her now."


This hit way too close to home. This book made me sob all the way through.
]]> Schöne Neue Welt 55552190
1932 erschien einer der wichtigsten Romane des 20. Jahrhunderts: »Schöne neue Welt« - ein heimtückisch verführerischer Aufriss unserer Zukunft, in der das Glück verabreicht wird in Form einer Tablette. Sex und Konsum fegen alle Bedenken hinweg, und Fertilisationsstationen haben das Fortpflanzungsproblem gelöst. Es ist die beste aller Welten ... bis einer von außen kommt und einen Abgrund aus Arroganz und Verzweiflung entdeckt.

Reinhard Kleist illustriert und gestaltet Aldous Huxleys dystopisches Meisterwerk: ein aufwendig ausgestatteter Prachtband im modernen Gewand, der Kleist-Fans wie Bibliophile begeistern wird.]]> 352 Aldous Huxley 3103900082 é 0 to-read 4.06 1932 Schöne Neue Welt
author: Aldous Huxley
name: é
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1932
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> American Gods 567724
Shadow spent three years in prison, keeping his head down, doing his time. All he wanted was to get back to the loving arms of his wife and to stay out of trouble for the rest of his life. But days before his scheduled release, he learns that his wife has been killed in an accident, and his world becomes a colder place.

On the plane ride home to the funeral, Shadow meets a grizzled man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A self-styled grifter and rogue, Wednesday offers Shadow a job. And Shadow, a man with nothing to lose, accepts.

But working for the enigmatic Wednesday is not without its price, and Shadow soon learns that his role in Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous than he ever could have imagined. Entangled in a world of secrets, he embarks on a wild road trip and encounters, among others, the murderous Czernobog, the impish Mr. Nancy, and the beautiful Easter -- all of whom seem to know more about Shadow than he himself does.

Shadow will learn that the past does not die, that everyone, including his late wife, had secrets, and that the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined.

All around them a storm of epic proportions threatens to break. Soon Shadow and Wednesday will be swept up into a conflict as old as humanity itself. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought -- and the prize is the very soul of America.

As unsettling as it is exhilarating, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. Magnificently told, this work of literary magic will haunt the reader far beyond the final page.

Source: harpercollins.com]]> 465 Neil Gaiman 0380973650 é 0 4.04 2001 American Gods
author: Neil Gaiman
name: é
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: read-in-2024, read-in-english, to-read
review:

]]> Liebe ist gewaltig 60806102 367 Claudia Schumacher é 0 to-read 4.35 2022 Liebe ist gewaltig
author: Claudia Schumacher
name: é
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)]]> 203578847 The long-awaited explosive climax to the first arc of the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive―the iconic epic fantasy masterpiece that has sold more than 10 million copies, from acclaimed bestselling author Brandon Sanderson.

Dalinar Kholin challenged the evil god Odium to a contest of champions with the future of Roshar on the line. The Knights Radiant have only ten days to prepare―and the sudden ascension of the crafty and ruthless Taravangian to take Odium’s place has thrown everything into disarray.

Desperate fighting continues simultaneously worldwide―Adolin in Azimir, Sigzil and Venli at the Shattered Plains, and Jasnah at Thaylen City. The former assassin, Szeth, must cleanse his homeland of Shinovar from the dark influence of the Unmade. He is accompanied by Kaladin, who faces a new battle helping Szeth fight his own demons . . . and who must do the same for the insane Herald of the Almighty, Ishar.

At the same time, Shallan, Renarin, and Rlain work to unravel the mystery behind the Unmade Ba-Ado-Mishram and her involvement in the enslavement of the singer race and in the ancient Knights Radiants killing their spren. And Dalinar and Navani seek an edge against Odium’s champion that can be found only in the Spiritual Realm, where memory and possibility combine in chaos. The fate of the entire Cosmere hangs in the balance.]]> 1344 Brandon Sanderson 1250319188 é 0 to-read 4.36 2024 Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: é
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust (New Edition) (Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' Stardust)]]> 44006485 249 Neil Gaiman 1401287859 é 0 to-read 4.37 1998 Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess's Stardust (New Edition) (Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess' Stardust)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: é
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.]]> 816 Hanya Yanagihara 0804172706 é 5
-

Update 2023: I now have a tattoo inspired by this book and spent money worth my monthly rent just to see the play in London. I think about this story almost daily since I’ve read it the first time.


Update 2021: I don’t know what demon came over me but I have this urge to read this book again which is a terrible idea. Someone please stop me.
-
How do you rate a heartbreak?
Wow. I‘m so glad this is over.
This story is a whole experience. It‘s so f*cking cruel, it broke my heart in so many ways. I‘m probably damaged for the rest of my life. Seriously.
I don‘t know how many stars I should give this. I’m going for 4, since I had some problems getting into the story. Everything else was just heart wrenching.
So. This is going to be a mess.
No major spoilers ahead.

There were some things I didn’t like:
1. There are almost no female characters and those who were mentioned were just that - mentioned. It didn’t really bother me while reading but seemed a bit unrealistic.
2. There are many scenes that could’ve been cut out. Especially in the first half I was kind of bored reading about moments, written so long that I almost had the feeling I was part of them and while that’s not a bad thing (I love that actually but not in this length) those scenes felt unecessary for the plot and made it hard for me to keep reading at times out of sheer lack of interest (that’s harsh but maybe you know what I mean).
3. The traumatic experiences of Jude. Needless to say they were awful to a point were I had to interrupt reading multiple times because I was sick to my stomach. The thing that bothered me about it was that the author didn’t give you a break. I could’ve used a minor break between them, for example when Caleb entered the story. It was hard enough reading this but it made it almost unbearable reading Jude’s experiences from his childhood right afterwards. But that’s more a emotional thing rather than a writing thing (I guess).
4. The political and social events that happened during the time the story took place were not at all included.

Things that I liked:
1. The story felt real to a point were I couldn’t believe that it‘s all fiction (which scared me). I feel like I actually know (especially) Harold, Willem and Jude.
2. Jude’s feelings and experiences are something you don‘t often read about in books. It didn’t make me feel good (and they weren’t supposed to) but it made me think and feel nonetheless. More than any book I‘ve read before did.
3. Willem and Jude’s friendship and Jude’s adoption made me have a little hope for everything to be okay.
4. The writing.
5. It made me feel things so intense that my body was shaking a little.

The thing with this book is - and why it was so hard for me to read it - that I didn‘t want to know what happened next because that meant having to read more about Jude’s traumatic experiences (that were so awful that I almost puked on multiple occasions) and that‘s just not enjoyable. At all. There‘s almost no fun reading this story but I had to keep trying and trying because I got sucked into Jude’s life and everyone involved that I just couldn’t not finish it. I felt like I had to keep reading, like having opened this book put a spell on me for finishing it. I hated and I loved it.
I was living in it and it broke my heart in tiny little pieces. I felt (no kidding) feverish reading it, I dreamt of it, I had to talk and think about it when I wasn’t reading. It absolutely consumed me, sucked me in and spat me out. It was definitely the most intense book I’ve ever held in my hands and I‘m so glad I can now close it and never read it again.


This book needs a big fat trigger warning for self harm and mental-/physical abuse. Those self harm scenes were graphic as hell.
TW: self harm, rape, violence, mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual assault of a child, probably every TW ever and one hell of a lot of sadness. There’s actually zero fun included.]]> 4.36 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: é
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/11
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: read-in-2018, cry-fest, queer, read-in-german, review, stand-alone, fav-loved, read-in-2023, read-in-english
review:
I saw the play in London on closing night. This story lives in my bones, I’m afraid. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about all of them since 2018 and the play only made it worse. I’ve never been so affected by a book before. It certainly has its flaws but the characters stay with you forever.

-

Update 2023: I now have a tattoo inspired by this book and spent money worth my monthly rent just to see the play in London. I think about this story almost daily since I’ve read it the first time.


Update 2021: I don’t know what demon came over me but I have this urge to read this book again which is a terrible idea. Someone please stop me.
-
How do you rate a heartbreak?
Wow. I‘m so glad this is over.
This story is a whole experience. It‘s so f*cking cruel, it broke my heart in so many ways. I‘m probably damaged for the rest of my life. Seriously.
I don‘t know how many stars I should give this. I’m going for 4, since I had some problems getting into the story. Everything else was just heart wrenching.
So. This is going to be a mess.
No major spoilers ahead.

There were some things I didn’t like:
1. There are almost no female characters and those who were mentioned were just that - mentioned. It didn’t really bother me while reading but seemed a bit unrealistic.
2. There are many scenes that could’ve been cut out. Especially in the first half I was kind of bored reading about moments, written so long that I almost had the feeling I was part of them and while that’s not a bad thing (I love that actually but not in this length) those scenes felt unecessary for the plot and made it hard for me to keep reading at times out of sheer lack of interest (that’s harsh but maybe you know what I mean).
3. The traumatic experiences of Jude. Needless to say they were awful to a point were I had to interrupt reading multiple times because I was sick to my stomach. The thing that bothered me about it was that the author didn’t give you a break. I could’ve used a minor break between them, for example when Caleb entered the story. It was hard enough reading this but it made it almost unbearable reading Jude’s experiences from his childhood right afterwards. But that’s more a emotional thing rather than a writing thing (I guess).
4. The political and social events that happened during the time the story took place were not at all included.

Things that I liked:
1. The story felt real to a point were I couldn’t believe that it‘s all fiction (which scared me). I feel like I actually know (especially) Harold, Willem and Jude.
2. Jude’s feelings and experiences are something you don‘t often read about in books. It didn’t make me feel good (and they weren’t supposed to) but it made me think and feel nonetheless. More than any book I‘ve read before did.
3. Willem and Jude’s friendship and Jude’s adoption made me have a little hope for everything to be okay.
4. The writing.
5. It made me feel things so intense that my body was shaking a little.

The thing with this book is - and why it was so hard for me to read it - that I didn‘t want to know what happened next because that meant having to read more about Jude’s traumatic experiences (that were so awful that I almost puked on multiple occasions) and that‘s just not enjoyable. At all. There‘s almost no fun reading this story but I had to keep trying and trying because I got sucked into Jude’s life and everyone involved that I just couldn’t not finish it. I felt like I had to keep reading, like having opened this book put a spell on me for finishing it. I hated and I loved it.
I was living in it and it broke my heart in tiny little pieces. I felt (no kidding) feverish reading it, I dreamt of it, I had to talk and think about it when I wasn’t reading. It absolutely consumed me, sucked me in and spat me out. It was definitely the most intense book I’ve ever held in my hands and I‘m so glad I can now close it and never read it again.


This book needs a big fat trigger warning for self harm and mental-/physical abuse. Those self harm scenes were graphic as hell.
TW: self harm, rape, violence, mental abuse, physical abuse, sexual assault of a child, probably every TW ever and one hell of a lot of sadness. There’s actually zero fun included.
]]> <![CDATA[Steelheart (The Reckoners, #1)]]> 17182126
Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart � the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning � and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.]]> 386 Brandon Sanderson 0385743564 é 0 to-read 4.14 2013 Steelheart (The Reckoners, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: é
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Flowers For Algernon (SF Masterworks)]]> 64216153 256 Daniel Keyes 1399607766 é 4 4.49 1966 Flowers For Algernon (SF Masterworks)
author: Daniel Keyes
name: é
average rating: 4.49
book published: 1966
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: read-in-2024, read-in-english, classics
review:

]]> Tausend strahlende Sonnen 5978478 381 Khaled Hosseini 3833305894 é 0 to-read 4.63 2007 Tausend strahlende Sonnen
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: é
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In the Dream House 52520830 In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing experience with a charismatic but volatile woman, this is a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse.

Each chapter views the relationship through a different lens, as Machado holds events up to the light and examines them from distinct angles. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction, infusing all with her characteristic wit, playfulness and openness to enquiry. The result is a powerful book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.]]> 283 Carmen Maria Machado 1788162242 é 0 to-read 4.55 2019 In the Dream House
author: Carmen Maria Machado
name: é
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Maurice 262147
In his introduction, David Leavitt explores the significance of the novel in relation to Forster's own life and as a founding work of modern gay literature. This edition reproduces the Abinger text of the novel, and includes new notes, a chronology and further reading.]]> 232 E.M. Forster 0141441135 é 3 4.11 1971 Maurice
author: E.M. Forster
name: é
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: classics, queer, read-in-2024, read-in-english, romance, review
review:
The prose is beautiful and I really enjoyed the first half. After Clive and Maurice go their separate ways I just kinda lost interest tbh.
]]> <![CDATA[Kafka on the Shore (Murakami Collectible Classics)]]> 59539714 A beautifully packaged hardback edition of Haruki Murakami's mesmerizingly surreal classic, now with a new introduction by the author.

Kafka Tamura runs away from home at fifteen, under the shadow of his father's dark prophesy.

The aging Nakata, tracker of lost cats, who never recovered from a bizarre childhood affliction, finds his pleasantly simplified life suddenly turned upside down.

As their parallel odysseys unravel, cats converse with people; fish tumble from the sky; a ghost-like pimp deploys a Hegel-spouting girl of the night; a forest harbours soldiers apparently un-aged since World War II. There is a savage killing, but the identity of both victim and killer is a riddle - one of many which combine to create an elegant and dreamlike masterpiece.]]> 528 Haruki Murakami 1784877980 é 0 to-read 4.14 2002 Kafka on the Shore (Murakami Collectible Classics)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: é
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Sun (The Tarot Sequence, #1)]]> 36466732
With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court.

In looking for Addam, can Rune find the truth behind his family's death and the torments of his past?]]> 371 K.D. Edwards é 0 to-read 4.18 2018 The Last Sun (The Tarot Sequence, #1)
author: K.D. Edwards
name: é
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sein Bruder 17286163
In der Begegnung mit dem unvermeidlichen Tod kommen sich die beiden Brüder wieder sehr nahe, bilden eine Symbiose im Leid. Schonungslos, beklemmend und ungeheuer intensiv werden die Grenzen eines technischen Verständnisses heutiger medizinischer Betreuung aufgezeigt. Und übrig bleibt nur die Flucht aus der verriegelten Welt der Gerätegläubigkeit in das Symbol glücklicher Kindertage, ein Haus am Atlantik auf der Île de Ré. Dort sitz auf einer Bank am Meer ein alter Mann, einem Orakel gleich, der beiden in der Erkenntnis ihrer eigenen Geheimnisse hilft. Er ist ein Beobachter und ein Erzähler. Er läßt sein eigenes Leben einfließen in die lakonischen Beschreibungen dieser reizvollen Insel, ihrer Geschichte, ihrer Salzgärten. Und er beobachtet aus der Distanz, deutet auf verschlüsselte Weise eine Schuld an, die den todgeweihten Bruder zu belasten scheint. Ein Buch fern von jedem Klischee, in der Sprache eines Meisters.]]> 160 Philippe Besson 3423244550 é 0 to-read 3.86 2001 Sein Bruder
author: Philippe Besson
name: é
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]> 41562299 340 J.K. Rowling 1408894629 é 5
"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"


hp


Let’s get personal...

I still remember the way my journey with Harry Potter started very clearly.
My brother, who’s five years older than me and literally grew up alongside Harry, and my father were always raving about HP and I wanted to be a part of that joy so I listened when my father read us the first book and I came into the cinema with them when the first couple of movies came out.
But the year my love for this incredible world literally imploded within me was the year I lost most of my friends due to bullying. It was the summer holiday from year seven to year eight (2009) and I was finally ready for all seven books to enchant me.
I spent all six weeks in our garden with my head buried in those books, in the shadow beneath our apple tree. I let myself be swept away into the world that would be my safe space from that day on.
I became completely obsessed, read hundreds of fanfiction stories, wouldn’t talk about anything else for years, spent my time in my imagination with Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Whenever I had a tough time I came back to these books. I fall asleep to the audiobooks or the soundtrack. I watch the movies when I feel lonely. Now, after countless rereadings in german and a 2 year (?) break from the books so I could start fresh again, I’ve finally picked up the English/original version and I’m again overwhelmed by this story so obviously crafted by love. Reading this in another language is like discovering it all for the first time again and apparently reading and crying at the same time isn’t really working but I just can’t stop.
Not to be dramatic or anything (I am but well, can’t help it) but this series seriously owns my whole heart and whatever’s going on with J.K Rowling (going a bit mad, I see; posting all kinds of problematic things) I’ll forever be grateful that she (even if I wholeheartedly disagree with the transphobia and terf bs she’s been on about, targeting my community) allowed us all to be part of this crazy, brilliant journey that is Harry Potter. No story ever meant that much to me.

"No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."
- J.K. Rowling, 2011


d


The writing or the story itself is by no means perfect and there are books out there with way more beautiful prose but I couldn’t give a lesser damn because this series is everything to me. There are problematic parts, no doubt, and I acknowledge them, I actually do care a lot about all of them but this has been more than just a book to me. It’s my comfort zone, my safe space and the only thing that kept me sane in my darkest of times. I can’t and will not erase this.

trio

*I’ve created a playlist for all the stunning Harry Potter videos out there that I watch whenever I feel homesick ‘cause Harry Potter really is home for me.



Thought I’d share it on here; someone might wanna have a good cry over our Golden Trio (and Draco Malfoy because duh).]]> 4.52 1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
author: J.K. Rowling
name: é
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves: cry-fest, fav-all-time-favorites, read-in-german, read-in-2020, read-in-english, review, read-in-2024
review:
If you’re looking for an actual review of this book, this ain’t it.
"Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"


hp


Let’s get personal...

I still remember the way my journey with Harry Potter started very clearly.
My brother, who’s five years older than me and literally grew up alongside Harry, and my father were always raving about HP and I wanted to be a part of that joy so I listened when my father read us the first book and I came into the cinema with them when the first couple of movies came out.
But the year my love for this incredible world literally imploded within me was the year I lost most of my friends due to bullying. It was the summer holiday from year seven to year eight (2009) and I was finally ready for all seven books to enchant me.
I spent all six weeks in our garden with my head buried in those books, in the shadow beneath our apple tree. I let myself be swept away into the world that would be my safe space from that day on.
I became completely obsessed, read hundreds of fanfiction stories, wouldn’t talk about anything else for years, spent my time in my imagination with Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Whenever I had a tough time I came back to these books. I fall asleep to the audiobooks or the soundtrack. I watch the movies when I feel lonely. Now, after countless rereadings in german and a 2 year (?) break from the books so I could start fresh again, I’ve finally picked up the English/original version and I’m again overwhelmed by this story so obviously crafted by love. Reading this in another language is like discovering it all for the first time again and apparently reading and crying at the same time isn’t really working but I just can’t stop.
Not to be dramatic or anything (I am but well, can’t help it) but this series seriously owns my whole heart and whatever’s going on with J.K Rowling (going a bit mad, I see; posting all kinds of problematic things) I’ll forever be grateful that she (even if I wholeheartedly disagree with the transphobia and terf bs she’s been on about, targeting my community) allowed us all to be part of this crazy, brilliant journey that is Harry Potter. No story ever meant that much to me.

"No story lives unless someone wants to listen. The stories we love best do live in us forever. So whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home."
- J.K. Rowling, 2011


d


The writing or the story itself is by no means perfect and there are books out there with way more beautiful prose but I couldn’t give a lesser damn because this series is everything to me. There are problematic parts, no doubt, and I acknowledge them, I actually do care a lot about all of them but this has been more than just a book to me. It’s my comfort zone, my safe space and the only thing that kept me sane in my darkest of times. I can’t and will not erase this.

trio

*I’ve created a playlist for all the stunning Harry Potter videos out there that I watch whenever I feel homesick ‘cause Harry Potter really is home for me.



Thought I’d share it on here; someone might wanna have a good cry over our Golden Trio (and Draco Malfoy because duh).
]]> The Book of Disquiet 45974 The Book of Disquiet, an astonishing work that, in George Steiner's words, "gives to Lisbon the haunting spell of Joyce's Dublin or Kafka's Prague." Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.]]> 544 Fernando Pessoa 0141183047 é 0 to-read 4.46 1982 The Book of Disquiet
author: Fernando Pessoa
name: é
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Água Viva 13082435 88 Clarice Lispector 0811219909 é 0 to-read 4.32 1973 Água Viva
author: Clarice Lispector
name: é
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> These Violent Delights 49203397 The Secret History meets Call Me by Your Name in Micah Nemerever's compulsively enjoyable debut novel - a feverishly taut Hitchcockian story about two college students, each with his own troubled past, whose escalating obsession with one another leads to an act of unspeakable violence.

When Paul and Julian meet as university freshmen in early 1970s Pittsburgh, they are immediately drawn to one another. A talented artist, Paul is sensitive and agonizingly insecure, incomprehensible to his working-class family, and desolate with grief over his father's recent death. Paul sees his wealthy, effortlessly charming Julian as his sole intellectual equal - an ally against the conventional world he finds so suffocating. He idolizes his friend for his magnetic confidence. But as charismatic as he can choose to be, Julian also is volatile and capriciously cruel. An admiration isn't the same as trust.

As their friendship spirals into an all-consuming intimacy, Paul is desperate to protect their precarious bond, even as it becomes clear that pressures from the outside world are nothing compared with the brutality they are capable of inflicting on one another. Separation is out of the question. But as their orbit compresses and their grip on one another tightens, they are drawn to an act of irrevocable violence that will force the young men to confront a shattering truth at the core of their relationship.

Exquisitely plotted, unfolding with propulsive ferocity, These Violent Delights is a novel of escalating dread and an excavation of the unsettling depths of human desire.]]> 460 Micah Nemerever 0062963635 é 4 3.96 2020 These Violent Delights
author: Micah Nemerever
name: é
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves: queer, read-in-2024, read-in-english, review, romantic-subplot
review:
Holy shit. I need an analysis from a psychodynamic perspective.
]]> Never Let Me Go 6334 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 é 0 to-read 3.85 2005 Never Let Me Go
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: é
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Vom Ende der Einsamkeit 28051948 355 Benedict Wells 3257069588 é 4 read-in-2024, read-in-german 4.49 2016 Vom Ende der Einsamkeit
author: Benedict Wells
name: é
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: read-in-2024, read-in-german
review:

]]> Hard Land 55886863 345 Benedict Wells 3257071485 é 4 read-in-2024, read-in-german 3.5 4.30 2021 Hard Land
author: Benedict Wells
name: é
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/28
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: read-in-2024, read-in-german
review:
3.5
]]> <![CDATA[The Books of Magic Omnibus, Vol. 1]]> 61407210 A collection of the Sandman Universe like you’ve never seen before - from Neil Gaiman’s original groundbreaking Books of Magic miniseries, though the worlds he inspired that followed!

What do two dead boys and a normal 13-year-old have in common? The ability to save the world.

Charles and Edwin are dead. They’re also detectives.

Tim Hunter is alive. He could be the world’s greatest mage…once he masters magic.

And that’s just the beginning.

Readers can now enjoy The Books of Magic #1-32, The Children’s Crusade #1-2, Vertigo Gallery: Dreams and Nightmares #1, Vertigo Preview #1, Vertigo Visions - Doctor Occult #1, Who’s Who #15, Arcana Annual #1, Mister E #1-4, and The Books of Faerie: Auberon’s Tale #1-3 all in one place!]]> 1504 John Ney Rieber 1779504632 é 0 4.07 2020 The Books of Magic Omnibus, Vol. 1
author: John Ney Rieber
name: é
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves: read-in-english, graphic-novel, read-in-2024, to-read
review:

]]> The Books of Magic (1990-) #2 27830018 51 Neil Gaiman é 0 4.33 1991 The Books of Magic (1990-) #2
author: Neil Gaiman
name: é
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves: graphic-novel, read-in-2024, read-in-english, to-read
review:

]]> The Sunlit Man 60531420 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson―creator of The Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn Saga, and countless bestselling works of science fiction and fantasy―comes this standalone novel showing a rare glimpse of a future Cosmere universe.

Running. Putting distance between himself and the relentless Night Brigade has been Nomad’s strategy for years. Staying one or two steps ahead of his pursuers by skipping through the Cosmere from one world to the next.

But now, his powers too depleted to escape, Nomad finds himself trapped on Canticle, a planet that will kill anyone who doesn’t keep moving. Fleeing the fires of a sunrise that melts the very stones, he is instantly caught up in the struggle between a heartless tyrant and the brave rebels who defy him.

Failure means a quick death, incinerated by the sun� or a lifetime as a mindless slave. Tormented by the consequences of his past, Nomad must fight not only for his survival―but also for his very soul.]]> 447 Brandon Sanderson 1938570391 é 0 to-read 4.28 2023 The Sunlit Man
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: é
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tin Man 31117613
Ellis and Michael are twelve when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of an overbearing father. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more.

But then we fast forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question, what happened in the years between?

This is almost a love story. But it's not as simple as that.]]> 213 Sarah Winman 0755390962 é 0 to-read 3.94 2017 Tin Man
author: Sarah Winman
name: é
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Talking at Night 201484562
They’re opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother’s wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer—destined to be one another’s great love story.

Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and their future together is shattered.

But as the years roll on, Will and Rosie can’t help but find their way back to each other. Time and again, they come close to rekindling what might have been.

What do you do when the one person you should forget is the one you just can’t let go?]]> 400 Claire Daverley 0241604834 é 4 I cried so much. 3.99 2023 Talking at Night
author: Claire Daverley
name: é
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/13
date added: 2024/03/13
shelves: cry-fest, read-in-2024, read-in-english, romantic-subplot, stand-alone, review
review:
I cried so much.
]]> <![CDATA[Aufzeichnungen aus dem Kellerloch]]> 3430373 191 Fyodor Dostoevsky 3866473079 é 0 to-read 4.06 1864 Aufzeichnungen aus dem Kellerloch
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: é
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1864
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)]]> 28187 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.]]> 377 Rick Riordan 0786838655 é 0 to-read 4.31 2005 The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)
author: Rick Riordan
name: é
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Der Turm der Bettler (Sturmfels-Akademie, #1)]]> 177637596 Und was ihre ohnehin vertrackte Lage noch Sie ist zur Hälfte eine Aeldae, also ein Mitglied jenes Volkes, das die Menschen der Splitterlande vor Jahrhunderten versklavt hatte.
Verstoßen und gejagt, bleibt ihr nur eine besondere Münze als Hoffnungsschimmer, welche ihr Einlass verschaffen kann in die allseits berühmte Sturmfels-Akademie, dem anerkannten Zentrum der magischen und martialischen Ausbildung in den Splitterlanden.
Doch ihre Freude währt nur kurz, als sie erfährt, dass die Münze ihr lediglich Zutritt zum Turm der Bettler verschafft. Will sie irgendetwas lernen, muss sie dafür zahlen.
Und so schweifen ihre verzweifelten Blicke zu den Ruinen am Fuße der Sturmfelsen hinab, in der Hoffnung, dort Reichtum und damit eine Zukunft für sich zu finden…]]> 606 Torsten Weitze é 0 to-read 4.35 Der Turm der Bettler (Sturmfels-Akademie, #1)
author: Torsten Weitze
name: é
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 1]]> 60583047
Awakening in the body of his younger self--Mo Ran, a disciple of the cultivation sect Sisheng Peak--he discovers the chance to relive his life. This time, he vows to attain the gratification that once eluded him: all who defied him will fall, and never again will they treat him like a dog. His greatest fury is reserved for Chu Wanning, the coldly beautiful and aloofly catlike cultivation teacher who betrayed and thwarted Mo Ran time and again in their last life.

Yet as Mo Ran shamelessly pursues his own goals in this life he thought lost, he begins to wonder if there might be more to his teacher--and his own feelings--than he ever realized.]]> 524 Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou 1638589291 é 0 to-read 4.47 2022 The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: Erha He Ta De Bai Mao Shizun (Novel) Vol. 1
author: Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou
name: é
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Books of Magic (1990-) #4 27830009 47 Neil Gaiman é 0 to-read 4.16 1991 The Books of Magic (1990-) #4
author: Neil Gaiman
name: é
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Books of Magic (1990-) #3 27830005 49 Neil Gaiman é 0 to-read 4.30 1991 The Books of Magic (1990-) #3
author: Neil Gaiman
name: é
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Books of Magic (1990-) #1 22536849 52 Neil Gaiman é 4 4.19 1989 The Books of Magic (1990-) #1
author: Neil Gaiman
name: é
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/15
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> White Nights 1772910 82 Fyodor Dostoevsky é 0 to-read 4.16 1848 White Nights
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: é
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1848
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 53052855
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 385 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1982147660 é 0 4.50 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: é
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, stand-alone, queer, dnf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins é 3 read-in-2023, read-in-english 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: é
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 é 5 4.60 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: é
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/07
date added: 2023/12/07
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, fav-all-time-favorites, romantic-subplot, review
review:
This was so incredible. I laughed and I cried. And the ending?!?! What the fuck. I need time processing this. Book #2 better come out very soon.
]]> <![CDATA[The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power, #1)]]> 111673828 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, and set in the world of A Darker Shade of Magic, V. E. Schwab opens a new door into perilous adventure and tangled schemes with The Fragile Threads of Power.

Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power, and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast, and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory―Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.

But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years―and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking the throne in Holland's absence. The young queen is willing to feed her city with blood, including her own―but her growing religious fervor has the potential to drown them instead.

And back in Red London, King Rhy Maresh is threatened by a rising rebellion, one determined to correct the balance of power by razing the throne entirely.

Amidst this tapestry of old friends and new enemies, a girl with an unusual magical ability comes into possession of a device that could change the fate of all four worlds.

Her name is Tes, and she's the only one who can bring them together―or unravel it all.]]> 648 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387492 é 0 to-read 4.25 2023 The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power, #1)
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: é
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 50659468
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.]]> 626 Sarah J. Maas 1635575583 é 3 so much better than the first book, wow. There‘s actual chemistry and some banter. I do wish they‘d stop talking about 'females', 'males' and 'mate' even tho I understand why those words are used, it does get repetitive and feels weird most of the time. Other than that, I actually now get the hype.]]> 4.65 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: é
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/17
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, romance, review
review:
This was so much better than the first book, wow. There‘s actual chemistry and some banter. I do wish they‘d stop talking about 'females', 'males' and 'mate' even tho I understand why those words are used, it does get repetitive and feels weird most of the time. Other than that, I actually now get the hype.
]]> <![CDATA[Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell]]> 21411388 Originally appearing in the Dangerous Women anthology and now available as a solo ebook, Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is a chilling novella of the Cosmere, the universe shared by Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series and the #1 New York Times bestselling Stormlight Archive.

When the familiar and seemingly safe turns lethal, therein danger lies. Amid a forest where the shades of the dead linger all around, every homesteader knows to follow the Simple Rules: "Don't kindle flame, don't shed the blood of another, don't run at night. These things draw shades."

Silence Montane has broken all three rules on more than one occasion. And to protect her family from a murderous gang with high bounties on their heads, Silence will break every rule again, at the risk of becoming a shade herself.]]> 50 Brandon Sanderson é 0 to-read 4.15 2013 Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: é
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Warbreaker 55767137
Their world is one in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a pantheon in Hallandren's capital city and where a power known as BioChromatic magic is based on an essence known as breath that can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

By using breath and drawing upon the color in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be accomplished. It will take considerable quantities of each to resolve all the challenges facing Vivenna and Siri, princesses of Idris; Susebron the God King; Lightsong, reluctant god of bravery, and mysterious Vasher, the Warbreaker.]]> 660 Brandon Sanderson é 4 4.22 2009 Warbreaker
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: é
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/05
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, stand-alone, review
review:
Sanderson delivers, like always
]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)]]> 50659472 The epic third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's actions and learn what she can about the invading king threatening to bring her land to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit. One slip could bring doom not only for Feyre, but for everything-and everyone-she holds dear.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre endeavors to take her place amongst the High Fae of the land, balancing her struggle to master her powers-both magical and political-and her love for her court and family. Amidst these struggles, Feyre and Rhysand must decide whom to trust amongst the cunning and lethal High Lords, and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the fate of Feyre's world is at stake as armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy it.]]> 699 Sarah J. Maas 1635575605 é 0 4.47 2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: é
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, romance, dnf
review:

]]> Defiant (Skyward, #4) 43606308 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes the final book in an epic series about a girl who will travel beyond the stars to save the world she loves from destruction.

Spensa has made it out of the Nowhere, but what she saw in the space between the stars has changed her forever. She came face to face with the Delvers, and finally got answers to the questions she’s had about her own strange Cytonic gifts.

The Superiority didn’t stop in its fight for galactic dominance while she was gone, though. Spensa’s team, Skyward Flight, was able to hold Winzik off, and even collect allies to help with the cause, but it’s only a matter of time until humanity–and the rest of the galaxy–falls.

Defeating them will require all the knowledge Spensa gathered while in the Nowhere. But being Cytonic is more complicated than she ever could have imagined. Now, Spensa must ask herself: How far is she willing to go for victory, if it means losing herself–and her friends–in the process.

The final book in the Skyward series will free humanity, or see it fall forever.]]> 420 Brandon Sanderson 0593309715 é 0 to-read 4.28 2023 Defiant (Skyward, #4)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: é
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Empire of Silence (The Sun Eater, #1)]]> 36454667 Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.

It was not his war.
On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. The galaxy remembers him as a the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives—even the Emperor himself—against Imperial orders.
But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.
Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and into the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fight a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.]]> 753 Christopher Ruocchio 0756413028 é 0 to-read 4.01 2018 Empire of Silence (The Sun Eater, #1)
author: Christopher Ruocchio
name: é
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)]]> 76703559 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.]]> 406 Sarah J. Maas 163973094X é 0 to-read 4.18 2012 Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: é
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dark Rise (Dark Rise, #1) 55424891
Sixteen-year-old dock boy Will is on the run, pursued by the men who killed his mother. When an old servant tells him of his destiny to fight beside the Stewards, Will is ushered into a world of magic, where he must train to play a vital role in the oncoming battle against the Dark.

As London is threatened by the Dark King’s return, the reborn heroes and villains of a long-forgotten war begin to draw battle lines. But as the young descendants of Light and Dark step into their destined roles, old allegiances, old enmities and old flames are awakened. Will must stand with the last heroes of the Light to prevent the fate that destroyed their world from returning to destroy his own.]]> 464 C.S. Pacat 0062946161 é 0 to-read 4.15 2021 Dark Rise (Dark Rise, #1)
author: C.S. Pacat
name: é
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Holding the Man 12574016 300 Timothy Conigrave 0143202820 é 0 to-read 4.46 1995 Holding the Man
author: Timothy Conigrave
name: é
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In the Absence of Men 48648315
'A short, bold and original novel which beautifully captures the romance and amorality of gilded youth' Independent]]> 192 Philippe Besson 1784876364 é 0 to-read 3.94 2001 In the Absence of Men
author: Philippe Besson
name: é
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[SURVIVING THE DEATH OF A SIBLING: Living Through Grief When an Adult Brother or Sister Dies]]> 776291
Based on the author's own experiences, as well as those of many others, Surviving the Death of a Sibling helps adults who have lost a brother or sister to realize that they are not alone in their struggle. Just as important, it teaches them to understand the unique stages of their grieving process, offering practical and prescriptive advice for dealing with each stage.

In Surviving the Death of a Sibling , T.J. Wray

� Searching for and finding meaning in your sibling's passing
� Using a grief journal to record your emotions
� Choosing a grief partner to help you through tough times
� Dealing with insensitive remarks made by others

Warm and personal, and a rich source of useful insights and coping strategies, Surviving the Death of a Sibling is a unique addition to the literature of bereavement.]]> 247 T.J. Wray 0609809806 é 0 to-read 4.22 SURVIVING THE DEATH OF A SIBLING: Living Through Grief When an Adult Brother or Sister Dies
author: T.J. Wray
name: é
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)]]> 33385229
Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.

Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.]]> 389 Adam Silvera 0062457799 é 3 know it’ll hurt like hell but you’re still surprised when it does? Yeah well. Hi.

I knew I was setting myself up for inevitable heartbreak and I am both very annoyed and happy with myself.
Annoyed because the obvious as stated many times above and in updates: hurt.
Happy because THIS WAS SO CUTE AND SAD BUT NOT JUST SAD SAD BUT ALSO GOOD SAD Y’KNOW AND IT WAS overall lovely and well written and I’ll stop right here ‘cause this is a mess.

Merged review:

You know when you do something (something stupid like picking up a book with the least promising title ever) and you know that this something will hurt but you’ll do it anyway (‘cause you might be a masochistic idiot who enjoys getting their heart broken multiple times) and you know it’ll hurt like hell but you’re still surprised when it does? Yeah well. Hi.

I knew I was setting myself up for inevitable heartbreak and I am both very annoyed and happy with myself.
Annoyed because the obvious as stated many times above and in updates: hurt.
Happy because THIS WAS SO CUTE AND SAD BUT NOT JUST SAD SAD BUT ALSO GOOD SAD Y’KNOW AND IT WAS overall lovely and well written and I’ll stop right here ‘cause this is a mess.]]> 3.76 2017 They Both Die at the End (Death-Cast, #1)
author: Adam Silvera
name: é
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2019/01/15
date added: 2023/11/16
shelves: read-in-2019, read-in-english, queer, cry-fest, romantic-subplot, review, stand-alone
review:
You know when you do something (something stupid like picking up a book with the least promising title ever) and you know that this something will hurt but you’ll do it anyway (‘cause you might be a masochistic idiot who enjoys getting their heart broken multiple times) and you know it’ll hurt like hell but you’re still surprised when it does? Yeah well. Hi.

I knew I was setting myself up for inevitable heartbreak and I am both very annoyed and happy with myself.
Annoyed because the obvious as stated many times above and in updates: hurt.
Happy because THIS WAS SO CUTE AND SAD BUT NOT JUST SAD SAD BUT ALSO GOOD SAD Y’KNOW AND IT WAS overall lovely and well written and I’ll stop right here ‘cause this is a mess.

Merged review:

You know when you do something (something stupid like picking up a book with the least promising title ever) and you know that this something will hurt but you’ll do it anyway (‘cause you might be a masochistic idiot who enjoys getting their heart broken multiple times) and you know it’ll hurt like hell but you’re still surprised when it does? Yeah well. Hi.

I knew I was setting myself up for inevitable heartbreak and I am both very annoyed and happy with myself.
Annoyed because the obvious as stated many times above and in updates: hurt.
Happy because THIS WAS SO CUTE AND SAD BUT NOT JUST SAD SAD BUT ALSO GOOD SAD Y’KNOW AND IT WAS overall lovely and well written and I’ll stop right here ‘cause this is a mess.
]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 50659467
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

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

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575567 é 2 great but it kept me engaged and I actually enjoyed it. I do not, however, get the hype just yet. There are books with similar themes out there that have more convincing and better developed chemistry and romance storylines than this one had (but there are also a lot worse books in this genre, so it'll do, I guess).
The overall plot was alright but world building and character development really need some work. The romance didn't feel as convincing as I wished it would. It also wasn't as problematic as I thought it would be (with this kinda books you just have to brace yourself for problematic shit, I feel; but there's plenty room for that in the next books so let's not celebrate too soon).
Just gonna hope for a certain dark haired dude to dominate the page time in the next installment lol

2.5 stars]]> 4.16 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: é
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2023/11/16
date added: 2023/11/16
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, review, romance
review:
Okay, this really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It also wasn't great but it kept me engaged and I actually enjoyed it. I do not, however, get the hype just yet. There are books with similar themes out there that have more convincing and better developed chemistry and romance storylines than this one had (but there are also a lot worse books in this genre, so it'll do, I guess).
The overall plot was alright but world building and character development really need some work. The romance didn't feel as convincing as I wished it would. It also wasn't as problematic as I thought it would be (with this kinda books you just have to brace yourself for problematic shit, I feel; but there's plenty room for that in the next books so let's not celebrate too soon).
Just gonna hope for a certain dark haired dude to dominate the page time in the next installment lol

2.5 stars
]]> Tress of the Emerald Sea 123199049 C’est le début d’un périple au bout du monde, où l’on retrouve tous les ingrédients qui font le sel des grandes aventures : des contrebandiers de la pire espèce, une sorcière malintentionnée, un redoutable dragon, des pirates sales et méchants (ou pas), et même un rat qui parle...
Tress de la mer Émeraude est le premier des quatre « romans secrets » écrits par Brandon Sanderson, l’auteur best-seller aux plus de trente-six millions d’exemplaires vendus à travers le monde, durant les confinements de la pandémie de Covid-19. Ces romans ont fait l’objet d’une campagne de financement participatif record sur la plateforme Kickstarter aux États-Unis.

Un roman à dévorer. Numerama.

Un roman du Cosmère.]]> 365 Brandon Sanderson 1399613383 é 0 to-read, tbr-2023 4.29 2023 Tress of the Emerald Sea
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: é
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: to-read, tbr-2023
review:

]]> Poems, 1962-2012 13538874
Even when collected, Louise Glück’s poetry resists collection. With each successive book her drive to leave behind what came before has grown more fierce, the force of her gaze fixed on what has yet to be imagined. She invented a form to accommodate this need, the book-length sequence of poems, like a landscape seen from above, a novel with lacunae opening onto the unspeakable. The reiterated yet endlessly transfigured elements in this landscape—Persephone, a copper beech, a mother and father and sister, a garden, a husband and son, a horse, a dog, a field on fire, a mountain—persistently emerge and reappear with the dark energy of the inevitable, while at the same time are shot through with the bright aspect of things new-made.    
          From the outset (�Come here / Come here, little one�), Gluck’s voice has addressed us with deceptive simplicity, the poems in lines so clear we “do not see the intervening fathoms.”�

From within the earth’s
bitter disgrace, coldness and barrenness

my friend the moon rises:
she is beautiful tonight, but when is she not beautiful?

To read these books together is to understand the governing paradox of a life lived in the body and of the work wrested from it, the one fated to die and the other to endure.]]> 656 Louise Glück 0374126089 é 0 to-read, tbr-2023 4.47 2012 Poems, 1962-2012
author: Louise Glück
name: é
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: to-read, tbr-2023
review:

]]> <![CDATA[System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)]]> 65211701 Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast.

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.]]> 245 Martha Wells 1250826977 é 0 to-read 4.19 2023 System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)
author: Martha Wells
name: é
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Midnight Sun (Twilight, #5) 53368617 Listening length: 26 hours and 30 minutes

When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward’s version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.

This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting beautiful, mysterious Bella is both the most intriguing and unnerving event he has experienced in his long life as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he let himself fall in love with Bella when he knows that he is endangering her life?

In Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer transports us back to a world that has captivated millions of readers and, drawing on the classic myth of Hades and Persephone, brings us an epic novel about the profound pleasures and devastating consequences of immortal love.]]> 27 Stephenie Meyer é 2 But the drama, the constant confessions, the pining, the self hatred � I love it, ngl.
-

2020* I didn’t think I would ever relive my heavy Twilight fangirl phase, especially not at almost 25 years old, but here I am, smiling from one ear to the other, screaming and squealing in joy just because of this book.

This was way more than a 5 star read emotional-wise but objectively I just can’t bring myself to give it more than two-point-five. There’re definitely some problematic things going on -
I’d just admitted to stalking her, and she was smiling.


I mean, there’s undeniably something wrong with the both of them but at least Edward‘s self-aware.
They‘re both so incredible clueless, it’s too funny.

cry]]> 3.56 2020 Midnight Sun (Twilight, #5)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: é
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2023/11/15
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: read-in-2020, read-in-english, romance, review, read-in-2023
review:
2023* Reread and it still slaps, I’m sorry. Can’t give it more than 2 stars tho because it’s so problematic and sometimes kinda bad (if he says she’s fragile one more time I’m gonna hit someone).
But the drama, the constant confessions, the pining, the self hatred � I love it, ngl.
-

2020* I didn’t think I would ever relive my heavy Twilight fangirl phase, especially not at almost 25 years old, but here I am, smiling from one ear to the other, screaming and squealing in joy just because of this book.

This was way more than a 5 star read emotional-wise but objectively I just can’t bring myself to give it more than two-point-five. There’re definitely some problematic things going on -
I’d just admitted to stalking her, and she was smiling.


I mean, there’s undeniably something wrong with the both of them but at least Edward‘s self-aware.
They‘re both so incredible clueless, it’s too funny.

cry
]]> <![CDATA[Orconomics (The Dark Profit Saga, #1)]]> 25326486
Making a Killing in Professional Heroics

The adventuring industry drives the economy of Arth, a world much like our own but with more magic and fewer vowels. Monsters� hoards are claimed, bought by corporate interests, and sold off to plunder funds long before the beasts are slain. Once the contracts and paperwork are settled, the Heroes� Guild issues a quest to kill the monster and bring back its treasure for disbursement to shareholders.


Life in The Shadows

Of course, while professional heroics has been a great boon for Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and all the other peoples of light, it's a terrible arrangement for the Shadowkin. Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, and their ilk must apply for to become Noncombatant Paper Carriers (or NPCs) to avoid being killed and looted by guild heroes. Even after getting their papers, NPCs are treated as second class citizens, driven into the margins of society.


An Insane Quest

Gorm Ingerson, a Dwarven ex-hero with a checkered past, has no idea what he's getting himself into when he stands up for an undocumented Goblin. His act of kindness starts a series of events that ends with Gorm recruited by a prophet of the mad goddess Al'Matra to fulfill a prophecy so crazy that even the Al'Matran temple doesn't believe it.


Money, Magic, and Mayhem

But there’s more to Gorm’s new job than an insane prophecy: powerful corporations and governments, usually indifferent to the affairs of the derelict Al’Matran temple, have shown an unusual interest in the quest. If his party of eccentric misfits can stop fighting each other long enough to recover the Elven Marbles, Gorm might be able to turn a bad deal into a golden opportunity and win back the fame and fortune he lost so long ago.]]> 340 J. Zachary Pike é 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Orconomics (The Dark Profit Saga, #1)
author: J. Zachary Pike
name: é
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Arrival 920607
Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant's experience through a singular work of the imagination. He does so using brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. Because the main character can't communicate in words, the book forgoes them too. But while the reader experiences the main character's isolation, he also shares his ultimate joy.]]> 132 Shaun Tan é 0 to-read 4.33 2007 The Arrival
author: Shaun Tan
name: é
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Schmerzgrenze: Vom Ursprung alltäglicher und globaler Gewalt (German Edition)]]> 19188276

Brutale Gewalt in aller Öffentlichkeit, Amokläufe an Schulen, tödliche ethnische Konflikte und Kriege um knapper werdende Ressourcen: Das Phänomen der Aggression wird immer bedrängender und macht uns Angst.


Der „Aggressionstrieb�, folgenreiche Erfindung von Sigmund Freud und Konrad Lorenz, erklärte die Gewalt zur unverrückbaren Konstante der menschlichen Natur. Joachim Bauer entlarvt den Mythos des Aggressionstriebes und liefert mit Schmerzgrenze eine Neukonzeption des Gewaltphänomens, die auf neuesten neurowissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen beruht. Evolutionärer Zweck der Aggression ist, uns gegen die Zufügung von Schmerzen wehren zu können. Doch die Schmerzgrenze des Gehirns verläuft anders, als wir bisher dachten. Unser Gehirn bewertet Ausgrenzung und Demütigungen wie körperlichen Schmerz und reagiert deshalb auch darauf mit Aggression. Dies bedeutet: Aggression steht im Dienste der Verteidigung sozialer Bindungen.


Auch Armut bedeutet Ausgrenzung und Demütigung, zumal wenn sie sich im Angesicht von Reichtum ausbreitet. Wasser, Nahrung und Rohstoffe werden auf unserem Globus zur immer knapperen Ressource. Wenn wir das Problem der ungerechten Ressourcenverteilung nicht in den Griff bekommen, wird die Gewalt weltweit zunehmen und die menschliche Existenz bedrohen.


Joachim Bauers neues Buch „Schmerzgrenze� zeigt: Nur Fairness, Kooperation und ein neues Verständnis der Mechanismen der Gewalt können einen Weg aus der Aggressionsspirale weisen.


]]> 289 Joachim Bauer 3641054354 é 0 to-read 4.24 2011 Schmerzgrenze: Vom Ursprung alltäglicher und globaler Gewalt (German Edition)
author: Joachim Bauer
name: é
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Swimming in the Dark 57421087 Set in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of communism, a tender and passionate story of first love between two young men who eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide—a stunningly poetic and heartrending literary debut for fans of Andre Aciman, Garth Greenwell, and Alan Hollinghurst.

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

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

Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart, Swimming in the Dark is a potent blend of romance, post-war politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski has crafted an indelible and thought-provoking literary debut that explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.]]> 230 Tomasz Jedrowski 1526604981 é 5 "(�) I am done with pretending that I‘ve erased you from my mind. Some people have that power over you, whether you like it or not. I begin to see that now. Some people, some events, make you lose your head. They’re like guillotines, cutting your life in two, the dead and the alive, the before and after."

This hurts.
Absolutely beautiful.]]> 4.37 2020 Swimming in the Dark
author: Tomasz Jedrowski
name: é
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/07
date added: 2023/10/25
shelves: queer, read-in-2022, read-in-english, romance, stand-alone, fav-loved, review
review:
"(�) I am done with pretending that I‘ve erased you from my mind. Some people have that power over you, whether you like it or not. I begin to see that now. Some people, some events, make you lose your head. They’re like guillotines, cutting your life in two, the dead and the alive, the before and after."


This hurts.
Absolutely beautiful.
]]> <![CDATA[Der Paria (Der stählerne Bund, #1)]]> 66095468
Ein Verrat trifft den Gesetzlosen Alwyn wie ein Blitz und führt auf einen Pfad voller Blut und Rache. Es dauert nicht lange, da findet er sich als Gefangener und Arbeiter in den Erzminen wieder, wo er unter den verwahrlosten Gefangenen Sihlda kennenlernt, eine Frau,die für diesen Ort seltsam gelehrt ist. Sie bringt Alwyn das Lesen und Schreiben bei. Und dann begegnet er auch noch Evadine, einer Frau, die aus ganz anderem Holz geschnitzt ist und an deren Seite er in den Kampf gegen dunkle Mächte ziehen wird. Beides wird ihn und womöglich das ganze Reich von Albermaine für immer verändern.]]> 721 Anthony Ryan é 0 to-read 3.67 2021 Der Paria (Der stählerne Bund, #1)
author: Anthony Ryan
name: é
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Meine Schwester (German Edition)]]> 60548659 Kann ein Buch einen Lebensschmerz überwinden? Ja.

Als die Fotografin Bettina Flitner vor einigen Jahren vom Suizid ihrer geliebten Schwester erfuhr, waren die ersten Reaktionen Schock, Lähmung und Verzweiflung. Doch dann entschied sie sich zum Erzählen. Das Ergebnis ist ein tief bewegender, meisterhafter Text, ein Buch der Befreiung.

Mit einem an der Fotografie geschulten, unbestechlichen Blick, voller Hingabe, Witz und Traurigkeit erzählt Bettina Flitner die Geschichte einer innigen eine Kindheit der 70er Jahre, die Jahre auf der Waldorfschule, die Erinnerung an die charismatischen Großeltern, darunter ein berühmter Reformpädagoge, der Vater ein Kulturmanager und Exponent des links-liberalen Bildungsbürgertums der alten BRD, ein Jahr in New York, die Ferien auf Capri, die ersten Liebesabenteuer in der Pubertät. Und dann die die Überforderung der Kinder durch das Leben der Eltern im Zeichen sexueller Libertinage, die Flucht der Mutter in die Depression, die unerfüllbaren Berufserwartungen der Eltern an die Töchter. Bettina Flitners Buch ist ein bewundernswert mutiger Schritt, sich den Gespenstern der gemeinsamen Vergangenheit zu stellen, sich von diesen zu befreien und so den Tod geliebter Menschen verarbeiten zu können. Ein Buch über ein Thema, das für viele Menschen immer noch von Tabus und Schweigen besetzt ist.]]> 308 Bettina Flitner 3462303961 é 0 to-read 4.25 Meine Schwester (German Edition)
author: Bettina Flitner
name: é
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> And Then He Sang a Lullaby 66088767 The inaugural title from Roxane Gay Books, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is a searingly honest and resonant debut from a 23-year-old Nigerian writer and queer liberation activist, exploring what love and freedom cost in a society steeped in homophobia.

August is a God-fearing track star who leaves Enugu City to attend university and escape his overbearing sisters. He carries the weight of their lofty expectations, the shame of facing himself, and the haunting memory of a mother he never knew. It’s his first semester and pressures aside, August is making friends, doing well in his classes. He even almost has a girlfriend. There’s only one problem: he can’t stop thinking about Segun, an openly gay student who works at a local cybercafé. Segun carries his own burdens and has been wounded in too many ways. When he meets August, their connection is undeniable, but Segun is reluctant to open himself up to August. He wants to love and be loved by a man who is comfortable in his own skin, who will see and hold and love Segun, exactly as he is.

Despite their differences, August and Segun forge a tender intimacy that defies the violence around them. But there is only so long Segun can stand being loved behind closed doors, while August lives a life beyond the world they’ve created together. And when a new, sweeping anti-gay law is passed, August and Segun must find a way for their love to survive in a Nigeria that was always determined to eradicate them. A tale of rare bravery and profound beauty, And Then He Sang a Lullaby is an extraordinary debut that marks Ani as a voice to watch.]]> 304 Ani Kayode 0802160751 é 0 to-read 4.15 2023 And Then He Sang a Lullaby
author: Ani Kayode
name: é
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Schuld 8846471 200 Ferdinand von Schirach 3492054226 é 0 to-read 4.24 2010 Schuld
author: Ferdinand von Schirach
name: é
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Strafe 36798291
Ferdinand von Schirach beschreibt in seinem neuen Buch "Strafe" zwölf Schicksale. Wie schon in den beiden Bänden "Verbrechen" und "Schuld" zeigt er, wie schwer es ist, einem Menschen gerecht zu werden und wie voreilig unsere Begriffe von "gut" und "böse" oft sind.

Ferdinand von Schirach verurteilt nie. In ruhiger, distanzierter Gelassenheit und zugleich voller Empathie erzählt er von Einsamkeit und Fremdheit, von dem Streben nach Glück und dem Scheitern. Seine Geschichten sind Erzählungen über uns selbst.]]> 192 Ferdinand von Schirach 3630875386 é 0 to-read 4.31 2018 Strafe
author: Ferdinand von Schirach
name: é
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Verbrechen 6783729
Ein angesehener, freundlicher Herr, Doktor der Medizin, erschlägt nach 40 Ehejahren seine Frau mit einer Axt. Er zerlegt sie förmlich, bevor er schließlich die Polizei informiert. Sein Geständnis ist ebenso außergewöhnlich wie seine Strafe. Ein Mann raubt eine Bank aus, und so unglaublich das klingt: Er hat seine Gründe. Gegen jede Wahrscheinlichkeit wird er von der deutschen Justiz an Leib und Seele gerettet. Eine junge Frau tötet ihren Bruder. Aus Liebe. Lauter unglaubliche Geschichten, doch sie sind wahr.]]> 208 Ferdinand von Schirach 3492053629 é 0 to-read 4.30 2009 Verbrechen
author: Ferdinand von Schirach
name: é
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]]> 78540524
Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?

Other Tor books by Brandon Sanderson

The Cosmere

The Stormlight Archive
The Way of Kings
Words of Radiance
Edgedancer (Novella)
Oathbringer
Dawnshard (Novella)
Rhythm of War

The Original Trilogy
Mistborn
The Well of Ascension
The Hero of Ages

The Wax and Wayne series
Alloy of Law
Shadows of Self
Bands of Mourning
The Lost Metal

Collection
Arcanum Unbounded

Other Cosmere novels
Elantris
Warbreaker
Tress and the Emerald Sea
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
The Sunlit Man

The Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series
Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians
The Scrivener's Bones
The Knights of Crystallia
The Shattered Lens
The Dark Talent
Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians (co-authored with Janci Patterson)

The Rithmatist series
The Rithmatist

Other novels
The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds
The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England

Other books by Brandon Sanderson

The Reckoners
Steelheart
Firefight
Calamity

Skyward
Skyward
Starsight
Cytonic]]> 365 Brandon Sanderson 1250899699 é 5 read-in-2023, read-in-english Pretty sure this is the first of his books that made me cry (and almost love all of them)]]> 4.38 2023 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: é
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/18
date added: 2023/10/18
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english
review:
I wonder what’s it like to be inside of Brandon Sandersons mind?
Pretty sure this is the first of his books that made me cry (and almost love all of them)
]]> Lie with Me 50752378 160 Philippe Besson 1982132604 é 5 I discover that absence has a consistency, like the dark water of a river, like oil, some kind of sticky dirty liquid that you can struggle and perhaps drown in. It has a thickness like night, an indefinite space with no landmarks, nothing to bang against, where you search for a light, some small glimmer, something to hang on to and guide you. But absence is, first and foremost, silence. A vast, enveloping silence that weighs you down and puts you in a state where any unforeseeable, identifiable sound can make you jump.

One of my favourite BookTubers recommended this book, so of course I bought it. When I started reading, I didn't quite understand at first why it would be so good.
I have a problem with dialogue being told indirectly instead of being shown. Even otherwise, the story was "recounted" rather than " shown" and so I quickly got the impression that I was reading a journal. Someone's memories.
I have read books written in a similar way before. They often have something poetic about them and Lie With Me is no exception. But, as I said before, I sometimes have difficulties with this way of writing letting myself really immerse myself in the story.

From about halfway through, however, this book sucked me in and held me tight. More and more I felt like I was inside Philippe Besson's head reading his memories and when I read the last pages I couldn't stop crying because it doesn't just seem to read like memories, they are memories (some might say it would have been obvious if you read the dedication at the beginning of the book, but I guess I just missed it or forgot) which made it all that much more heartbreaking and in a way also more beautiful in a tragic way.

Nothing touches me more than cracks in the armor and the person who reveals them.
]]> 4.42 2017 Lie with Me
author: Philippe Besson
name: é
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/30
date added: 2023/10/17
shelves: queer, read-in-2022, read-in-english, romance, stand-alone, cry-fest, fav-loved, non-fiction, review
review:
I discover that absence has a consistency, like the dark water of a river, like oil, some kind of sticky dirty liquid that you can struggle and perhaps drown in. It has a thickness like night, an indefinite space with no landmarks, nothing to bang against, where you search for a light, some small glimmer, something to hang on to and guide you. But absence is, first and foremost, silence. A vast, enveloping silence that weighs you down and puts you in a state where any unforeseeable, identifiable sound can make you jump.


One of my favourite BookTubers recommended this book, so of course I bought it. When I started reading, I didn't quite understand at first why it would be so good.
I have a problem with dialogue being told indirectly instead of being shown. Even otherwise, the story was "recounted" rather than " shown" and so I quickly got the impression that I was reading a journal. Someone's memories.
I have read books written in a similar way before. They often have something poetic about them and Lie With Me is no exception. But, as I said before, I sometimes have difficulties with this way of writing letting myself really immerse myself in the story.

From about halfway through, however, this book sucked me in and held me tight. More and more I felt like I was inside Philippe Besson's head reading his memories and when I read the last pages I couldn't stop crying because it doesn't just seem to read like memories, they are memories (some might say it would have been obvious if you read the dedication at the beginning of the book, but I guess I just missed it or forgot) which made it all that much more heartbreaking and in a way also more beautiful in a tragic way.

Nothing touches me more than cracks in the armor and the person who reveals them.

]]> <![CDATA[The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023]]> 83814917 A collection of the year's best science fiction and fantasy writing selected by New York Times bestselling author R. F. Kuang and series editor John Joseph Adams.

R. F. Kuang, New York Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy and Babel, selects twenty pieces that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year and explores the ever-expanding and changing world of science fiction and fantasy today.]]> 311 R.F. Kuang 0063315734 é 0 to-read 3.71 2023 The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: é
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Der Schatten des Windes (Der Friedhof der Vergessenen Bücher, #1)]]> 942188
›Der Schatten des Windes� ist der erste Carlos Ruiz Zafón's vier großen Barcelona-Romane. Auf ›Der Schatten des Windes� folgten ›Das Spiel des Engels� und ›Der Gefangene des Himmels�. Der vierte und abschließende Band ist in Arbeit.]]> 565 Carlos Ruiz Zafón é 5 4.32 2001 Der Schatten des Windes (Der Friedhof der Vergessenen Bücher, #1)
author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón
name: é
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/23
date added: 2023/09/23
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-german, fav-loved, review, romantic-subplot
review:
Als ich am Bahnsteig saß, sprach mich ein älterer Herr auf dieses Buch an. Wir kamen ins Gespräch und sprachen über unsere Liebe zu Büchern. Rückblickend wirkt es wie eine Szene aus diesem Buch.
]]> 84, Charing Cross Road 368916
[text from the back cover of the book]]]> 106 Helene Hanff é 0 to-read 4.17 1970 84, Charing Cross Road
author: Helene Hanff
name: é
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mayflies 50162215 From the widely renowned author Andrew O'Hagan, a heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.

Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend who defines your life.

In the summer of 1986, in a small Scottish town, James and Tully ignite a brilliant friendship based on music, films and the rebel spirit. With school over and the locked world of their fathers before them, they rush towards the climax of their youth: a magical weekend in Manchester, the epicentre of everything that inspires them in working-class Britain. There, against the greatest soundtrack ever recorded, a vow is made: to go at life differently. Thirty years on, half a life away, the phone rings. Tully has news.

Mayflies is a memorial to youth's euphorias and to everyday tragedy. A tender goodbye to an old union, it discovers the joy and the costs of love.]]> 288 Andrew O'Hagan 0571273688 é 0 to-read 3.91 2020 Mayflies
author: Andrew O'Hagan
name: é
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ocean at the End of the Lane]]> 56132017
'Both a pitch-perfect fantasy and a moving examination of childhood memories and their effects on our adult selves ... superb' The Times

'Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul' Joanne Harris

This is what he remembers, as he sits by the ocean at the end of the lane:

A dead man on the back seat of the car, and warm milk at the farmhouse.
An ancient little girl, and an old woman who saw the moon being made.
A beautiful housekeeper with a monstrous smile.
And dark forces woken that were best left undisturbed.

They are memories hard to believe, waiting at the edge of things. The recollections of a man who thought he was lost but is now, perhaps, remembering a time when he was saved...]]> 336 Neil Gaiman 1472260228 é 3 4.20 2013 The Ocean at the End of the Lane
author: Neil Gaiman
name: é
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/13
date added: 2023/09/13
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, stand-alone
review:

]]> The Heart's Invisible Furies 58392911 'By turns savvy, witty and achingly sad, this is a novelist at the top of his game.' Mail on Sunday

Forced to flee the scandal brewing in her hometown, Catherine Goggin finds herself pregnant and alone, in search of a new life at just sixteen. She knows she has no choice but to believe that the nun she entrusts her child to will find him a better life.

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery, or so his parents are constantly reminding him. Adopted as a baby, he’s never quite felt at home with the family that treats him more as a curious pet than a son. But it is all he has ever known.

And so begins one man’s desperate search to find his place in the world. Unspooling and unseeing, Cyril is a misguided, heart-breaking, heartbroken fool. Buffeted by the harsh winds of circumstance towards the one thing that might save him from himself, but when opportunity knocks, will he have the courage, finally, take it?]]> 728 John Boyne 1784161004 é 5 4.63 2017 The Heart's Invisible Furies
author: John Boyne
name: é
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/11
date added: 2023/09/11
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, cry-fest, fav-loved, queer, stand-alone, fav-all-time-favorites, review
review:
A new favorite. This honestly should be an obligatory read for everyone. It’s phenomenal. Deep and funny.
]]> Angels Before Man 62877213
In an eternal paradise, the most beautiful angel, Lucifer, struggles with shame, identity, and timidity, with little more than the desire to worship his creator.

It isn't until the strongest angel, Michael, comes into his life that Lucifer learns to love himself. Along the way, their friendship begins to bloom into something else. Maybe the first romance in the history of everything.

But this God is a jealous one, and maybe paradise is not paradise.]]> 398 Rafael Nicolás é 0 to-read 4.13 2022 Angels Before Man
author: Rafael Nicolás
name: é
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It's Not Summer Without You (Summer, #2)]]> 192321724 Exclusive QR code with behind-the-scenes material from The Summer I Turned Pretty show!

Belly finds out what comes after falling in love in this follow-up to The Summer I Turned Pretty from the New York Times bestselling author of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Jenny Han.

It used to be that Belly counted the days until summer, until she was back at Cousins Beach with Conrad and Jeremiah. But not this year. Not after Susannah got sick again and Conrad stopped caring. Everything that was right and good has fallen apart, leaving Belly wishing summer would never come.

But when Jeremiah calls saying Conrad has disappeared, Belly knows what she must do to make things right again. And it can only happen back at the beach house, the three of them together, the way things used to be. If this summer really and truly is the last summer, it should end the way it started—at Cousins Beach.]]> Jenny Han é 2 3.85 2010 It's Not Summer Without You (Summer, #2)
author: Jenny Han
name: é
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/25
date added: 2023/08/25
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, romance, review
review:
If I didn’t watch the show I wouldn’t know there was actual chemistry between any of them. The writing is very superficial
]]> <![CDATA[We'll Always Have Summer (Summer, #3)]]> 8680278 291 Jenny Han 1416995587 é 2 3.79 2011 We'll Always Have Summer (Summer, #3)
author: Jenny Han
name: é
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/25
date added: 2023/08/25
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, romance, review
review:
The only tolerable person in this trilogy is Conrad.
]]> <![CDATA[The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer, #1)]]> 60911699
Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.]]> 295 Jenny Han é 2 3.80 2009 The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer, #1)
author: Jenny Han
name: é
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/19
date added: 2023/08/19
shelves: read-in-2023, read-in-english, romantic-subplot
review:
Came to read it after watching the show. The last pages were alright, everything else felt way too flat.
]]>