Molly's bookshelf: favorites-2024 en-US Wed, 01 Jan 2025 19:38:03 -0800 60 Molly's bookshelf: favorites-2024 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg A Man Called Ove 18774964
Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.]]> 337 Fredrik Backman 1476738017 Molly 5 favorites-2024 4.35 2012 A Man Called Ove
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Molly
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: favorites-2024
review:
This was a book I didn’t know I needed until I was deeply invested in Ove’s journey. Loved the arc and the message throughout.
]]> <![CDATA[What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce, #11)]]> 203164414
Flavia de Luce, along with her pestilent younger cousin, investigates the murder of a former public hangman and uncovers secrets that bring the greatest shock of her life.



Poisonous mushrooms, pestilent cousins—and a most perplexing murder...

There's a new arrival at Buckshaw—Flavia de Luce's obnoxious cousin Undine. Flavia reluctantly takes on the mentorship of her fellow orphan, who in her best moments shows some potential for trespassing and trickery.

When Major Greyleigh, a former hangman, is found dead from a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family's longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, didn't she pick the mushrooms and serve them to Greyleigh moments before his death?

Flavia knows her beloved Mrs. Mullet is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the odious Undine, she sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet's good name.

But following the case's twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery—one with the power to upend her entire life...]]> 298 Alan Bradley 0593724518 Molly 5 favorites-2024 3.97 2024 What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust (Flavia de Luce, #11)
author: Alan Bradley
name: Molly
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: favorites-2024
review:
Just a delight. I missed Flavia and am grateful to have had a chance to see her begin to mature and take her rambunctious cousin Undine under her wing.
]]> <![CDATA[Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World]]> 53328332 The world has finally awoken to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Now we must face up to its primary cause: capitalism. Our economic system is based on perpetual expansion, which is devastating the living world. There is only one solution that will lead to meaningful and immediate change: degrowth.

If we want to have a shot at surviving the Anthropocene, we need to restore the balance. We need to change how we see the world and our place within it, shifting from a philosophy of domination and extraction to one that’s rooted in reciprocity with our planet’s ecology. We need to evolve beyond the dusty dogmas of capitalism to a new system that’s fit for the twenty-first century.

But what about jobs? What about health? What about progress? This book tackles these questions and offers an inspiring vision for what a post-capitalist economy could look like. An economy that’s more just, more caring, and more fun. An economy that enables human flourishing while reversing ecological breakdown. By taking less, we can become more.]]> 336 Jason Hickel 1786091216 Molly 5 favorites, favorites-2024 4.52 2020 Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World
author: Jason Hickel
name: Molly
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/02
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: favorites, favorites-2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives]]> 60784614 The revelatory New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award.

An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation―and the moral implications that affect us all.

Cobalt Red is the searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt.

Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions. Billions of people in the world cannot conduct their daily lives without participating in a human rights and environmental catastrophe in the Congo. In this stark and crucial book, Kara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo―because we are all implicated.]]> 288 Siddharth Kara 1250284309 Molly 5 favorites, favorites-2024 4.36 2023 Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
author: Siddharth Kara
name: Molly
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/04
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: favorites, favorites-2024
review:
This was a tough one to get through because there were so many hard truths revealed and explored. Still absolutely worth the read/listen. I’m grateful to Siddharth Kara for this incredible research and commitment to exposing the truth.
]]> The Dry (Aaron Falk, #1) 27824826 A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.

In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.

Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.

But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.

]]> 336 Jane Harper Molly 5 favorites, favorites-2024 4.04 2016 The Dry (Aaron Falk, #1)
author: Jane Harper
name: Molly
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: favorites, favorites-2024
review:
Loved the storytelling and new-to-me setting. I look forward to more in this series.
]]> The Midnight Feast 199743738 Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin...

It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests� healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule� cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. Just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. And the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. Something’s not right with the guests. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered.

THE FOUNDER * THE HUSBAND * THE MYSTERY GUEST * THE KITCHEN HELP

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at� The Midnight Feast.]]> 354 Lucy Foley 0063003104 Molly 5 favorites, favorites-2024 3.55 2024 The Midnight Feast
author: Lucy Foley
name: Molly
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: favorites, favorites-2024
review:
Loved this. I admit, I wasn’t sure who I liked. But I was sure who I didn’t. Another fabulous Lucy Foley twisty, windy adventure!
]]> <![CDATA[The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store]]> 65678550
Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town’s establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community—heaven and earth—that ultimately sustain us.]]> 385 James McBride 0593422945 Molly 5 favorites-2024 3.83 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Molly
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: favorites-2024
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One of Us Is Next (One of Us Is Lying, #2)]]> 44654627 Come on, Bayview, you know you've missed this.

A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one's been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts.

Until now.

This time it's not an app, though—it's a game.

Truth or Dare.

Phoebe's the first target. If you choose not to play, it's a truth. And hers is dark.

Then comes Maeve and she should know better—always choose the dare.

But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous. The dares have become deadly, and if Maeve learned anything from Bronwyn last year, it's that they can't count on the police for help. Or protection.

Simon's gone, but someone's determined to keep his legacy at Bayview High alive. And this time, there's a whole new set of rules.

The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller everyone is talking about, One of Us Is Lying! There's a new mystery to solve at Bayview High, and there's a whole new set of rules.]]> 377 Karen M. McManus 0525707964 Molly 5 favorites, favorites-2024 3.90 2020 One of Us Is Next (One of Us Is Lying, #2)
author: Karen M. McManus
name: Molly
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/03
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: favorites, favorites-2024
review:
I actually liked this better than the first book. But you definitely need to read/listen in order.
]]> <![CDATA[Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI]]> 193388249
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And this was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.

As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.]]> 338 David Grann 0593470834 Molly 5 favorites, favorites-2024 4.12 2017 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
author: David Grann
name: Molly
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/06
date added: 2024/02/06
shelves: favorites, favorites-2024
review:

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