Alexis's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 01 Oct 2024 08:02:48 -0700 60 Alexis's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind]]> 22571508
Johns Hopkins neuroscientist and bestselling author of The Compass of Pleasure ĚýDavid J. Linden presents an engaging and fascinating examination of how the interface between our sense of touch and our emotional responses affects our social interactions as well as our general health and development. Accessible in its wit and clarity, Touch explores scientific advances in the understanding of touch that help explain our sense of self and our experience of the world.

From skin to nerves to brain, the organization of the body’s touch circuits powerfully influences our lives—affecting everything from consumer choice to sexual intercourse, tool use to the origins of language, chronic pain to healing. Interpersonal touch is crucial to social bonding and individual development. Linden lucidly explains how sensory and emotional context work together to distinguish between perceptions of what feels good and what feels bad. Linking biology and behavioral science, Linden offers an entertaining and enlightening answer to how we feel in every sense of the word.]]> 272 David J. Linden 0670014877 Alexis 0 to-read, nonfiction 3.48 Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind
author: David J. Linden
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.48
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/01
shelves: to-read, nonfiction
review:

]]> Steel's Edge (The Edge, #4) 12119496 The Edge lies between worlds, on the border between the Broken, where people shop at Wal-Mart and magic is a fairy tale—and the Weird, where blueblood aristocrats rule, changelings roam, and the strength of your magic can change your destiny�

Charlotte de Ney is as noble as they come, a blueblood straight out of the Weird. But even though she possesses rare magical healing abilities, her life has brought her nothing but pain. After her marriage crumbles, she flees to the Edge to build a new home for herself. Until Richard Mar is brought to her for treatment, and Charlotte’s life is turned upside down once again.

Richard is a swordsman without peer, future head of his large and rambunctious Edger clan—and he’s on a clandestine quest to wipe out slavers trafficking humans in the Weird. So when his presence leads his very dangerous enemies to Charlotte, she vows to help Richard destroy them. The slavers� operation, however, goes deeper than Richard knows, and even working together, Charlotte and Richard may not survive...]]> 388 Ilona Andrews 1937007820 Alexis 2 romance 4.16 2012 Steel's Edge (The Edge, #4)
author: Ilona Andrews
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2014/02/27
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: romance
review:
Meh. The two main characters were kind of wet dishrags. Even though they both claimed to be tortured souls, I mostly found them to be whiny and self-righteous. And although I was expecting this to a certain extent, given that it was the last book in the series, I got sick of all the repeated cameos from previous books� characters, very few of which actually served to advance the plot.
]]> The Vaster Wilds 62952130
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.

Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.]]> 272 Lauren Groff 0593418395 Alexis 0 to-read 3.73 2016 The Vaster Wilds
author: Lauren Groff
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History]]> 134121281
Told in luminous, perceptive prose, The Last Fire Season is a deeply incisive inquiry into what it really means—now—to live in relationship to the elements of the natural world. When Manjula Martin moved from the city to the woods of Northern California, she wanted to be closer to the wilderness that she had loved as a child. She was also seeking refuge from a health crisis that left her with chronic pain, and found a sense of healing through tending her garden beneath the redwoods of Sonoma County. But the landscape that Martin treasured was an ecosystem already in crisis. Wildfires fueled by climate change were growing bigger and more each autumn, her garden filled with smoke and ash, and the local firehouse siren wailed deep into the night.
Ěý Ěý ĚýIn 2020, when a dry lightning storm ignited hundreds of simultaneous wildfires across the West and kicked off the worst fire season on record, Martin, along with thousands of other Californians, evacuated her home in the midst of a pandemic. Both a love letter to the forests of the West and an interrogation of the colonialist practices that led to their current dilemma, The Last Fire Season , follows her from the oaky hills of Sonoma County to the redwood forests of coastal Santa Cruz, to the pines and peaks of the Sierra Nevada, as she seeks shelter, bears witness to the devastation, and tries to better understand fire’s role in the ecology of the West. As Martin seeks a way to navigate the daily experience of living in a damaged body on a damaged planet, she comes to question her own assumptions about nature and the complicated connections between people and the land on which we live.]]> 352 Manjula Martin 0593317157 Alexis 0 to-read 3.67 2024 The Last Fire Season: A Personal and Pyronatural History
author: Manjula Martin
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Never a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #7)]]> 58790007 A proper lady must choose between society or the untitled gentleman who has stolen her heart in this captivating Regency romance perfect for fans of Bridgerton.

Ned Wentworth will be forever grateful to the family that plucked him from the streets and gave him a home, even though polite society still whispers years later about his questionable past. Precisely because of Ned’s connections in low places, Lady Rosalind Kinwood approaches him to help her find a lady’s maid who has disappeared.

Rosalind is too opinionated—and too intelligent—and has frequently suffered judgment at the hands of polite society. Despite her family’s disdain for Ned, Rosalind finds he listens to her and respects her. Then too, his kisses are exquisite. As the investigation of the missing maids becomes more dangerous, both Ned and Rosalind will have to risk everything—including their hearts—if they are to share the happily ever after that Mayfair’s matchmakers have begrudged them both.]]> 401 Grace Burrowes 1538706997 Alexis 0 4.16 2022 Never a Duke (Rogues to Riches, #7)
author: Grace Burrowes
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Girl at War 23209971
Ten years later Ana is a college student in New York. She's been hiding her past from her boyfriend, her friends, and most especially herself. Haunted by the events that forever changed her family, she returns alone to Croatia, where she must rediscover the place that was once her home and search for the ghosts of those she's lost.]]> 320 Sara Nović 0812996348 Alexis 0 fiction 3.99 2015 Girl at War
author: Sara Nović
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[About a Rogue (Desperately Seeking Duke, #1)]]> 52621754 The first book in the new series Desperately Seeking Duke from USA Today bestselling and RITA award-winning author Caroline Linden.

It’s no love match�

Bianca Tate is horrified when her sister Cathy is obliged to accept an offer of marriage from Maximilian St. James, notorious rake. Defiantly she helps Cathy elope with her true love, and takes her sister’s place at the altar.

It’s not even the match that was made�

Perched on the lowest branch of his family tree, Max has relied on charm and cunning to survive. But an unexpected stroke of luck gives him an outside chance at a dukedom—and which Tate sister he weds hardly seems to matter.

But could it be the perfect match?

Married or not, Bianca is determined to protect her family’s prosperous ceramics business, even when Max shows an affinity for it—not to mention a dangerous ability to intrigue and tempt Bianca herself. And when Max realizes how beautiful and intelligent and desirable Bianca is, he’ll have to prove he’s no rogue, but the passionately devoted husband she craves…]]> 384 Caroline Linden 0062913638 Alexis 0 romance 3.84 2020 About a Rogue (Desperately Seeking Duke, #1)
author: Caroline Linden
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/02
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Truth About Dukes (Rogues to Riches, #5)]]> 49591954 A new duke and a woman with a secret in her past get a second chance at love in this delightful and charming Regency romance from the New York Times bestselling author of the Windham series.

Robert Rothmere is hiding a past no duke should have endured, but he's not hiding it well enough. Sooner or later, his enemies will learn that he spent years locked away at a private asylum. To get their hands on his wealth, they'll try to send him right back to his worst nightmares. If Robert is to foil their schemes, he needs to marry a perfectly proper, blessedly boring, deadly dull duchess, immediately—and he knows exactly which quietly delightful lady he'd love to entrust with that role.

Lady Constance Wentworth has cultivated a reputation for utter forgettability. She never speaks out of turn (in public), never has a daring thought (that she admits aloud), and never comes close to courting scandal... as far as anybody knows. Her path crossed Robert's years ago, though, and she's never forgotten the extraordinary lengths he traveled to keep her safe when she hadn't a friend in the world. She longs to be his demure duchess...but little does he know that to marry her would be utter madness.

]]> 400 Grace Burrowes 0349425078 Alexis 0 romance 3.75 2020 The Truth About Dukes (Rogues to Riches, #5)
author: Grace Burrowes
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: romance
review:

]]> Summer (Seasonal Quartet, #4) 52842705 is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile the world's in meltdown - and the real meltdown hasn't even started yet.

In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they're living on borrowed time.

This is a story about people on the brink of change. They're family, but they think they're strangers. So: where does family begin? And what do people who think they've got nothing in common have in common?

Summer.]]> 384 Ali Smith 0241207061 Alexis 0 fiction 4.05 2020 Summer (Seasonal Quartet, #4)
author: Ali Smith
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/30
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Spring (Seasonal Quartet, #3) 40545817 336 Ali Smith 0241207053 Alexis 0 fiction 4.08 2019 Spring (Seasonal Quartet, #3)
author: Ali Smith
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/11
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2)]]> 226004 A Fire Upon The Deep, this is the story of Pham Nuwen, a small cog in the interstellar trading fleet of the Queng Ho. The Queng Ho and the Emergents are orbiting the dormant planet Arachna, which is about to wake up to technology, but the Emergents' plans are sinister.]]> 775 Vernor Vinge 0812536355 Alexis 0 to-read, fantasy-sci-fi 4.31 1999 A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought, #2)
author: Vernor Vinge
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/01
shelves: to-read, fantasy-sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)]]> 16034235
The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.]]> 406 Sarah J. Maas 1619630346 Alexis 2 young-adult
I would expect the nation’s most feared assassin to be many things � cunning, calculating, patient, in control, able to separate herself from the moral implications of her actions. Celaena was none of these things. She scoffed at Chaol for revealing information that could be used as a weapon against him, but she constantly did exactly the same thing. When she mouthed off to Chaol or the guards, it wasn’t because she was taking a valiant stand against an oppressive authority; it was because she simply lost her temper. Throwing a flowerpot at a rude woman is the action of an immature girl, not of an accomplished assassin.

She claimed she didn’t want to be seen as the Prince’s whore, but she pouted when he didn’t invite her to a dinner party. She said she’d rather wear a utilitarian shirt and pants, but spent an awful lot of time admiring herself in the mirror. Again, she acted more like a spoiled child prone to temper tantrums than a woman who’s been taking care of herself for most of her life. I like the idea of a self-centered main character, but it has to be a consistent and believable characterization.

Also, despite devoting substantially more text to the love interests than to the competition, the two other legs of the love triangle were remarkably halfhearted and underdeveloped.
]]> 4.15 2012 Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2015/04/23
date added: 2023/10/12
shelves: young-adult
review:
On the one hand, I like the idea of a flawed main character that is unapologetically arrogant and self-centered. She’s supposedly earned the right to be so, and her arrogance makes her an atypical YA heroine, which is always refreshing. But back to that supposedly� I didn’t actually believe her backstory, not for a second.

I would expect the nation’s most feared assassin to be many things � cunning, calculating, patient, in control, able to separate herself from the moral implications of her actions. Celaena was none of these things. She scoffed at Chaol for revealing information that could be used as a weapon against him, but she constantly did exactly the same thing. When she mouthed off to Chaol or the guards, it wasn’t because she was taking a valiant stand against an oppressive authority; it was because she simply lost her temper. Throwing a flowerpot at a rude woman is the action of an immature girl, not of an accomplished assassin.

She claimed she didn’t want to be seen as the Prince’s whore, but she pouted when he didn’t invite her to a dinner party. She said she’d rather wear a utilitarian shirt and pants, but spent an awful lot of time admiring herself in the mirror. Again, she acted more like a spoiled child prone to temper tantrums than a woman who’s been taking care of herself for most of her life. I like the idea of a self-centered main character, but it has to be a consistent and believable characterization.

Also, despite devoting substantially more text to the love interests than to the competition, the two other legs of the love triangle were remarkably halfhearted and underdeveloped.

]]> <![CDATA[The Ledge: An Adventure Story of Friendship and Survival on Mount Rainier]]> 9869499 Ěý
In June 1992, best friends Jim Davidson and Mike Price stood triumphantly atop Washington’s Mount Rainier, celebrating what they hoped would be the first of many milestones in their lives as passionate young mountaineers. Instead, their conquest gave way to catastrophe when a cave-in plunged them deep inside a glacial crevasse—the pitch-black, ice-walled hell that every climber’s nightmares are made of.

An avid adventurer from an early age, Davidson was already a seasoned climber at the time of the Rainier ascent, fully aware of the risks and hopelessly in love with the challenge. But in the blur of a harrowing free fall, he suddenly found himself challenged by nature’s grandeur at its most unforgiving. Trapped on a narrow, unstable frozen ledge, deep below daylight and high above a yawning chasm, he would desperately battle crumbling ice and snow that threatened to bury him alive, while struggling in vain to save his fatally injured companion. And finally, with little equipment, no partner, and rapidly dwindling hope, he would have to make a fateful choice—between the certainty of a slow, lonely death or the seeming impossibility of climbing for his life.

At once a heart-stopping adventure story, a heartfelt memoir of friendship, and a stirring meditation on fleeting mortality and immutable nature, The Ledge chronicles one man’s transforming odyssey from the dizzying heights of elation and awe to the punishing depths of grief and hard-won wisdom. This book’s visceral, lyrical prose sings the praises of the physical world’s wonders, while searching the souls of those willing, for better or worse, to fully embrace it.]]> 288 Jim Davidson 0345523199 Alexis 0 to-read, nonfiction 3.86 The Ledge: An Adventure Story of Friendship and Survival on Mount Rainier
author: Jim Davidson
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.86
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves: to-read, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Someone to Hold (Westcott, #2)]]> 30658514 Ěý
Humphrey Wescott, Earl of Riverdale, has died, leaving behind a fortune and a scandalous secret that will forever alter the lives of his family—sending one daughter on a journey of self-discovery...
Ěý
With her parents� marriage declared bigamous, Camille Westcott is now illegitimate and without a title. Looking to eschew the trappings of her old life, she leaves London to teach at the Bath orphanage where her newly discovered half-sister lived. But even as she settles in, she must sit for a portrait commissioned by her grandmother and endure an artist who riles her every nerve.
Ěý
An art teacher at the orphanage that was once his home, Joel Cunningham has been hired to paint the portrait of the haughty new teacher. But as Camille poses for Joel, their mutual contempt soon turns to desire. And it is only the bond between them that will allow them to weather the rough storm that lies ahead...]]> 379 Mary Balogh 0451477804 Alexis 4 romance 3.88 2017 Someone to Hold (Westcott, #2)
author: Mary Balogh
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/06
date added: 2023/09/05
shelves: romance
review:

]]> Well Met (Well Met, #1) 43205122
The faire is Simon's family legacy and from the start he makes clear he doesn't have time for Emily's lighthearted approach to life, her oddball Shakespeare conspiracy theories, or her endless suggestions for new acts to shake things up. Yet on the faire grounds he becomes a different person, flirting freely with Emily when she's in her revealing wench's costume. But is this attraction real, or just part of the characters they're portraying?

This summer was only ever supposed to be a pit stop on the way to somewhere else for Emily, but soon she can't seem to shake the fantasy of establishing something more with Simon, or a permanent home of her own in Willow Creek.

All's faire in love and war for two sworn enemies who indulge in a harmless flirtation in a laugh-out-loud rom-com from debut author, Jen DeLuca.]]> 319 Jen DeLuca 198480538X Alexis 0 to-read 3.91 2019 Well Met (Well Met, #1)
author: Jen DeLuca
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Station Eleven 21792828 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 354 Emily St. John Mandel Alexis 0 to-read, fiction 4.13 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/23
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> The Once and Future Witches 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 Alexis 0 to-read 4.01 2020 The Once and Future Witches
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 Alexis 0 to-read 4.16 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When the Marquess Was Mine (The Wagers of Sin, #3)]]> 41716340 In the game of love�

Georgiana Lucas despises the arrogant and cruel Marquess of Westmorland even before learning that he's won the deed to her friend Kitty's home in a card game. Still, Georgiana assures Kitty the marquess wouldn't possibly come all the way to Derbyshire to throw them out—until he shows up, bloody and unconscious. Fearing that Kitty would rather see him die, Georgiana blurts out that he's her fiancé. She'll nurse the hateful man back to health and make him vow to leave and never return. The man who wakes up, though, is nothing like the heartless rogue Georgiana thought she knew�

You have to risk it all

He wakes up with no memory of being assaulted—or of who he is. The bewitching beauty tending him so devotedly calls him Rob and claims she's his fiancée even as she avoids his touch. Though he can't remember how he won her hand, he's now determined to win her heart. But as his memory returns and the truth is revealed, Rob must decide if the game is up—or if he'll take a chance on a love that defies all odds.]]> 381 Caroline Linden 0062913603 Alexis 2 romance 3.90 2019 When the Marquess Was Mine (The Wagers of Sin, #3)
author: Caroline Linden
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2020/06/06
date added: 2020/07/13
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Other Miss Bridgerton (Rokesbys, #3)]]> 36137912
Fiercely independent and adventurous, Poppy Bridgerton will only wed a suitor whose keen intellect and interests match her own. Sadly, none of the fools from her London season qualify. While visiting a friend on the Dorset coast, Poppy is pleasantly surprised to discover a smugglers� hideaway tucked inside a cave. But her delight turns to dismay when two pirates kidnap her and take her aboard a ship, leaving her bound and gagged on the captain’s bed�

He found her at the wrong time�

Known to society as a rascal and reckless privateer, Captain Andrew James Rokesby actually transports essential goods and documents for the British government. Setting sail on a time-sensitive voyage to Portugal, he’s stunned to find a woman waiting for him in his cabin. Surely, his imagination is getting the better of him. But no, she is very real—and his duty to the Crown means he’s stuck with her.

Can two wrongs make the most perfect right?

When Andrew learns that she is a Bridgerton, he knows he will likely have to wed her to avert a scandal—though Poppy has no idea that he is the son of an earl and neighbor to her aristocratic cousins in Kent. On the high seas, their war of words soon gives way to an intoxicating passion. But when Andrew’s secret is revealed, will his declaration of love be enough to capture her heart�?]]> 391 Julia Quinn 0062388207 Alexis 3 romance 3.99 2018 The Other Miss Bridgerton (Rokesbys, #3)
author: Julia Quinn
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/13
date added: 2020/07/13
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)]]> 43884209
� Enjoy a drunken night out.
� Ride a motorcycle.
� Go camping.
� Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
� Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
� And... do something bad.

But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.

Redford â€Redâ€� Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.

But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…]]> 384 Talia Hibbert 0062941208 Alexis 0 romance, to-read 3.79 2019 Get a Life, Chloe Brown (The Brown Sisters, #1)
author: Talia Hibbert
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/10
shelves: romance, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Marriage Game (Marriage Game, #1)]]> 51588815
After her life falls apart, recruitment consultant Layla Patel returns home to her family in San Francisco. But in the eyes of her father, who runs a Michelin starred restaurant, she can do no wrong. He would do anything to see her smile again. With the best intentions in mind, he offers her the office upstairs to start her new business and creates a profile on an online dating site to find her a man. She doesn’t know he’s arranged a series of blind dates until the first one comes knocking on her door�

As CEO of a corporate downsizing company Sam Mehta is more used to conflict than calm. In search of a quiet new office, he finds the perfect space above a cozy Indian restaurant that smells like home. But when communication goes awry, he's forced to share his space with the owner's beautiful yet infuriating daughter Layla, her crazy family, and a parade of hopeful suitors, all of whom threaten to disrupt his carefully ordered life.

As they face off in close quarters, the sarcasm and sparks fly. But when the battle for the office becomes a battle of the heart, Sam and Layla have to decide if this is love or just a game.]]> 338 Sara Desai 0593100565 Alexis 0 to-read 3.50 2020 The Marriage Game (Marriage Game, #1)
author: Sara Desai
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women, #1)]]> 43521785 England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women's suffrage movement. Her charge: recruit men of influence to champion their cause. Her target: Sebastian Devereux, the cold and calculating Duke of Montgomery who steers Britain's politics at the Queen's command. Her challenge: not to give in to the powerful attraction she can't deny for the man who opposes everything she stands for.

Sebastian is appalled to find a suffragist squad has infiltrated his ducal home, but the real threat is his impossible feelings for green-eyed beauty Annabelle. He is looking for a wife of equal standing to secure the legacy he has worked so hard to rebuild, not an outspoken commoner who could never be his duchess. But he wouldn't be the greatest strategist of the Kingdom if he couldn't claim this alluring bluestocking without the promise of a ring... or could he?

Locked in a battle with rising passion and a will matching her own, Annabelle will learn just what it takes to topple a duke....

A stunning debut for author Evie Dunmore and her Oxford suffragists in which a fiercely independent vicar's daughter takes on a powerful duke in a fiery love story that threatens to upend the British social order.]]> 335 Evie Dunmore 1984805681 Alexis 0 to-read, romance 3.91 2019 Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women, #1)
author: Evie Dunmore
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/10
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> Beach Read 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806734 Alexis 0 to-read, romance 3.99 2020 Beach Read
author: Emily Henry
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/10
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> The Near Witch 42370636
If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

There are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger, a boy who seems to fade like smoke, appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

All-new deluxe edition of an out-of-print gem, containing in-universe short story “The Ash-Born Boy� and a never-before-seen introduction from V.E. Schwab.]]> 354 Victoria E. Schwab 1789091128 Alexis 0 to-read, young-adult 3.63 2011 The Near Witch
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/19
shelves: to-read, young-adult
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Next Year in Havana (The Perez Family, #1)]]> 34374628
Havana, 1958. The daughter of a sugar baron, nineteen-year-old Elisa Perez is part of Cuba's high society, where she is largely sheltered from the country's growing political unrest--until she embarks on a clandestine affair with a passionate revolutionary...

Miami, 2017. Freelance writer Marisol Ferrera grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother Elisa, who was forced to flee with her family during the revolution. Elisa's last wish was for Marisol to scatter her ashes in the country of her birth.

Arriving in Havana, Marisol comes face-to-face with the contrast of Cuba's tropical, timeless beauty and its perilous political climate. When more family history comes to light and Marisol finds herself attracted to a man with secrets of his own, she'll need the lessons of her grandmother's past to help her understand the true meaning of courage.]]> 356 Chanel Cleeton 0399586687 Alexis 2 3.90 2018 Next Year in Havana (The Perez Family, #1)
author: Chanel Cleeton
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2020/03/14
date added: 2020/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking]]> 40102 The Tipping Point a classic, Blink changes the way you'll understand every decision you make. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.

Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant - in the blink of an eye - that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work - in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing" - filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.]]> 296 Malcolm Gladwell 0316010669 Alexis 4 3.97 2005 Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2020/03/03
date added: 2020/03/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Finna (LitenVerse, #1) 44081573 Finna is a rambunctious, touching story that blends all the horrors the multiverse has to offer with the everyday awfulness of low-wage work. It explores queer relationships and queer feelings, capitalism and accountability, labor and love, all with a bouncing sense of humor and a commitment to the strange.

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

To find the missing granny, Ava and Jules will brave carnivorous furniture, swarms of identical furniture spokespeople, and the deep resentment simmering between them. Can friendship blossom from the ashes of their relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.]]> 103 Nino Cipri 1250245729 Alexis 0 to-read 3.64 2020 Finna (LitenVerse, #1)
author: Nino Cipri
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/02/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Lord Apart (The Way to a Lord's Heart, #2)]]> 40597255 Family secrets, an unlikely alliance―and a love neither expected...

After his parents' sudden death, Daniel Frith, Viscount Whitfield, is struggling to unravel a web of chaotic family records. He is astonished to learn his father's will contains a mysterious legacy: a house left to a complete stranger. He knows nothing about the beautiful Penelope Pendleton and he's not sure he wants to...until she turns out to be a whiz at all those nasty tasks involved in estate administration...

Penelope has no idea why Rose Cottage was left to her. But it's a godsend after her brother's reckless actions disgraced her family. She had planned to stay out of Viscount Whitfield's way, not grow ever closer to him. But when they discover how entwined their families really are, Daniel and Penelope must collaborate to avoid a scandal that reaches much higher than they could have guessed...]]> 320 Jane Ashford 1492663387 Alexis 2 romance 3.40 2019 A Lord Apart (The Way to a Lord's Heart, #2)
author: Jane Ashford
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2020/02/26
date added: 2020/02/28
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World]]> 1918305
Apparently, the happiest places on earth include, somewhat unexpectedly, Iceland, Bhutan, and India. Weiner also visits the country deemed most malcontent, Moldova, and finds real merit in the claim.

But the question remains: What makes people happy? Is it the freedom of the West or the myriad restrictions of Singapore? The simple ashrams of India or the glittering shopping malls of Qatar?
From the youthful drunkenness of Iceland to the despond of Slough, a sad but resilient town in Heathrow's flight path, Weiner offers wry yet profound observations about the way people relate to circumstance and fate.

Both revealing and inspirational, perhaps the best thing about this hilarious trip across four continents is that for the reader, the "geography of bliss" is wherever they happen to find themselves while reading it.]]> 335 Eric Weiner 0446580260 Alexis 3 3.84 2008 The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
author: Eric Weiner
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2020/02/25
date added: 2020/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars]]> 1358971
Panossian explores a series of landmark events, among them Armenians' first attempts at liberation, the Armenian renaissance of the nineteenth century, the 1915 genocide of the Ottoman Armenians, and Soviet occupation. He shows how these influences led to a "multilocal" evolution of Armenian identity in various places in and outside of Armenia, notably in diasporan communities from India to Venice. Today, these numerous identities contribute to deep divisions and tensions within the Armenian nation, the most profound of which is the cultural divide between Armenians residing in their homeland and those who live in the United States, Canada, the Middle East, and elsewhere. Considering the diversity of this single nation, Panossian questions the theoretical assumption that nationalism must be homogenizing.

Based on extensive research conducted in Armenia and the diaspora, including interviews and translation of Armenian-language sources, The Armenians is an engaging history and an invaluable comparative study.]]> 492 Razmik Panossian 0231139268 Alexis 0 nonfiction 4.28 2006 The Armenians: From Kings and Priests to Merchants and Commissars
author: Razmik Panossian
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2019/08/29
date added: 2020/02/04
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> Winter (Seasonal, #2) 34516974 The dazzling second novel in Ali Smith’s essential Seasonal Quartet—from the Baileys Prize-winning, Man Booker-shortlisted author of Autumn and How to be Both.

Winter? Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. The shortest days, the longest nights. The trees are bare and shivering. The summer’s leaves? Dead litter.

The world shrinks; the sap sinks.
But winter makes things visible. And if there’s ice, there’ll be fire.

In Ali Smith's Winter, lifeforce matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to her sensational Autumn, Smith's shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, memory and warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, laughter.

It’s the season that teaches us survival.
Here comes Winter.]]> 322 Ali Smith 0241207029 Alexis 4 fiction 3.81 2017 Winter (Seasonal, #2)
author: Ali Smith
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/24
date added: 2020/02/04
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Redeeming Love 11422
Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside.

Then she meets Michael Hosea. A man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything, Michael Hosea obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation until, despite her resistance her frozen heart begins to thaw.

But with her unexpected softening come overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she can no longer deny: Her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael Hosea does…the One who will never let her go.

A life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.
--back cover]]> 479 Francine Rivers Alexis 4 romance 4.51 1991 Redeeming Love
author: Francine Rivers
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/04
date added: 2020/02/04
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Is How You Lose the Time War]]> 41093489 Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal-El Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading.

Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

Cowritten by two beloved and award-winning sci-fi writers, This Is How You Lose the Time War is an epic love story spanning time and space.]]> 198 Amal El-Mohtar 1534431004 Alexis 0 to-read 3.82 2019 This Is How You Lose the Time War
author: Amal El-Mohtar
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ayesha at Last 50206920 A modern-day Muslim Pride and Prejudice for a new generation of love.

Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices, and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

When a surprise engagement is announced between Khalid and Hafsa, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and the unsettling new gossip she hears about his family. Looking into the rumors, she finds she has to deal with not only what she discovers about Khalid, but also the truth she realizes about herself.]]> 351 Uzma Jalaluddin 1984802798 Alexis 0 to-read 3.86 2018 Ayesha at Last
author: Uzma Jalaluddin
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Evvie Drake Starts Over 40514431
Meanwhile, in New York City, Dean Tenney, former Major League pitcher and Andy’s childhood best friend, is wrestling with what miserable athletes living out their worst nightmares call the “yips�: he can’t throw straight anymore, and, even worse, he can’t figure out why. As the media storm heats up, an invitation from Andy to stay in Maine seems like the perfect chance to hit the reset button on Dean’s future.

When he moves into an apartment at the back of Evvie’s house, the two make a deal: Dean won’t ask about Evvie’s late husband, and Evvie won’t ask about Dean’s baseball career. Rules, though, have a funny way of being broken—and what starts as an unexpected friendship soon turns into something more. To move forward, Evvie and Dean will have to reckon with their pasts—the friendships they’ve damaged, the secrets they’ve kept—but in life, as in baseball, there’s always a chance—up until the last out.]]> 289 Linda Holmes 0525619240 Alexis 0 to-read 3.80 2019 Evvie Drake Starts Over
author: Linda Holmes
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Devil in Winter (Wallflowers, #3)]]> 114166 A devil's bargain.

Desperate to escape her scheming relatives, Evangeline Jenner has sought the help of the most infamous scoundrel in London. A marriage of convenience is the only solution.

No one would have ever paired the shy, stammering wallflower with the sinfully handsome viscount. It quickly becomes clear, however, that Evie is a woman of hidden strength—and Sebastian desires her more than any woman he's ever known.

Determined to win her husband's elusive heart, Evie dares to strike a bargain with the devil: if Sebastian can stay celibate for three months, she will allow him into her bed. When Evie is threatened by a vengeful enemy from the past, Sebastian vows to do whatever it takes to protect his wife . . . even at the expense of his own life.

Together they will defy their perilous fate, for the sake of all-consuming love.]]> 368 Lisa Kleypas Alexis 3 romance 4.22 2006 Devil in Winter (Wallflowers, #3)
author: Lisa Kleypas
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/28
date added: 2019/12/30
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Someone to Trust (Westcott, #5)]]> 39006313 During a rare white Christmas at Brambledean Court, the widow Elizabeth, Lady Overfield, defies convention by falling in love with a younger man in the latest novel in the Westcott series.

After her husband's passing, Elizabeth Overfield decides that she must enter into another suitable marriage. That, however, is the last thing on her mind when she meets Colin Handrich, Lord Hodges, at the Westcott Christmas house party. She simply enjoys his company as they listen to carolers on Christmas Eve, walk home from church together on Christmas morning, and engage in a spirited snowball fight in the afternoon. Both are surprised when their sled topples them into a snow bank and they end up sharing an unexpected kiss. They know there is no question of any relationship between them for she is nine years older than he.

They return to London the following season, both committed to finding other, more suitable matches. Still they agree to share one waltz at each ball they attend. This innocuous agreement proves to be one that will topple their worlds, as each dance steadily ensnares them in a romance that forces the two to question what they are willing to sacrifice for love...

]]> 400 Mary Balogh 0399586113 Alexis 3 romance 3.85 2018 Someone to Trust (Westcott, #5)
author: Mary Balogh
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/15
date added: 2019/12/30
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes, #1)]]> 41154302 Award-winning author Sonali Dev launches a new series about the Rajes, an immigrant Indian family descended from royalty, who have built their lives in San Francisco...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that only in an overachieving Indian American family can a genius daughter be considered a black sheep.

Dr. Trisha Raje is San Francisco’s most acclaimed neurosurgeon. But that’s not enough for the Rajes, her influential immigrant family who’s achieved power by making its own non-negotiable rules:

·ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Never trust an outsider

·ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Never do anything to jeopardize your brother’s political aspirations

·ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý And never, ever, defy your family

Trisha is guilty of breaking all three rules. But now she has a chance to redeem herself. So long as she doesn’t repeat old mistakes.

Up-and-coming chef DJ Caine has known people like Trisha before, people who judge him by his rough beginnings and place pedigree above character. He needs the lucrative job the Rajes offer, but he values his pride too much to indulge Trisha’s arrogance. And then he discovers that she’s the only surgeon who can save his sister’s life.

As the two clash, their assumptions crumble like the spun sugar on one of DJ’s stunning desserts.ĚýBut before a future can be savored there’s a past to be reckoned with...

A family trying to build home in a new land.

A man who has never felt at home anywhere.

And a choice to be made between the two.

Ěý]]> 481 Sonali Dev Alexis 3 romance 3.65 2019 Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors (The Rajes, #1)
author: Sonali Dev
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/28
date added: 2019/12/30
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Big Sky Secrets (Parable, Montana, #6)]]> 18006099
Ria's starting to settle into country life herself…until she has a close encounter of the terrifying kind with a buffalo. Turns out the peeping monster belongs to the cowboy next door—and he has her running even more scared than his bison. She wants a home where the buffalo don't roam, and the men don't either. Could Landry's homecoming be her heart's undoing?]]> 384 Linda Lael Miller 0373778317 Alexis 1 romance 3.86 2013 Big Sky Secrets (Parable, Montana, #6)
author: Linda Lael Miller
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2019/12/04
date added: 2019/12/05
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Desire Lines (Welsh Blades, #3)]]> 43802536
Leaving his life as a noble hostage behind him, Gryff has fled from one danger to another, never safe, always longing for a forbidden return to his conquered Welsh homeland. Held captive by villainous men, his unlikely savior is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen � and the most deadly. Her silence is unnerving, her generosity unexpected, and her pointed warning that she will not be an object of lust is perfectly clear.

Nan has no doubt the ragged Welshman she has saved from certain death was born to better things, far different from the servant’s life she’s led. Though the last thing she wants is a companion on her journey to find her cherished sister, she is compelled to help the man with haunted eyes and a mysterious past. But she feels the pull of his fascination every instant, and her own unexpected desire soon takes them places neither could have foreseen.]]> 278 Elizabeth Kingston Alexis 0 to-read 4.19 2019 Desire Lines (Welsh Blades, #3)
author: Elizabeth Kingston
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure (The Worth Saga, #2.75)]]> 44084867
Then proper, correct Miss Violetta Beauchamps, a sprightly young thing of nine and sixty, crashes into her life. The Terrible Nephew is living in her rooming house, and Violetta wants him gone.

Mrs. Martin isn’t about to start giving damns, not even for someone as intriguing as Miss Violetta. But she hatches another plan—to make her nephew sorry, to make Miss Violetta smile, and to have the finest adventure of all time.

If she makes Terrible Men angry and wins the hand of a lovely lady in the process? Those are just added bonuses.

Author’s Note: Sometimes I write villains who are subtle and nuanced. This is not one of those times. The Terrible Nephew is terrible, and terrible things happen to him. Sometime villains really are bad and wrong, and sometimes, we want them to suffer a lot of consequences.]]> 156 Courtney Milan 1937248690 Alexis 0 to-read 3.96 2019 Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure (The Worth Saga, #2.75)
author: Courtney Milan
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Defy the Dawn (Midnight Breed, #14)]]> 27846346
Atlantean warrior Zael left the intrigue of his realm several lifetimes ago, along with the battles he fought as one of the queen's legion. As a free-spirited loner walking the fringe of two worlds--that of his secretive and powerful people, and the outside world belonging to mankind and the Breed--it was never his intention to return to combat and bloodshed. Nor had he imagined that he might ever be tempted into anything stronger than desire . . . until he meets Brynne.

Thrust together as allies of the Order in the fight against a diabolical enemy, Zael and Brynne embark on a mission that will ultimately force them to decide between duty to their people, and a passion that defies all bounds.]]> 228 Lara Adrian 1939193095 Alexis 1 french 4.08 2016 Defy the Dawn (Midnight Breed, #14)
author: Lara Adrian
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2019/11/27
date added: 2019/11/27
shelves: french
review:

]]> The Bird King 40642333 Alif the Unseen and writer of the Ms. Marvel series, G. Willow Wilson

Set in 1491 during the reign of the last sultanate in the Iberian peninsula, The Bird King is the story of Fatima, the only remaining Circassian concubine to the sultan, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker.

Hassan has a secret--he can draw maps of places he's never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan's surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan's gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls?

As Fatima and Hassan traverse Spain with the help of a clever jinn to find safety, The Bird King asks us to consider what love is and the price of freedom at a time when the West and the Muslim world were not yet separate.]]> 403 G. Willow Wilson 080212903X Alexis 3 fantasy-sci-fi 3.69 2019 The Bird King
author: G. Willow Wilson
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/11/05
date added: 2019/11/17
shelves: fantasy-sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Marius (Trilogie marseillaise, #1)]]> 220336 220 Marcel Pagnol 287706056X Alexis 3 french 4.11 1931 Marius (Trilogie marseillaise, #1)
author: Marcel Pagnol
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1931
rating: 3
read at: 2019/11/12
date added: 2019/11/17
shelves: french
review:

]]> Here and Now and Then 39217756 To save his daughter, he’ll go anywhere—and any-when�

Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in IT, trying to keep the spark in his marriage, struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Miranda. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career…as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142.

Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler’s brain. Until one afternoon, his “rescue� team arrives—eighteen years too late.

Their mission: return Kin to 2142, where he’s only been gone weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember.

Torn between two lives, Kin is desperate for a way to stay connected to both. But when his best efforts threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself, his daughter’s very existence is at risk. It’ll take one final trip across time to save Miranda—even if it means breaking all the rules of time travel in the process.

A uniquely emotional genre-bending debut, Here and Now and Then captures the perfect balance of heart, playfulness, and imagination, offering an intimate glimpse into the crevices of a father’s heart and its capacity to stretch across both space and time to protect the people that mean the most.

]]> 336 Mike Chen 0778369048 Alexis 0 to-read 3.73 2019 Here and Now and Then
author: Mike Chen
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Friend Zone (The Friend Zone, #1)]]> 42785825
Planning her best friend's wedding is bittersweet for Kristen -- especially when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. He's funny, sexy, never offended by her mile-wide streak of sarcasm, and always one chicken enchilada ahead of her hangry. Even her dog, Stuntman Mike, adores him. The only catch: Josh wants a big family someday. Kristen knows he'd be better off with someone else, but as their attraction grows, it's harder and harder to keep him at arm's length.]]> 384 Abby Jimenez 1538715600 Alexis 0 to-read 3.93 2019 The Friend Zone (The Friend Zone, #1)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Flatshare 41150287 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250295637

Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met.

After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art.

Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He’ll only ever be there when she’s at the office. In fact, they’ll never even have to meet.

Tiffy and Leon start writing each other notes � first about what day is garbage day, and politely establishing what leftovers are up for grabs, and the evergreen question of whether the toilet seat should stay up or down. Even though they are opposites, they soon become friends. And then maybe more.

But falling in love with your roommate is probably a terrible idea…especially if you've never met.

What if your roommate is your soul mate? A joyful, quirky romantic comedy, Beth O'Leary's The Flatshare is a feel-good novel about finding love in the most unexpected of ways.]]> 328 Beth O'Leary Alexis 0 to-read 4.02 2019 The Flatshare
author: Beth O'Leary
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Starless Sea 43575115 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.]]> 498 Erin Morgenstern 038554121X Alexis 0 to-read 3.82 2019 The Starless Sea
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Normal People 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Alexis 0 to-read 3.81 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Country Pancake 2059983 86 Anne Fine 1405200626 Alexis 0 french 3.54 1989 The Country Pancake
author: Anne Fine
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at: 2019/11/14
date added: 2019/11/14
shelves: french
review:

]]> The Friend 40164365
When a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the unwanted dog he has left behind. Her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of the dog, a huge Great Dane traumatized by the inexplicable disappearance of its master, and by the threat of eviction: dogs are prohibited in her apartment building.

While others worry that grief has made her a victim of magical thinking, the woman refuses to be separated from the dog except for brief periods of time. Isolated from the rest of the world, increasingly obsessed with the dog's care, determined to read its mind and fathom its heart, she comes dangerously close to unraveling. But while troubles abound, rich and surprising rewards lie in store for both of them.

Elegiac and searching, The Friend is both a meditation on loss and a celebration of human-canine devotion.]]> 212 Sigrid Nunez 0735219451 Alexis 0 fiction 3.73 2018 The Friend
author: Sigrid Nunez
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2019/10/23
date added: 2019/10/23
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Milkman 36047860
Milkman is a tale of gossip and hearsay, silence and deliberate deafness. It is the story of inaction with enormous consequences.]]> 352 Anna Burns 0571338763 Alexis 3 fiction 3.51 2018 Milkman
author: Anna Burns
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/10/10
date added: 2019/10/11
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Once Upon a Marquess (The Worth Saga, #1)]]> 22817496
But Ashford has never forgotten Judith. He knows she will never forgive him for what he’s done, but when offered the chance to assist her, he arrives in person. His memory of Judith may have haunted him, but it pales in comparison to the reality of the vivacious, beautiful woman he rediscovers. Throughout his life, he has always done what is correct. But now, he finds himself doing something utterly wrong…falling in love with the one woman he can never have.]]> 277 Courtney Milan Alexis 4 romance 3.69 2015 Once Upon a Marquess (The Worth Saga, #1)
author: Courtney Milan
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/10
date added: 2019/10/11
shelves: romance
review:

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

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

Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, the beginning of this novel will sweep you away on a powerful current of storytelling, transporting you through worlds both real and imagined, to the triumphant conclusion whose depths will continue to give up their treasures long after the last page is turned.]]> 464 Diane Setterfield 0743298071 Alexis 0 to-read 3.91 2018 Once Upon a River
author: Diane Setterfield
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wilde in Love (The Wildes of Lindow Castle, #1)]]> 33020122
Willa presents the façade of a serene young lady to the world.ĚýHer love of books and bawdy jokes is purely for the delight of her intimate friends. She wants nothing to do with a man whose private life is splashed over every newspaper.

Alaric has never met a woman he wanted for his own . . . until he meets Willa. He’s never lost a battle.

But a spirited woman like Willa isn’t going to make it easy. . . .]]> 348 Eloisa James 0349409048 Alexis 0 d-n-f 3.73 2017 Wilde in Love (The Wildes of Lindow Castle, #1)
author: Eloisa James
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/10/08
shelves: d-n-f
review:

]]> Address Unknown 114437 Story magazine in 1938, Address Unknown became an immediate social phenomenon and literary sensation. Published in book form a year later and banned in Nazi Germany, it garnered high praise in the United States and much of Europe.



A series of fictional letters between a Jewish art dealer living in San Francisco and his former business partner, who has returned to Germany, Address Unknown is a haunting tale of enormous and enduring impact.

]]> 64 Kathrine Kressmann Taylor 0743412710 Alexis 4 french 4.35 1938 Address Unknown
author: Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2019/09/20
date added: 2019/09/24
shelves: french
review:

]]> Where the Crawdads Sing 42421761
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 370 Delia Owens Alexis 0 to-read 4.60 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)]]> 42074525
Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.]]> 437 N.K. Jemisin Alexis 0 to-read 3.83 2020 The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Early Riser 23498264
During those bitterly cold four months, the nation is a snow-draped landscape of desolate loneliness, and devoid of human activity.

Well, not quite.

Your name is Charlie Worthing and it's your first season with the Winter Consuls, the committed but mildly unhinged group of misfits who are responsible for ensuring the hibernatory safe passage of the sleeping masses.

You are investigating an outbreak of viral dreams which you dismiss as nonsense; nothing more than a quirky artefact borne of the sleeping mind.

When the dreams start to kill people, it's unsettling.

When you get the dreams too, it's weird.

When they start to come true, you begin to doubt your sanity.

But teasing truth from Winter is never easy: You have to avoid the Villains and their penchant for murder, kidnapping and stamp collecting, ensure you aren't eaten by Nightwalkers whose thirst for human flesh can only be satisfied by comfort food, and sidestep the increasingly less-than-mythical WinterVolk.

But so long as you remember to wrap up warmly, you'll be fine.]]> 402 Jasper Fforde 144476358X Alexis 0 to-read 3.84 2018 Early Riser
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by Its Last Member]]> 5176585
Soon, however, beyond the regimented and honor-bound world of the cavalry, von Boeselager would discover what shocking brutality the SS was perpetrating at the behest of the Third Reich s highest authorities. When, in the summer of 1942, he heard that five Roma had been killed in cold blood, von Boeselager s patriotism quickly turned to disgust. Under his commanding officer, Field Marshal von Kluge, Philipp and his brother joined a group of conspirators in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler.

It was planned that Philipp would shoot both the Fuhrer and Himmler in the officers casino during a camp inspection visit, but when that attempt had to be aborted at the last moment, the plotters resolved to use a bomb to assassinate Hitler alone. Once von Boeselager had delivered the explosives to Claus von Stauffenberg, a leader of the plot, he and Georg led an unauthorized retreat of cavalry units from the eastern front, a surreal night maneuver indelibly described here. The mission: to take control of Berlin and effect the coup d etat.

When the bomb failed to kill Hitler, the SS launched a terrifying purge of senior army officers. The von Boeselager brothers barely managed to return with their units to the eastern front in time to escape detection. One by one their fellow plotters were found out, tortured, and executed, but steadfast in their cause, they never gave up the von Boeselagers names. Georg would eventually fall in battle on the Russian front, but Philipp survived the war.

In this elegant but unflinching testimony, Philipp von Boeselager, until his death in 2008 the last surviving member of the plot code-named Valkyrie, gives voice to the spirit of the small but determined band of men whose sense of justice and honor could not be dissolved by the diabolical glamour of the Third Reich. Here is an invaluable new perspective on one of the most fascinating near misses of twentieth-century history."]]> 224 0307270750 Alexis 3 nonfiction 3.48 2008 Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler, by Its Last Member
author: Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/03
date added: 2019/09/03
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)]]> 16085481
When Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home, long drives to explore the island, and quality time with the man she might one day marry. What she doesn't know is that Nick's family home happens to look like a palace, that she'll ride in more private planes than cars, and that with one of Asia's most eligible bachelors on her arm, Rachel might as well have a target on her back.

Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick's formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should—and should not—marry.

Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider's look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously, crazily rich.]]> 403 Kevin Kwan 0385536976 Alexis 2 fiction 3.91 2013 Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)
author: Kevin Kwan
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2019/09/02
date added: 2019/09/02
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World, #1)]]> 36373298
Maggie Hoskie is a Dinétah monster hunter, a supernaturally gifted killer. When a small town needs help finding a missing girl, Maggie is their last—and best—hope. But what Maggie uncovers about the monster is much larger and more terrifying than anything she could imagine.

Maggie reluctantly enlists the aid of Kai Arviso, an unconventional medicine man, and together they travel to the rez to unravel clues from ancient legends, trade favors with tricksters, and battle dark witchcraft in a patchwork world of deteriorating technology.

As Maggie discovers the truth behind the disappearances, she will have to confront her past—if she wants to survive.

Welcome to the Sixth World.]]> 287 Rebecca Roanhorse 1534413499 Alexis 3 fantasy-sci-fi 3.92 2018 Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World, #1)
author: Rebecca Roanhorse
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/08/03
date added: 2019/08/26
shelves: fantasy-sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays, Etc.]]> 15790837
From here the story could take many turns. When this guy is David Sedaris, the possibilities are endless, but the result is always the same: he will both delight you with twists of humor and intelligence and leave you deeply moved.

Sedaris remembers his father's dinnertime attire (shirtsleeves and underpants), his first colonoscopy (remarkably pleasant), and the time he considered buying the skeleton of a murdered Pygmy.

With Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, David Sedaris shows once again why his work has been called "hilarious, elegant, and surprisingly moving" (Washington Post).

Machine generated contents note: Dentists Without Borders
Attaboy
Think Differenter
Memory Laps
A Friend in the Ghetto
Loggerheads
If I Ruled the World
Easy, Tiger
Laugh, Kookaburra
Standing Still
Just a Quick E-mail
A Guy Walks into a Bar Car
Author, Author
Obama!!!!!
Standing By
I Break for Traditional Marriage
Understanding Understanding Owls
#2 to Go
Health-Care Freedoms and Why I Want My Country Back
Now Hiring Friendly People
Rubbish
Day In, Day Out
Mind the Gap
A Cold Case
The Happy Place]]> 275 David Sedaris 0316154695 Alexis 2 nonfiction 3.84 2013 Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays, Etc.
author: David Sedaris
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2019/07/28
date added: 2019/08/26
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> An American Marriage 33590210
This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past while moving forward—with hope and pain—into the future.]]> 308 Tayari Jones 1616201347 Alexis 5 fiction 3.91 2018 An American Marriage
author: Tayari Jones
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/24
date added: 2019/08/26
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born � a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam � and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 Alexis 4 fiction 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/25
date added: 2019/08/26
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Love Medicine (Love Medicine, #1)]]> 91440
Set on and around a North Dakota Ojibwe reservation, Love Medicine is the epic story about the intertwined fates of two families: the Kashpaws and the Lamartines.

With astonishing virtuosity, each chapter draws on a range of voices to limn its tales. Black humor mingles with magic, injustice bleeds into betrayal, and through it all, bonds of love and family marry the elements into a tightly woven whole that pulses with the drama of life.

Filled with humor, magic, injustice and betrayal, Erdrich blends family love and loyalty in a stunning work of dramatic fiction.]]> 367 Louise Erdrich 0060786469 Alexis 0 to-read 4.02 1984 Love Medicine (Love Medicine, #1)
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/08/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Cost of Discipleship 174834
What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."

The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.]]> 320 Dietrich Bonhoeffer 0684815001 Alexis 0 to-read 4.29 1937 The Cost of Discipleship
author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler]]> 37863426 176 John Hendrix 1419728385 Alexis 4 nonfiction 4.42 2018 The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler
author: John Hendrix
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/06
date added: 2019/08/06
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> My Ex-Life 34275225 The time for Stephen McCauley's breakout novel has come and My Ex-Life is it in a major way. A delicious novel for fans of Tom Perrotta, Maria Semple, and Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney about how sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back.

David Hedges’s life is coming apart at the seams. His job helping San Francisco rich kids get into the colleges of their (parents�) choice is exasperating; his younger boyfriend has left him; and the beloved carriage house he rents is being sold. His solace is a Thai takeout joint that delivers 24/7.

The last person he expects to hear from is Julie Fiske. It’s been decades since they’ve spoken, and he’s relieved to hear she’s recovered from her brief, misguided first marriage. To him.

Julie definitely doesn’t have a problem with marijuana (she’s given it up completely, so it doesn’t matter if she gets stoned almost daily) and the Airbnb she’s running out of her seaside house north of Boston is neither shabby nor illegal. And she has two whole months to come up with the money to buy said house from her second husband before their divorce is finalized. She’d just like David’s help organizing college plans for her 17-year-old daughter.

That would be Mandy. To quote Barry Manilow, Oh Mandy. While she knows she’s smarter than most of the kids in her school, she can’t figure out why she’s making so many incredibly dumb and increasingly dangerous choices.

When David flies east, they find themselves living under the same roof (one David needs to repair). David and Julie pick up exactly where they left off thirty years ago―they’re still best friends who can finish each other’s sentences. But there’s one broken bit between them that no amount of home renovations will fix.

In prose filled with hilarious and heartbreakingly accurate one-liners, Stephen McCauley has written a novel that examines how we define home, family, and love. Be prepared to laugh, shed a few tears, and have thoughts of your own ex-life triggered. (Throw pillows optional.)]]> 324 Stephen McCauley 1250122430 Alexis 4 fiction 3.64 2018 My Ex-Life
author: Stephen McCauley
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/01
date added: 2019/08/01
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> The Widow Killer: A Novel 8389170 400 Pavel Kohout 142997642X Alexis 0 to-read 4.00 1995 The Widow Killer: A Novel
author: Pavel Kohout
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> La Gloire de mon père 220334 Recuerdos de la Infancia del cineasta y escritor francés Marcel Pagnol (1895-1974). Pagnol fue un cuentista, un inventor de historias, un fabricante de sueños.]]> 216 Marcel Pagnol 2877065073 Alexis 0 to-read, french 4.02 1957 La Gloire de mon père
author: Marcel Pagnol
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/31
shelves: to-read, french
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile]]> 13533748
Fables is the winner of 14 Eisner Awards and is one of the most enduring Vertigo titles ever. Here, in this new, 10th anniversary edition, is a newly colored 8-page story from the Fables prose work Peter & Max: A Fables Novel, as well as a beautiful new cover from series artist Mark Buckingham.

Collecting: Fables #1-5]]> 160 Bill Willingham 140123755X Alexis 0 to-read 4.00 2002 Fables, Vol. 1: Legends in Exile
author: Bill Willingham
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Night 1617 Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.]]> 120 Elie Wiesel 0374500010 Alexis 5 classic-lit, nonfiction 4.38 1956 Night
author: Elie Wiesel
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/25
date added: 2019/07/25
shelves: classic-lit, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)]]> 38359036 °ŐäłŮ´Ç·Éľ±±đ°ů±đ°ů (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.]]> 272 Heather Morris 006287067X Alexis 2 fiction 4.32 2018 The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)
author: Heather Morris
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2019/07/15
date added: 2019/07/18
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> Our Souls at Night 23602562
In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife. His daughter lives hours away in Colorado Springs, her son even farther away in Grand Junction, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in houses now empty of family, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with.

Their brave adventures - their pleasures and their difficulties - are hugely involving and truly resonant, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer's enduring contribution to American literature.]]> 179 Kent Haruf 1101875895 Alexis 3 fiction 3.91 2015 Our Souls at Night
author: Kent Haruf
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2019/07/17
date added: 2019/07/18
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)]]> 1232 487 Carlos Ruiz ZafĂłn Alexis 0 to-read 4.26 2001 The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)
author: Carlos Ruiz ZafĂłn
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)]]> 17934530 Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.]]> 195 Jeff VanderMeer 0374104093 Alexis 4 fantasy-sci-fi 3.79 2014 Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/10
date added: 2019/07/10
shelves: fantasy-sci-fi
review:
This was not necessarily pleasant to read - every page dripped with apprehension and dread - but it was certainly well done. The sense of pervasive unease fit perfectly with the story[spoilers removed]. The reveals were also perfectly seeded, so that they were neither obvious from the beginning nor out of left field. I'm not sure I want to read its sequel, but I can't deny that it was well executed.
]]> <![CDATA[The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke, #2)]]> 36111620 He’s been a bad, bad rake—and it takes a governess to teach him a lesson

The accidental governess.

After her livelihood slips through her fingers, Alexandra Mountbatten takes on an impossible post: transforming a pair of wild orphans into proper young ladies. However, the girls don’t need discipline. They need a loving home. Try telling that to their guardian, Chase Reynaud: duke’s heir in the streets and devil in the sheets. The ladies of London have tried—and failed—to make him settle down. Somehow, Alexandra must reach his heart... without risking her own.

The infamous rake.

Like any self-respecting libertine, Chase lives by one rule: no attachments. When a stubborn little governess tries to reform him, he decides to give her an education—in pleasure. That should prove he can’t be tamed. But Alexandra is more than he bargained for: clever, perceptive, passionate. She refuses to see him as a lost cause. Soon the walls around Chase’s heart are crumbling... and he’s in danger of falling, hard.]]> 373 Tessa Dare 0062672126 Alexis 1 romance 3.87 2018 The Governess Game (Girl Meets Duke, #2)
author: Tessa Dare
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2019/07/02
date added: 2019/07/10
shelves: romance
review:

]]> The Ghost Bride 16248223 A startlingly original voice makes her literary debut with this wondrous coming-of-age story infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, adventure, and fascinating, dreamlike twists.

'One evening, my father asked me whether I would like to become a ghost bride...'

Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound.

Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a ghost bride for the family's only son, who recently died under mysterious circumstances. Rarely practiced, traditional ghost marriages are used to placate restless spirits. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at a terrible price.

After an ominous visit to the opulent Lim mansion, Li Lan finds herself haunted not only by her ghostly would-be suitor, but also by her desire for the Lims' handsome new heir, Tian Bai. Night after night, she is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, with its ghost cities, paper funeral offerings, vengeful spirits, and monstrous bureaucracy—including the mysterious Er Lang, a charming but unpredictable guardian spirit. Li Lan must uncover the Lim family's darkest secrets—and the truth about her own family—before she is trapped in this ghostly world forever.]]> 368 Yangsze Choo 0062227327 Alexis 3 fantasy-sci-fi 3.79 2013 The Ghost Bride
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/25
date added: 2019/07/10
shelves: fantasy-sci-fi
review:

]]> Night Flight 8842 216 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1417996501 Alexis 3 french 3.90 1931 Night Flight
author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1931
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/21
date added: 2019/07/10
shelves: french
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Get Your Sh*t Together: How to Stop Worrying About What You Should Do So You Can Finish What You Need to Do and Start Doing What You Want to Do (A No F*cks Given Guide)]]> 31111142 the no-f*cks-given, no-holds-barred guide to living your best life
Do you ever find yourself snowed under at the office, or even just glued to the couch, when you really want to leave on time (for once), get to the gym (at last), and finally start that fun project you're always putting off?
You've really got to Get Your Sh*t Together.

In The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck, "anti-guru" Sarah knight liberated you from shame, guilt, and obligations. But what about all the sh*t you do give a f*ck about-like your career, health, relationships, and bank account?
Now, Sarah's back with more hilarious advice to make life easier and better. Whether your dream is to quit your day job and buy a food truck, pay off your debt, or just spend more time with your cat, Sarah cuts through the bullsh*t cycle of self-sabotage to show you how to be happy.
You'll learn:

Three simple tools for getting (and keeping) your sh*t together
The Power of Negative Thinking
How to balance work and fun-and save money while you're at it
Ways to manage anxiety
And tons of other awesome sh*t!

Soon you'll be setting real goals, crushing them, and getting out the door for happy hour-every damn day.

Praise for Sarah Knight"Genius." - Cosmopolitan
"Self-help to swear by." - The Boston Globe
"Hilarious [and] truly practical." - Booklist]]> 304 Sarah Knight 0316505072 Alexis 0 to-read 3.61 2016 Get Your Sh*t Together: How to Stop Worrying About What You Should Do So You Can Finish What You Need to Do and Start Doing What You Want to Do (A No F*cks Given Guide)
author: Sarah Knight
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides, #1)]]> 5981872
The youngest brother, Ian, known as the Mad Mackenzie, spent most of his young life in an asylum, and everyone agrees he is decidedly odd. He's also hard and handsome and has a penchant for Ming pottery and beautiful women.

Beth Ackerley, widow, has recently come into a fortune. She has decided that she wants no more drama in her life. She was raised in drama—an alcoholic father who drove them into the workhouse, a frail mother she had to nurse until her death, a fussy old lady she became constant companion to. No, she wants to take her money and find peace, to travel, to learn art, to sit back and fondly remember her brief but happy marriage to her late husband.

And then Ian Mackenzie decides he wants her.

The first of a new historical series.]]> 320 Jennifer Ashley 0843960434 Alexis 0 to-read 4.03 2009 The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides, #1)
author: Jennifer Ashley
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Here and Now and Then 36630924
Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in I.T., trying to keep the spark in his marriage, and struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Miranda. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142.

Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler's brain. Until one afternoon, his “rescue� team arrives—eighteen years too late.

Their mission: return Kin to 2142 where he's only been gone weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember.

Torn between two lives, Kin is desperate for a way to stay connected to both. But when his best efforts threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself, his daughter’s very existence is at risk. It'll take one final trip across time to save Miranda—even if it means breaking all the rules of time travel in the process.

A uniquely emotional genre-bending debut, Here and Now and Then captures the perfect balance of heart, playfulness, and imagination, offering an intimate glimpse into the crevices of a father’s heart, and its capacity to stretch across both space and time to protect the people that mean the most.]]> 347 Mike Chen 1488099588 Alexis 0 to-read 3.80 2019 Here and Now and Then
author: Mike Chen
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Night Tiger 39863482 A sweeping historical novel about a dancehall girl and an orphan boy whose fates entangle over an old Chinese superstition about men who turn into tigers.

When 11-year-old Ren's master dies, he makes one last request of his Chinese houseboy: that Ren find his severed finger, lost years ago in an accident, and reunite it with his body. Ren has 49 days, or else his master's soul will roam the earth, unable to rest in peace.

Ji Lin always wanted to be a doctor, but as a girl in 1930s Malaysia, apprentice dressmaker is a more suitable occupation. Secretly, though, Ji Lin also moonlights as a dancehall girl to help pay off her beloved mother's Mahjong debts. One night, Ji Lin's dance partner leaves her with a gruesome souvenir: a severed finger. Convinced the finger is bad luck, Ji Lin enlists the help of her erstwhile stepbrother to return it to its rightful owner.

As the 49 days tick down, and a prowling tiger wreaks havoc on the town, Ji Lin and Ren's lives intertwine in ways they could never have imagined. Propulsive and lushly written, The Night Tiger explores colonialism and independence, ancient superstition and modern ambition, sibling rivalry and first love. Braided through with Chinese folklore and a tantalizing mystery, this novel is a page-turner of the highest order.

Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick, Amazon Spotlight Pick for Best Book of the Month, NYTimes and Publisher's Weekly Bestseller. Starred Kirkus, Booklist, and Publisher's Weekly reviews.]]> 372 Yangsze Choo 1250175453 Alexis 0 to-read 3.81 2019 The Night Tiger
author: Yangsze Choo
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Salvage the Bones 10846336 Winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction

A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn't show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; she's fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull's new litter, dying one by one in the dirt, while brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting. As the twelve days that comprise the novel's framework yield to the final day and Hurricane Katrina, the unforgettable family at the novel's heart—motherless children sacrificing for each other as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce—pulls itself up to struggle for another day. A wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, "Salvage the Bones" is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.]]> 261 Jesmyn Ward 1608195228 Alexis 0 to-read, fiction 3.95 2011 Salvage the Bones
author: Jesmyn Ward
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/20
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> Unmarriageable 39926661 In this one-of-a-kind retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Pakistan, Alys Binat has sworn never to marry—until an encounter with one Mr. Darsee at a wedding makes her reconsider.

A scandal and vicious rumor concerning the Binat family have destroyed their fortune and prospects for desirable marriages, but Alys, the second and most practical of the five Binat daughters, has found happiness teaching English literature to schoolgirls. Knowing that many of her students won’t make it to graduation before dropping out to marry and have children, Alys teaches them about Jane Austen and her other literary heroes and hopes to inspire the girls to dream of more.

When an invitation arrives to the biggest wedding their small town has seen in years, Mrs. Binat, certain that their luck is about to change, excitedly sets to work preparing her daughters to fish for rich, eligible bachelors. On the first night of the festivities, Alys’s lovely older sister, Jena, catches the eye of Fahad “Bungles� Bingla, the wildly successful—and single—entrepreneur. But Bungles’s friend Valentine Darsee is clearly unimpressed by the Binat family. Alys accidentally overhears his unflattering assessment of her and quickly dismisses him and his snobbish ways. As the days of lavish wedding parties unfold, the Binats wait breathlessly to see if Jena will land a proposal—and Alys begins to realize that Darsee’s brusque manner may be hiding a very different man from the one she saw at first glance.

Told with wry wit and colorful prose, Unmarriageable is a charming update on Jane Austen’s beloved novel and an exhilarating exploration of love, marriage, class, and sisterhood.

]]> 352 Soniah Kamal 1524799726 Alexis 0 to-read, romance 3.74 2019 Unmarriageable
author: Soniah Kamal
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/20
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)]]> 52397
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.]]> 345 Octavia E. Butler 0446675504 Alexis 0 to-read, fantasy-sci-fi 4.21 1993 Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/20
shelves: to-read, fantasy-sci-fi
review:

]]> Ayesha at Last 43124133
Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

When a surprise engagement is announced between Khalid and Hafsa, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and the unsettling new gossip she hears about his family. Looking into the rumors, she finds she has to deal with not only what she discovers about Khalid, but also the truth she realizes about herself.]]> 368 Uzma Jalaluddin Alexis 0 to-read, romance 3.84 2018 Ayesha at Last
author: Uzma Jalaluddin
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/20
shelves: to-read, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism]]> 43708708 7 Robin DiAngelo 0807071161 Alexis 0 to-read, nonfiction 4.14 2018 White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
author: Robin DiAngelo
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/20
shelves: to-read, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[No Way Down: Life and Death on K2]]> 6978889 Into Thin Air and Touching the Void, No Way Down by New York Times reporter Graham Bowley is the harrowing account of the worst mountain climbing disaster on K2, second to Everest in height... but second to no peak in terms of danger. From tragic deaths to unbelievable stories of heroism and survival, No Way Down is an amazing feat of storytelling and adventure writing, and, in the words of explorer and author Sir Ranulph Fiennes, “the closest you can come to being on the summit of K2 on that fateful day.”]]> 288 Graham Bowley 0061834785 Alexis 0 to-read, fiction 3.96 2010 No Way Down: Life and Death on K2
author: Graham Bowley
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/20
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry]]> 34445342 Literary Review) Peter Nasmyth is the perfect and much-celebrated introduction to its remarkable people, landscape, and culture.


Over its 3,000-year-old history, Georgia has been ruled by everyone from the Greeks to the Ottomans, became a coveted part of the Russian Empire for a hundred years, and was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1921. In twenty-five years, Georgia has undergone a dramatic socioeconomical and political transformation, and although its political situation remains precarious, Georgia’s strong sense of nationhood has reinvigorated the country.


Vivid and comprehensive, Nasmyth’s Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry is a unique eyewitness account of Georgia’s rebirth and creates an unforgettable portrait of its remarkable landscape, history, people and culture. Based on personal experience and offering fascinating insights into the life of ordinary and high profile Georgians, it is essential reading for anyone who does not yet know, or wants to know more, of this astonishing place.]]> 400 Peter Nasmyth 1468315692 Alexis 4 nonfiction 4.29 1998 Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry
author: Peter Nasmyth
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/18
date added: 2019/06/18
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It Takes a Scandal (Scandalous, #2)]]> 18480594 Sometimes It Takes a Scandal...

Abigail Weston has everything: beauty, wit, and one of the largest dowries in England. Her parents hope she'll wed an earl. Abigail hopes for a man who wants her desperately and passionately. But the money seems to blind every man she meets—except one.

Sebastian Vane has nothing. He came home from war with a shattered leg to find his father mad and his inheritance gone. He's not a fit suitor for anyone, let alone an heiress. But Abigail lights up his world like a comet, bright and beautiful and able to see him instead of his ruined reputation. And it might end happily ever after...

To Reveal Your Heart's Desire

...Until Benedict Lennox begins courting Abigail. Ben is everything Sebastian isn't—wealthy, charming, heir to an earl. Sebastian won't give up the only girl he's ever loved without a fight, but Abigail must choose between the penniless gentleman who moves her heart, and the suitor who is everything her parents want.]]> 372 Caroline Linden 0062244906 Alexis 2 romance 3.72 2014 It Takes a Scandal (Scandalous, #2)
author: Caroline Linden
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2019/05/20
date added: 2019/06/18
shelves: romance
review:

]]> Words in Deep Blue 31952703
Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can't see her future.

Henry's future isn't looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping away. And his family is breaking apart.

As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.]]> 273 Cath Crowley 1101937645 Alexis 0 young-adult 3.97 2016 Words in Deep Blue
author: Cath Crowley
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2019/06/11
date added: 2019/06/18
shelves: young-adult
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When a Duchess Says I Do (Rogues to Riches #2)]]> 41138068 An enchanting Regency romance with a fairy-tale twist from an always witty and delightful New York Times bestselling author who Tessa Dare calls "a romance treasure."
Named to BookPage's "2019 Most Anticipated Romance" list!
Duncan Wentworth once tried his hand at rescuing a damsel in distress long ago, and he's vowed he'll never make that mistake again. Yet when he comes across a stranger in the poacher-infested woods of his estate, decency compels him to offer the lady aid. Matilda is whip-smart, she can read Duncan's horrible penmanship, and when she wears his reading glasses all Duncan can think about is naughty Latin poetry.
Widowed duchess Matilda Wakefield can't entrust her secrets to Duncan without embroiling him in the problems that sent her fleeing from London, but neither can she ignore a man who's honorable, a brilliant chess player, and maddeningly kissable. She needs to stay one step ahead of the enemies pursuing her, and falling into Duncan's arms is a distraction she can't afford-or they'll both pay the price.
"Grace Burrowes is terrific!" --Julia Quinn, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Smart, sexy, and oh-so romantic." --Mary Balogh, New York Times bestselling author
"Burrowes is a writer of towering talent." --USA Today Happy Ever After]]> 384 Grace Burrowes 1538728974 Alexis 3 romance 3.91 2019 When a Duchess Says I Do (Rogues to Riches #2)
author: Grace Burrowes
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/17
date added: 2019/06/18
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Winter of the Witch (The Winternight Trilogy, #3)]]> 36621586 Following their adventures in The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya and Morozko return in this stunning conclusion to the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, battling enemies mortal and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen.


Now Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers—and for someone to blame. Vasya finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, stronger than ever and determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself and her history as she desperately tries to save Russia, Morozko, and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all.

Advance praise for The Winter of the Witch

“Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy isn’t just good—it’s hug-to-your-chest, straight-to-the-favorites-shelf, reread-immediately good, and each book just gets better. The Winter of the Witch plunges us back to fourteenth-century Moscow, where old gods and new vie for the soul of Russia and fate rests on a witch girl’s slender shoulders. Prepare to have your heart ripped out, loaned back to you full of snow and magic, and ripped out some more.”�Laini Taylor]]> 400 Katherine Arden 1101886005 Alexis 3 young-adult 4.48 2019 The Winter of the Witch (The Winternight Trilogy, #3)
author: Katherine Arden
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/04/14
date added: 2019/06/02
shelves: young-adult
review:

]]> Red, White & Royal Blue 41150487
As President Claremont kicks off her reelection bid, Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret relationship with Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations. What is worth the sacrifice? How do you do all the good you can do? And, most importantly, how will history remember you?]]> 448 Casey McQuiston 1250316774 Alexis 4 romance 4.06 2019 Red, White & Royal Blue
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Alexis
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/30
date added: 2019/06/02
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Duke by Default (Reluctant Royals, #2)]]> 35564582 Award-winning author Alyssa Cole’s Reluctant Royals series continues with a woman on a quest to be the heroine of her own story and the duke in shining armor she rescues along the way

New York City socialite and perpetual hot mess Portia Hobbs is tired of disappointing her family, friends, and—most importantly—herself. An apprenticeship with a struggling swordmaker in Scotland is a chance to use her expertise and discover what she’s capable of. Turns out she excels at aggravating her gruff silver fox boss…when she’s not having inappropriate fantasies about his sexy Scottish burr.

Tavish McKenzie doesn’t need a rich, spoiled American telling him how to run his armory…even if she is infuriatingly good at it. Tav tries to rebuff his apprentice, and his attraction to her, but when Portia accidentally discovers that he’s the secret son of a duke, rough-around-the-edges Tav becomes her newest makeover project.

Forging metal into weapons and armor is one thing, but when desire burns out of control and the media spotlight gets too hot to bear, can a commoner turned duke and his posh apprentice find lasting love?]]> 374 Alyssa Cole 0062685562 Alexis 3 romance 3.85 2018 A Duke by Default (Reluctant Royals, #2)
author: Alyssa Cole
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/05/27
date added: 2019/06/02
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth]]> 6913830
In 2004, two great scientist-explorers are attempting to find the bottom of the world. Bold, heroic American Bill Stone is committed to the vast Cheve Cave, located in southern Mexico and deadly even by supercave standards. On the other side of the globe, legendary Ukrainian explorer Alexander Klimchouk—Stone’s polar opposite in temperament and style, but every bit his equal in scientific expertise, physical bravery, and sheer determination—has targeted Krubera, a freezing nightmare of a supercave in the Republic of Georgia, where underground dangers are compounded by the horrors of separatist war in this former Soviet republic.]]> 286 James M. Tabor 1400067677 Alexis 3 3.68 2010 Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth
author: James M. Tabor
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2019/05/15
date added: 2019/05/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus]]> 390992 288 Thomas Goltz 0765617102 Alexis 3 nonfiction 3.96 2006 Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus
author: Thomas Goltz
name: Alexis
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2019/05/06
date added: 2019/05/06
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]>