Ajms98's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 03 Apr 2025 20:00:57 -0700 60 Ajms98's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War]]> 8908
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?"

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.]]> 342 Max Brooks 0307346609 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.02 2006 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
author: Max Brooks
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Graveyard Shift 203578770 Author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.

Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.

One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.

Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style.]]> 144 M.L. Rio 1250356792 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.18 2024 Graveyard Shift
author: M.L. Rio
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 382 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Ajms98 5 favorites
I think this is the last book she’ll ever write about the world of Panem, and i think i’m at peace with that. The heat of the sun and the fire will always melt the snow.]]> 4.63 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: favorites
review:
This is IT. This is the best prequel book of all time, on every genre. Nothing compares. It’s as if this was written years before any of us met Katniss. So perfectly tied, so natural, so real. Suzanne Collins, we own you a lot. Thank you for showing us all how to rebel.

I think this is the last book she’ll ever write about the world of Panem, and i think i’m at peace with that. The heat of the sun and the fire will always melt the snow.
]]> The Gone World 33413556 Inception meets True Detective in this science fiction thriller of spellbinding tension and staggering scope that follows a special agent into a savage murder case with grave implications for the fate of mankind...

Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family--and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra—a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows first-hand the mental trauma of time-travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.

Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection from her own past, Moss travels ahead in time to explore possible versions of the future, seeking evidence to crack the present-day case. To her horror, the future reveals that it's not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work, for what she witnesses rising over time's horizon and hurtling toward the present is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself.

Luminous and unsettling, The Gone World bristles with world-shattering ideas yet remains at its heart an intensely human story.]]> 400 Tom Sweterlitsch 0399167501 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.90 2018 The Gone World
author: Tom Sweterlitsch
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Horror Movie 200101541 A chilling twist on the “cursed filmâ€� genre from the bestselling author ofĚýThe Pallbearers Club ˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýThe Cabin at the End of the World.

In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.

The weird part?ĚýOnly three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.

The man who played “The Thin Kid� is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions � demons of the past be damned.

But at what cost?Ěý

Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful twist on the “cursed film� that breathlessly builds to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.]]> 277 Paul Tremblay 0063070014 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.31 2024 Horror Movie
author: Paul Tremblay
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Escape Room 147336813 Eight strangers arrive at a remote sea fort off the coast of England. They are here to take part in The Fortress, a mysterious reality TV show in which contestants have to solve a series of complex puzzles. But this is no game, and the consequences of failure are more deadly than anyone anticipated.

No one leaves.
The show's sinister purpose becomes clear when the first person is evicted from the competition. Instead of being sent home to their family, they are left to die inside a locked room.

The only way out is to win.
Under scrutiny from the watching public, the contestants soon turn one another. What are they willing to do for wealth and fame? How far will they go to survive? And who is behind it all? The only thing they know for certain is that if they want to escape, they need to win...

Are you ready to play?]]> 432 L.D. Smithson Ajms98 0 to-read 4.01 2024 The Escape Room
author: L.D. Smithson
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The French Girl 35235624
For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group's loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive, and there are some people you can't forget, like Severine, who was never seen again.

Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free.]]> 304 Lexie Elliott 0399586938 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.51 2018 The French Girl
author: Lexie Elliott
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 60556912
Every day I clean the Winchesters� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of�

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.31 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Verity 59344312
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.]]> 336 Colleen Hoover 153872474X Ajms98 0 to-read 4.29 2018 Verity
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nice Girls Don't Win: How I Burned It All Down to Claim My Power]]> 220239090 A bold, eye-opening memoir about survival, trauma, and healing from one of reality television’s most talked-about stars

At twenty-five years old, Parvati Shallow was plunged into fame and fortune after becoming the $1 million winner of the reality television series Survivor. But despite her success, the ghosts of her traumatic past, coupled with the harsh glare of the public eye, kept her locked in a survival cycle of fear and shame that sabotaged her self-confidence and eroded her self-trust. It wasn’t until a series of painful life events, including the death of her younger brother and a challenging divorce, that she found herself on a path of healing that would awaken her to her true power and reset the course of her life.

In Nice Girls Don't Win Shallow shares the stories that allowed her to transform her most difficult moments into powerful catalysts for empowerment. From her childhood growing up in a Florida commune run by a tyrannical female guru, to her journey out of the South and inside the L.A. casting rooms that would eventually drop her into the lush but brutal landscapes of Survivor, Shallow shows readers what it took to build herself into the ultimate survivor—for better, and more often, for worse. And then she reveals what it took rebuild herself into something much greater.

As harrowing as it is healing, Shallow’s story is a testament to the profound lessons that can be found in radical self-acceptance and self-love.]]> 256 Parvati Shallow 0593730577 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.25 Nice Girls Don't Win: How I Burned It All Down to Claim My Power
author: Parvati Shallow
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Witchcraft for Wayward Girls 207611566 There’s power in a book�

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master� (NPR).]]> 482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.00 2025 Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Atmosphere 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.45 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Listeners 56988057
January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.

Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.

Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats� secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.

June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.]]> 400 Maggie Stiefvater 0593655508 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.04 2025 The Listeners
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Good Man Is Hard To Find 75090 A Good Man Is Hard to Find is Flannery O'Connor's most famous and most discussed story. O'Connor herself singled it out by making it the title piece of her first collection and the story she most often chose for readings or talks to students. It is an unforgettable tale, both riveting and comic, of the confrontation of a family with violence and sudden death. More than anything else O'Connor ever wrote, this story mixes the comedy, violence, and religious concerns that characterize her fiction.

This casebook for the story includes an introduction by the editor, a chronology of the author's life, the authoritative text of the story itself, comments and letters by O'Connor about the story, critical essays, and a bibliography. The critical essays span more than twenty years of commentary and suggest several approaches to the story--formalistic, thematic, deconstructionist-- all within the grasp of the undergraduate, while the introduction also points interested students toward still other resources. Useful for both beginning and advanced students, this casebook provides an in-depth introduction to one of America's most gifted modern writers.]]> 180 Flannery O'Connor 0813519772 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.89 1949 A Good Man Is Hard To Find
author: Flannery O'Connor
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Giovanni’s Room 406235 178 James Baldwin Ajms98 0 to-read 4.40 1956 Giovanni’s Room
author: James Baldwin
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes]]> 237764 28 Gabriel García Márquez 9580455708 Ajms98 4 4.00 1968 Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormes
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> The Lottery 6219656
“The Lottery� stands out as one of the most famous short stories in American literary history. Originally published in The New Yorker, the author immediately began receiving letters from readers who demanded an explanation of the story’s meaning. “The Lottery� has been adapted for stage, television, radio and film.
]]> 30 Shirley Jackson 1563127873 Ajms98 3 4.08 1948 The Lottery
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1948
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, #4)]]> 17378527
All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.]]> 439 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424984 Ajms98 5 favorites, currently-reading 4.26 2016 The Raven King (The Raven Cycle, #4)
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/29
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: favorites, currently-reading
review:

]]> Bonsai 3374076 "Winner of Chile’s Literary Critics� Award for Best Novel"

Now a Major Motion Picture

Hailed as a great Latin American literary event, this stylistically innovative, elliptically told tale of a young man and his love who mysteriously disappears is, as the narrator tells us, “a simple story that becomes complicated.�

Through both the distance and closeness of these young lovers, Alejandro Zambra brilliantly explores the relationship between art, love, and life. Bonsai is accessible yet profound—as one critic in Chile’s Capital newspaper put it, “Brief as a sigh and forceful as a blow.�
]]> 83 Alejandro Zambra 193363362X Ajms98 0 to-read 3.71 2006 Bonsai
author: Alejandro Zambra
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Egg 17563539 A short story about the universe and your place in it.

"You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. ... And that’s when you met me."

The Egg is a short story written by Andy Weir, his most popular, and follows a nameless 48-year-old man who discovers the "meaning of life" after he dies. The story is about "you" (in the second person), and God, who is "me" (in the first person). God says that you have been reincarnated many times before, and that you are soon to be reincarnated once more, leading to quite a few existential questions.

Andy Weir (1972-) built a career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, The Martian (2011), allowed him to live out his dream of writing fulltime. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects such as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail.]]> 3 Andy Weir Ajms98 5 favorites 4.21 2009 The Egg
author: Andy Weir
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: favorites
review:
Simply fascinating, wish it was a full book.
]]> Happy Endings 13250990 3 Margaret Atwood Ajms98 3 3.96 1983 Happy Endings
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Annie's Day 23785283 I didn't want to wake up at 6am, especially on a Saturday. But the man I was cuddled up to was... a morning person.]]> 3 Andy Weir Ajms98 0 to-read 3.71 2011 Annie's Day
author: Andy Weir
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Galatea 18162954 An enchanting short story from Madeline Miller that boldly reimagines the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion.

In ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece � the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen � the gift of life. Now his wife, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence.

In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, Galatea is locked away under the constant supervision of doctors and nurses. But with a daughter to rescue, she is determined to break free, whatever the cost...]]> 27 Madeline Miller 1408848147 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.93 2013 Galatea
author: Madeline Miller
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Iliad 77265004 848 Homer 1324001801 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.09 -800 The Iliad
author: Homer
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.09
book published: -800
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Odyssey 1381 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

--

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.]]> 541 Homer 0143039954 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.79 -700 The Odyssey
author: Homer
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.79
book published: -700
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)]]> 8855321
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.]]> 592 James S.A. Corey 1841499889 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.30 2011 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)]]> 944073
Nobleman Captain Jezal dan Luthar, dashing officer, and paragon of selfishness, has nothing more dangerous in mind than fleecing his friends at cards and dreaming of glory in the fencing circle. But war is brewing, and on the battlefields of the frozen North they fight by altogether bloodier rules.

Inquisitor Glokta, cripple turned torturer, would like nothing better than to see Jezal come home in a box. But then Glokta hates everyone: cutting treason out of the Union one confession at a time leaves little room for friendship. His latest trail of corpses may lead him right to the rotten heart of government, if he can stay alive long enough to follow it.

Enter the wizard, Bayaz. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Logen, Jezal, and Glokta a whole lot more difficult.

Murderous conspiracies rise to the surface, old scores are ready to be settled, and the line between hero and villain is sharp enough to draw blood.

]]> 515 Joe Abercrombie 0575079797 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.21 2006 The Blade Itself (The First Law, #1)
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Family 57234739
Two daughters. Two families. One inescapable fate.

Sofia Colicchio is a free spirit, a loud, untamed thing. Antonia Russo is thoughtful, ever observing the world around her. Best friends from birth, their homes share a brick wall and their fathers are part of an unspoken community that connects them all: the Family. Sunday dinners gather the Family each week to feast, discuss business, and renew the intoxicating bond borne of blood and love.

Until Antonia’s father dares to dream of a different life and goes missing soon after. His disappearance drives a whisper-thin wedge between Sofia and Antonia as they become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. Both women are pushing against the walls of a prison made up of expectations, even as they remain bound to one another, their hearts expanding in tandem with Red Hook and Brooklyn around them. One fateful night their loyalty to each other and the Family will be tested. Only one of them can pull the trigger before it’s too late.]]> 368 Naomi Krupitsky 0525541993 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.51 2021 The Family
author: Naomi Krupitsky
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wuthering Heights 6185 You can find the redesigned cover of this edition HERE.

At the centre of this novel is the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff - recounted with such emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire moors acquires the depth and simplicity of ancient tragedy.

This best-selling Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1847 first edition of the novel. For the Fourth Edition, the editor has collated the 1847 text with several modern editions and has corrected a number of variants, including accidentals. The text is accompanied by entirely new explanatory annotations.

New to the fourth Edition are twelve of Emily Bronte's letters regarding the publication of the 1847 edition of Wuthering Heights as well as the evolution of the 1850 edition, prose and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and Edward Chitham's insightful and informative chronology of the creative process behind the beloved work.

Five major critical interpretations of Wuthering Heights are included, three of them new to the Fourth Edition. A Stuart Daley considers the importance of chronology in the novel. J. Hillis Miller examines Wuthering Heights's problems of genre and critical reputation. Sandra M. Gilbert assesses the role of Victorian Christianity plays in the novel, while Martha Nussbaum traces the novel's romanticism. Finally, Lin Haire-Sargeant scrutinizes the role of Heathcliff in film adaptations of Wuthering Heights.

A Chronology and updated Selected Bibliography are also included.]]> 464 Emily Brontë Ajms98 4 She understood the darker sides of the human spirit, and how sometimes love is exactly what ignites and creates them, as the loss of love is what produced every ounce of pain, anger and vengeance in this novel. ]]> 3.89 1847 Wuthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1847
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves:
review:
Emily Brontë was a deeply talented woman.
She understood the darker sides of the human spirit, and how sometimes love is exactly what ignites and creates them, as the loss of love is what produced every ounce of pain, anger and vengeance in this novel.
]]> Watchmen 472331 Watchmen, the groundbreaking series from award-winning author Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, presents a world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history—the U.S. won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the Cold War is in full effect.

Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, the Hugo Award-winning story chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the superhero is dissected as an unknown assassin stalks the erstwhile heroes.]]> 416 Alan Moore 0930289234 Ajms98 3 4.38 1987 Watchmen
author: Alan Moore
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Ajms98 5 favorites
Reread: Yep, this is the best one.]]> 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/29
shelves: favorites
review:
I loved it as much as the first one if not more. Also, I find it really funny that in these games they were all fighting to die first instead of winning.

Reread: Yep, this is the best one.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052 374 Suzanne Collins Ajms98 5 favorites
Reread: Oh Suzanne Collins, you are a f-cking genius!]]> 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves: favorites
review:
I saw all the movies a long time ago, so I was so surprised to find myself into the story so much when I already knew what was going to happen. Never expected Suzanne Collins writing to be this good.

Reread: Oh Suzanne Collins, you are a f-cking genius!
]]> <![CDATA[Curious Tides (Drowned Gods, #1)]]> 101141871
Emory might be a student at the prestigious Aldryn College for Lunar Magics, but her healing abilities have always been mediocre at best—until a treacherous night in the Dovermere sea caves leaves a group of her classmates dead and her as the only survivor. Now Emory is plagued by strange, impossible powers that no healer should possess.

Powers that would ruin her life if the wrong person were to discover them.

To gain control of these new abilities, Emory enlists the help of the school’s most reclusive student, Baz—a boy already well-versed in the deadly nature of darker magic, whose sister happened to be one of the drowned students and Emory’s best friend. Determined to find the truth behind the drownings and the cult-like secret society she’s convinced her classmates were involved in, Emory is faced with even more questions when the supposedly drowned students start washing ashore� alive —only for them each immediately to die horrible, magical deaths.

And Emory is not the only one seeking answers. When her new magic captures the society’s attention, she finds herself drawn into their world of privilege and power, all while wondering if the truth she’s searching for might lead her right back to Dovermere…to face the fate she was never meant to escape.]]> 544 Pascale Lacelle 1665939273 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.79 2023 Curious Tides (Drowned Gods, #1)
author: Pascale Lacelle
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Saga, Volume 1 15704307
Collects: Saga #1-6.]]> 160 Brian K. Vaughan 1607066017 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.16 2012 Saga, Volume 1
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Batman: Dark Victory 106076
Ěý

This volume collects Batman: Dark Victory #0-13.]]> 391 Jeph Loeb 1563898683 Ajms98 5 favorites 4.16 2000 Batman: Dark Victory
author: Jeph Loeb
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/03
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: favorites
review:
Such a great follow up to Long Halloween!
]]> Batman: The Long Halloween 106069 376 Jeph Loeb 1563894696 Ajms98 5 favorites 4.33 1997 Batman: The Long Halloween
author: Jeph Loeb
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> Hex 56179364 The English language debut of the bestselling Dutch novel, Hex, from Thomas Olde Heuvelt--a Hugo and World Fantasy award nominated talent to watch

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened or the consequences will be too terrible to bear.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into dark, medieval practices of the distant past.

This chilling novel heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in mainstream horror and dark fantasy.]]> 384 Thomas Olde Heuvelt 1250780934 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.71 2013 Hex
author: Thomas Olde Heuvelt
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Ajms98 0 currently-reading 3.87 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Talking at Night 62583508
They’re opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother’s wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer—destined to be one another’s great love story.

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

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

What do you do when the one person you should forget is the one you just can’t let go?]]> 400 Claire Daverley 0593653483 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.91 2023 Talking at Night
author: Claire Daverley
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Mystic River 21671
Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -- demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood.

A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves.]]> 416 Dennis Lehane 0060584750 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.17 2001 Mystic River
author: Dennis Lehane
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Midnight Library 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Batman: The Court of Owls Saga]]> 39018271 Hidden for years, the mysterious Court of Owls surfaces in Gotham City--what must Batman do to defeat them, and what deadly connection do they have to his past? Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's masterpiece epic is collected in its entirey in trade paperback for the first time ever!

After a series of brutal murders rocks Gotham City, Batman begins to realize that perhaps these crimes go far deeper than appearances suggest. As the Caped Crusader begins to unravel this deadly mystery, he discovers a conspiracy going back to his youth and beyond to the origins of the city he's sworn to protect. Could the Court of Owls, once thought to be nothing more than an urban legend, be behind the crime and corruption? Or is Bruce Wayne losing his grip on sanity and falling prey to the pressures of his war on crime?

Considered one of the greatest stories in the Dark Knight's historic lore, Batman: The Court of Owls Saga is an epic tale told by two of comics' finest storytellers. Collects issues #1-11 of Batman as well as bonus material including sketches, scripts, design concepts and variant covers.

The DC Essential Edition series of graphic novels highlights the best standalone stories the medium has to offer, featuring comics' greatest characters. These trade paperback editions focus on the easiest entry points DC has in its vast library, with seminal, groundbreaking tales that transcend the printed page. Start with the Essentials.]]> 320 Scott Snyder 1401284337 Ajms98 2 4.31 2011 Batman: The Court of Owls Saga
author: Scott Snyder
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)]]> 56534999 Welcome to the thrilling and unnervingly prescient world of the slow horses. This team of MI5 agents is united by one common bond: They've screwed up royally and will do anything to redeem themselves.

This special tenth-anniversary deluxe edition of a modern classic includes a foreword by the author, discussion questions for book clubs, and an exclusive short story featuring the slow horses.

London, England: Slough House is where washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what’s left of their failed careers. The “slow horses,� as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated there. Maybe they botched an Op so badly they can’t be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they have in common, though, is they want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.

When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, the slow horses see an opportunity to redeem themselves. But is the victim really who he appears to be?]]> 334 Mick Herron 1641292970 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.05 2010 Slow Horses (Slough House, #1)
author: Mick Herron
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Batman: Hush 6375845
BATMAN: HUSH is a thrilling mystery of action, intrigue, and deception penned by Jeph Loeb (BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN) and illustrated by comics superstar Jim Lee (ALL STAR BATMAN & ROBIN, THE BOY WONDER) in which Batman sets out to discover the identity of a mysterious mastermind using the Joker, Riddler, Ra's al Ghul and the Dark Knight's other enemies - and allies - as pawns in a plan to wreak havoc.

This volume collects Batman #609-619 as well as the 6-page segment from Wizard #0 and a 2-page origin story that originally appeared at dccomics.com.]]> 320 Jeph Loeb 1401223176 Ajms98 4 4.27 2002 Batman: Hush
author: Jeph Loeb
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Sorcery of Thorns 43368595 From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an imaginative fantasy about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom.

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.]]> 465 Margaret Rogerson 1481497634 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.08 2019 Sorcery of Thorns
author: Margaret Rogerson
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of the Salt, #1)]]> 39679076 In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.

Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor, a manor by the sea, with her sisters, their father, and stepmother. Once they were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls' lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last—the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge—and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.

Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that the deaths were no accidents. Her sisters have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn't sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who—or what—are they really dancing with?

When Annaleigh's involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it's a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family—before it claims her next.]]> 403 Erin A. Craig 1984831925 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.89 2019 House of Salt and Sorrows (Sisters of the Salt, #1)
author: Erin A. Craig
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Paris Apartment 58468990 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List comes a new locked room mystery, set in a Paris apartment building in which every resident has something to hide�

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up � to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? � he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite � The nice guy � The alcoholic � The girl on the verge � The concierge

Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.]]> 360 Lucy Foley 0063003058 Ajms98 4 3.63 2022 The Paris Apartment
author: Lucy Foley
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves:
review:

]]> The Appeal (The Appeal, #1) 54621096 447 Janice Hallett 1788165292 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.83 2021 The Appeal (The Appeal, #1)
author: Janice Hallett
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)]]> 181350367 For fans of Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club, an enormously fun mystery about a woman who spends her entire life trying to prevent her foretold murder only to be proven right sixty years later, when she is found dead in her sprawling country estate.... Now it's up to her great-niece to catch the killer.

It’s 1965 and teenage Frances Adams is at an English country fair with her two best friends. But Frances’s night takes a hairpin turn when a fortune-teller makes a bone-chilling prediction: One day, Frances will be murdered. Frances spends a lifetime trying to solve a crime that hasn’t happened yet, compiling dirt on every person who crosses her path in an effort to prevent her own demise. For decades, no one takes Frances seriously, until nearly sixty years later, when Frances is found murdered, like she always said she would be.

In the present day, Annie Adams has been summoned to a meeting at the sprawling country estate of her wealthy and reclusive great-aunt Frances. But by the time Annie arrives in the quaint English village of Castle Knoll, Frances is already dead. Annie is determined to catch the killer, but thanks to Frances’s lifelong habit of digging up secrets and lies, it seems every endearing and eccentric villager might just have a motive for her murder. Can Annie safely unravel the dark mystery at the heart of Castle Knoll, or will dredging up the past throw her into the path of a killer?

As Annie gets closer to the truth, and closer to the danger, she starts to fear she might inherit her aunt’s fate instead of her fortune.]]> 358 Kristen Perrin 0593474015 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.76 2024 How to Solve Your Own Murder (Castle Knoll Files, #1)
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Twyford Code 58451313
Forty years ago, Steven Smith found a copy of a famous children's book, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. He took it to his remedial English teacher, Miss Isles, who became convinced it was the key to solving a puzzle. That a message in secret code ran through all Edith Twyford's novels. Then Miss Isles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven's memory won't allow him to remember what happened. Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Isles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code? And is it still in use today? Desperate to recover his memories and find out what really happened to Miss Isles, Steven revisits the people and places of his childhood. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn't just a writer of forgotten children's stories. The Twyford Code has great power, and he isn't the only one trying to solve it...]]> 384 Janice Hallett 1788165322 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.57 2022 The Twyford Code
author: Janice Hallett
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Examiner 207294238
Gela Nathaniel, head of Royal Hastings University’s new Multimedia Art course, must find six students from all walks of life across the United Kingdom for her new master’s program before the university cuts her funding. The students are nothing but trouble from day one.

There’s Jem, a talented sculptor recently graduated from her university program and eager to make her mark as an artist at any cost. Jonathan, who has little experience in art practice aside from running his family’s gallery. Patrick runs an art supply store, but can barely operate his phone, much less design software. Ludya is a single mother and graphic designer more interested in a paycheck than homework. Cameron is a marketing executive in search of a hobby or a career change. And Alyson, already a successful artist, seems to be overqualified. Finally, there is the examiner, the man hired to grade students� final works—an art installation for a local cloud-based solutions company that may have an ulterior agenda—and who, in sifting through final essays, texts, and message boards, warns that someone is in danger…or already dead. And nothing about this course has been left up to chance.

With her trademark “unique and exhilarating� (Megan Collins, author of The Family Plot) voice, Janice Hallett weaves a fresh and mind-bending mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.]]> 480 Janice Hallett 1668023423 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.71 2024 The Examiner
author: Janice Hallett
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Famous Girl in the World]]> 193544856
Rose Aslani is mid-bikini wax when her phone lights up with a notification: Famed scam artist Poppy Hastings will be released from prison today.

It's been two years since Rose―a first-generation Middle Eastern American, functional trainwreck, and reporter for online journal The Shred―wrote the investigative article that exposed Poppy as a socialite grifter. Normally, one of her articles going viral would be cause for celebration, but the highly publicized trial that followed turned Poppy into the internet's favorite celebrity. And Rose has been reeling from the aftermath ever since. Although Poppy served her time for defrauding some of the richest, most powerful men in the world, Rose knows this is only the tip of the iceberg for Poppy's crimes. She just can't prove it yet� At least not without the help of a devilishly handsome FBI agent gone rogue.

As Poppy's star rises as an influencer and pop-culture icon, Rose quickly descends into a downward spiral of guilt and obsession. Her article created Poppy's fame, so Rose needs to right her wrong by exposing Poppy for the monster that she is. But it's not going to be easy taking down the most famous girl in the world.

Campy, satirical, and utterly hilarious, The Most Famous Girl in the World is both a scathing indictment of modern celebrity and a thrilling rollercoaster ride of unhinged hijinks that will keep you gasping at every turn of the page.]]> 384 Iman Hariri-Kia 1728270618 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.26 2024 The Most Famous Girl in the World
author: Iman Hariri-Kia
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Midnight Feast 199743738 Secrets. Lies. Murder. Let the festivities begin...

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

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

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

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at� The Midnight Feast.]]> 354 Lucy Foley 0063003104 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.55 2024 The Midnight Feast
author: Lucy Foley
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Snowman (Harry Hole, #7) 9572203 383 Jo Nesbø 0307595862 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.02 2007 The Snowman (Harry Hole, #7)
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> You Are Here 201465867
Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.

Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.

When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of ten-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Michael and Marnie are on the precipice of a bright future . . . if they can survive the journey.]]> 368 David Nicholls 0063394057 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.97 2024 You Are Here
author: David Nicholls
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)]]> 35068705
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.]]> 545 R.F. Kuang 0062662597 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.16 2018 The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)]]> 25526296 Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children
No Solicitations
No Visitors
No Quests

Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else.

But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children.

Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced... they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.

But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter.

No matter the cost.]]> 176 Seanan McGuire 0765385503 Ajms98 3 3.81 2016 Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1)
author: Seanan McGuire
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Blancanieves 13644938 64 Jacob Grimm 8415564104 Ajms98 3 3.67 1812 Blancanieves
author: Jacob Grimm
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1812
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories]]> 22929586 A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians. Readers will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place.]]> 406 Lucia Berlin 0374202397 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.22 2015 A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories
author: Lucia Berlin
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Under Dog and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot, #31)]]> 565273
The beautiful heiress was found dead on a train. The forgotten recluse made headlines after he was shot in the head, and the wealthy playboy was stabbed through the heart during a costume ball. We shouldn't forget the elderly woman who suspected that she was slowly being poisoned to death, and the prince who feared for his reputation when his fiancée became embroiled in another man's murder.

Who but Agatha Christie could concoct such uncanny crimes? Who but Belgian detective Hercule Poirot could possibly solve them? It's a challenge to be met, and a triumph of detection.

The stories are: 1. The Under Dog, 2. The Plymouth Express, 3. The Affair at the Victory Ball, 4. The Market Basing Mystery, 5. The Lemesurier Inheritance, 6. The Cornish Mystery, 7. The King of Clubs, 8. The Submarine Plans, and 9. The Adventure of the Clapham Cook.

Librarian's note: this entry is for the collection of short stories, "The Under Dog and Other Stories." Entries for the individual titles, including the title story, can be found elsewhere on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ. All Agatha Christie's Poirot short stories can be found by searching Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ for: "a Hercule Poirot Short Story."]]> 192 Agatha Christie 0440192285 Ajms98 4 3.76 1951 The Under Dog and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot, #31)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 35036409 My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante Ajms98 0 to-read 4.08 2011 My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Gilead (Gilead, #1) 68210 Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson returns with an intimate tale of three generations, from the Civil War to the 20th century: a story about fathers and sons and the spiritual battles that still rage at America's heart. In the words of Kirkus, it is a novel "as big as a nation, as quiet as thought, and moving as prayer. Matchless and towering." GILEAD tells the story of America and will break your heart.]]> 247 Marilynne Robinson 031242440X Ajms98 0 to-read 3.84 2004 Gilead (Gilead, #1)
author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Night We Lost Him 207299448
Though the authorities rule Liam's death accidental, Nora and her estranged brother, Sam, believe otherwise. As they form an uneasy alliance to unpack the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

With Laura Dave’s “signature blend of pulse-pounding suspense� (PEOPLE) and “trademark emotional heft� (The New York Post), The Night We Lost Him is a “propulsive� (Oprah Daily) must-read, with a heartbreaking final twist you’ll never see coming.]]> 298 Laura Dave 1668002930 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.56 2024 The Night We Lost Him
author: Laura Dave
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Here One Moment 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Butterfly Garden (The Collector, #1)]]> 29981261
In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.

When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.

As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding...]]> 288 Dot Hutchison 1503989712 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.09 2016 The Butterfly Garden (The Collector, #1)
author: Dot Hutchison
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 2
Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...]]> 912 J.K. Rowling Ajms98 5 favorites
Still hate JK's guts tho. We should have know what type of person she is when she finished her saga giving ok/happy endings to the most despicable characters (except Voldemort and Bellatrix.)

Like seriously, what type of person would have not killed Dolores Umbridge and Lucius Malfoy? Well... JK Rowling. Makes sense. They don't even end in jail...]]> 4.50 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: favorites
review:
This one is underrated in the fandom. I love it for everything that the people hate it. It's dark, long and REAL.

Still hate JK's guts tho. We should have know what type of person she is when she finished her saga giving ok/happy endings to the most despicable characters (except Voldemort and Bellatrix.)

Like seriously, what type of person would have not killed Dolores Umbridge and Lucius Malfoy? Well... JK Rowling. Makes sense. They don't even end in jail...
]]> Cicatriz 27420709
Simon Sax podría ser un tipo afortunado. Es joven, listo y está punto de convertirse en multimillonario si vende su gran invento -un asombroso algoritmo- a una multinacional. Y, sin embargo, se siente solo. Su éxito contrasta con sus nulas habilidades sociales. Hasta que un día vence sus prejuicios y entra en una web de contactos donde se enamora perdidamente de Irina, con la inexperiencia y la pasión de un adolescente, a pesar de los miles de kilómetros que los separan. Pero ella, marcada con una enigmática cicatriz en la mejilla, arrastra un oscuro secreto. Una novela que te hará mirar de otra forma a la persona con la que duermes.

«Juan Gómez-Jurado atrapa irremediablemente al lector» Booklist

«Tiene la fórmula del éxito, ha conseguido conectar con el público y la crítica» Jot Down

«Marca un nuevo estándar de oro para los thrillers» USA Today

«Juan Gómez Jurado demuestra que el suspense patrio raya a la altura de la mejor factoría anglosajona» El Cultural de El Mundo]]> 576 Juan Gómez-Jurado 8466657991 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.75 2015 Cicatriz
author: Juan GĂłmez-Jurado
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In Memoriam 61028413 A gripping, heart-shattering love story between two soldiers in the First World War

It's 1914, and talk of war feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. At seventeen, they're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle - an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the dreamy, poetic Ellwood - not having a clue that Ellwood is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's German mother asks him to enlist as an officer in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, Gaunt signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood.

The front is horrific, of course, and though Gaunt tries to dissuade Ellwood from joining him on the battlefield, Ellwood soon rushes to join him, spurred on by his love of Greek heroes and romantic poetry. Before long, their classmates have followed suit. Once in the trenches, Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, but their friends are all dying, right in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.

An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.]]> 385 Alice Winn 0241567823 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.56 2023 In Memoriam
author: Alice Winn
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pride and Prejudice 1885 Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268]]> 279 Jane Austen 1441341706 Ajms98 4
Should we be grateful for her work? Always. One could say that the whole romcom genre exists thanks to her.

Do i love the 2005 Joe Wright movie more than the book it’s based on? Ashamed to admit that yes, i do. By a HUGE margin.]]> 4.28 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1813
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves:
review:
Is Jane Austen more talented that i will ever be? Absolutely.

Should we be grateful for her work? Always. One could say that the whole romcom genre exists thanks to her.

Do i love the 2005 Joe Wright movie more than the book it’s based on? Ashamed to admit that yes, i do. By a HUGE margin.
]]> The Color Purple 52892857 Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

â€Áč±đ˛ą»ĺľ±˛Ô˛µ The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.â€� —Tayari Jones

�The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.� —Kiese Laymon]]> 287 Alice Walker 0143135694 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.40 1982 The Color Purple
author: Alice Walker
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> El tiempo entre costuras 7502166
La joven modista Sira Quiroga abandona Madrid en los meses convulsos previos al alzamiento arrastrada por el amor des­bocado hacia un hombre a quien apenas conoce. Juntos se instalan en Tánger, una ciudad mundana, exótica y vibrante en la que todo lo impensable puede hacerse realidad. Incluso la traición y el abandono de la persona en quien ha depositado toda su confianza. El tiempo entre costuras es una aventu­ra apasionante en la que los talleres de alta costura, el glamur de los grandes hoteles, las conspiraciones políticas y las oscuras misiones de los servicios secre­tos se funden con la lealtad hacia aque­llos a quienes queremos y con el poder irrefrenable del amor.

Una novela femenina que tiene todos los ingredientes del género: el creci­miento personal de una mujer, una historia de amor que recuerda a Casablanca� Nos acerca a la época colonial espa­ñola. Varios críticos literarios han destacado el hecho de que mientras en Francia o en Gran Bretaña existía una gran tradición de literatura colo­nial (Malraux, Foster, Kipling...), en España apenas se ha sacado prove­cho de la aventura africana. Un homenaje a los hombres y mujeres que vivieron allí. Además la autora nos aproxima a un personaje real desconocido para el gran público: Juan Luis Beigbeder, el primer ministro de Exteriores del gobierno de Franco.]]> 638 María Dueñas 8484607917 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.30 2009 El tiempo entre costuras
author: María Dueñas
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)]]> 61294937 Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.]]> 483 Shannon Chakraborty Ajms98 0 to-read 4.25 2023 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)
author: Shannon Chakraborty
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Taken at the Flood (Hercule Poirot, #29)]]> 16308
Shortly afterwards, Hercule Poirot receives a visit from the dead man’s sister-in-law who claims she has been warned by â€spiritsâ€� that Mrs Underhay’s first husband is still alive. Poirot has his suspicions when he is asked to find a missing person guided only by the spirit world. Yet what mystifies Poirot most is the woman’s true motive for approaching him…]]> 352 Agatha Christie 0007121016 Ajms98 3 3.72 1948 Taken at the Flood (Hercule Poirot, #29)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1948
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/13
date added: 2024/06/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Dials Mystery (Superintendent Battle #2)]]> 483103
Gerry Wade had proved himself to be a champion sleeper, so the other houseguests decided to play a practical joke on him. Eight alarm clocks were set to go off, one after the other, starting at 6:30 a.m. But when morning arrived, one clock was missing and the prank then backfired, with tragic consequences.

For Jimmy Thesiger in particular, the words "Seven Dials" were to take on a new and chilling significance...]]> 375 Agatha Christie 0007122594 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.81 1929 The Seven Dials Mystery (Superintendent Battle #2)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)]]> 23437156 Alternate cover of ISBN 9781627792127

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager

A runaway with a privileged past

A spy known as the Wraith

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.]]> 480 Leigh Bardugo 1627792120 Ajms98 5 favorites
REREAD: Yep. Still thirsty about em']]> 4.47 2015 Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/04
date added: 2024/06/04
shelves: favorites
review:
I had never read a book before in which I desperately wanted to marry all six of its principal characters.

REREAD: Yep. Still thirsty about em'
]]> The Shipping News 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.88 1993 The Shipping News
author: Annie Proulx
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Brokeback Mountain 1627 Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.

Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.

The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of "Brokeback Mountain," and the story was included in Prize Stories 1998: The O. Henry Awards. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance.

]]> 55 Annie Proulx 0743271327 Ajms98 5 favorites Paris Brokeback Mountain.]]> 4.01 1997 Brokeback Mountain
author: Annie Proulx
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves: favorites
review:
We'll always have Paris Brokeback Mountain.
]]> <![CDATA[The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches, #1)]]> 11901
Demonstrating, once again, her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of legend, Anne Rice makes real for us a great dynasty of witches—a family given to poetry and to incest, to murder and to philosophy; a family that, over the ages, is itself haunted by a powerful, dangerous, and seductive being.

On the veranda of a great New Orleans house, now faded, a mute and fragile woman sits rocking... and The Witching Hour begins.

It begins in our time with a rescue at sea.ĚýĚýRowan Mayfair, a beautiful woman, a brilliant practitioner of neurosurgery—aware that she has special powers but unaware that she comes from an ancient line of witches—finds the drowned body of a man off the coast of California and brings him to life.ĚýĚýHe is Michael Curry, who was born in New Orleans and orphaned in childhood by fire on Christmas Eve, who pulled himself up from poverty, and who now, in his brief interval of death, has acquired a sensory power that mystifies and frightens him.

As these two, fiercely drawn to each other, fall in love and—in passionate alliance—set out to solve the mystery of her past and his unwelcome gift, the novel moves backward and forward in time from today's New Orleans and San Francisco to long-ago Amsterdam and a château in the France of Louis XIV.ĚýĚýAn intricate tale of evil unfolds—an evil unleashed in seventeenth-century Scotland, where the first "witch," Suzanne of the Mayfair, conjures up the spirit she names Lasher... a creation that spells her own destruction and torments each of her descendants in turn.

From the coffee plantations of Port au Prince, where the great Mayfair fortune is made and the legacy of their dark power is almost destroyed, to Civil War New Orleans, as Julien—the clan's only male to be endowed with occult powers—provides for the dynasty its foothold in America, the dark, luminous story encompasses dramas of seduction and death, episodes of tenderness and healing.ĚýĚýAnd always—through peril and escape, tension and release—there swirl around us the echoes of eternal war: innocence versus the corruption of the spirit, sanity against madness, life against death.ĚýĚýWith a dreamlike power, the novel draws us, through circuitous, twilight paths, to the present and Rowan's increasingly inspired and risky moves in the merciless game that binds her to her heritage. And in New Orleans, on Christmas Eve, this strangest of family sagas is brought to its startling climax.]]> 1207 Anne Rice 0099471426 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.11 1990 The Witching Hour (Lives of the Mayfair Witches, #1)
author: Anne Rice
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Carrie Soto Is Back 60435878 Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.]]> 384 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158687 Ajms98 4 4.19 2022 Carrie Soto Is Back
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/29
date added: 2024/04/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)]]> 119322
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.]]> 399 Philip Pullman 0679879242 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.02 1995 The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3)]]> 17378508
Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.

The trick with found things, though, is how easily they can be lost.

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.]]> 391 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424968 Ajms98 5 favorites
Reread: I can't believe how little I understood Gansey at the first read of the saga. I ended up loving him but it took me time because I misjudged him. Now on the reread I loved him since the beginning. I liked Blue way more too, but she is still the weakest character out of the four protagonist.]]> 4.26 2014 Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3)
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/12
date added: 2024/04/12
shelves: favorites
review:
This is the best book out of the first three. I LIVE for Adam and Ronan, and I found myself loving Gansey too. That was more shocking than anything that happened in the story so far. Blue on the other hand... she keeps being... her. Still she was less annoying here, or, the same amount of annoyance but I understood why she behaved that way this time.

Reread: I can't believe how little I understood Gansey at the first read of the saga. I ended up loving him but it took me time because I misjudged him. Now on the reread I loved him since the beginning. I liked Blue way more too, but she is still the weakest character out of the four protagonist.
]]> The Passengers 52674648 You're riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then, a mysterious voice tells you, "You are going to die."

Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an undocumented immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man.

From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, "Which of these people should we save?...And who should we kill first?"]]> 340 John Marrs 0593098765 Ajms98 0 to-read 4.10 2019 The Passengers
author: John Marrs
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Thursday Murder Club 51900242 Four septuagenarians with a few tricks up their sleeves
A female cop with her first big case
A brutal murder
Welcome to�
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club.

When a local developer is found dead with a mysterious photograph left next to the body, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case.

As the bodies begin to pile up, can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer, before it’s too late?]]> 355 Richard Osman 1984880969 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.93 2020 The Thursday Murder Club
author: Richard Osman
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Confessions 19161835 Her pupils killed her daughter.
Now, she will have her revenge.

After calling off her engagement in wake of a tragic revelation, Yuko Moriguchi had nothing to live for except her only child, four-year-old Manami. Now, following an accident on the grounds of the middle school where she teaches, Yuko has given up and tendered her resignation.

But first she has one last lecture to deliver. She tells a story that upends everything her students ever thought they knew about two of their peers, and sets in motion a maniacal plot for revenge.

Narrated in alternating voices, with twists you'll never see coming, Confessions explores the limits of punishment, despair, and tragic love, culminating in a harrowing confrontation between teacher and student that will place the occupants of an entire school in danger. You'll never look at a classroom the same way again.]]> 240 Kanae Minato 0316200921 Ajms98 1 3.91 2008 Confessions
author: Kanae Minato
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 2024/03/29
date added: 2024/03/29
shelves:
review:
Relatively short yet it felt like 1000 pages.
]]> She Left 193544871 352 Stacie Grey 1728292921 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.15 2024 She Left
author: Stacie Grey
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)]]> 46000520
But when a brutal killing takes place on their very doorstep, the Thursday Murder Club find themselves in the middle of their first live case. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before it's too late?

Alternate cover edition can be found here .]]> 382 Richard Osman Ajms98 2 3.87 2020 The Thursday Murder Club (Thursday Murder Club, #1)
author: Richard Osman
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/22
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Murder at the End of the World]]> 136276877
Outside the island there is nothing: the world was destroyed by a fog that swept the planet, killing anyone it touched.

On the island: it is idyllic. One hundred and twenty-two villagers and three scientists, living in peaceful harmony. The villagers are content to fish, farm and feast, to obey their nightly curfew, to do what they're told by the scientists.

Until, to the horror of the islanders, one of their beloved scientists is found brutally stabbed to death. And then they learn that the murder has triggered a lowering of the security system around the island, the only thing that was keeping the fog at bay. If the murder isn't solved within 107 hours, the fog will smother the island—and everyone on it.

But the security system has also wiped everyone's memories of exactly what happened the night before, which means that someone on the island is a murderer—and they don't even know it.

And the clock is ticking.

From the bestselling author of The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water comes an inventive, high-concept murder mystery: an ingenious puzzle, an extraordinary backdrop, and an audacious solution.]]> 368 Stuart Turton Ajms98 0 to-read 3.63 2024 The Last Murder at the End of the World
author: Stuart Turton
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot, #8)]]> 16424
Poirot quickly takes a particular interest in the young woman. Recently, she has narrowly escaped a series of life-threatening accidents. Something tells the Belgian sleuth that these so-called accidents are more than just mere coincidences or a spate of bad luck. Something like a bullet! It seems all too clear to him that someone is trying to do away with poor Nick, but who? And, what is the motive? In his quest for answers, Poirot must delve into the dark history of End House. The deeper he gets into his investigation, the more certain he is that the killer will soon strike again. And, this time, Nick may not escape with her life.]]> 287 Agatha Christie 0007119305 Ajms98 3 4.00 1932 Peril at End House (Hercule Poirot, #8)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1932
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Mary 58724622
But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things.

Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases. Mary discovers that these experiences are echoes of an infamous serial killer.

Then the killings begin again.

Mary’s definitely going to find herself.]]> 405 Nat Cassidy 1250265231 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.78 2022 Mary
author: Nat Cassidy
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2)]]> 17347389 439 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424941 Ajms98 5 favorites 4.22 2013 The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2)
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/23
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves: favorites
review:
Still so in love with Ronan Lynch.
]]> Blue Sisters 63888248 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

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

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 339 Coco Mellors Ajms98 0 to-read 4.13 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1)]]> 17675462 “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,� Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.�

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.]]> 409 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424925 Ajms98 5 favorites 4.05 2012 The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1)
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/10
date added: 2024/02/10
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> One Day 7020181
It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.
--penguinrandomhouse]]> 438 David Nicholls 0340896981 Ajms98 5 favorites, top-10-of-all-time 3.99 2009 One Day
author: David Nicholls
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/14
date added: 2024/02/10
shelves: favorites, top-10-of-all-time
review:
I fookin' love you, Emma Morley.
]]> And Then There Were None 16299
"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 264 Agatha Christie 0312330871 Ajms98 5 favorites, top-10-of-all-time ME, AN INTELLECTUAL: -Really? Read this book.]]> 4.28 1939 And Then There Were None
author: Agatha Christie
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1939
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/08
date added: 2024/02/10
shelves: favorites, top-10-of-all-time
review:
UNCULTIVATED STRANGER: -The perfect crime doesn't exist.
ME, AN INTELLECTUAL: -Really? Read this book.
]]> This Love 147471219 A debut novel spanning ten years of extraordinary friendship, about soulmates, unconventional families, and the limitless, ever-changing forms love can take

When Mae and Ari meet outside a crowded gay bar during their final year of university, their connection is instant, sparking a lifetime friendship. Stubborn and no stranger to breaking hearts, Mae needs Ari's bright light to guide her out of her self-centered ways. Reeling from a scandal in New York, vibrant, charming Ari sees Mae as an anchor keeping him grounded.

Though they are young, ambitious, and queer, both Mae and Ari secretly daydream about settling down somewhere with a garden, children, and dogs, building a life that feels like home. They make a pact: Somehow, some day, they will have a child together.

In the decades that follow, Ari and Mae realize that fulfilling their promise will not be as simple as they once hoped. Navigating toxic partners and hidden secrets, combating the heavy weight of grief, and relishing the spoils of flashy media careers, the two struggle to reconcile their ever-diverging paths. Although nothing goes quite to plan, Ari and Mae—alongside their dearest friends and lovers—come to realize that the messy, devoted, tight-knit family they could build together might be better than anything they could have ever imagined.]]> 434 Lotte Jeffs 0349703140 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.91 This Love
author: Lotte Jeffs
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dumb Witness (Hercule Poirot, #17)]]> 16344
So, on April 17th she wrote about her anxieties and suspicions in a letter to Hercule Poirot. And included a request that he consult with her as soon as possible. Mysteriously he didn’t receive the letter until June 28th � by which time Emily was already dead.]]> 317 Agatha Christie 0007120796 Ajms98 3 3.88 1937 Dumb Witness (Hercule Poirot, #17)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves:
review:
Hastings is such an annoying bitch he brings dowm every book he is in.
]]> Black Widows 52658299 Blake is dead. They say his wife killed him. If so... which one?

Polygamist Blake Nelson built a homestead on a hidden stretch of land—a raw paradise in the wilds of Utah—where he lived with his three wives:

Rachel, the first wife, obedient and doting to a fault, with a past she'd prefer to keep quiet. Tina, the rebel wife, everything Rachel isn't, straight from rehab and the Vegas strip. And Emily, the young wife, naĂŻve and scared, estranged from her Catholic family.

The only thing that they had in common was Blake. Until all three are accused of his murder.

When Blake is found dead under the desert sun, all three wives become suspect—not only to the police, but to each other. As the investigation draws them closer, each wife must decide who can be trusted. With stories surfacing of a notorious cult tucked away in the hills, whispers flying about a fourth wife, and evidence that can't quite explain what had been keeping Blake busy, the three widows face a reckoning that might shatter all they know to be true.]]> 419 Cate Quinn 1728220467 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.68 2021 Black Widows
author: Cate Quinn
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rey blanco (Antonia Scott, #3)]]> 54334693
Cuando Antonia Scott recibe este mensaje, sabe muy bien quién se lo envía. También sabe que ese juego es casi imposible de ganar. Pero a Antonia no le gusta perder.

Después de todo este tiempo huyendo, la realidad ha acabado alcanzándola. Antonia es cinturón negro en mentirse a sí misma, pero ahora tiene claro que si pierde esta batalla, las habrá perdido todas.

-La reina es la figura más poderosa del tablero -dice el Rey Blanco-. Pero por poderosa que sea una pieza de ajedrez, nunca debe olvidar que hay una mano que la mueve.

-Eso ya lo veremos-, responde Antonia.

EL FINAL ES SOLO EL PRINCIPIO]]> 528 Juan GĂłmez-Jurado 8466668543 Ajms98 5 favorites 4.25 2020 Rey blanco (Antonia Scott, #3)
author: Juan GĂłmez-Jurado
name: Ajms98
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/23
date added: 2024/01/23
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> The Familiar 134059215
What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the line between magic, science, and fraud is never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]> 400 Leigh Bardugo 1250884268 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.71 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lady Macbeth 61919154 320 Ava Reid 1529910471 Ajms98 0 to-read 3.52 2024 Lady Macbeth
author: Ava Reid
name: Ajms98
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>