en-US Tue, 01 Apr 2025 11:46:51 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 211934958 Two women fight to save their dystopian border town—and literature—in this gonzo near-future adventure.

The year is 2038, and the formerly bustling town of Three Rivers, Texas, is a surreal wasteland. Under the authoritarian thumb of its tech industrialist mayor, Pablo Henry Crick, the town has outlawed reading and forced most of the town’s mothers to work as indentured laborers at the Big Tex Fish Cannery, which poisons the atmosphere and lines Crick’s pockets.

Scraping by in this godforsaken landscape are best friends Prosperina and Neftalí—the latter of whom, one of the town’s last literate citizens, hides and reads the books of the mysterious renegade author Jazzmin Monelle Rivas, whose last novel, Brother Brontë, is finally in Neftalí’s possession. But after a series of increasingly violent atrocities committed by Crick’s forces, Neftalí and Prosperina, with the help of a wounded bengal tigress, three scheming triplets, and an underground network of rebel tías, rise up to reclaim their city—and in the process, unlock Rivas’s connection to Three Rivers itself.

An adventure that only the acclaimed Fernando A. Flores could dream up, Brother Brontë is a mordant, gonzo romp through a ruined world that, in its dysfunction, tyranny, and disparity, nonetheless feels uncannily like our own. With his most ambitious book yet, Flores once again bends what fiction can do, in the process crafting a moving and unforgettable story of perseverance.]]> 352 Fernando A. Flores 0374604169 Lindi 0 currently-reading 3.57 2025
author: Fernando A. Flores
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
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]]> 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Lindi 5 grown-up-books, kindness 4.14 2021
author: Claire Keegan
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: grown-up-books, kindness
review:
Beautiful and spare story answering the age-old question: what do you do when you can’t unsee injustice?
]]> 56179377
Seeking help from a powerful gravewitch, Marra is offered the tools to kill a prince—if she can complete three impossible tasks. But, as is the way in tales of princes, witches, and daughters, the impossible is only the beginning.

On her quest, Marra is joined by the gravewitch, a reluctant fairy godmother, a strapping former knight, and a chicken possessed by a demon. Together, the five of them intend to be the hand that closes around the throat of the prince and frees Marra's family and their kingdom from its tyrannous ruler at last.]]> 243 T. Kingfisher 1250244048 Lindi 0 currently-reading 4.08 2022
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/01
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review:

]]> 1624 Markham was the first woman in East Africa to be granted a commercial pilot's license, piloting passengers and supplies to remote corners of Africa. She became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.
Considered a classic of outdoor literature and ranked #8 by National Geographic Adventure in 2008 on its list of the 100 best adventure books.]]> 294 Beryl Markham 0865471185 Lindi 5 4.13 1942
author: Beryl Markham
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1942
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/03/26
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]]> 25220487 Turns out that my alien overlord may be my only shot in this post-apocalyptic nightmare. Figures.

Abel
Eleven years after the sky opened up and aliens descended to ravage the world, Abel thought she had seen and experienced everything that this savage new land � Population � had to offer. Almost...

Shock is what she feels when the alien she robbed hunts her down. His corpse, though huge and glowing, had been mangled and left for the scavengers. She thought he was dead, but now he's back to recover what she's stolen and maybe take her life. Abel won't give up either so easily, because these are the only clues she has to where aliens have taken her little sister.

What she doesn't expect is to survive her encounter with this brutish, cocky alien, or that she might just have to band together with him to fight against even more dangerous predators. In doing so, Abel unlocks forgotten emotions of a world long past � things she never thought to experience.

Desire. Trust. Hope.

Kane
When the little human female attempts to save his life, he doesn't think much of it. But when she makes off with his sword and the key he has been searching for she demands his attention.

He hunts her, not expecting that one so small could be so hard to kill. And in dueling with her, and seeing her own determination to save her family, Kane finds it harder to want to push her away and too easy to want to keep her close and under his protection. But the new world that his kind has claimed for their own is harsh and relentless. In order to survive it and complete their parallel missions, they'll need to defy the prejudices of his superior race and work together as equals.

Set in a post-apocalyptic Pacific Northwest, Population is an alien invasion, post-apocalyptic, SciFi romance with a strong black female lead kicking ass alongside a possessive, warrior Alpha. This full-length novel contains steamy sex and some violent elements and finds its HEA in book #2, Saltlands. Additional books are planned in the same universe from other characters' perspectives, including Generation 1 in 2020.]]> 251 Elizabeth Stephens 099087088X Lindi 0 to-read 4.06 2015
author: Elizabeth Stephens
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214175235 In A More Perfect Party, MSNBC political analyst and cohost of Crooked Media's What A Day podcast Juanita Tolliver argues that this model is exactly what we must employ today to support Black women’s� electoral success.
Ěý
When actress and singer Diahann Carroll opened the doors of her opulent Hollywood home to Shirley Chisolm and her guest list of Black Panther Party members, lauded musicians, political supporters and adversaries, Hollywood movers and shakers, and philanthropists, she knew they were in for a fabulous party. Chisolm worked the room, laughing, eating, and meeting with each guest to show how their respective fields were integral to her political success and the betterment of the United States. A More Perfect Party explores this unreal coming together of Diahann Carroll, Huey P. Newton, Goldie Hawn, Berry Gordy and more, and what their conversations tell us about our current political landscape. Zooming in on one integral conversation per chapter, this book highlights the gaps that today’s voters must address to challenge sluggish progress. Chisolm and Huey P. Newton talk voter turnout initiative for the Black Panthers. Chisolm encourages actress Goldie Hawn to take a confident, feminist stance against racism. Media mogul David Frost and Chisolm parse through media’s impact on the nation's calcified thinking that only white people and men are capable leaders.
Ěý
A More Perfect Party is what happens when voters, donors, and kingmakers, step up and answer the call. Tolliver brings this forgotten event out of the margins of history to show curious voters of today the power of starting with their own interests to get involved politically and the pitfalls of sexism, racism, and fascism that stand in our way. By leveraging Chisholm's coalition blueprint, Black women candidates today can reach new political heights.]]> 224 Juanita Tolliver 1538770229 Lindi 0 currently-reading 4.49
author: Juanita Tolliver
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.49
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 55198935 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, following three lonely strangers in a rural Oregon town, each working through grief and life's curveballs, who are brought together by happenstance on a local honeybee farm where they find surprising friendship, healing--and maybe even a second chance--just when they least expect it.

Forty-four-year-old Alice Holtzman is stuck in a dead-end job, bereft of family, and now reeling from the unexpected death of her husband. Alice has begun having panic attacks whenever she thinks about how her life hasn't turned out the way she dreamed. Even the beloved honeybees she raises in her spare time aren't helping her feel better these days.

In the grip of a panic attack, she nearly collides with Jake--a troubled, paraplegic teenager with the tallest mohawk in Hood River County--while carrying 120,000 honeybees in the back of her pickup truck. Charmed by Jake's sincere interest in her bees and seeking to rescue him from his toxic home life, Alice surprises herself by inviting Jake to her farm.

And then there's Harry, a twenty-four-year-old with debilitating social anxiety who is desperate for work. When he applies to Alice's ad for part-time farm help, he's shocked to find himself hired. As an unexpected friendship blossoms among Alice, Jake, and Harry, a nefarious pesticide company moves to town, threatening the local honeybee population and illuminating deep-seated corruption in the community. The unlikely trio must unite for the sake of the bees--and in the process, they just might forge a new future for themselves.

Beautifully moving, warm, and uplifting, The Music of Bees is about the power of friendship, compassion in the face of loss, and finding the courage to start over (at any age) when things don't turn out the way you expect.]]> 322 Eileen Garvin 0593183924 Lindi 0 currently-reading 4.01 2021
author: Eileen Garvin
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 201608156
Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father's shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love � and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy's lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter's lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.

Set over the course of one December in the same village as Williams' beloved This Is Happiness, Time of the Child is a tender return to Faha for readers who know its charms, and a heartwarming welcome to new readers entering for the very first time.]]> 304 Niall Williams 1639734201 Lindi 0 currently-reading 4.16 2024
author: Niall Williams
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 38564416
When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, anyway, and she’d rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper’s staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director’s inclusive approach to casting The Wizard of Oz has been provoking backlash in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town. From the newly formed Parents Against Revisionist Theater to anonymous threats, long-held prejudices are being laid bare and hostilities are spreading against teachers, parents, and students � especially the cast members at the center of the controversy, including Lou’s little brother, who’s playing the Tin Man. As tensions mount at school, so does a romance between Lou and Joey � but as she’s learned, “dating while Native� can be difficult. In trying to protect her own heart, will Lou break Joey’s?]]> 304 Cynthia Leitich Smith 0763681148 Lindi 3 3.62 2018
author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: cultural-competency, young-adult, romance
review:

]]> 208840291 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

As indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love.

Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”]]> 112 Robin Wall Kimmerer 1668072246 Lindi 5 4.39 2024
author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: cultural-competency, grown-up-books, kindness, non-fiction
review:
It’s a slim volume ant it packs a punch! I took a full page of notes on the plane today.
]]> 194638
The Industry of Souls is the story of Alexander Bayliss, a British citizen arrested for spying in the Soviet Union in the early 1950's. Eventually freed from the gulag in the 1970's, he finds he has no reason to return to the West-he has become Russian in everything but birth.
Now, on the day of his 80th birthday, Russia has changed. Communism has evaporated. In the aftermath, information has come to light that Alex is still alive. This moving story weaves together the events of Alex's life, exploring this momentous day, his harrowing past in the camp and his life in the village. And it ends with his having to make a personal choice, perhaps for the first time in his life, and the climax is shattering.]]> 256 Martin Booth 0312267533 Lindi 5 grown-up-books, kindness 4.22 1998
author: Martin Booth
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: grown-up-books, kindness
review:

]]> 49556729 A brilliant condemnation of political hobbyism—treating politics like entertainment—and a call to arms for well-meaning, well-informed citizens who consume political news, but do not take political action.

Who is to blame for our broken politics? The uncomfortable answer to this question starts with ordinary citizens with good intentions. We vote (sometimes) and occasionally sign a petition or attend a rally. But we mainly “engage� by consuming politics as if it’s a sport or a hobby. We soak in daily political gossip and eat up statistics about who’s up and who’s down. We tweet and post and share. We crave outrage. The hours we spend on politics are used mainly as pastime.

Instead, we should be spending the same number of hours building political organizations, implementing a long-term vision for our city or town, and getting to know our neighbors, whose votes will be needed for solving hard problems. We could be accumulating power so that when there are opportunities to make a difference—to lobby, to advocate, to mobilize—we will be ready. But most of us who are spending time on politics today are focused inward, choosing roles and activities designed for our short-term pleasure. We are repelled by the slow-and-steady activities that characterize service to the common good.

In Politics Is for Power, pioneering and brilliant data analyst Eitan Hersh shows us a way toward more effective political participation. Aided by political theory, history, cutting-edge social science, as well as remarkable stories of ordinary citizens who got off their couches and took political power seriously, this book shows us how to channel our energy away from political hobbyism and toward empowering our values.]]> 288 Eitan D. Hersh 1982116781 Lindi 0 to-read 4.09 2020
author: Eitan D. Hersh
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56269264
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike—either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself.

Drawing on pathbreaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what’s really there. If humans did not spend 95 percent of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume.

The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action.]]> 692 David Graeber 0374157359 Lindi 0 to-read 4.20 2021
author: David Graeber
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
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]]> 212924099 not a meet-cute but a chance encounter with a charming man whom she will sleep with exactly onceĚýand go on her way. Easy enough...until she runs into him again at a Christmas market straight out of a Hallmark holiday movie.Ěý]]> 343 Erin Connor 153875942X Lindi 0 currently-reading 3.81 2025
author: Erin Connor
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 40545956 In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again.

After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.

The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay―just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.

Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren’t Jo and Gabe checking the missing children’s website anymore?

Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.]]> 332 Glendy Vanderah 154204006X Lindi 4 3.98 2019
author: Glendy Vanderah
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
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]]> 213520100
Unfolding during the moody Pacific Northwest winter of 1951, we follow Bernadette Baston, scholar of child development and language acquisition, as she travels to a penitentiary on the remote island Elita in the Puget Sound to consult on a curious case: two guards have discovered an animal-like adolescent girl living alone in the cold woods beyond the prison’s walls. There are few answers, but many people who know more than they are saying. According to official reports, the girl, dubbed Atalanta, does not speak. Is her silence protecting someone? The prison warden, court-appointed guardian, and police detective embroil Bernadette in resolving a secret that the tight-knit island community has long held, and her investment in the girl’s case soon becomes more personal than professional. As a mother, wife, and woman bound by mid-twentieth-century expectations, Bernadette strategizes to retain the fragile control she has over her own freedom, identity, and future, which becomes inextricably tied to solving Atalanta’s case.]]> 264 Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum 0810147866 Lindi 0 to-read 4.17
author: Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18079659 “Lamott’s …most insightful book yet,ĚýStitchesĚýoffers plenty of her characteristic witty wisdom…this slim, readable volume [is] a lens on life, widening and narrowing, encouraging each reader to reflect on what it is, after all, that really matters.”â€�People

What do we do when life lurches out of balance? How can we reconnect to one other and to what’s sustaining, when evil and catastrophe seem inescapable?

These questions lie at the heart of Stitches, Lamott’s profound follow-up to her New York Times–b±đ˛őłŮ˛ő±đ±ô±ôľ±˛Ô˛µ Help, Thanks, Wow. In this book Lamott explores how we find meaning and peace in these loud and frantic times; where we start again after personal and public devastation; how we recapture wholeness after loss; and how we locate our true identities in this frazzled age. We begin, Lamott says, by collecting the ripped shreds of our emotional and spiritual fabric and sewing them back together, one stitch at a time.

It’s in these stitches that the quilt of life begins, and embedded in them are strength, warmth, humor, and humanity.
Ěý]]> 112 Anne Lamott 1594632588 Lindi 3 3.84 2013
author: Anne Lamott
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: grown-up-books, kindness, non-fiction
review:

]]> 60420370 This important work of nonfiction features powerful images of the Japanese American incarceration captured by three photographers—Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams—along with firsthand accounts of this grave moment in history.

Three months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the incarceration of all Japanese and Japanese Americans living on the West Coast of the United States. Families, teachers, farm workers—all were ordered to leave behind their homes, their businesses, and everything they owned. Japanese and Japanese Americans were forced to live under hostile conditions in incarceration camps, their futures uncertain.

Three photographers set out to document life at Manzanar, an incarceration camp in the California desert:

Dorothea Lange was a photographer from San Francisco best known for her haunting Depression-era images. Dorothea was hired by the US government to record the conditions of the camps. Deeply critical of the policy, she wanted her photos to shed light on the harsh reality of incarceration.

Toyo Miyatake was a Japanese-born, Los Angeles–based photographer who lent his artistic eye to portraying dancers, athletes, and events in the Japanese community. Imprisoned at Manzanar, he devised a way to smuggle in photographic equipment, determined to show what was really going on inside the barbed-wire confines of the camp.

Ansel Adams was an acclaimed landscape photographer and environmentalist. Hired by the director of Manzanar, Ansel hoped his carefully curated pictures would demonstrate to the rest of the United States the resilience of those in the camps.

In Seen and Unseen, Elizabeth Partridge and Lauren Tamaki weave together these photographers' images, firsthand accounts, and original art to examine the history and injustice of the Japanese American incarceration.]]> 132 Elizabeth Partridge 1452165106 Lindi 5 4.51
author: Elizabeth Partridge
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.51
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: cultural-competency, non-fiction, picture-book, preteen-boys, preteen-girls, young-adult
review:

]]> 33516728
The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission, to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions.

Ramey's pursuit of a diagnosis and cure for her own mysterious illness is a medical mystery that she says reveals a new understanding of today's chronic illnesses as ecological in nature, driven by modern changes to the basic foundations of health, from the quality of our sleep, diet, and social connection to the state of our microbiomes.]]> 432 Sarah Ramey 0385534078 Lindi 0 currently-reading 3.67 2020
author: Sarah Ramey
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 205064698 This middle grade historical adventure follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother’s death.

Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act�

Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi's Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.

The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother's disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues which unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?]]> 392 Ruta Sepetys 0593527542 Lindi 5 mystery, young-adult 4.12 2024
author: Ruta Sepetys
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: mystery, young-adult
review:

]]> 56651467 In the debut middle grade novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Gayle Forman comes a poignant and powerful coming-of-age story that follows a young girl and her new friend as they learn about family, friendship, allyship, and finding your way in a complicated world.

It’s the summer of 1987, and all ten-year-old Bug wants to do is go to the beach with her older brother and hang out with the locals on the boardwalk. But Danny wants to be with his own friends, and Bug’s mom is too busy, so Bug is stuck with their neighbor Philip’s nephew, Frankie.

Bug’s not too excited about hanging out with a kid she’s never met, but they soon find some common ground. And as the summer unfolds, they find themselves learning some important lessons about each other, and the world.

Like what it means to be your true self and how to be a good ally for others. That family can be the people ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ related to, but also the people you choose to have around you. And that even though life isn’t always fair, we can all do our part to make it more just.]]> 288 Gayle Forman 1534482539 Lindi 5 4.10 2021
author: Gayle Forman
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: audio-book, kindness, preteen-boys, preteen-girls, young-adult
review:

]]> 50209317
At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers—all different species with different aims—are thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio—an exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes—are compelled to confront where they’ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.]]> 336 Becky Chambers 0062936050 Lindi 4 4.38 2021
author: Becky Chambers
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: cultural-competency, indy-girl, kindness, speculative-fiction
review:
This is a very satisfying conclusion to the Wayfarers series. Ms. Chambers writes imaginative and hopeful science fiction.
]]> 219446044 The fourth book in the Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery series, which finds the amateur sleuths caught up in the whirlwind of the London Season—and in a murderous scheme involving the family of Edmund and Fanny Bertram.

Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney understand each other perfectly; it's a pity their families do not. A series of misunderstandings, misplaced pride, and—indeed—prejudice, has led their parents to deem the pair unsuited to wed. Now, with the Season approaching, Juliet has been sent to London with a new wardrobe and orders to prove herself worthy of someone better than the snobby Darcys.

Meanwhile, Jonathan has been forced to accept an invitation to stay with old friends Edmund and Fanny Bertram at the house of Edmund's brother, Sir Thomas. Oblivious to and undesiring of female attention other than Juliet's, Jonathan is in danger of being ensnared by Caroline Bingley's plans to make herself—or her daughter—mistress of Pemberley.

But when the former husband of Edmund's sister Maria, Mr. Rushworth, is discovered dead, Jonathan and Juliet find themselves with problems far weightier than the marriage market.

In one of the greatest scandals of its day, Maria abandoned her husband for the notorious rake Henry Crawford and, when he wouldn't marry her, was forced to flee to the continent in disgrace. Now Maria is back, with a daughter she claims Mr. Rushworth fathered after their divorce—and who he wrote into his will just before his death.

Now Jonathan and Juliet must unmask a killer before the drama surrounding the Rushworth family fortune claims another victim.]]> Claudia Gray 0735247870 Lindi 0 to-read 4.47
author: Claudia Gray
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62120709 From award-winning author Gary D. Schmidt, a warm and witty novel in the tradition of The Wednesday Wars, in which a seventh grader has to figure out how to fulfill an assignment to perform the Twelve Labors of Hercules in real life--and makes discoveries about friendship, community, and himself along the way.

Herc Beal knows who he's named after--a mythical hero--but he's no superhero. He's the smallest kid in his class. So when his homeroom teacher at his new middle school gives him the assignment of duplicating the mythical Hercules's amazing feats in real life, he's skeptical. After all, there are no Nemean Lions on Cape Cod--and not a single Hydra in sight.

Missing his parents terribly and wishing his older brother wasn't working all the time, Herc figures out how to take his first steps along the road that the great Hercules himself once walked. Soon, new friends, human and animal, are helping him. And though his mythical role model performed his twelve labors by himself, Herc begins to see that he may not have to go it alone.]]> 352 Gary D. Schmidt 0358659639 Lindi 0 to-read 4.50 2023
author: Gary D. Schmidt
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 149187311 From the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy comes a heartwarming fantasy with a best friends-to-lovers rom com twist--When Harry Met Sally, but with dragons!—set in the delightful demigod and donut-filled world of Tanria.

The entire town of Eternity was shocked when widowed, middle-aged Twyla Banneker partnered up with her neighbor and best friend, Frank Ellis, to join the Tanrian Marshals. Eight years later, Twyla and Frank are still patrolling the dangerous land of Tanria, the former prison of the Old Gods.

Twyla might look like a small town mom who brings cheesy potatoes to funerals and whips up a batch of cookies for the school bake sale, but her rewarding career in law enforcement has been a welcome change from the domestic grind of mom life, despite the misgivings of her grown children.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) a recent decrease in on-the-job peril has made Twyla and Frank's job a lot safer ... and a lot less exciting. So when they discover the body of one of their fellow marshals covered in liquid glitter--and Frank finds himself the inadvertent foster dad to a baby dragon--they are more than happy to be back on the beat.

Soon, the friends wind up ensnared in a nefarious plot that goes far deeper than any lucrative Tanrian mineshaft. But as the danger closes in and Twyla and Frank's investigation becomes more complicated, so does their easy friendship. And Twyla starts to realize that her true soul mate might just be the person who has lived next door all along...]]> 464 Megan Bannen 0356521923 Lindi 3 4.04 2024
author: Megan Bannen
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: audio-book, grown-up-books, romance, speculative-fiction
review:

]]> 112975658 A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546874 Lindi 4 4.38 2023
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: about-writing, grown-up-books, mystery
review:

]]> 32623542
Crow has always been curious about the world around her, but it isn't until the night a mysterious fire appears across the water that the unspoken question of her own history forms in her heart. Soon, a chain of events is triggered, leading Crow down a path of discovery and danger.]]> 304 Lauren Wolk 1101994851 Lindi 5 4.08 2017
author: Lauren Wolk
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves: kindness, mystery, preteen-boys, preteen-girls
review:

]]> 3799 153 Rumer Godden 0330442554 Lindi 5 4.03 1947
author: Rumer Godden
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: favorite, kindness, preteen-girls, speculative-fiction
review:
Rumer Godden does not write down to children. She taught me to trust my understanding and to make connections. I will always be thankful that I discovered her as a weird bookish kid in mid-1960s American suburbia.
]]> 25573977
Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy's funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist—even if they don't understand her peculiar need for books. Marooned in a farm town that's almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend's memory.

All she wants is to share the books she loves with the citizens of Broken Wheel and to convince them that reading is one of the great joys of life. But she makes some unconventional choices that could force a lot of secrets into the open and change things for everyone in town. Reminiscent of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, this is a warm, witty book about friendship, stories, and love.]]> 394 Katarina Bivald 149262344X Lindi 0 to-read 3.52 2013
author: Katarina Bivald
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59314703
On her return home, Sewanee discovers one of the world’s most beloved romance novelists wanted her to perform her last book—with Brock McNight, the industry’s hottest, most secretive voice. Sewanee doesn’t buy what romance novels are selling—not after her own dreams were tragically cut short—and she stopped narrating them years ago. But her admiration of the late author, and the opportunity to get her grandmother more help, makes her decision for her.

As Sewanee begins work on the book, resurrecting her old romance pseudonym, she and Brock forge a real connection, hidden behind the comfort of anonymity. Soon, she is dreaming again, but secrets are revealed, and the realities of life come crashing down around her once more.

If she can learn to risk everything for desires she has long buried, she will discover a world of intimacy and acceptance she never believed would be hers.

From the author of My Oxford Year, Julia Whelan’s uplifting novel tells the story of a former actress turned successful audiobook narrator—who has lost sight of her dreams after a tragic accident—and her journey of self-discovery, love, and acceptance when she agrees to narrate one last romance novel.]]> 432 Julia Whelan 0063095564 Lindi 4 3.99 2022
author: Julia Whelan
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: about-writing, audio-book, grown-up-books, romance
review:

]]> 201750794
They aren’t the heroes of legend, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Tables, from the edges of the stories, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance.

But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. God has abandoned it, and the fairies and monsters and old gods are returning, led by Arthur’s half-sister Morgan le Fay. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords are laying siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again. But before they can restore Camelot they’ll have to learn the truth of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell and lay to rest the ghosts of his troubled family and of Britain’s dark past.]]> 673 Lev Grossman 0735224048 Lindi 0 to-read 3.94 2024
author: Lev Grossman
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 59811713 Bestselling author Lauren Wolk returns to the world of Wolf Hollow, in this sequel to her beloved, Newbery Honor-winning debut.

� "A powerful story to electrify the soul." -Booklist, starred review

It's been several months since the tragic events set in motion by bully Betty Glengarry, and the routine of daily life in Wolf Hollow has slowly returned. But for Annabelle McBride it's hard to move forward and make peace with what feels like threadbare justice.

Newly warm summer days are about to bring a jolt of change on the winds of a powerful storm. In its wake, the search for her brother's missing dog will set Annabelle on a new path that brings her to unfamiliar doorsteps and reunites her with a too-familiar adversary--Andy Woodberry, who was complicit in Betty's most terrible acts. Growing up and blazing her own trail will soon force Annabelle to reexamine deeply felt truths--about people, about justice, about herself--that had once seemed so uncomplicated.

Bestselling author Lauren Wolk (Beyond the Bright Sea, Echo Mountain) returns to World War II-era Western Pennsylvania in this luminous sequel to her Newbery Honor-winning debut, Wolf Hollow, proving once again why her acclaimed novels have been celebrated as "historical fiction at its finest."]]> 320 Lauren Wolk 0525555595 Lindi 5 4.24 2022
author: Lauren Wolk
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: kindness, preteen-boys, preteen-girls
review:

]]> 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry Lindi 4 4.21 2024
author: Emily Henry
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/06
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: audio-book, funny, grown-up-books, romance
review:

]]> 61346151
A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, and exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government.

Post-World War II Britain, 1947. Forty-one-year-old “Miss White," as Elinor is known, lives in a village in Kent, England, so quietly and privately as to seem an enigma to her fellow villagers. Well she might, as Elinor occupies a "grace and favor" property, a rare privilege offered to faithful servants of the Crown for services to the nation. But the residents of Shacklehurst have no way of knowing how dangerous Elinor's war work had been, or how deeply their mysterious neighbor continues to be haunted by her past.

It will take the child of Jim Mackie, a young farmworker and his wife, Rose, to break through Miss White's icy demeanor—but Jim has something in common with Elinor. He, too, is desperate to escape his past. When the powerful Mackie crime family demands a return of their prodigal son for an important job, Elinor assumes the task of protecting her neighbors, especially the bright-eyed Susie, who reminds her of the darkest day of her life.

Elinor’s wartime training and instincts serve her well, but as she endeavors to neutralize the threat to Jim, Rose and Susie Mackie, she is rapidly led along a tunnel of smoke and mirrors in which former wartime colleagues � who know the truth about what happened in 1944, and the terrible event that led to her wartime suicide attempt � are compromised by more powerful influences.

Ultimately, Elinor will hold a gun to the head of a Mackie crime lord to uncover the truth behind the family's pursuit of Jim, and in doing so, reveal the far-reaching tentacles of their power—along with the truth that will free Elinor from her past.]]> 321 Jacqueline Winspear 0062867989 Lindi 4 3.89 2023
author: Jacqueline Winspear
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: about-writing, audio-book, grown-up-books, indy-girl, mystery
review:

]]> 61885131 Heartstopper meets A Knight’s Tale in this queer medieval rom-com YA debut about love, friendship, and being brave enough to change the course of history.

It’s been hundreds of years since King Arthur’s reign. His descendant, Arthur, a future Lord and general gadabout, has been betrothed to Gwendoline, the quick-witted, short-tempered princess of England, since birth. The only thing they can agree on is that they despise each other.

They’re forced to spend the summer together at Camelot in the run-up to their nuptials, and within 24 hours, Gwen has discovered Arthur kissing a boy, and Arthur has gone digging for Gwen's childhood diary and found confessions about her crush on the kingdom's only lady knight, Bridget Leclair.

Realizing they might make better allies than enemies, Gwen and Art make a reluctant pact to cover for each other, and as things heat up at the annual royal tournament, Gwen is swept off her feet by her knight, and Arthur takes an interest in Gwen's royal brother. Lex Croucher's Gwen & Art Are Not in Love is chock full of sword-fighting, found family, and romantic shenanigans destined to make readers fall in love.]]> 416 Lex Croucher 1250847214 Lindi 3 funny, romance, young-adult 3.96 2023
author: Lex Croucher
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/29
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: funny, romance, young-adult
review:

]]> 204316858 A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long. Wright Thompson’s family farm in Mississippi is 23 miles from the site of one of the most notorious and consequential killings in American history, yet he had to leave the state for college before he learned the first thing about it. To this day, fundamental truths about the crime are widely unknown, including where it took place and how many people were involved. This is no the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.ĚýIn August 1955, two men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were charged with the torture and murder of the 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi.ĚýAfter their inevitable acquittal in a mockery of justice, they gave a false confession to a journalist, which was misleading about where the long night of hell took place and who was involved.ĚýIn fact, Wright Thompson reveals, at least nine people can be placed at the scene, which was inside the barn of one of the killers, on a plot of land within the six-square-mile grid whose official name is Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, fabled in the Delta of myth as the birthplace of the blues on nearby Dockery Plantation. Even in the context of the brutal caste regime of the time, the four-hour torture and murder of a boy barely in his teens for whistling at a young white woman was acutely depraved; Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s decision to keep the casket open seared the crime indelibly into American consciousness. Wright Thompson has a deep understanding of this story—the world of the families of both Emmett Till and his killers, and all the forces that aligned to place them together on that spot on the map.ĚýAs he shows, the full horror of the crime was its inevitability, and how much about it we still need to understand. Ultimately this is a story about property, and money, and power.ĚýIt implicates all of us.ĚýIn The Barn, Thompson befriends the few people who have been engaged in the hard, fearful business of bringing the truth to light, people like Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till’s friend, who came down from Chicago with him that summer, and is the last person alive to know him well.ĚýWheeler Parker’s journey to put the killing floor of the barn on the map of Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, and the Delta, and America, is a journey we all need to go on if this country is to heal from its oldest, deepest wound.]]> 448 Wright Thompson 0593299825 Lindi 0 abandoned 4.38 2024
author: Wright Thompson
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 196774352 The Essex Serpent, a story of love and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends.

Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits—torn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community. It is two romantic relationships that will rend their friendship, and in the wake of this rupture, Thomas develops an obsession with a vanished nineteenth-century astronomer said to haunt a nearby manor, and Grace flees Aldleigh entirely for London.

Over the course of twenty years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as the mystery of the vanished astronomer unfolds into a devastating tale of love and scientific pursuit. Thomas and Grace will ask themselves what it means to love and be loved, what is fixed and what is mutable, how much of our fate is predestined and written in the stars, and whether they can find their way back to each other.

A thrillingly ambitious novel of friendship, faith, and unrequited love, rich in symmetry and symbolism, Enlightenment is a shimmering wonder of a book and Sarah Perry’s finest work to date.Ěý]]> 384 Sarah Perry 0063352613 Lindi 0 abandoned 3.54 2024
author: Sarah Perry
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 55813987
When a blizzard leaves Will and Abbie alone at Grandma Farrell’s house (if bunking with 27 pets counts as �alone�), it’s the perfect opportunity to pull off a Christmas miracle. Convincing clever, frosty Abbie to give Will a chance will take more than mistletoe, but hiding his lifelong crush on her is no longer an option.]]> 127 Talia Hibbert 1774532646 Lindi 4 romance, audio-book 3.56 2020
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: romance, audio-book
review:
After stitching through a couple 10+ hour HEAs, this was a pure delight. Short and sweet with lovely characters and a great setting. . . and not a lot of extraneous blather. The perfect accompaniment for quilting on a winter's day.
]]> 58510253
Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.

After yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend�. Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born.

If only Hart knew he’s been baring his soul to the person who infuriates him most � Mercy. As the dangers from Tanria grow closer, so do the unlikely correspondents. But can their blossoming romance survive the fated discovery that their pen pals are their worst nightmares � each other?]]> 449 Megan Bannen 0356518655 Lindi 4 4.04 2022
author: Megan Bannen
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: about-writing, audio-book, grown-up-books, romance, speculative-fiction
review:

]]> 51969326
After the financial crash, Ellie and her family have lost nearly everything--including their home in town. They have started over, carving out a new life in the unforgiving terrain of Echo Mountain. Though her sister Esther, especially, resents everything about the mountain, Ellie has found more freedom, a new strength, and a love of the natural world that now surrounds them. But there is little joy, even for Ellie, as they all struggle with the sorrow and aftermath of an accident that left her father in a coma. An accident for which Ellie has accepted the unearned weight of blame.

Urgent for a cure to bring her father back, Ellie is determined to try anything. Following her heart, and the lead of a scruffy mutt, Ellie will make her way to the top of the mountain, in search of the healing secrets of a woman known only as "the hag." But the mountain still has many untold stories left to reveal to Ellie, as she finds her way forward among a complex constellation of strong women spanning generations.]]> 356 Lauren Wolk 0525555560 Lindi 5 4.24 2020
author: Lauren Wolk
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: indy-girl, kindness, preteen-boys, preteen-girls
review:

]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Lindi 5 The Anthropocene Reviewed<\i> 5 stars. ]]> 4.37 2021
author: John Green
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/12/31
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: audio-book, favorite, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:
I give The Anthropocene Reviewed<\i> 5 stars.
]]> 60383010 Buzzfeed’s Most Anticipated LGBTQ Romances of 2022

Miriam Blum has no choice but to face the past she thought she’d left behind when she inherits her great-aunt’s Christmas tree farm in this witty, glittering, heart-filled romcom.

Thanks to her thriving art career, Miriam Blum finally has her decoupaged glitter ducks in a row—until devastating news forces her to a very unwanted family reunion. Her beloved great-aunt Cass has passed and left Miriam part-owner of Carrigan’s, her (ironically) Jewish-run Christmas tree farm.

But Miriam’s plans to sit shiva, avoid her parents, then put Carrigan’s in her rearview mirror are spoiled when she learns the business is at risk of going under. To have any chance at turning things around, she’ll need to work with the farm’s grumpy manager—as long as the attraction sparking between them doesn’t set all their trees on fire first.

Noelle Northwood wants Miriam Blum gone—even if her ingenious ideas and sensitive soul keep showing Noelle there’s more to Cass’s niece than meets the eye. But saving Carrigan’s requires trust, love, and risking it all—for the chance to make their wildest dreams come true.]]> 384 Helena Greer 1538706539 Lindi 2 3.65 2022
author: Helena Greer
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: audio-book, grown-up-books, romance
review:

]]> 207294337 "The book we all need at the time we all need it.� —Katherine Applegate, Newbery Award–winning author of The One and Only Ivan In this middle grade novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Gayle Forman, a boy who has been assigned to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility learns unexpected lessons that change the trajectory of his life.To say Alex has had it rough is an understatement. His father’s gone, his mother is struggling with mental health issues, and he’s now living with an aunt and uncle who are less than excited to have him. Almost everyone treats him as though he doesn’t matter at all, like he’s nothing. So when a kid at school actually tells him he’s nothing, Alex snaps, and gets violent. Fortunately, his social worker pulls some strings and gets him a job at a nursing home for the summer rather than being sent to juvie. There, he meets Josey, the 107-year-old Holocaust survivor who stopped bothering to talk years ago, and Maya-Jade, the granddaughter of one of the residents with an overblown sense of importance. Unlike Alex, Maya-Jade believes that people care about what she thinks, and that she can make a difference. And when Alex and Josey form an unlikely bond, with Josey confiding in him, Alex starts to believe he can make a difference—a good difference—in the world. If he can truly feel he matters, Alex may be able to finally rise to the occasion of his own life.]]> 288 Gayle Forman 1665943270 Lindi 5 4.44
author: Gayle Forman
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/23
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: audio-book, kindness, young-adult
review:
Very powerful novel about giving people grace. Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative talks about the injustice of judging people by the worst thing they’ve done. Ms. Forman has written an excellent novel for young people explaining that concept.
]]> 199531989 Knives Out gets a rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers Christmas romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-Time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.]]> 293 Ally Carter 0063276682 Lindi 4 3.92 2024
author: Ally Carter
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: about-writing, audio-book, funny, grown-up-books, mystery, romance
review:

]]> 200555182
Beth Pickering is on the verge of finally capturing the rare deathwhistler bird when Professor Devon Lockley swoops in, capturing both her bird and her imagination like a villain. Albeit a handsome and charming villain, but that's beside the point. As someone highly educated in the ruthless discipline of ornithology, Beth knows trouble when she sees it, and she is determined to keep her distance from Devon.Ěý

For his part, Devon has never been more smitten than when he first set eyes on Professor Beth Pickering. She's so pretty, so polite, so capable of bringing down a fiery, deadly bird using only her wits. In other words, an angel. Devon understands he must not get close to her, however, since they're professional rivals.Ěý

When a competition to become Birder of the Year by capturing an endangered caladrius bird is announced, Beth and Devon are forced to team up to have any chance of winning.ĚýNow keeping their distance becomes a question of one bed or two. But they must take the risk, because fowl play is afoot, and they can't trust anyone else—for all may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology.]]> 384 India Holton Lindi 0 to-read 3.91 2024
author: India Holton
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151426 A bestselling romance author flees to Alaska to reinvent herself and write her first murder mystery, but the rugged resort proprietor soon has her fearing she’s living in a rom-com plot instead in this earnestly spectacular debut by a stunning new voice.

Beloved romance author Margot Bradley has a dark secret: she doesn’t believe in Happily Ever Afters. Not for herself, not for her readers, and not even for her characters, for whom she secretly writes alternate endings that swap weddings and babies for divorce papers and the occasional slashed tire. When her Happily Never After document is hacked and released to the public, she finds herself canceled by her readers and dropped by her publisher.

Desperate to find a way to continue supporting her chronically ill sister, Savannah, Margot decides to trade meet-cutes for murder. The fictional kind. Probably. But when Savannah books Margot a six-week stay in a remote Alaskan resort to pen her first murder mystery, Margot finds herself running from a moose and leaping into the arms of the handsome proprietor, making her fear she’s just landed in a romance novel instead.

The last thing Dr. Forrest Wakefield ever expected was to leave his dream job as a cancer researcher to become a glorified bellhop. What he’s really doing at his family’s resort is caring for his stubborn, ailing father, and his puzzle-loving mind is slowly freezing over—until Margot shows up. But Forrest doesn’t have any room in his life for another person he could lose, especially one with a checkout date.

As long snowy nights and one unlikely trope after another draw Margot and Forrest together, they’ll each have to learn to overcome their fears and set their aside assumptions before Margot leaves—or risk becoming a Happily Never After story themselves.]]> 336 Victoria Lavine 1668079275 Lindi 0 to-read 4.18 2025
author: Victoria Lavine
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38619 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780441014897.

Ilona Andrews invites you to experience the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series featuring the intriguing fantasy world of mercenary Kate Daniels�

When the magic is up, rogue mages cast their spells and monsters appear, while guns refuse to fire and cars fail to start. But then technology returns, and the magic recedes as unpredictably as it arose, leaving all kinds of paranormal problems in its wake.

Kate Daniels is a down-on-her-luck mercenary who makes her living cleaning up these magical problems. But when Kate’s guardian is murdered, her quest for justice draws her into a power struggle between two strong factions within Atlanta’s magic circles.

The Masters of the Dead, necromancers who can control vampires, and the Pack, a paramilitary clan of shapechangers, blame each other for a series of bizarre killings—and the death of Kate’s guardian may be part of the same mystery. Pressured by both sides to find the killer, Kate realizes she’s way out of her league—but she wouldn’t have it any other way…]]> 260 Ilona Andrews Lindi 0 4.06 2007
author: Ilona Andrews
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: audio-book, romance, speculative-fiction
review:

]]> 9762
In the midst of a normal life, Katie became increasingly depressed, and over a ten-year period sank further into rage, despair, and thoughts of suicide. Then one morning, she woke up in a state of absolute joy, filled with the realization of how her own suffering had ended. The freedom of that realization has never left her, and now in Loving What Is you can discover the same freedom through The Work.

The Work is simply four questions that, when applied to a specific problem, enable you to see what is troubling you in an entirely different light. As Katie says, “It’s not the problem that causes our suffering; it’s our thinking about the problem.� Contrary to popular belief, trying to let go of a painful thought never works; instead, once we have done The Work, the thought lets go of us. At that point, we can truly love what is, just as it is.

Loving What Is will show you step-by-step, through clear and vivid examples, exactly how to use this revolutionary process for yourself. You’ll see people do The Work with Katie on a broad range of human problems, from a wife ready to leave her husband because he wants more sex, to a Manhattan worker paralyzed by fear of terrorism, to a woman suffering over a death in her family. Many people have discovered The Work’s power to solve problems; in addition, they say that through The Work they experience a sense of lasting peace and find the clarity and energy to act, even in situations that had previously seemed impossible.

If you continue to do The Work, you may discover, as many people have, that the questioning flows into every aspect of your life, effortlessly undoing the stressful thoughts that keep you from experiencing peace. Loving What Is offers everything you need to learn and live this remarkable process, and to find happiness as what Katie calls “a lover of reality.”]]> 321 Byron Katie 1400045371 Lindi 3 4.07 2002
author: Byron Katie
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: about-writing, audio-book, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:

]]> 34150794
New York Times bestselling author Hazel Gaynor has joined with Heather Webb to create this unforgettably romantic novel of the Great War.

August 1914. England is at war. As Evie Elliott watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas Harding, depart for the front, she believes—as everyone does—that it will be over by Christmas, when the trio plan to celebrate the holiday among the romantic cafes of Paris.

But as history tells us, it all happened so differently�

Evie and Thomas experience a very different war. Frustrated by life as a privileged young lady, Evie longs to play a greater part in the conflict—but how?—and as Thomas struggles with the unimaginable realities of war he also faces personal battles back home where War Office regulations on press reporting cause trouble at his father’s newspaper business. Through their letters, Evie and Thomas share their greatest hopes and fears—and grow ever fonder from afar. Can love flourish amid the horror of the First World War, or will fate intervene?

Christmas 1968. With failing health, Thomas returns to Paris—a cherished packet of letters in hand—determined to lay to rest the ghosts of his past. But one final letter is waiting for him…]]> 384 Hazel Gaynor 006256269X Lindi 3 4.13 2017
author: Hazel Gaynor
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: about-writing, grown-up-books, kindness, romance
review:

]]> 37796866 VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

This is just the beginning.

Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.

But this is not the end.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.]]> 336 Christina Dalcher 0440000785 Lindi 3 3.52 2018
author: Christina Dalcher
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: grown-up-books, speculative-fiction
review:

]]> 122993486 Two sisters roll up their sleeves to run a dilapidated, beach town inn but must learn to work with the locals in this deliciously spicy Sense and Sensibility inspired rom-com by Nikki Payne.

There's never a good time to learn ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ your father's secret second family—especially not at the reading of the will. To add insult to injury, Nora's racy leaked videos just went viral. Nora Dash has got no reputation, no dad, and only a forgotten beach house in rural Maine to her name. There are no other Black people for miles, the place is abandoned, but at least no one will recognize her O face in the backwoods. She and her free-spirited sister Yanne haven’t even knocked the traveling dust off last season's designer boots when the first problem pops up: a fake park ranger giving tours of their property like it's his own—and he’s hotter than the local lobster boil.

Ennis "Bear" Freeman is used to people showing up unannounced on his land. So when a beautiful city girl shows up with the deed to his unofficial headquarters in one manicured hand, he gives it a week before their whole crew packs up and leaves. But it isn't long before they find out they work better together than apart. To his surprise, Nora's damned good for Bear's business, and his own secrets might turn out to be the thing that sends them packing.]]> 400 Nikki Payne 059344096X Lindi 2 3.61 2024
author: Nikki Payne
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: audio-book, cultural-competency, didn-t-respect-myself-in-the-mornin, grown-up-books, romance
review:

]]> 55577687 The author of Recipe for Persuasion—“not only one of the best but one of the bravest romance novelists working today� (Shelf Awareness)—adds an Indian American twist to Jane Austen's classic Sense and Sensibility in this delightful retelling that is a feast for the senses.

Yash Raje, California’s first serious Indian gubernatorial candidate, has always known exactly what he wants—and how to use his privileged background to get it. He attributes his success to a simple mantra: control your feelings and you can control the world.

But when a hate-fueled incident at a rally critically injures his friend, Yash’s easy life suddenly feels like a lie, his control an illusion. When he tries to get back on the campaign trail, he blacks out with panic.

Desperate to keep Yash’s condition from leaking to the media, his family turns to the one person they trust—his sister’s best friend, India Dashwood, California’s foremost stress management coach. Raised by a family of yoga teachers, India has helped San Francisco’s high strung overachievers for a decade without so much as altering her breath. But this man—with his boundless ambition, simmering intensity, and absolute faith in his political beliefs—is like no other. Yash has spent a lifetime repressing everything to succeed.

Including their one magical night ten years ago—a too brief, too bright passion that if rekindled threatens the life he’s crafted for himself. Exposing the secrets might be the only way to save him but it’s also guaranteed to destroy the dream he’s willingly shouldered for his family and community . . . until now.]]> 400 Sonali Dev 006305180X Lindi 3 3.70 2021
author: Sonali Dev
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/09
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: audio-book, austen-esque, grown-up-books, romance
review:
I am enjoying these Austen-esque novels from Ms. Dev, but they seem overly long.
]]> 195790586 She’s rewriting his love story. But can she rewrite her own?

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies―good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates―The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!―it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone―much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.� Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script―it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter―even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true?]]> 336 Katherine Center 1250283809 Lindi 4 4.06 2024
author: Katherine Center
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: about-writing, audio-book, funny, grown-up-books, romance
review:
Excellent narrator and fun romance novel.
]]> 58842728 Emma gets a fresh Indian-American twist from award-winning author Sonali Dev in her heartwarmingly irresistible Jane Austen inspired rom com series.

No one can call Vansh Raje’s life anything but charmed. Handsome�Vogue has declared him California’s hottest single—and rich enough to spend all his time on missions to make the world a better place. Add to that a doting family and a contagiously sunny disposition and Vansh has made it halfway through his twenties without ever facing anything to throw him off his admittedly spectacular game.

A couple years from turning forty, Knightlina (Naina) Kohli has just gotten out of a ten-year-long fake relationship with Vansh’s brother and wants only one thing from her life…fine, two things. One, to have nothing to do with the unfairly blessed Raje family ever again. Two, to bring economic independence to millions of women in South Asia through her microfinance foundation and prove her father wrong about, well, everything.

Just when Naina’s dream is about to come to fruition, Vansh Raje shows up with his misguided Emma Project... And suddenly she’s fighting him for funding and wondering if a friends-with-benefits arrangement that’s as toe-curlingly hot as it is fun is worth risking her life’s work for.]]> 416 Sonali Dev 0063051842 Lindi 0 to-read 3.61 2022
author: Sonali Dev
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 52695036 From the author of Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors comes another , clever, deeply layered, and heartwarming romantic comedy that follows in the Jane Austen tradition—this time, with a twist on Persuasion.

Chef Ashna Raje desperately needs a new strategy. How else can she save her beloved restaurant and prove to her estranged, overachieving mother that she isn’t a complete screw up? When she’s asked to join the cast of Cooking with the Stars, the latest hit reality show teaming chefs with celebrities, it seems like just the leap of faith she needs to put her restaurant back on the map. She’s a chef, what’s the worst that could happen?Ěý

Rico Silva, that’s what.ĚýĚý

Being paired with a celebrity who was her first love, the man who ghosted her at the worst possible time in her life, only proves what Ashna has always believed: leaps of faith are a recipe for disaster.Ěý

FIFA winning soccer star Rico Silva isn't too happy to be paired up with Ashna either. Losing Ashna years ago almost destroyed him. The only silver lining to this bizarre situation is that he can finally prove to Ashna that he's definitely over her.Ěý

But when their catastrophic first meeting goes viral, social media becomes obsessed with their chemistry. The competition on the show is fierce…and so is the simmering desire between Ashna and Rico. ĚýEvery minute they spend together rekindles feelings that pull them toward their disastrous past. Will letting go again be another recipe for heartbreak—or a recipe for persuasionâ€�?Ěý

In Recipe for Persuasion, Sonali Dev once again takes readers on an unforgettable adventure in this fresh, fun, and enchanting romantic comedy.]]> 464 Sonali Dev 0062839071 Lindi 3 3.76 2020
author: Sonali Dev
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/04
date added: 2024/12/04
shelves: audio-book, austen-esque, grown-up-books, romance
review:

]]> 1266444 Unbought and Unbossed is Shirley Chisholm's account of her remarkable rise from young girl in Brooklyn to America's first African-American Congresswoman. She shares how she took on an entrenched system, gave a public voice to millions, and sets the stage for her trailblazing bid to be the first woman and first African-American President of the United States. By daring to be herself, Shirley Chisholm shows us how she forever changed the status quo. This expanded edition, edited by Scott Simpson, digs deeper with analysis by experts like Donna Brazile and Shola Lynch exploring Shirley Chisholm's impact on today and tomorrows world.]]> 177 Shirley Chisholm 0395109329 Lindi 5 Unbought and Unbossed. It is after Trump’s second election and, like so many others, I’m disheartened and actively looking for reasons to be hopeful. So it’s no surprise that I’m choosing to digest the incomparable Shirley Chisholm’s memoir as inspiring and transformative. Sure, it was written 50 years ago and unfortunately feels like it could have been written yesterday. Some might say that’s discouraging, but patriarchal and racist systems have been in power for centuries. I knew they couldn’t be torn down in weeks, months, even years. I knew the death throes of these corrupt systems would be violent and extreme. I choose to believe that strength lies in the common person and that together we can keep working toward real change. I no longer expect to see that progress, but I know babies and I have hope that we don’t destroy their environment completely and that they will see the change that is coming.]]> 4.44 1970
author: Shirley Chisholm
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: audio-book, cultural-competency, grown-up-books, indy-girl, non-fiction
review:
I’m embarrassed to admit that this is my first reading of Unbought and Unbossed. It is after Trump’s second election and, like so many others, I’m disheartened and actively looking for reasons to be hopeful. So it’s no surprise that I’m choosing to digest the incomparable Shirley Chisholm’s memoir as inspiring and transformative. Sure, it was written 50 years ago and unfortunately feels like it could have been written yesterday. Some might say that’s discouraging, but patriarchal and racist systems have been in power for centuries. I knew they couldn’t be torn down in weeks, months, even years. I knew the death throes of these corrupt systems would be violent and extreme. I choose to believe that strength lies in the common person and that together we can keep working toward real change. I no longer expect to see that progress, but I know babies and I have hope that we don’t destroy their environment completely and that they will see the change that is coming.
]]> 203956677 A thrilling collection of thirteen short stories that span the worlds of the New York Times bestselling author of the Scholomance Trilogy, including a sneak peek at the land where her next novel will be set.

From the dragon-filled Temeraire series and the gothic, magical halls of the Scholomance trilogy to the fairy tale worlds of Spinning Silver and Uprooted, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik’s most beloved stories.

In Buried Deep, we move from ancient Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages and the Black Death, and into the modern era. We meet Mark Antony, Sherlock Holmes, and Elizabeth Bennet, in ways we have never seen them before. We visit exotic fantasy cities and alien civilizations among the stars.

Though the stories are vastly different, there is a unifying theme: the act of finding and seizing one’s destiny, and the lengths one will go to achieve that—be it turning pirate, captaining a fighting dragon, or shifting from marriage to seek your destiny with a sword.

And in the two tales original to this collection, we first reenter the remade Scholomance in the wake of El’s revolution and see what life is like for the new crop of students. Then, we get a glimpse at the world of Novik’s upcoming series, a deserted land, populated only by silent and enigmatic architectural behemoths whose secrets are yet to be unlocked.]]> 430 Naomi Novik 0593600355 Lindi 4 3.99 2024
author: Naomi Novik
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: austen-esque, fairy-tale-retelling, funny, speculative-fiction
review:
The icing on the cake of rereading the Temeraire series this year was reading the P&P mashup. Well done, Ms. Novik!!
]]> 203579067 Part memoir, part manifesto, the inspiring story of a Louisiana librarian advocating for inclusivity on the front lines of our vicious culture wars. One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,� she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing. Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians-in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and Christian. But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance. Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.]]> 288 Amanda Jones 1639733531 Lindi 3 3.82 2024
author: Amanda Jones
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: audio-book, grown-up-books, indy-girl, non-fiction
review:

]]> 203956674 America’s favorite government teacher offers thrilling, heartfelt stories of ordinary American heroes.Most pundits and historians sell a dangerously naĂŻve version of the American story—either praising its most consequential figures uncritically or criticizing them unfairly.ĚýSharon McMahon believes the truth is more human. In her debut book The Small and the Mighty, she tells the inpiring stories of twelve Americans--regular people with human foibles--whose extraordinary heroism in the face of mounting trials created the character of our country.ĚýWith the same clarity and candor that's earned her millions of fans, McMahon follows the daughter of formerly enslaved parents who sparked a reformation in Black education, a Japanese immigrant who nearly died in combat and became a consequential Senator, and even the electrician who saved her husband’s life. Her unforgettable prose and meticulous research tell the story of America from the perspective of the unsung heroes whose devotion to their country will restore your faith in the American dream.The portraits of our nation’s most improbable champions, innovators, and rebels in this book celebrate the United States and reveal our common humanity. The Small and the Mighty is the encouragement we all need in an age of doomscrolling and division.]]> 320 Sharon McMahon 0593541677 Lindi 3 4.45 2024
author: Sharon McMahon
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: abandoned, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:

]]> 12844430
Narrated by the author.]]> 9 Jenny Lawson 1611760852 Lindi 4 3.95 2012
author: Jenny Lawson
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2016/08/09
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: about-writing, audio-book, cultural-competency, funny, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:
Very funny, very poignant memoir of The Bloggess's unusual childhood, and her struggles with various debilitating conditions with the support of her patient husband, Victor.
]]> 127282881 “Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don’t we ever get that movie?�

India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero.

Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do—she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie.

Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi, from protesters on the right and advocates on the left. Her twin ten-year-olds know they need help–and who better to call than family? But that’s where it gets really messy because India’s not just an adoptive mother�

The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn’t blood. And it isn’t love. No matter how they’re formed, the truth about family is this: it's complicated.]]> 400 Laurie Frankel 1250236800 Lindi 0 to-read 3.96 2024
author: Laurie Frankel
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61144954
The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students―J.B., Ramón, and Trey―emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive . . . and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them?

Find out who killed Principal Moore in Nick Brooks's murder mystery, Promise Boys � The Hate U Give meets One of Us Is Lying.]]> 304 Nick Brooks 1250866979 Lindi 0 to-read 3.95 2023
author: Nick Brooks
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62593247
Liam Connell is every bit the swoon-worthy leading man, straight out of Charlie’s daydreams. But he’s completely unattainable—his last girlfriend was a gorgeous actress and a far cry from Charlie’s world. So after a magical evening with Liam, Charlie is ready to get back to reality, even if her best option right now is a former boyfriend who wants to give it another shot. Unfortunately, despite imagining she’ll never see Liam again, he seems to be everywhere. How is a lady to move past a fantasy when life suddenly seems to be imitating fiction to an alarming degree?]]> 240 Kasey Stockton Lindi 0 to-read 3.78 2023
author: Kasey Stockton
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 8143909
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.]]> 89 Claire Keegan 0571255655 Lindi 5 grown-up-books 4.32 2010
author: Claire Keegan
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: grown-up-books
review:

]]> 55039 368 Andrew Bridgeford 0802777422 Lindi 0 currently-reading 3.95 2004
author: Andrew Bridgeford
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 8032753 256 Rosanne Cash 0670021962 Lindi 0 abandoned 3.78 2010
author: Rosanne Cash
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 61884987 Love isn’t blind, it’s just a little blurry.

Sadie Montgomery never saw what was coming . . . Literally! One minute she’s celebrating the biggest achievement of her life—placing as a finalist in the North American Portrait Society competition—the next, she’s lying in a hospital bed diagnosed with a “probably temporary� condition known as face blindness. She can see, but every face she looks at is now a jumbled puzzle of disconnected features. Imagine trying to read a book upside down and in another language. This is Sadie’s new reality with every face she sees.

But, as she struggles to cope, hang on to her artistic dream, work through major family issues, and take care of her beloved dog, Peanut, she falls into—love? Lust? A temporary obsession to distract from the real problems in her life?—with not one man but two very different ones. The timing couldn’t be worse.

If only her life were a little more in focus, Sadie might be able to find her way. But perceiving anything clearly right now seems impossible. Even though there are things we can only find when we aren’t looking. And there are people who show up when we least expect them. And there are always, always other ways of seeing.]]> 323 Katherine Center 1250283787 Lindi 3 3.92 2023
author: Katherine Center
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: craft, romance, grown-up-books
review:

]]> 60310814
Throw away your patterns and let your imagination soar! Nick Ball’s techniques will offer a liberated approach to sewing and open up a world of creative possibilities. As you experiment with textures, shapes, and colors, you’ll find your own creative way of quilting.

Use and Ornament is a great resource that takes the reader through a journey of the many facets of quilt-making expertise, from preparation, through the elements of design, to completion using the perfect balance of guided instruction and creative freedom.

Includes Color Illustrations]]> 236 Nicholas Ball 1940655498 Lindi 4 craft, non-fiction 4.46
author: Nicholas Ball
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves: craft, non-fiction
review:

]]> 58934632
Winterset Hollow follows a group of friends to the place that inspired their favorite book-a timeless tale about a tribe of animals preparing for their yearly end-of-summer festival. But after a series of shocking discoveries, they find that much of what the world believes to be fiction is actually fact, and that the truth behind their beloved story is darker and more dangerous than they ever imagined. It's Barley Day . . . and you're invited to the hunt.

Winterset Hollow is as thrilling as it is terrifying and as smart as it is surprising. A uniquely original story filled with properly unexpected twists and turns, Winterset Hollow delivers complex, indelible characters and pulse- pounding action as it storms toward an unforgettable climax that will leave you reeling. How do you celebrate Barley Day? You run, friend. You run.]]> 274 Jonathan Edward Durham 1625862083 Lindi 4 3.89 2021
author: Jonathan Edward Durham
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/11
date added: 2024/11/11
shelves: about-writing, speculative-fiction
review:
This is not my usual cup of tea -- I don't do horror as a rule. But how to turn down a book about a beloved fairy tale being based in reality? Think Redwall or Rabbit Hill with your favorite anthropmorphic animals turning out to be real . . . and really creepy? And when that book is by one of your favorite and quirky IG posters. Yep, I totally had to find the book and read it. So just giving you a heads up -- it's definitely compelling, gruesome, and really good.
]]> 198530925
They were just friends. Best friends. Allies. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha—Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh’s thirty-three, and it’s been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is whether Cary will be there—and whether she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything?

The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.

Slow Dance is the story of two kids who fell in love before they knew enough about love to recognize it. Two friends who lost everything. Two adults who just feel lost.

It’s the story of Shiloh and Cary, who everyone thought would end up together, trying to find their way back to the start.]]> 400 Rainbow Rowell 0063380196 Lindi 5 grown-up-books, romance 3.63 2024
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves: grown-up-books, romance
review:

]]> 34218224 233 Jason Reynolds 1481450182 Lindi 5 4.16 2017
author: Jason Reynolds
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves: audio-book, cultural-competency, kindness, preteen-boys, preteen-girls
review:

]]> 198563756 A magic-tinged contemporary YA about grief and hope from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of the Graceling Realm novels.

Wilhelmina Hart is part of the infamous class of 2020. Her high school years began with the election of Donald Trump and they ended with COVID. Now Wilhelmina, like so many of her peers, is in limbo, having deferred college because of the pandemic. Compounding the national trauma of 2016 to 2020, Wilhelmina has wrestled with the devastating loss of one of her three beloved aunts shortly after the 2016 election. This is a loss she felt so keenly that she’s spent the last years deep in her personal depression, only obscured by the seemingly endless waves of national trauma. Now on the cusp on the most consequential election in living memory, Wilhelmina may have found a door in her darkness and perhaps the courage to pass through it, if she can decipher the bizarre messages that keep appearing in her life.]]> 384 Kristin Cashore 0803739990 Lindi 4 3.61 2024
author: Kristin Cashore
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves: indy-girl, speculative-fiction, young-adult
review:
I do love Kristin Cashore. The novel takes place right around the 2020 presidential election and I read it around the 2024 presidential election, causing some amount of surrealness. Its message of hope and discomfort was much needed.
]]> 210943364
The first of the book’s three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist, Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the “steampunk� city of “old traditions and new machinery,� but everywhere he goes he feels as if he’s in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream.

He takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he meets an educator whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates’s own books. There he discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed by the “racial reckoning� of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths of the community—a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares.

And in Palestine, Coates discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we’ve accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians—the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young, who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him—and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.]]> 232 Ta-Nehisi Coates 0593230388 Lindi 5 4.52 2024
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: about-writing, audio-book, cultural-competency, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:

]]> 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Lindi 5 3.54 2024
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves: grown-up-books, mystery, speculative-fiction
review:

]]> 207567700 From beloved Saturday Night Live alum Kate McKinnon comes a madcap new adventure about three sisters, a ravenous worm, and a mysterious mad scientist.

So, you want to be a young mad scientist. Congratulations! Admitting it is the first step. The second step is reading the (definitely true) tale of the Porch sistersâ€� Ěý

Gertrude, Eugenia, and Dee-Dee Porch do not belong. They don’t belong in the snooty town of Antiquarium, where all girls have to go to etiquette school and the only dog allowed is the bichon frise. They don’t belong with their adoptive family, where all their cousins are named Lavinia and their Aunt has more brooches than books. And they certainly don’t belong at Mrs. Wintermacher’s etiquette school—they’re far more interested in science. After getting kicked out of the last etiquette school that would take them, the girls expect to be sent away for good... until they receive a mysterious invitation to a new school.

Suddenly the girls are under the tutelage of the infamous Millicent Quibb—a mad scientist with worms in her hair and oysters in her bathtub. At 231 Mysterium Way, the pizza is fatal, the bus is powered by Gerbils, and the Dean of Students is a hermit crab.Ěý Dangerous? Yes! More fun than they’ve ever had? Absolutely! But when the sisters are asked to save their town from an evil cabal of nefarious mad scientists, they must learn to embrace what has always made them stand out, and determine what side they’re on—before it’s too late!]]> 244 Kate McKinnon 0316554731 Lindi 3 4.05 2024
author: Kate McKinnon
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves: audio-book, funny, kindness, preteen-boys, preteen-girls, speculative-fiction
review:
Over the top silliness, but of course we knew that going in. I did love Kate McKinnon’s narration; again totally expected. This is fun.
]]> 199531683 184 Diana Weymar 0063389282 Lindi 5 3.83
author: Diana Weymar
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves: about-writing, craft, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:

]]> 38507968 Lu must learn to leave his ego on the sidelines if he wants to finally connect with others in the climax to the New York Times bestselling and award-winning Track series from Jason Reynolds.

Lu was born to be cocaptain of the Defenders. Well, actually, he was born albino, but that’s got nothing to do with being a track star. Lu has swagger, plus the talent to back it up, and with all that—not to mention the gold chains and diamond earrings—no one’s gonna outshine him.

Lu knows he can lead Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and the team to victory at the championships, but it might not be as easy as it seems. Suddenly, there are hurdles in Lu’s way—literally and not-so-literally—and Lu needs to figure out, fast, what winning the gold really means.

Expect the unexpected in this final event in Jason Reynold’s award-winning and bestselling Track series.]]> 4 Jason Reynolds 1508246173 Lindi 4 4.28 2018
author: Jason Reynolds
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 49504061
But when the Eastwood sisters--James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna--join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.]]> 517 Alix E. Harrow 0316422045 Lindi 4 4.01 2020
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves: about-writing, cultural-competency, fairy-tale-retelling, grown-up-books, indy-girl, speculative-fiction
review:
This was my first Alix E. Harrow book, and I enjoyed it. It seems awfully long and complicated, though -- maybe too long and complicated -- so I'm not entirely sure I'll search out her other novels. Still, I loved the name dropping, the idea of spells embedded in nursery rhymes, the feminist slant. I loved that Harrow rejects the idea of a Chosen One in favor of the democracy of learning -- that if you have strength of will and you have knowledge, anyone can change the world. Here's my favorite quote: "That's all magic is, really: the space between what you have and what you need."
]]> 127306192 New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death

1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.

But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.

Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.]]> 342 Xóchitl González 1250786215 Lindi 0 to-read 3.76 2024
author: Xóchitl González
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16156292
For to the west, another, wider conflagration looms. Napoleon has turned on his former ally, the emperor Alexander of Russia, and is even now leading the largest army the world has ever seen to add that country to his list of conquests. It is there, outside the gates of Moscow, that a reunited Laurence and Temeraire—along with some unexpected allies and old friends—will face their ultimate challenge...and learn whether or not there are stronger ties than memory.]]> 432 Naomi Novik 0345522893 Lindi 3 3.96 2013
author: Naomi Novik
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: audio-book, grown-up-books, speculative-fiction
review:

]]> 125077431
In “The Boundary,� one family vacations in the Roman countryside, though we see their lives through the eyes of the caretaker’s daughter, who nurses a wound from her family’s immigrant past. In “P’s Parties,� a Roman couple, now empty nesters, finds comfort and community with foreigners at their friend’s yearly birthday gathering—until the husband crosses a line. And in “The Steps,� on a public staircase that connects two neighborhoods and the residents who climb up and down it, we see Italy’s capital in all of its social and cultural variegations, filled with the tensions of a changing visibility and invisibility, random acts of aggression, the challenge of straddling worlds and cultures, and the meaning of home.

These are splendid, searching stories, written in Jhumpa Lahiri’s adopted language of Italian and seamlessly translated by the author and by Knopf editor Todd Portnowitz. Stories steeped in the moods of Italian master Alberto Moravia and guided, in the concluding tale, by the ineluctable ghost of Dante Alighieri, whose words lead the protagonist toward a new way of life.]]> 224 Jhumpa Lahiri Lindi 0 grown-up-books 3.77 2023
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: grown-up-books
review:

]]> 55780561 Four young Black sisters come of age during the American Civil War in So Many Beginnings, a warm and powerful YA remix of the classic novel Little Women by national bestselling author Bethany C. Morrow.

North Carolina, 1863. As the American Civil War rages on, the Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island is blossoming, a haven for the recently emancipated. Black people have begun building a community of their own, a refuge from the shadow of the old life. It is where the March family has finally been able to safely put down roots with four young daughters:

Meg, a teacher who longs to find love and start a family of her own.

Jo, a writer whose words are too powerful to be contained.

Beth, a talented seamstress searching for a higher purpose.

Amy, a dancer eager to explore life outside her family's home.

As the four March sisters come into their own as independent young women, they will face first love, health struggles, heartbreak, and new horizons. But they will face it all together.]]> 304 Bethany C. Morrow 1250761212 Lindi 4 3.89 2021
author: Bethany C. Morrow
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: about-writing, cultural-competency, young-adult
review:
This was fun . . . and informative. I did not know anything about the freedmen's settlements during and after the Civil War.
]]> 200250795
* * *

Meet Mary Jane Guild � she’s on a dangerous and unpredictable adventure down the Mississippi River � and she’ll steal Huck Finn’s heart along the way.

In these chapters you’ll come to know the real Mary a girl on her own dangerous and unpredictable journey down the Mississippi River in pre–Civil War America. Equipped with an uncanny ability for mathematics, a talent for sewing, and a bale of beaver skins, Mary Jane navigates deadly illnesses, angry mobs, treacherous landowners, outright thieves and swindlers, and more than a thousand miles of muddy water. What’s more, she thrives in the face of these challenges, thanks to support from a caring boat captain, generous neighbors, a cheery peddler, a chosen family, a loyal and loving dog, and two hardworking horses. Traveling solo requires Mary Jane to grow up fast, but it ultimately leads her to a new resilience, a love of adventure, deep and enduring sisterhood, and a blue-eyed, pony-tailed boy she can’t stop thinking about.

Jahren offers a wealth of layered characters and deeply researched, authentic details of changing times in the North and South. Using the language and style of Twain and shifting the point of view to a smart and determined young woman, she explores timeless themes of duty, family, romance, and betrayal, with grit and courage at the core.]]> 464 Hope Jahren 0593484118 Lindi 4 indy-girl, young-adult
To be honest, this character never really stood out for me in Huck Finn, which I'm trying to re-read, and finding hard going after Perceval Everett's James. Maybe becoming reacquainted with Mary Jane will help.]]> 3.86 2024
author: Hope Jahren
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/23
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: indy-girl, young-adult
review:
I loved this; stayed up way too late last night to finish. Jahren is an excellent writer and clearly did her research (as one would expect from a Lab Girl.) It's a great story of in intrepid girl growing up on the frontier of 1840s America. Mary Jane is smart, capable, usually kind, and YOUNG; i.e., she makes some pretty serious mistakes. She's also willing to learn from them.

To be honest, this character never really stood out for me in Huck Finn, which I'm trying to re-read, and finding hard going after Perceval Everett's James. Maybe becoming reacquainted with Mary Jane will help.
]]> 123087784 The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons—from a crow spied on New Year’s Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring—what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.

Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author—and from us. For, as Renkl writes, “radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world.�

With fifty-two original color artworks by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world.]]> 270 Margaret Renkl 1954118465 Lindi 0 currently-reading 4.18 2023
author: Margaret Renkl
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 76037307
With more than one hundred period photographs and images of quilts, A New Deal for Quilts evokes the visual environment of the Depression while conveying ways craft, work, race, poverty, and politics intersected during this pivotal era. Accompanying the book is a fall 2023 exhibit at the International Quilt Museum, featuring 1930s quilts drawn from its renowned collection.
Ěý]]> 250 Janneken Smucker 1735278459 Lindi 4 4.44
author: Janneken Smucker
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: craft, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:

]]> 61030596 Simon O’Keeffe’s biggest claim to fame should be the time his dad accidentally gave a squirrel a holy sacrament. Or maybe the alpaca disaster that went viral on YouTube. But the story the whole world wants to tell about Simon is the one he’d do anything to forget: the story in which he’s the only kid in his class who survived a school shooting.

Two years after the infamous event, twelve-year-old Simon and his family move to the National Quiet Zone—the only place in America where the internet is banned. Instead of talking about Simon, the astronomers who flock to the area are busy listening for signs of life in space. And when Simon makes a friend who’s determined to give the scientists what they’re looking for, he’ll finally have the chance to spin a new story for the world to tell.

From award-winning author Erin Bow, Simon Sort of Says is a breathtaking testament to the lasting echoes of trauma, the redemptive power of humor, and the courage it takes to move forward without forgetting the past.]]> 320 Erin Bow 1368082858 Lindi 5 4.27 2023
author: Erin Bow
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/24
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: audio-book, funny, kindness, preteen-boys, young-adult
review:
How Ms. Bow wrote a laugh-out-loud funny book about PTSD is a marvel. Of course it's sad too -- Simon's back story is horrible -- and still, there are many funny lines that lighten the plot of a trauma-damaged child learning to trust again.
]]> 20404555 The final adventure in the New York Times bestselling Temeraire series that started with the beloved His Majesty’s Dragon which has won fans of Napoleonic-era military history, Anne McCaffrey’s Pern novels, and Patrick O’Brian’s seafaring adventures.

The deadly campaign in Russia has cost both Napoleon and those allied against him. Napoleon has been denied his victory…but at a terrible price. Lawrence and the dragon Temeraire pursue the fleeing French army back west, but are demoralized when Napoleon makes it back to Paris unscathed. Worse, they soon learn that the French have stolen Termeraire and Iskierka’s egg. Now, it is do or die, as our heroes not only need to save Temeraire’s offspring but also to stop Napoleon for good!]]> 380 Naomi Novik 0345522923 Lindi 4 4.11 2016
author: Naomi Novik
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves:
review:
Very much enjoyed the conclusion of Temeraire and Lawrence’s career in the Aviators Corps.
]]> 60611726
This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.

As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. We are forced to reinvent them to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone running through life untethered, desperate and clawing their way through murky memories, trying to get to some form of self-love. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be . . . you.

Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.]]> 10 Viola Davis 1669639460 Lindi 4 4.63 2022
author: Viola Davis
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: audio-book, cultural-competency, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:

]]> 37763409
In addition to figuring out middle school, Carter has to adjust to the unwelcome presence of this new know-it-all adult in his life and navigate the butler's notions of decorum. And ultimately, when his burden of grief and anger from the past can no longer be ignored, Carter learns that a burden becomes lighter when it is shared.]]> Gary D. Schmidt Lindi 4 The Wednesday Wars! As much as I love Mr. Schmidt's writing and characters, so often his books are TOO sad for me. Here our protagonist learns to navigate family trauma at the same time as American 6th grade with the help of a honest-to-God English butler. That there's a funny set-up, and it helps leaven the crap that Carter is going through.]]> 4.06 2019
author: Gary D. Schmidt
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/09
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: kindness, preteen-boys, preteen-girls, young-adult
review:
This might be my favorite of Mr. Schmidt's books; it's for sure right up there with The Wednesday Wars! As much as I love Mr. Schmidt's writing and characters, so often his books are TOO sad for me. Here our protagonist learns to navigate family trauma at the same time as American 6th grade with the help of a honest-to-God English butler. That there's a funny set-up, and it helps leaven the crap that Carter is going through.
]]> 62874041 Eliza and Lister have never been this wide-awake in their lives, and the Slope, with its curtains drawn wide, is bright with starlight. They talk in whispers, not to disturb the maids who lie sleeping on the other side of the box room. The question Eliza’s been needing to ask swells like a great berry in her mouth, and all at once she’s not scared to let it out, not scared at all, not scared of anything . . .

In 1805, fourteen-year-old Eliza Raine is a school girl at the Manor School for Young Ladies in York. The daughter of an Indian mother and a British father, Eliza was banished to this unfamiliar country as a little girl. When she first stepped off the King George in Kent, Eliza was accompanied by her older sister, Jane, but now she boards alone at the Manor, with no one left to claim her. She spends her days avoiding the attention of her fellow pupils until, one day, a fearless and charismatic new student arrives at the school. The two girls are immediately thrown together and soon Eliza’s life is turned inside out by this strange and curious young woman.

Learned by Heart, Emma Donoghue’s mesmerising new novel, tells the heartbreaking story of the tangled lives of two women whose intense, and unlikely, relationship will change them for ever.]]> 336 Emma Donoghue 0316564435 Lindi 3 grown-up-books 3.47 2023
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/09
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves: grown-up-books
review:

]]> 55120630 304 Michael Easter 0593138767 Lindi 4 4.21 2021
author: Michael Easter
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/08
shelves: audio-book, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:

]]> 1636745 86 Clyde Robert Bulla 0690328346 Lindi 3 3.94 1957
author: Clyde Robert Bulla
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1957
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: mystery, preteen-boys, preteen-girls
review:

]]> 933541
The last thing Sarah Ida wants to do is spend the summer with her Aunt Claudia. But when her parents send her away because of problems at home, that is exactly what she has to do. With no allowance and no fun to be had, Sarah Ida decides to look for a job. But who will hire a ten year old? Al, the shoeshine man, will!

Sarah loves her job, even if it means getting knee-deep in shoe polish everyday. Then something terrible happens and it looks like the shoeshine stand will have to close forever. If Sarah Ida wants to keep it open, she'll have to learn a few lessons about growing up along the way ...]]> 96 Clyde Robert Bulla 0064402282 Lindi 4 3.86 1975
author: Clyde Robert Bulla
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: first-chapter-books, kindness, preteen-boys, preteen-girls
review:

]]> 59951373 368 Dahlia Lithwick 0525561390 Lindi 5 4.39 2022
author: Dahlia Lithwick
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/29
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: audio-book, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:
This book is riveting! I cannot recommend it enough. For anyone who asks (about American politics) how did we get here and how do we move forward. Excellent narration by the author
]]> 17574849 The Guest Cat, by the acclaimed poet Takashi Hiraide, is a subtly moving and exceptionally beautiful novel about the transient nature of life and idiosyncratic but deeply felt ways of living. A couple in their thirties live in a small rented cottage in a quiet part of Tokyo; they work at home, freelance copy-editing; they no longer have very much to say to one another. But one day a cat invites itself into their small kitchen. It leaves, but the next day comes again, and then again and again. Soon they are buying treats for the cat and enjoying talks about the animal and all its little ways. Life suddenly seems to have more promise for the husband and wife � the days have more light and color. The novel brims with new small joys and many moments of staggering poetic beauty, but then something happens�.

As Kenzaburo Oe has remarked, Takashi Hiraide’s work "really shines." His poetry, which is remarkably cross-hatched with beauty, has been acclaimed here for "its seemingly endless string of shape-shifting objects and experiences,whose splintering effect is enacted via a unique combination of speed and minutiae."]]> 140 Takashi Hiraide 0811221504 Lindi 3 grown-up-books 3.60 2001
author: Takashi Hiraide
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: grown-up-books
review:

]]> 2956 327 Mark Twain 0142437174 Lindi 5 3.82 1884
author: Mark Twain
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: favorite, funny, numerous-rereadings
review:
Summer of 2024 -- I'm currently rereading Huck Finn for the umpteenth time. I first remember reading it in high school (though I had probably read it before). I had an amazing English teacher and she helped us all see that though it is a "sequel" to Tom Sawyer's story, it's not written for children. Huck is pretty early shown to be a sensitive child and his moral growth is the point of the novel, while Tom's appearances in Huck's story show how privileged and immature Tom is. I remember being shocked at how cavalierly Jim is treated by Tom, and unfortunately Huck, at the end. This time through, however, I'm a bit surprised that I hadn't noticed how one-note Jim is throughout the novel. Huck comes to understand that race really has no basis in fact, that it's all a social construct, but it seems Mark Twain doesn't really get that. I mean intellectually of course he does. He wrote the book after all; but emotionally, viscerally, he has a hard time giving Jim any depth.
]]> 199605514
Someone is trying to kill Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Esteemed aunt of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, generous patroness of Mr. William Collins, a woman of rank who rules over the estate of Rosings Park with an unimpeachable sense of propriety—who would dare ? Lady Catherine summons her grand-nephew, Mr. Jonathan Darcy, and his investigative companion, Miss Juliet Tilney, to find out.

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

With attempts against Lady Catherine escalating, and no one among the list of prime suspects seemingly capable of committing all of the attacks, the pressure on Jonathan and Juliet mounts—even as more gentle feelings between the two of them begin to bloom. The race is now on to provoke two one from the attempted murderer before it is too late—and one, perhaps, of love.]]> 335 Claudia Gray 0593686586 Lindi 4 4.00 2024
author: Claudia Gray
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: audio-book, austen-esque, mystery
review:

]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

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

But when ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragileâ€� humans. They incinerate them.

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

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

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

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 665 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Lindi 2 4.56 2023
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: didn-t-respect-myself-in-the-mornin, ereader, grown-up-books, speculative-fiction
review:

]]> 75494215 THE REAL ORIGIN OF OUR SPECIES: a myth-busting, eye-opening landmark account of how humans evolved, offering a paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution still shapes all our lives today.

How did the female body drive 200 million years of human evolution?
� Why do women live longer than men?
� Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s?
� Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet?
� Is sexism useful for evolution?
� And why, seriously why, do women have to sweat through our sheets every night when we hit menopause?

These questions are producing some truly exciting science—and in Eve, with boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Cat Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex: "We need a kind of user's manual for the female mammal. A no-nonsense, hard-hitting, seriously researched (but readable) account of what we are. How female bodies evolved, how they work, what it really means to biologically be a woman. Something that would rewrite the story of womanhood. This book is that story. We have to put the female body in the picture. If we don't, it's not just feminism that's compromised. Modern medicine, neurobiology, paleoanthropology, even evolutionary biology all take a hit when we ignore the fact that half of us have breasts. So it's time we talk about breasts. Breasts, and blood, and fat, and vaginas, and wombs—all of it. How they came to be and how we live with them now, no matter how weird or hilarious the truth is."

Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it's an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Picking up where Sapiens left off, Eve will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens has become such a successful and dominant species.]]> 624 Cat Bohannon 0385350546 Lindi 4 4.28 2023
author: Cat Bohannon
name: Lindi
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: audio-book, grown-up-books, non-fiction
review:

]]> 45032 488 Jane Austen Lindi 4 3.86 1814
author: Jane Austen
name: Lindi
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

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