Briynne's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 10 Mar 2025 10:39:07 -0700 60 Briynne's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Commonwealth 28214365
Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.]]> 322 Ann Patchett 0062491792 Briynne 3
I think I over-identified with this because I have a son who is about the age of Albie when he's a boy in the book. The thought of his sister, or his cousins, or even complete strangers drugging him and leaving him in a field just so he wouldn't be "in the way" of a beach day filled me with horror. I stopped reading the book for a week. No one felt the slightest remorse or empathy. I don't ever want to meet people like this. The idea of raising a person like this is revolting. The way they treat this kid wrecked the book for me, honestly.]]> 3.81 2016 Commonwealth
author: Ann Patchett
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
review:
I'm sorry to say I didn't really like this as well as I thought I would. I think Patchett is a wonderful author, and I have enjoyed many of her novels. This one just didn't quite have enough of a story arc for me. It wandered around a big reveal, and then simply did not produce one. It was anticlimactic and too sprawling to really say anything about this family. Obviously, they are unhappy. But we knew that from the beginning. What we don't know is what on Earth is the matter with these little monsters that make them act with such callous disregard of each other.

I think I over-identified with this because I have a son who is about the age of Albie when he's a boy in the book. The thought of his sister, or his cousins, or even complete strangers drugging him and leaving him in a field just so he wouldn't be "in the way" of a beach day filled me with horror. I stopped reading the book for a week. No one felt the slightest remorse or empathy. I don't ever want to meet people like this. The idea of raising a person like this is revolting. The way they treat this kid wrecked the book for me, honestly.
]]> <![CDATA[The Little Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales]]> 35397031
This collection, with an introduction and fresh new renderings of the tales by Neil Philip, includes not just "The Little Mermaid" but also such favorites as "The Tinderbox," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," and "The Little Match Girl."

Philip also includes some lesser known tales that reflect different facets of Andersen's genius, such as the tall tale "The Flying Trunk," with its witty story-within-a-story, the charming fantasy of "Little Ida's Flowers," the comic fable "The Collar," and a story about the magic of everyday reality, "The Gardener and His Master."

A special feature of the book is the inclusion of several fairy tales of spiritual search and redemption, including "The Bell," "The Toad," and, of course, "The Little Mermaid."

The book is illustrated throughout by Isabelle Brent's magical watercolors, lavishly embellished with gold leaf, making this handsome volume a book the whole family will treasure.]]> 240 Hans Christian Andersen 0062692593 Briynne 3 with-the-kids 3.95 The Little Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales
author: Hans Christian Andersen
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/15
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
I adore this series of interactive, illustrated classics from MinaLima. I read 90% of this with my kids, and we enjoyed many of the stories and all of the illustrations. But we came to a screeching halt after "The Little Matchstick Girl". Seriously? This was written for children????? My kids stared at me, I stared back at them, and we had nothing to say to each other besides "wow - that just happened." They were done after that one, and I slogged through the super long and not terribly interesting "The Snow Queen" at the end without them. Last two stories notwithstanding, this was great. I don't see a future for the last two at Disney, though.
]]> Green Hills of Africa 90386
His second major venture into nonfiction (after Death in the Afternoon, 1932), Green Hills of Africa is Ernest Hemingway's lyrical journal of a month on safari in the great game country of East Africa, where he and his wife Pauline journeyed in December of 1933. Hemingway's well-known interest in—and fascination with—big-game hunting is magnificently captured in this evocative account of his trip. In examining the poetic grace of the chase, and the ferocity of the kill, Hemingway also looks inward, seeking to explain the lure of the hunt and the primal undercurrent that comes alive on the plains of Africa. Yet, Green Hills of Africa is also an impassioned portrait of the glory of the African landscape, and of the beauty of a wilderness that was, even then, being threatened by the incursions of man.

Hemingway's rich description of the beauty and strangeness of the land and his passion for the sport of hunting combine to give Green Hills of Africa the freshness and immediacy of a deeply felt personal experience that is the hallmark of the greatest travel writing.]]> 296 Ernest Hemingway 0684801299 Briynne 3
Even though Hemingway's writing is always engaging and his description of his internal conflicts feel very authentic, this was still a three out of five for me. I got burned out pretty quickly with the descriptions of stalking large game, and listening to grown men fuss and cry when someone else's antelope was bigger than theirs, to be honest.

I wished there was a bit more about the place and the people, and a bit less about following blood trails. I preferred "True at First Light", which covers the same general subject but with a bit more story. ]]> 3.46 1935 Green Hills of Africa
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1935
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:
These kinds of books are difficult to review. I am recently obsessed with the idea of a Serengeti safari (of the photographic, not gun, variety); I felt like I couldn't not read this. Hemingway, for all his many faults, is the proverbial "most interesting man in the world." He lived a life of unbelievable adventure, action, and variety. Not that it made him any happier, but it is absolutely fascinating to watch.

Even though Hemingway's writing is always engaging and his description of his internal conflicts feel very authentic, this was still a three out of five for me. I got burned out pretty quickly with the descriptions of stalking large game, and listening to grown men fuss and cry when someone else's antelope was bigger than theirs, to be honest.

I wished there was a bit more about the place and the people, and a bit less about following blood trails. I preferred "True at First Light", which covers the same general subject but with a bit more story.
]]> Book Lovers 58690308 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

Nora Stephens� life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters� trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 377 Emily Henry 0593334833 Briynne 4
Can this be made into a movie, please? I think Netflix needs to adapt every Emily Henry book I've ever read. These are perfect summer books.]]> 4.09 2022 Book Lovers
author: Emily Henry
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves:
review:
***Update: So, it has finally happened, internet friends. I just read this book and found myself thinking, "You know, this is a little familiar. Did I read this already? Hmmm...maybe not. Maybe it just has one of those plots." Completely did not remember this book that I read literally 3 years ago. I am getting old. ***

Can this be made into a movie, please? I think Netflix needs to adapt every Emily Henry book I've ever read. These are perfect summer books.
]]> <![CDATA[Anne of Green Gables (Arcturus Children's Slipcase Classics)]]> 38644025
When Marilla and Matthew decide to adopt a boy from an orphanage they are not sure what to expect. But it's certainly not the imaginative, red-haired little girl who arrives at Green Gables instead. Join Anne on her many adventures on Prince Edward Island in this much-loved story from Lucy Maud Montgomery. This classic tale of mischief, romance, and friendship is sure to delight readers of all ages.

ABOUT THE The Arcturus Children's Slipcase Classics series brings together beautiful collectible editions of children's classics, featuring full-color illustrations and presented in a decorative slipcase.]]> 256 L.M. Montgomery 1788883837 Briynne 0 4.75 1908 Anne of Green Gables (Arcturus Children's Slipcase Classics)
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.75
book published: 1908
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: currently-reading, with-the-kids
review:

]]> Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]> 527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Briynne 3 4.18 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves:
review:
This was fun, but had some typical middle-book-in-a-series problems. I didn't really feel like we went anywhere in this in terms of either plot or character development. My vote is that Yarros makes Riorson go completely dark-side in the next book. I'm getting a bit bored with the will-he or won't-he. If he could turn from antihero love-interest to proper villain, I think we'd actually get some where in terms of Violet having to decide what she's about.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Illustrated Edition (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 60114402 The fifth book in the beloved, bestselling Harry Potter series, now illustrated in brilliant full color.

There is a door at the end of a silent corridor. And it's haunting Harry Potter's dreams. Why else would he be waking in the middle of the night, screaming in terror? It's not just the upcoming O.W.L. exams; a new teacher with a personality like poisoned honey; a venomous, disgruntled house-elf; or even the growing threat of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Now Harry Potter is faced with the unreliability of the very government of the magical world and the impotence of the authorities at Hogwarts. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), he finds depth and strength in his friends, beyond what even he knew; boundless loyalty; and unbearable sacrifice.


This stunning illustrated edition brings together the talents of award-winning artists Jim Kay and Neil Packer in a visual feast, featuring iconic scenes and much loved characters -- Tonks, Luna Lovegood, and many more -- as the Order of the Phoenix keeps watch over Harry Potter’s fifth year at Hogwarts. With its oversized format, high-quality paper, ribbon bookmark, and color on nearly every page, this edition is the perfect gift for Harry Potter fans and book lovers of all ages.]]> 566 J.K. Rowling 054579143X Briynne 4 with-the-kids
]]> 4.77 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Illustrated Edition (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.77
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
Finishing this one with my eight-year old feels like an accomplishment! I'm a little sad that this is the last of the Jim Kay illustrated versions; we're still planning to read the final two books, but it won't be quite the same without these gorgeous editions. We always celebrate finishing a Harry Potter book by watching the movie. I almost felt like I had whiplash; the movie careens through the plot at such a breakneck speed, I felt like I couldn't keep up. I prefer the more stately pace of the book. You have time to get comfortable with the characters and their world. My only complaint is that we're to the point of the series where things go from dark to darker, and it always makes me nostalgic for the wonder and delight and magic of the earlier books.


]]> The Shell Collector 883235 219 Anthony Doerr 0142002968 Briynne 4 The Shell Collector just about every one of these stories is fantastic. They share a common motif of the sea, or the mention of shells, or an obsession with the wildness of the natural world, but they are completely unique. Doerr is absolutely lights out in this collection. ]]> 3.99 2001 The Shell Collector
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:
I think this may be the best collection of short stories I have ever read. Typically, in my limited experience with these things, there are one or two stories that are alright, and the rest are utterly forgettable filler. In The Shell Collector just about every one of these stories is fantastic. They share a common motif of the sea, or the mention of shells, or an obsession with the wildness of the natural world, but they are completely unique. Doerr is absolutely lights out in this collection.
]]> 84, Charing Cross Road 368916
[text from the back cover of the book]]]> 106 Helene Hanff Briynne 5 4.17 1970 84, Charing Cross Road
author: Helene Hanff
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves:
review:
What an absolute delight this little book was to read. Frank is so quintessentially English, and Helen is so clever and fun. She teases this poor nice man mercilessly. I loved the bit where she basically told him to slow down because she couldn't take the breakneck pace of books arriving a year after she requested them. Or when she yells at him in all caps because he sends an abridgement instead of the real thing. I loved every page, even though I wanted a much more Hollywood ending that I was allowed to have. This was perfect, and I wished it had been three times as long.
]]> <![CDATA[Usborne Illustrated Tales Of King Arthur]]> 23067733 304 140956326X Briynne 5 with-the-kids 4.08 2014 Usborne Illustrated Tales Of King Arthur
author: Natasha Kuricheva Sarah Courtauld
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
This was really well done. Beautiful illustrations, very solid retellings of the stories, and I thought this was a great introduction to Arthurian legend for the kids. I am currently reading/listening to "Le Morte d'Arthur" and frankly it was nice hearing some of these stories told in modern English for me as well. The stories are more Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere/Gawain-centric and leave out everything to do with Tristan and La Belle Isolde. We read a little Usborne book about those characters that gave the gist of their story to try to get a broader Arthurian experience. This one was perfect - not too babyish, not too mature. I would highly recommend.
]]> <![CDATA[Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil]]> 213263148 London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.]]> 544 Victoria E. Schwab 1250320526 Briynne 0 to-read 4.56 2025 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Gifted & Talented 211004124 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes the story of three siblings who, upon the death of their father, are forced to reckon with their long-festering rivalries, dangerous abilities, and the crushing weight of all their unrealized adolescent potential.

Where there’s a will, there’s a war.

Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne.

Or at least, so they like to think.

Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You're welcome! If only her father's fortune wasn't her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud.

Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he's losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around.

Eilidh, once the world's most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she'd been his favorite all along.

On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?]]> 512 Olivie Blake 1250883407 Briynne 0 to-read 3.97 2025 Gifted & Talented
author: Olivie Blake
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Great Big Beautiful Life 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]> 384 Emily Henry 059344129X Briynne 0 to-read 4.26 2025 Great Big Beautiful Life
author: Emily Henry
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Paris Express 214151304 Emma Donoghue, the “soul-stirring� (Oprah Daily) nationally bestselling author of Room, returns with a sweeping historical novel about an infamous 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train station.

Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, The Paris Express is a propulsive novel set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania, and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train’s crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.

From an author whose “writing is superb alchemy� (Audrey Niffenegger, New York Times bestselling author), The Paris Express is an evocative masterpiece that effortlessly captures the politics, glamour, chaos, and speed that marked the end of the 19th century.]]> 288 Emma Donoghue 1668082799 Briynne 0 to-read 3.36 2025 The Paris Express
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dream Count 209166121 A publishing event ten years in the making�a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists�the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until � betrayed and brokenhearted � she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America � but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 320 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 0593803477 Briynne 0 to-read 3.95 2025 Dream Count
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Show Don't Tell 213870083 A funny, fiercely intelligent, and moving collection exploring marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s iconic novel Prep—from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy

In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.

In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,� a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,� a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,� Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.

Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.]]> 320 Curtis Sittenfeld 0593446739 Briynne 0 to-read 3.97 2025 Show Don't Tell
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wind in the Willows 138367511 Kenneth Grahame Briynne 4 with-the-kids
I like reading older books with my kids because I think the complicated Edwardian language helps teach some literary patience. Grahame goes on about the fields and scenery, and occasionally waxes poetical about the inner life of one of his characters. I think parsing through these long sentences full of clauses and appositives is the linguistic version of lifting weights. Occasionally, even as an adult, I found myself thinking, "Let's get to the point, Kenneth," but I loved how my little guy just snuggled in and let the flow of the words wash over him.

Finally, is there anything more satisfying in the world for a child than to read that a motor-car makes the sound, "poop-poop?" Great book!]]> 4.50 The Wind in the Willows
author: Kenneth Grahame
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
I read this with my eight-year-old, and it was an absolute joy. Mr. Toad, of Toad Hall, may be one the finest literary creations out there. Every page he's on is delightful and hilarious. We used this edition, which has lovely, muted, realistic illustrations, alongside a bright and cheerful edition illustrated by David Roberts. Both really added to the story, and it was very fun comparing the illustrations as we read.

I like reading older books with my kids because I think the complicated Edwardian language helps teach some literary patience. Grahame goes on about the fields and scenery, and occasionally waxes poetical about the inner life of one of his characters. I think parsing through these long sentences full of clauses and appositives is the linguistic version of lifting weights. Occasionally, even as an adult, I found myself thinking, "Let's get to the point, Kenneth," but I loved how my little guy just snuggled in and let the flow of the words wash over him.

Finally, is there anything more satisfying in the world for a child than to read that a motor-car makes the sound, "poop-poop?" Great book!
]]> Babel 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Briynne 3
First, I think it's plain that the author of this books is a wildly intelligent person, and I enjoyed the experience of watching her mind work through her characters. The central pillar of the speculative part of the narrative - that silver bars inscribed with words for the same things in different languages could resonate a force produced by difference of nuances of meaning is at once completely bonkers and terribly interesting. I have nothing like Kuang's skill, but I've always been fascinated by language and I found this idea intriguing.

Kuang's world building and characters are fantastic. The story lost a bit of momentum in the second half for me after the big turning point, and didn't quite recover its steam until the very end. But the problem for me was unapologetic glamorization of political terrorism. I suppose I was forewarned by the subtitle “Or the Necessity of Violence,� but I think I took that to be not quite literal. My mistake. It feels like only a slight oversimplification to say that the take-home moral points of this novel were that:

1. Colonialism is inherently violent (which is fair)

2. White colonizers and by extension all white people everywhere are inherently violent, self-centered, and blinded by greed. (true, since history seems to suggest this is default human nature)

3. Non-white people are inherently none of these things but rather good and moral, and even if their geopolitical situations were reversed, would never have exploited their fellow man. (that’s a little tougher to agree with, and is unsupported by history)

4. The only way to effectively deal with the colonizers is to kill them and destroy their societies. And don’t worry about noncombatants because really every man, woman, and child in these societies is complicit. (said every murderer to ever strap on a bomb vest and blow up a bus or coffee shop)

So. She lost me there. And maybe those are just the views of her characters, but I’m not a fan of trivializing political violence into something cute and politely packaged. Too many people take it too literally for it to be amusing at this point.
]]> 4.17 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
review:
This took me forever to get through, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I was between three and four stars on this - I liked the first half much better than the last half, but unfortunately the end was fresher in my mind when I picked the rating.

First, I think it's plain that the author of this books is a wildly intelligent person, and I enjoyed the experience of watching her mind work through her characters. The central pillar of the speculative part of the narrative - that silver bars inscribed with words for the same things in different languages could resonate a force produced by difference of nuances of meaning is at once completely bonkers and terribly interesting. I have nothing like Kuang's skill, but I've always been fascinated by language and I found this idea intriguing.

Kuang's world building and characters are fantastic. The story lost a bit of momentum in the second half for me after the big turning point, and didn't quite recover its steam until the very end. But the problem for me was unapologetic glamorization of political terrorism. I suppose I was forewarned by the subtitle “Or the Necessity of Violence,� but I think I took that to be not quite literal. My mistake. It feels like only a slight oversimplification to say that the take-home moral points of this novel were that:

1. Colonialism is inherently violent (which is fair)

2. White colonizers and by extension all white people everywhere are inherently violent, self-centered, and blinded by greed. (true, since history seems to suggest this is default human nature)

3. Non-white people are inherently none of these things but rather good and moral, and even if their geopolitical situations were reversed, would never have exploited their fellow man. (that’s a little tougher to agree with, and is unsupported by history)

4. The only way to effectively deal with the colonizers is to kill them and destroy their societies. And don’t worry about noncombatants because really every man, woman, and child in these societies is complicit. (said every murderer to ever strap on a bomb vest and blow up a bus or coffee shop)

So. She lost me there. And maybe those are just the views of her characters, but I’m not a fan of trivializing political violence into something cute and politely packaged. Too many people take it too literally for it to be amusing at this point.

]]> Norse Myths (Ancient Myths) 55663342
Read about Thor, the god of thunder and how he once disguised himself as a bride to seek revenge on a giant and retrieve his powerful hammer -Mjölnir, and how Sif, the goddess of fertility had her long golden hair cut off by Loki, the trickster god. Each myth is told with thrilling immediacy, in language that is easy for children to understand, while retaining the awe, majesty and intrigue of the original tales. Stunning illustrations by multi-award winning artist Katie Ponder breathe new life into each story.]]> 144 D.K. Publishing 0241461367 Briynne 4 with-the-kids 4.39 2021 Norse Myths (Ancient Myths)
author: D.K. Publishing
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
What a great series of introductory mythology books from DK! My kids and I enjoyed the great illustrations that went with the stories. I thought the book did a good job picking out the highlights of Norse Mythology. I adore these stories in all their forms, and this was a great way to introduce them to my kids.
]]> Poems of the Elder Edda 1125040 Poetic Edda. The poems originated in Iceland, Norway, and Greenland between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, when they were compiled in a unique manuscript known as the Codex Regius.

The poems are primarily lyrical rather than narrative. Terry's readable translation includes the magnificent cosmological poem �lܲ� ("The Sibyl's Prophecy"), didactic poems concerned with mythology and the everyday conduct of life, and heroic poems, of which an important group is concerned with the story of Sigurd and Brynhild.

Poems of the Elder Edda will appeal to students of Old Norse, Icelandic, and Medieval literature, as well as to general readers of poetry.]]> 304 Unknown 0812282205 Briynne 5
Alright. The Elder Edda (or Poetic Edda) is the written version of the oral-tradition base material from which the later Younger/Prose Edda was constructed. As I understand it, these two eddas are the two most important primary sources for what is known about Norse Mythology. If I can step onto my soapbox for a moment, I think it’s a shame to read those clinical synopsis-type mythologies (i.e. encyclopedia-like entries for each deity and concept) when the source material is so much better. Sure, it can be slightly incomprehensible at times, but you get so much more local color, as it were.

The opening poem, the öܲà , is a knock-out. Really, go find it on the internet and read it. In the poem, a seer-woman spins the future out for Odin and delivers the dark, dismal fate of the gods and the world in a hauntingly ethereal, lyrical style. What I loved about this collection is that the next poem Saying of the High One does a complete 180 in tone and delivers a sometimes-amusing string of advice that could have been taken from the Viking version of the Poor Richard’s Almanac. The comedy roles on with the Lay of Thrym (note: according to the OED a “lay� is “a short lyric or narrative poem intended to be sung� � I had no idea, so I thought I’d share). In this poem, Thor and Loki disguise themselves, badly, as ladies in order to fool a giant. The king of the giants demands the goddess Freyja as his wife in return for giving Thor back his stupid hammer, but since she won’t have anything to do with it, the guys go in her place. It was funny in an absurd way � I kept thinking that the folks in medieval Iceland probably would have really enjoyed Harold and Kumar.

The Lay of Harbard also operated on this sort of sophomoric level. Basically, Thor and this guy Harbard stand on opposite banks of a river yelling insults at each other. Thor tries to prove his masculinity or whatever by bragging about various feats of battle, to which Harbard responds by enumerating his various, shall we say, romantic conquests. I honestly kept waiting for him to respond with “yo momma�.

Things turned back again in style with The Lay of Alvis, which I really liked. It reminded me of Tolkein, who may not have been as creative as I had originally thought, but he certainly had a good eye for inspiration. The whole poem is dedicated to Alvis listing the names for different things in the various worlds of the Vanir, Æsir, elves, dwarves, and humans; it doesn’t sound interesting, but I found it to be one of the most lovely and poetic of the lays. For instance, when Thor asks Alvis what the sun is called in the different worlds, he replies: “Men call it Sol, and gods the Sun, | The dwarfs say Dvalin’s Delight; | The giants Ever-Glowing, the elves Fair Wheel, | The Æsir Shadowless Shining.�

The entire second half of the Edda is devoted to poems of the Volsung saga. I’m still not in love with this story, although I felt like I got to know the story and characters better in this edda, and I’ve warmed up a little. The drama centers around the Sigurd � Gudrun � Gunnar � Brynhild love square, only not really since Gudrun and Gunnar are siblings. It’s a horrible mess and neither the heroic Sigurd nor the high-maintenance valkyrie Brynhild make it out alive. They both get on my nerves, though, so it’s alright. Gunnar is a loser, and Brynhild was probably right to be so scornful of him.

But Gudrun I like. She is Sigurd’s wife, and there is a really touching lay describing her silent grief after he is killed. I changed from pitying her to just plain being scared of her pretty quickly, though. The Lay of Atli is like a horror movie. In the poem, Gudrun is married against her will to a barbarian king whom she cannot stand after the death of her beloved Sigurd, at the insistence of her brothers. After a few miserable years together, the king kills Gunnar and the rest of her brothers in some dispute and she just snaps. She murders the two young sons they had together and feeds her husband their blood and hearts in disguise as some sort of delicacy at a feast before killing him and everyone else she could find. Not joking. So, she’s completely crazy, but she provides a great punctuation mark to the sometimes tedious Volsung-themed poems.

As a whole, these poems were utterly fascinating. They were strange and beautiful in fairly equal measure, and I’m very glad I tracked this particular translation down through ILL. Seriously, there are some horrific translations out there. I don’t know anything about their technical merits, obviously, but from a readability stand-point this was the best one I could find. I wouldn’t recommend reading this book before you have a little background from either the Prose Edda or one of those anthologies I bashed earlier, because I don’t think it would make a lot of sense without some outside context.]]> 3.99 1270 Poems of the Elder Edda
author: Unknown
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1270
rating: 5
read at: 2009/09/28
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
review:
It turns out that I have a real thing for Scandinavian literature. Reading this and the sagas has made me a little obsessed with the idea of visiting Iceland. It’s hard for me to separate my thoughts on the eddas from my thoughts on the sagas and the most recent Sigrid Undset novel I’m reading, but I’m going to try to keep everything to its proper review space.

Alright. The Elder Edda (or Poetic Edda) is the written version of the oral-tradition base material from which the later Younger/Prose Edda was constructed. As I understand it, these two eddas are the two most important primary sources for what is known about Norse Mythology. If I can step onto my soapbox for a moment, I think it’s a shame to read those clinical synopsis-type mythologies (i.e. encyclopedia-like entries for each deity and concept) when the source material is so much better. Sure, it can be slightly incomprehensible at times, but you get so much more local color, as it were.

The opening poem, the öܲà , is a knock-out. Really, go find it on the internet and read it. In the poem, a seer-woman spins the future out for Odin and delivers the dark, dismal fate of the gods and the world in a hauntingly ethereal, lyrical style. What I loved about this collection is that the next poem Saying of the High One does a complete 180 in tone and delivers a sometimes-amusing string of advice that could have been taken from the Viking version of the Poor Richard’s Almanac. The comedy roles on with the Lay of Thrym (note: according to the OED a “lay� is “a short lyric or narrative poem intended to be sung� � I had no idea, so I thought I’d share). In this poem, Thor and Loki disguise themselves, badly, as ladies in order to fool a giant. The king of the giants demands the goddess Freyja as his wife in return for giving Thor back his stupid hammer, but since she won’t have anything to do with it, the guys go in her place. It was funny in an absurd way � I kept thinking that the folks in medieval Iceland probably would have really enjoyed Harold and Kumar.

The Lay of Harbard also operated on this sort of sophomoric level. Basically, Thor and this guy Harbard stand on opposite banks of a river yelling insults at each other. Thor tries to prove his masculinity or whatever by bragging about various feats of battle, to which Harbard responds by enumerating his various, shall we say, romantic conquests. I honestly kept waiting for him to respond with “yo momma�.

Things turned back again in style with The Lay of Alvis, which I really liked. It reminded me of Tolkein, who may not have been as creative as I had originally thought, but he certainly had a good eye for inspiration. The whole poem is dedicated to Alvis listing the names for different things in the various worlds of the Vanir, Æsir, elves, dwarves, and humans; it doesn’t sound interesting, but I found it to be one of the most lovely and poetic of the lays. For instance, when Thor asks Alvis what the sun is called in the different worlds, he replies: “Men call it Sol, and gods the Sun, | The dwarfs say Dvalin’s Delight; | The giants Ever-Glowing, the elves Fair Wheel, | The Æsir Shadowless Shining.�

The entire second half of the Edda is devoted to poems of the Volsung saga. I’m still not in love with this story, although I felt like I got to know the story and characters better in this edda, and I’ve warmed up a little. The drama centers around the Sigurd � Gudrun � Gunnar � Brynhild love square, only not really since Gudrun and Gunnar are siblings. It’s a horrible mess and neither the heroic Sigurd nor the high-maintenance valkyrie Brynhild make it out alive. They both get on my nerves, though, so it’s alright. Gunnar is a loser, and Brynhild was probably right to be so scornful of him.

But Gudrun I like. She is Sigurd’s wife, and there is a really touching lay describing her silent grief after he is killed. I changed from pitying her to just plain being scared of her pretty quickly, though. The Lay of Atli is like a horror movie. In the poem, Gudrun is married against her will to a barbarian king whom she cannot stand after the death of her beloved Sigurd, at the insistence of her brothers. After a few miserable years together, the king kills Gunnar and the rest of her brothers in some dispute and she just snaps. She murders the two young sons they had together and feeds her husband their blood and hearts in disguise as some sort of delicacy at a feast before killing him and everyone else she could find. Not joking. So, she’s completely crazy, but she provides a great punctuation mark to the sometimes tedious Volsung-themed poems.

As a whole, these poems were utterly fascinating. They were strange and beautiful in fairly equal measure, and I’m very glad I tracked this particular translation down through ILL. Seriously, there are some horrific translations out there. I don’t know anything about their technical merits, obviously, but from a readability stand-point this was the best one I could find. I wouldn’t recommend reading this book before you have a little background from either the Prose Edda or one of those anthologies I bashed earlier, because I don’t think it would make a lot of sense without some outside context.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Illustrated Edition]]> 214979612 1 512 J.K. Rowling 1526679868 Briynne 5 with-the-kids ]]> 4.73 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Illustrated Edition
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.73
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
I love this book. It is my favorite of the entire series, and it was wonderful to read this with my kids. We listened to a good chunk of it on audio during a long car trip, but we always leaf through the beautiful illustrations after we've listened to a chapter. It's been so cool reading these illustrated editions over the last few years and seeing my youngest go from pointing out familiar words to reading whole paragraphs to us.

]]> 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 Briynne 3 3.19 2024 Graveyard Shift
author: M.L. Rio
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves:
review:
It isn't fair to say that the reason you are criticizing a novella is because it was too short to really get into, but unfortunately here we are. It was good, the characters were interesting, the writing is sharp, and there is atmosphere for days, but it was just not very satisfying. I was just settling in when it was over. Here's hoping Rio writes another full length novel soon.
]]> A Song to Drown Rivers 203578730 Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.

Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.

Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotion, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. But she knows Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods.

Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a brutality lurks and Xishi knows she can never let her guard down. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall—and if she is unmasked as a traitor, she will bring both kingdoms down.]]> 325 Ann Liang 1250289467 Briynne 4 3.84 2024 A Song to Drown Rivers
author: Ann Liang
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves:
review:
This was a fun read. I've been reading Chinese mythology with my kids, and it was fun to recognize some of the stories she mentions about Nuwa, Chang'e and Jade Rabbit, and so on. I think the book is mischaracterized as general fiction, however. This feels very young adult in tone. Everything is just a little too squeaky clean to feel authentic. I'm not an expert on what life as an imperial concubine would have been like, but I definitely felt like I had to suspend my disbelief to accept this version. The author made it a little too easy for Xishi to keep Fuchai at arm's length, which in turn made her betrayal less tragic. Still, it was a quick and enjoyable read.
]]> A Novel Love Story 199261152 A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction� literally.

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel�

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet� she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.]]> 368 Ashley Poston 0593640977 Briynne 2 3.63 2024 A Novel Love Story
author: Ashley Poston
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves:
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 Briynne 5
Listen. I do not want to be any of these people. Their lives, like the lives of all of Rooney's characters, are too complicated and self-destructive for my real-life taste. But they are endlessly fascinating to read about. Do we any of us see Peter's situation, his "arrangement", working out long-term? Obviously not. But you can't help feeling happy for them being temporarily happy even if common sense dictates that this is going to end poorly and quickly. Ditto Ivan and Margaret; she's absolutely right that things might well look very different to him later, but he's too young and stubborn to know it.

The accomplishment in Rooney's work is not the sensational nature of some of her characters, but in the way she makes these characters into flesh-and-blood people. And, in the deft way she explores the generational divide that already exists between a guy in his mid-thirties and a woman in her early twenties. Which isn't to say that monetized dating and Naomi's vaguely-described Only Fans style work is typical and acceptable to all younger women, but Rooney really captures how it made sense to this particular woman with only the smallest details and lightest description.

All of Rooney's characters feel indisputably themselves. I love her style of writing. She manages to convey so much meaning with so few words, and to demonstrate a lifetime of family dynamics with a couple of paragraphs. She's a remarkable writer. I'm already dying for her next book. ]]> 3.88 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves:
review:
This was compulsively readable, and so good. In my opinion, this is Rooney's best so far.

Listen. I do not want to be any of these people. Their lives, like the lives of all of Rooney's characters, are too complicated and self-destructive for my real-life taste. But they are endlessly fascinating to read about. Do we any of us see Peter's situation, his "arrangement", working out long-term? Obviously not. But you can't help feeling happy for them being temporarily happy even if common sense dictates that this is going to end poorly and quickly. Ditto Ivan and Margaret; she's absolutely right that things might well look very different to him later, but he's too young and stubborn to know it.

The accomplishment in Rooney's work is not the sensational nature of some of her characters, but in the way she makes these characters into flesh-and-blood people. And, in the deft way she explores the generational divide that already exists between a guy in his mid-thirties and a woman in her early twenties. Which isn't to say that monetized dating and Naomi's vaguely-described Only Fans style work is typical and acceptable to all younger women, but Rooney really captures how it made sense to this particular woman with only the smallest details and lightest description.

All of Rooney's characters feel indisputably themselves. I love her style of writing. She manages to convey so much meaning with so few words, and to demonstrate a lifetime of family dynamics with a couple of paragraphs. She's a remarkable writer. I'm already dying for her next book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Interactive (MinaLima Edition): (Illustrated with Interactive Elements) (Minalima Classics)]]> 63848634
Hailed as “America’s greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale� by the Library of Congress, L. Frank Baum’s classic story has been enjoyed by generations of young readers since its publication in 1900. One of the most-read children’s books, it is a staple of American literature and the inspiration for the beloved 1939 Academy Award-winning movie (widely acclaimed as one of the greatest films of all time), as well as stage plays and musicals.

When a tornado strikes the Kansas prairie, young orphan Dorothy Gale and her little dog Toto are blown away to Oz, a magical place filled with witches, munchkins, winged monkeys, and other unusual inhabitants. Lost and afraid, all Dorothy wants is to return to her Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. But to do so, the Good Witch of the North tells her, she must follow the Yellow Brick Road that leads to the Emerald City. There, she will find the fearsome Wizard of Oz who can help her find her way home.

Along the way, Dorothy encounters three unforgettable characters―the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion―who join her in her quest. Their journey to the Emerald City, fraught with peril and adventure, teaches them the true meaning of friendship and reminds us all that there is no place like home.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Interactive reimagines the novel's iconic imagery and highlights phrases from the original book in a unique and delightful style that will enchant readers of all ages. Sure to become a collector's item, this deluxe illustrated edition contains specially commissioned artwork and nine exclusive interactive features, including:
-A cyclone map that opens up to reveal the Land of Oz
-A pop-up Yellow Brick Road
-Oz glasses that provide a different look at the world
-Fighting trees with branches that move
-Dorothy's silver shoes that can be clicked together
This marvelous edition will enchant young and adult readers and is a thoughtful gift for any occasion!]]> 256 L. Frank Baum Briynne 3 with-the-kids 4.43 1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Interactive (MinaLima Edition): (Illustrated with Interactive Elements) (Minalima Classics)
author: L. Frank Baum
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1900
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
Beautiful MinaLima edition, with all the bells and whistles (and even green-colored glasses!)
]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 Briynne 4 4.16 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/23
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves:
review:
This was good, but realistically Schwab is always good. It took me a little while to really get into this one, but once I did, I was hooked. Loved her characterization of the Darkness. What a fun literary combination of appealing and terrifying.
]]> Secrets of the Octopus 179270378
This new book—written by the beloved author of the international bestseller The Soul of an Octopus and enhanced with vivid National Geographic photography—brings us closer than ever to these elusive creatures.

The companion to the highly-anticipated National Geographic television special, this beautifully illustrated book explores the alluring underwater world of the octopus—a creature that resembles an alien lifeform, but whose behavior has earned it a reputation as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet.

This magical journey into the world of the octopus will reveal how the large and capable brain of these creatures occupies their whole body–not just their heads—and they can actually adjust their genetic makeup to respond to the demands of the environment. It will allow readers to watch them change shape and color in order to camouflage themselves more effectively than any other species. And it will divulge how octopus mothers give their all in order to bring forth a new generation.

With this offering, acclaimed author Sy Montgomery—known, thanks to her bestselling book, as the “octopus whisperer”—returns to the species she knows and loves, offering current and compassionate stories about the scientists on the front lines of octopus research and conservation.

For all animal lovers—and especially those drawn to this magical marine being—this will be a book to relish, for both its fascinating imagery and its charming storytelling.]]> 192 Sy Montgomery 1426223722 Briynne 4 Remarkably Bright Creatures a few months ago. This was awesome and included lots of gorgeous National Geographic photography. I wanted it to be longer, though. I'm going to check out Montgomery's original The Soul of an Octopus next.

I would like to say publicly how uncomfortable I am with the word "octopuses"; the author claims that it is a Greek derivation and not Latin. She is probably right - I have no idea. However, since we've all been happily treating it like a Latin noun for approximately a million years, this feels sudden and upsetting. I feel like "alumnuses" or "stimuluses" or "funguses" are next.

It is basically the goal of my life to someday make friends with an octopus. ]]> 4.42 2024 Secrets of the Octopus
author: Sy Montgomery
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/12
date added: 2024/09/12
shelves:
review:
I've been a little obsessed with octopuses since I read Remarkably Bright Creatures a few months ago. This was awesome and included lots of gorgeous National Geographic photography. I wanted it to be longer, though. I'm going to check out Montgomery's original The Soul of an Octopus next.

I would like to say publicly how uncomfortable I am with the word "octopuses"; the author claims that it is a Greek derivation and not Latin. She is probably right - I have no idea. However, since we've all been happily treating it like a Latin noun for approximately a million years, this feels sudden and upsetting. I feel like "alumnuses" or "stimuluses" or "funguses" are next.

It is basically the goal of my life to someday make friends with an octopus.
]]> Major Pettigrew's Last Stand 8049561 Mutual grief allies him with Mrs. Ali, a widowed local shopkeeper of Pakistani descent who has also resigned herself to dignified, if solitary, last years. The carefully suppressed passion between these two spawns twitters of disapproval in their provincial village, but Pettigrew hasn't time for such real estate developers are plotting to carpet the fields outside his back door with mansionettes and his sister-in-law plans to auction off a prized family firearm. Meanwhile, Mrs. Ali's late husband's Muslim family expects her to hand over her hard-won business to her sullen, fundamentalist nephew, a notion she finds repellant and chauvinistic.

It's a testament to Simonson that in this delightful novel, Pettigrew
must navigate the tragic, the absurd, and the transcendentally joyful aspects of a familiar life turned upside down by an unfamiliar and unexpected late-life love affair. That two people from opposing and mutually distrusting worlds are able to bridge every gap with unerring respect and decorum serves as a quiet suggestion that larger conflicts might be avoided or resolved in much the same way. Finally, a way forward that Major Pettigrew would approve.

]]> 343 Helen Simonson 158836965X Briynne 5
I thought the portrayal of the conflicting cultural values between the thoroughly western Mrs. Ali and her more conservative in-laws was done with good taste in general. Abdul Wahid in particular is quite sympathetic despite his moroseness and petulance, although the other in-laws are somewhat more caricatured. At any rate, making Mrs. Ali a Pakistani-Englishwoman (Briton of Pakistani descent? - no idea what the English version of Pakistani-American is) adds a wonderful "Romeo & Juliet", forbidden-love element that provides the sort of tension that turns an alright love story into a great one.

The story arcs concerning Roger, the guns, Grace, Amina and George, and the quiet bigotry & insensitivity of the town are all fascinating as well. Everything was so sharply and crisply observed, and delivered with a healthy dose of slightly caustic humor.

Wonderful, wonderful book. I will recommend this to everyone who asks me about it. This has earned a firm place in my heart and on my mental favorites shelf. ]]> 4.04 2010 Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
author: Helen Simonson
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2010/05/20
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves:
review:
I loved this!!! Not only did I constantly laugh aloud as I read, but I was completely charmed by the gracefulness of the story. It had the same sort of refined appeal that draws me to 19th century literature, only it managed to feel very current and not like an imitation of an earlier style. The Major's hesitant but rather dashing courtship of Mrs. Ali was touching and lovely.

I thought the portrayal of the conflicting cultural values between the thoroughly western Mrs. Ali and her more conservative in-laws was done with good taste in general. Abdul Wahid in particular is quite sympathetic despite his moroseness and petulance, although the other in-laws are somewhat more caricatured. At any rate, making Mrs. Ali a Pakistani-Englishwoman (Briton of Pakistani descent? - no idea what the English version of Pakistani-American is) adds a wonderful "Romeo & Juliet", forbidden-love element that provides the sort of tension that turns an alright love story into a great one.

The story arcs concerning Roger, the guns, Grace, Amina and George, and the quiet bigotry & insensitivity of the town are all fascinating as well. Everything was so sharply and crisply observed, and delivered with a healthy dose of slightly caustic humor.

Wonderful, wonderful book. I will recommend this to everyone who asks me about it. This has earned a firm place in my heart and on my mental favorites shelf.
]]> City of God 25673 Bible itself had a greater influence on the Middle Ages than Augustine's City of God. And since medieval Europe was the cradle of modern Western society, this work is vital for understanding our world and how it came into being.]]> 1186 Augustine of Hippo 0140448942 Briynne 0 currently-reading 3.91 426 City of God
author: Augustine of Hippo
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.91
book published: 426
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hemlock Queen (The Nightshade Crown, #2)]]> 59398154
The corrupt king August is dead. Prince Bastian has seized the throne and raised Lore—a necromancer and former smuggler—to his right hand side. Together they plan to cut out the rot from the heart of the sainted court and help the people of Dellaire. But not everyone is happy with the changes. The nobles are sowing dissent, the Kyrithean Empire is beating down their door, and Lore's old allies are pulling away. Even Prince Bastian's changed. No longer the hopeful, rakish, charismatic man Lore knows and loves, instead he's reckless, domineering and cold.

And something's been whispering in her ear. A voice, dark and haunting, that's telling her there's more to the story than she knows and more to her power than she can even imagine. A truth buried deep that could change everything.

With Bastian's coronation fast approaching and enemies whispering on all sides, Lore must figure out how to protect herself, her prince, and her country before they all come crumbling down and whatever dark power has been creeping through the catacombs is unleashed.]]> 400 Hannah F. Whitten 0356521559 Briynne 2 3.82 2024 The Hemlock Queen (The Nightshade Crown, #2)
author: Hannah F. Whitten
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves:
review:
Well, this wandered in circles for 3/4 of the book and then finally had a bit of plot development at the very end. When something was actually happening it was alright. However, it had a lot of ground to make up for the hundreds of pages where we waited for the characters to figure out what was right in front of their faces.
]]> The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

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

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

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Briynne 5 Persuasion relocated to modern London. Delightful. I liked the fuzzy edges of the science fiction-y parts of this. I'm no good at "hard" sci-fi; it's too much like attending a physics lecture. This was just gently speculative and all sorts of fun. ]]> 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves:
review:
This was so good!! Can she write another one immediately, please? I had a blast reading this - it was like seeing Captain Wentworth from Persuasion relocated to modern London. Delightful. I liked the fuzzy edges of the science fiction-y parts of this. I'm no good at "hard" sci-fi; it's too much like attending a physics lecture. This was just gently speculative and all sorts of fun.
]]> <![CDATA[Olive, Again (Olive Kitteridge, #2)]]> 43984883 San Francisco Chronicle).TheNew Yorkerhas said that Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,� and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspireus—in Strout’s words—“to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can.”]]> 289 Elizabeth Strout 0812996542 Briynne 4 4.06 2019 Olive, Again (Olive Kitteridge, #2)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/28
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves:
review:
This broke my heart a bit. Beautiful writing and memorable characters.
]]> I Capture the Castle 860532 'This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met' J K Rowling.

‘I write this sitting in the kitchen sink� is the first line of this timeless, witty and enchanting novel about growing up. Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister, Rose, her fadingly glamorous stepmother, Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer’s block. However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time�

‘Everyone I've passed it on to has found it a hit - it works every time, for absolutely everybody� Nigella Lawson.

This book is a gift. It is one of a million which is being given as part of World Book Night 2012 to spread the joy and love of reading. You can enjoy it and pass it on and still keep it with you. All you have to do is read it. Once you have, the story is yours forever.

World Book Night is a celebration of books are reading held on April 23, the international day of the book, which sees 20,000 passionate volunteers across the country give copies of one of 25 specially chosen, brilliant books within their communities.

Please try this book. We think you're going to love it. - From the back cover.]]> 408 Dodie Smith Briynne 3 4.10 1948 I Capture the Castle
author: Dodie Smith
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1948
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/20
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves:
review:
For a book with such a promising beginning, this turned out to be incredibly disappointing. I know Cassandra is 17, but how can she make such foolish and senseless choices? I cannot understand her. I mean, Simon? No. How about the guy who's devoted to you, is a genuinely kind and good person who has supported your deadbeat family out of love for you, happens to look like a movie star, and is not engaged to your sister? I'm just saying. I kept thinking she would come around and see the godsend right in front of her. Or even if she washed her hands of both of them to pursue a career as a writer. But, in admittedly realistic teenage fashion, she does not. This is now in the same mental list as "Twilight"; books to be given to my daughter in a few years with the words "DON'T BE THIS GIRL" stamped on the front.
]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Briynne 5
What a marvelous story. I don't feel comfortable admitting to how much time I spent talking about Marcellus the Octopus to my family, and with what level of animation and enthusiasm. Or, even worse, how much time I spent youtubing octopi and their documented escape artistry. I did not know this was a real thing. I still am in awe.

I listened to this one, and I have to tell you that the man who voiced Marcellus was absolutely perfect. I was unaware that an octopus should sound supercilious, disdainfully intelligent, and a bit posh, but here we are.

Tova was a lovely character, and her arc was a joy to read. All the characters just work. But the fact that it was the octopus that solved the mystery and worked to catch everyone else up? Awesome. This was beautiful and original, and I can't recommend it enough. ]]> 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/09
date added: 2024/08/09
shelves:
review:
This book just skyrocketed toward the top of my mental "things to recommend when people at the library ask for a book recommendation but can offer no clues about what sorts of books they enjoy" list.

What a marvelous story. I don't feel comfortable admitting to how much time I spent talking about Marcellus the Octopus to my family, and with what level of animation and enthusiasm. Or, even worse, how much time I spent youtubing octopi and their documented escape artistry. I did not know this was a real thing. I still am in awe.

I listened to this one, and I have to tell you that the man who voiced Marcellus was absolutely perfect. I was unaware that an octopus should sound supercilious, disdainfully intelligent, and a bit posh, but here we are.

Tova was a lovely character, and her arc was a joy to read. All the characters just work. But the fact that it was the octopus that solved the mystery and worked to catch everyone else up? Awesome. This was beautiful and original, and I can't recommend it enough.
]]> <![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—TܰԱ
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Briynne 3 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 3
read at: 1999/01/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
Good, but not as good as others of the distraught-wife-who-realizes-she-has-no-life-of-her-own-and-goes-schizo genre. The wife in question here was more petulant than poignant, perhaps, and I never really cheered her on the way I've cheered on others.
]]> <![CDATA[The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)]]> 584447 288 Leo Tolstoy 0140444696 Briynne 3 The Kreutzer Sonata. It was, in essence, a rant on the moral degeneracy of nineteenth century Russia told through the lips of a fictional madman who had murdered his wife in a fit of jealous rage. The murderer (who was acquitted through the excuse if it being an understandable crime of passion) recounts his rather unique philosophy to the narrator, who is simply a passer-by on a train.

His idea seems to be that complete celibacy, among both single and married people, is the cure to an enormous number of societal problems. While claiming to be interested in women’s rights, he simultaneously writes with almost comic misogyny. And less comically, there is a current of absolute rage toward women that winds through the words so thickly that it’s actually a little frightening. The story is a sometimes troubling look into just how extreme Tolstoy’s opinions really were, but if you don’t take it too seriously it’s sort of entertaining for the shock value.

Ivan the Fool, the second story in the collection, was a fairly forgettable morality tale about how the simple man of the land will always be superior to the greedy industrialist or the politically ambitious. The Lost Opportunity is a very good story about feuding neighbors whose pride and stubbornness leads them all to ruin. The story I found the most appealing, however, was Polikuchka. It’s about a conniving little weasel of a servant who, though he doesn’t deserve it, is given a chance to redeem his reputation by a kind mistress. She gives him an important task involving a lot of money and poor Polikuchka actually means to do well by her. He doesn’t steal, as he is prone to doing, nor does he follow inclination and spend the money in a tavern on the journey. Through cruel fate, the money is lost by happenstance and the servant kills himself in shame. After his death, the money is found. It is so bleak, but so colorfully written. Polikuchka isn’t a character that anyone really wants to cheer for, but you find it happening anyway. ]]> 3.87 2014 The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2015/05/26
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
Tolstoy sure is an odd duck, isn’t he? I enjoyed this collection of short stories, and was utterly intrigued the title piece, The Kreutzer Sonata. It was, in essence, a rant on the moral degeneracy of nineteenth century Russia told through the lips of a fictional madman who had murdered his wife in a fit of jealous rage. The murderer (who was acquitted through the excuse if it being an understandable crime of passion) recounts his rather unique philosophy to the narrator, who is simply a passer-by on a train.

His idea seems to be that complete celibacy, among both single and married people, is the cure to an enormous number of societal problems. While claiming to be interested in women’s rights, he simultaneously writes with almost comic misogyny. And less comically, there is a current of absolute rage toward women that winds through the words so thickly that it’s actually a little frightening. The story is a sometimes troubling look into just how extreme Tolstoy’s opinions really were, but if you don’t take it too seriously it’s sort of entertaining for the shock value.

Ivan the Fool, the second story in the collection, was a fairly forgettable morality tale about how the simple man of the land will always be superior to the greedy industrialist or the politically ambitious. The Lost Opportunity is a very good story about feuding neighbors whose pride and stubbornness leads them all to ruin. The story I found the most appealing, however, was Polikuchka. It’s about a conniving little weasel of a servant who, though he doesn’t deserve it, is given a chance to redeem his reputation by a kind mistress. She gives him an important task involving a lot of money and poor Polikuchka actually means to do well by her. He doesn’t steal, as he is prone to doing, nor does he follow inclination and spend the money in a tavern on the journey. Through cruel fate, the money is lost by happenstance and the servant kills himself in shame. After his death, the money is found. It is so bleak, but so colorfully written. Polikuchka isn’t a character that anyone really wants to cheer for, but you find it happening anyway.
]]> <![CDATA[The Metamorphosis and Other Stories]]> 7723 The Metamorphosis,� a story that is both harrowing and amusing, and a landmark of modern literature.

Bringing together some of Kafka’s finest work, this collection demonstrates the richness and variety of the author’s artistry. �The Judgment,� which Kafka considered to be his decisive breakthrough, and �The Stoker,� which became the first chapter of his novel Amerika, are here included. These two, along with �The Metamorphosis,� form a suite of stories Kafka referred to as “The Sons,� and they collectively present a devastating portrait of the modern family.

Also included are �In the Penal Colony,� a story of a torture machine and its operators and victims, and �A Hunger Artist,� about the absurdity of an artist trying to communicate with a misunderstanding public. Kafka’s lucid, succinct writing chronicles the labyrinthine complexities, the futility-laden horror, and the stifling oppressiveness that permeate his vision of modern life.]]> 224 Franz Kafka 1593080298 Briynne 4
As it is, I still didn't really know why Kafka's bizarre, surreal worlds existed the way they did, but I was happy to just enjoy the ride. I laughed aloud for whole pages of the wonderful absurdity of "The Metamorphosis", even though I felt sorry for poor Gregor. I cringed and wondered at "In the Penal Colony" (probably my favorite) and tried to recall a lecture I'd heard as a college freshman about the alienation of labor in "The Hunger Artist". From what I've read and heard, his writings are all bound together by a desire to expose the darkness and disconnectedness of the industrialized, modern world. And they do - they all have a caged, claustrophobic feeling that is spot on.

As a warning, though - some of the super-short stories are a little out there and couldn't really be made out with the naked eye, so to speak. Also, I didn't really love "The Stoker". I feel ridiculous choosing to say the plot was contrived after I've just praised a story about a bug-man, but it was contrived in the bad, boring way. ]]> 4.08 1915 The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
author: Franz Kafka
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1915
rating: 4
read at: 2008/04/17
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:
I have a soft spot for Kafka. His stuff is so weird, and so convoluted at times, I firmly believe you have to have some affection for the writing to pull through. Otherwise, you are left thinking, "Why the heck is this guy a huge bug - does that mean something? I honestly don't know what's going on here."

As it is, I still didn't really know why Kafka's bizarre, surreal worlds existed the way they did, but I was happy to just enjoy the ride. I laughed aloud for whole pages of the wonderful absurdity of "The Metamorphosis", even though I felt sorry for poor Gregor. I cringed and wondered at "In the Penal Colony" (probably my favorite) and tried to recall a lecture I'd heard as a college freshman about the alienation of labor in "The Hunger Artist". From what I've read and heard, his writings are all bound together by a desire to expose the darkness and disconnectedness of the industrialized, modern world. And they do - they all have a caged, claustrophobic feeling that is spot on.

As a warning, though - some of the super-short stories are a little out there and couldn't really be made out with the naked eye, so to speak. Also, I didn't really love "The Stoker". I feel ridiculous choosing to say the plot was contrived after I've just praised a story about a bug-man, but it was contrived in the bad, boring way.
]]> Trust 58210933 An unparalleled novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly boundless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.

Hernan Diaz's TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.]]> 402 Hernan Diaz 0593420314 Briynne 0 to-read 3.77 2022 Trust
author: Hernan Diaz
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fury 123206645 A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder � from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient.

This is a tale of murder.

Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?

Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.

I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time � it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.

We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse � a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.

But who am I?

My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.]]> 298 Alex Michaelides 125075898X Briynne 4 3.34 2024 The Fury
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:
This was really good. Very tight writing and plotting. I'm definitely planning to check out some of Michaelides' other novels.
]]> <![CDATA[My Name Is Lucy Barton (Amgash, #1)]]> 25893709 193 Elizabeth Strout 1400067693 Briynne 0 to-read 3.56 2016 My Name Is Lucy Barton (Amgash, #1)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Arabian Nights 15944096 312 Anna Milbourne 140953300X Briynne 3 with-the-kids 4.30 Arabian Nights
author: Anna Milbourne
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/19
date added: 2024/07/19
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
This was a enjoyable introduction to the stories of Scheherazade that I read with my kids. The little one was delighted by the repeated bit at the end of each story where she tells the sultan she can tell another story tomorrow if he will let her live. The big one was rightly dubious of the ending where Scheherazade falls in love with the sultan that had murdered hundreds of women in his petty rage and forgives him for holding her life over her head for 1,001 nights. Clever girl.
]]> <![CDATA[Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor (The Story of the World, #1)]]> 225951
Told in a straightforward, engaging style that has become Susan Wise Bauer's trademark, The Story of the World series covers the sweep of human history from ancient times until the present. Africa, China, Europe, the Americas―find out what happened all around the world in long ago times. This first revised volume begins with the earliest nomads and ends with the last Roman emperor. Newly revised and updated, The Story of the World, Volume 1 includes maps, a new timeline, more illustrations, and additional parental aids. This read aloud series is designed for parents to share with elementary school children. Enjoy it together and introduce your child to the marvelous story of the world's civilizations.

Each Story of the World volume provides a full year of history study when combined with the Activity Book, Audiobook, and Tests―each available separately to accompany each volume of The Story of the World Text Book. Volume 1 Grade Recommendation: Grades 1 5. Illustrated throughout with black and white drawings and maps]]> 349 Susan Wise Bauer 1933339004 Briynne 4 with-the-kids
I like Bauer's nonchalant style - like teaching kids about ancient history is no big deal, and why shouldn't my first grader know about Sargon, Hammurabi, Sparta, Shi Huangdi, and Julius Caesar? Obviously, they aren't going to retain all the dates and names and specifics (although I've been startled by how much they have learned). The reason I chose to read this to my kids was to, hopefully, break through the intimidation factor early before it has time to set in. Modern schools seem to be under the impression that children should be limited to American history and amorphous ideas of "social studies". I like the idea of history as a narrative flow. It just honestly makes more sense that way.

I found the sections about the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia to be educational for me, too. This is not something I've studied at all in depth. I'm more familiar with the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, Medes, and Persians from Sunday School than from history, and that gives a very one-sided, black-hatted villain interpretation to my knowledge. It was interesting to learn a bit more about how they saw themselves.

Of course, this book offers some wild simplifications of complicated issues. The airy, blithe description of the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West made me splutter with indignation as I read it. But this is an introduction to the subject, not graduate school. In my opinion, the key is to make history accessible and interesting, and then let kids explore its complexities further as they grow up. And Bauer succeeds beautifully in that.

We will be starting "History of the World: The Middle Ages" shortly!]]> 4.26 Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor (The Story of the World, #1)
author: Susan Wise Bauer
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/09
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
The kids and I have been reading this since the end of last summer, and it's been a very useful jumping off point for exploring ancient history. We've paired this with some illustrated children's editions of Greek literature and mythology, picture books about the Epic of Gilgamesh, DK books about ancient and world history that have some great illustrations, and a books about pyramids and Egyptian mythology.

I like Bauer's nonchalant style - like teaching kids about ancient history is no big deal, and why shouldn't my first grader know about Sargon, Hammurabi, Sparta, Shi Huangdi, and Julius Caesar? Obviously, they aren't going to retain all the dates and names and specifics (although I've been startled by how much they have learned). The reason I chose to read this to my kids was to, hopefully, break through the intimidation factor early before it has time to set in. Modern schools seem to be under the impression that children should be limited to American history and amorphous ideas of "social studies". I like the idea of history as a narrative flow. It just honestly makes more sense that way.

I found the sections about the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia to be educational for me, too. This is not something I've studied at all in depth. I'm more familiar with the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites, Medes, and Persians from Sunday School than from history, and that gives a very one-sided, black-hatted villain interpretation to my knowledge. It was interesting to learn a bit more about how they saw themselves.

Of course, this book offers some wild simplifications of complicated issues. The airy, blithe description of the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire in the West made me splutter with indignation as I read it. But this is an introduction to the subject, not graduate school. In my opinion, the key is to make history accessible and interesting, and then let kids explore its complexities further as they grow up. And Bauer succeeds beautifully in that.

We will be starting "History of the World: The Middle Ages" shortly!
]]> <![CDATA[Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)]]> 195820807
Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected--including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?]]> 432 Abby Jimenez 1538704439 Briynne 4 4.35 2024 Just for the Summer (Part of Your World, #3)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/16
date added: 2024/07/16
shelves:
review:
I gobbled this up in one day. Incredibly charming.
]]> Summer Romance 198563734
There aren’t enough labeled glass containers to contain the mess that is Ali Morris’s life. Her mom died two years ago, then her husband left, and she hasn’t worn pants with a zipper in longer than she cares to remember. She’s a professional organizer whose pantry is a disgrace.

No one is more surprised than Ali when the first time she takes off her wedding ring and puts on pants with hardware—overalls count, right?—she meets someone. Or rather, her dog claims a man for her in the same way he claimed his favorite of her three children: by peeing on him. Ethan smiles at Ali like her pants are just right—like he likes what he sees. The last thing Ali needs is to make her life messier, but there’s no harm in a little Summer Romance. Is there?]]> 321 Annabel Monaghan 0593714083 Briynne 4 Fun, easy, and summery. 4.02 2024 Summer Romance
author: Annabel Monaghan
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/15
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves:
review:
Fun, easy, and summery.
]]> The Midnight Feast 150292570 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.]]> 368 Lucy Foley 0063357860 Briynne 4 3.56 2024 The Midnight Feast
author: Lucy Foley
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/10
date added: 2024/07/10
shelves:
review:
It took me a bit to get into this one, but once it got rolling it was a blast. Great suspense, good twists and turns, and a tidy gift-wrapped ending. A very fun read that gets extra points for the spot-on lampooning of wellness gibber-jabber and pseudo-psycho babble.
]]> A Long Long Way 4026382 292 Sebastian Barry 0571231829 Briynne 0 to-read 4.04 2005 A Long Long Way
author: Sebastian Barry
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)]]> 5552635
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.]]> 286 Elizabeth Strout 0812971833 Briynne 5
The short story format of this novel was a surprise, but it worked beautifully. I expected a more traditional narrative of Olive's life, but getting glimpses of her through the eyes of so many different people was such and interesting way of going about it.

Wonderful book. I'll definitely be looking into the next one in the series.
]]> 3.75 2008 Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/09
date added: 2024/07/10
shelves:
review:
What a delight this was. It struck me how infrequently I read books that center the experiences of older people, and how much it seems I am missing out on because of it. Olive is complicated. She is difficult to love when she's being difficult and petty and stubborn and refuses to apply any introspection to the way she lashes out at people. But really, I can be guilty of all of that as well, and I think many of us are. I thought this book was actually very revealing. It's so easy to be awful to people you love, even though you do sincerely and adamantly love them more than anything else in the world.

The short story format of this novel was a surprise, but it worked beautifully. I expected a more traditional narrative of Olive's life, but getting glimpses of her through the eyes of so many different people was such and interesting way of going about it.

Wonderful book. I'll definitely be looking into the next one in the series.

]]> <![CDATA[The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry]]> 18293427
A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. Slowly but surely, he is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island—from Lambiase, the well-intentioned police officer who’s always felt kindly toward Fikry; from Ismay, his sister-in-law who is hell-bent on saving him from his dreary self; from Amelia, the lovely and idealistic (if eccentric) Knightley Press sales rep who keeps on taking the ferry over to Alice Island, refusing to be deterred by A.J.’s bad attitude. Even the books in his store have stopped holding pleasure for him. These days, A.J. can only see them as a sign of a world that is changing too rapidly.

And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore. It’s a small package, but large in weight. It’s that unexpected arrival that gives A. J. Fikry the opportunity to make his life over, the ability to see everything anew. It doesn’t take long for the locals to notice the change overcoming A.J.; or for that determined sales rep, Amelia, to see her curmudgeonly client in a new light; or for the wisdom of all those books to become again the lifeblood of A.J.’s world; or for everything to twist again into a version of his life that he didn’t see coming. As surprising as it is moving, The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry is an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.]]> 260 Gabrielle Zevin 1616203218 Briynne 3 4.00 2014 The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/29
date added: 2024/07/03
shelves:
review:
I was in the mood for a book about books, and this succeeded nicely.
]]> Tom Lake 63241104 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]> 309 Ann Patchett 006332752X Briynne 5 3.92 2023 Tom Lake
author: Ann Patchett
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/02
date added: 2024/07/02
shelves:
review:
This was wonderful! I liked the contemplative, slow pace - it felt just right for summer.
]]> <![CDATA[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass: Lavishly Illustrated with Interactive Elements (MinaLima Edition) (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #1-2)]]> 43208990
Originally published in 1865, Lewis Carroll’s exquisite Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass have remained revered classics for generations. The story of Alice, an inquisitive heroine who falls through a rabbit hole and into a whimsical world, has captured the hearts of readers of all ages. Perhaps the most popular female character in English literature, Alice is accompanied on her journey of trials and tribulations by the frantic White Rabbit, the demented and terrifying Queen of Hearts, the intriguing Mad Hatter, and many other eccentric characters. Lewis Carroll’s beloved companion stories Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are reinvented on one volume by the talented design firm MinaLima, whose fey drawings of some of Western literature’s most famous characters will delight and enthrall, In addition, they have created interactive features exclusive to this edition, including: This keepsake illustrated edition—the sixth book in Harper Design’s series of illustrated children’s classics—will be treasured by for years to come.]]> 320 Lewis Carroll 0062936611 Briynne 3 with-the-kids 4.15 1871 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass: Lavishly Illustrated with Interactive Elements (MinaLima Edition) (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #1-2)
author: Lewis Carroll
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1871
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
So, mixed reviews on this one. As in my kids and I loved the MinaLima-ness of this, liked most of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,� and were bored out of our socks by “Through the Looking Glass.� It was solidly 90% dreadful.
]]> Funny Story 194802722 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

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

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

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

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry Briynne 4 4.21 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves:
review:
The heroine is a librarian! And it’s set in Michigan! Wrong lake, but still, that’s something, right? This was a lovely, relaxing read. Everything comes out right in the end and makes you feel happy and cozy.
]]> The Host (The Host #1) 2415887
Wanderer, the invading 'soul' who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too-vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves - Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.

Featuring what may be the first love triangle involving only two bodies, The Host is a riveting and unforgettable novel that will bring a vast new readership to one of the most compelling writers of our time.]]> 617 Stephenie Meyer Briynne 4 Breaking Dawn & didn't want to be underwhelmed again, and second I was skeptical of the intended grown-up audience. The latter fear turned out to be well-founded; this was totally a YA novel in my opinion. No ifs, ands, or buts on that score. However, the story itself delivered in fine Stephanie Meyer form. Say what you like about the inherent giddy teenager-ness of her books, but they are impossible to put down. I devoted almost all of Sunday to reading this thing in a marathon session; and I was in a state of goofy, nervous anticipation the whole time. It was great fun.

Now, as for the particulars. I was surprised that a story called The Host was almost exclusively about the alien "soul" inhabiting it - and I'm glad it was. Wanda was so much more interesting to me than Melanie, and I'm glad she got more screen time. The poor thing spent about 400 pages basically getting the crap kicked out of her and the other 200 dealing with an amusing love-rhombus consisting of the alien, the girl whose body she borrowed, the girl's long-lost boyfriend, and another guy who falls in love with the alien after doing some of the aforementioned pummeling. Sounds very bad, was actually really entertaining.

Ladies, embrace your inner love-struck 15 year old and grab a copy of this book. It's fun and light with enough sadness to make it interesting. Plus it's funny to watch the faces of your nearest and dearest with a Y chromosome as you describe the plot and character dramas with mile-a-minute chattery excitement. Disbelief and wonder. :)]]> 3.90 2008 The Host (The Host #1)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2008/09/21
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves:
review:
I was a little nervous picking up this book - first, I was fairly disappointed by Breaking Dawn & didn't want to be underwhelmed again, and second I was skeptical of the intended grown-up audience. The latter fear turned out to be well-founded; this was totally a YA novel in my opinion. No ifs, ands, or buts on that score. However, the story itself delivered in fine Stephanie Meyer form. Say what you like about the inherent giddy teenager-ness of her books, but they are impossible to put down. I devoted almost all of Sunday to reading this thing in a marathon session; and I was in a state of goofy, nervous anticipation the whole time. It was great fun.

Now, as for the particulars. I was surprised that a story called The Host was almost exclusively about the alien "soul" inhabiting it - and I'm glad it was. Wanda was so much more interesting to me than Melanie, and I'm glad she got more screen time. The poor thing spent about 400 pages basically getting the crap kicked out of her and the other 200 dealing with an amusing love-rhombus consisting of the alien, the girl whose body she borrowed, the girl's long-lost boyfriend, and another guy who falls in love with the alien after doing some of the aforementioned pummeling. Sounds very bad, was actually really entertaining.

Ladies, embrace your inner love-struck 15 year old and grab a copy of this book. It's fun and light with enough sadness to make it interesting. Plus it's funny to watch the faces of your nearest and dearest with a Y chromosome as you describe the plot and character dramas with mile-a-minute chattery excitement. Disbelief and wonder. :)
]]> Girl Abroad 175399560 New York Times bestselling author Elle Kennedy brings her signature angst, drama, and humour to a new standalone romance.

When nineteen-year-old Abbey Bly gets the opportunity to study abroad for a year in London, it's the perfect chance to finally slip out from under the thumb of her beloved but overbearing retired rock star father. She's ready to be free, to discover herself - but first off, to meet the girls she's rooming with. That is, until she arrives at her gorgeous new flat to discover those roommates are actually all boys. Charming, funny, insufferably attractive boys. And off-limits, with a rule against fraternizing between housemates after unwanted drama with the previous girl.

Abbey has never considered herself a rulebreaker. But soon, she's lying to her father about her living situation and falling for not one, but two men she can't have: her rugby-player roommate and a broody musician with a girlfriend. Not to mention, her research for school has gotten her tangled in a deeply hidden scandal of a high nobility family, surrounding her in secrets on all sides.

If there's any hope of Abbey finding love, answers, or a future in London, she'll have to decide which rules - and hearts - might be worth breaking . . .]]> 432 Elle Kennedy 1728299799 Briynne 3 Escapist summer fun. 3.59 2024 Girl Abroad
author: Elle Kennedy
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/19
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves:
review:
Escapist summer fun.
]]> The Paradise Problem 199797582
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.

Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents � his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.

But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.]]> 352 Christina Lauren 1668017725 Briynne 4 4.07 2024 The Paradise Problem
author: Christina Lauren
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/16
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves:
review:
This was a delightful vacation read.
]]> State of Wonder 10870072
As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle.

Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness.

Stirring and luminous, "State of Wonder" is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss beneath the rain forest's jeweled canopy.]]> 370 Ann Patchett 006204981X Briynne 4 The Heart of Darkness. The setting and the disconnection from the rest of the world gave everything a pleasingly surreal atmosphere. A nice solid ending as well. ]]> 3.85 2011 State of Wonder
author: Ann Patchett
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:
This was lovely. It had vibes of Stanley & Livingstone and The Heart of Darkness. The setting and the disconnection from the rest of the world gave everything a pleasingly surreal atmosphere. A nice solid ending as well.
]]> <![CDATA[The O'Brien Book of Irish Fairy Tales and Legends]]> 14470177 Author Biography: Una Leavy is the author of Harry's Stormy Night and Goodbye Pappa. Susan Field is a television set designer and the illustrator of The Sun, the Moon and the Silver Baboon and The Smallest Whale.

]]> 96 Una Leavy 1847173136 Briynne 4 with-the-kids 4.21 1996 The O'Brien Book of Irish Fairy Tales and Legends
author: Una Leavy
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/03
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
My kids and I loved this. My only complaint was that it was too short. I think they would have happily listened to 10 more stories. This one was a winner. Very accessible retellings, with an extremely useful pronunciation guide at the end. It was a nice mix of stories, with a smattering of stories about the Tuatha Dé Danann, a few taken from the Fianna Cycle, and some more modern stories. The book also had lovely illustrations.
]]> A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 482976 The American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century.

"A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one. It cuts right to the heart of life... If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience... It is a poignant and deeply understanding story of childhood and family relationships. The Nolans lived in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 until 1919... Their daughter, Francie, and their son, Neely, know more than their fair share of the privations and sufferings that are the lot of a great city's poor. Primarily this is Francie's book. She is a superb feat of characterization, an imaginative, alert, resourceful child. And Francie's growing up and beginnings of wisdom are the substance of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." - Orville Prescott

"[A Tree Grows in Brooklyn] is that rare and enduring thing, a book in which, no matter our backgrounds, we recognize ourselves." - Anna Quindlen, from her Foreword

This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.]]> 493 Betty Smith 0060736267 Briynne 4 4.35 1943 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
author: Betty Smith
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1943
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves:
review:
I thought that the first 80% of this book, where Francie is a child, was wonderful. I loved how determined and resourceful the women of her family were, and I was convinced that they would slowly make a way for themselves generation by generation. And then the last 20%, where Francie is a teenager, came along and arrested all of the momentum. Financial problems solved, deus ex machina. She's doomed to be in love with some useless kid forever because they went on one bad date and never sees him again. No explanation of how this makes any sense. The bank in the closet and the grandmother's awesome speech about financial freedom? Never again discussed. The Shakespeare and King James? Abandoned. Why did the author go to the trouble of setting up this awesome story only to give up at the end??? I'm so disappointed. Could someone please re-write this with the right ending where Francie and her mother save themselves through hard work, a commitment to education, and a little luck?
]]> <![CDATA[Problems in the History of Ancient Greece]]> 7638798 The problems selected for this collection span the chronological period usually covered in ancient Greek courses. Second, they were selected because they have been the subject of relatively recent study. Finally, they are meant to be sufficiently varied in topic and approach; in order to expose the student to a variety of historical methods and techniques.]]> 416 Donald Kagan 0136140459 Briynne 0 3.78 2009 Problems in the History of Ancient Greece
author: Donald Kagan
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: currently-reading, yale-open-course-ancient-greece
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History, 2nd Edition]]> 673693 through the Hellenistic Era, integrating the most recent research in archaeology, comparative anthropology, and social history with a traditional yet lively narrative of political, military, cultural, economic, and diplomatic history. Using physical evidence from archaeology, the written testimony
of literary texts and inscriptions, and anthropological models based on comparative studies, Ancient Greece, Second Edition, offers an account of the Greek world that is thoughtful and sophisticated yet accessible to students with little or no knowledge of Greece. The book is enhanced by text boxes
featuring excerpts from ancient documents, an extensive glossary, and a timeline and general introduction that provide a bird's-eye view of Greek history.

Revised and updated throughout, the second edition

* More in-depth coverage of such social and cultural topics as women and family life, material culture, religion, law, homosexuality, slavery, athletics, and life in the countryside
* A revised art program that includes a new 8-page full-color photo insert, 125 black-and-white photographs (55 of them new), 15 line drawings, and 17 new and improved custom-drawn maps
* Key terms--in boldface type when they first appear in the text and listed at the end of each chapter
* Selective, up-to-date recommendations for further reading]]> 592 Sarah B. Pomeroy 019530800X Briynne 0 3.69 1998 Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History, 2nd Edition
author: Sarah B. Pomeroy
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: currently-reading, yale-open-course-ancient-greece
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance (The Story of the World, #2)]]> 225948
The Story of the World covers the sweep of human history from ancient times until the present. Africa, China, Europe, the Americas―find out what happened all around the world in long-ago times. Designed as a read-aloud project for parents and children to share together, The Story of the World includes each continent and major people group. Volume 2: The Middle Ages , is the second of a four-volume series and covers the major historical events in the years 400 to 1600 CE, as well as including maps, illustrations, and tales from each culture.

Each Story of the World volume provides a full year of history study when combined with the Activity Book, Audiobook, and Tests―each available separately to accompany each volume of The Story of the World Text Book. Volume 2 Grade Recommendation: Grades 1-6. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white drawings and maps]]> 424 Susan Wise Bauer 1933339098 Briynne 0 4.33 2003 The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance (The Story of the World, #2)
author: Susan Wise Bauer
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: currently-reading, with-the-kids
review:

]]> The Familiar 133286777 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ninth House, Hell Bent, and creator of the Grishaverse series comes a highly anticipated historical fantasy set during the Spanish Golden Age

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position.

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 Santangel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.]]> 387 Leigh Bardugo 125088425X Briynne 5 3.74 2024 The Familiar
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/20
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves:
review:
I loved this. I think Leigh Bardugo's books are such a pleasure to read; they move quickly, have engaging characters, interesting settings, and enough drama to keep things interesting. This was among my favorites of her novels. I'm always so excited to see something new from her.
]]> <![CDATA[[J.R.R. Tolkien] The Hobbit: Illustrated Edition - Hardcover]]> 184394720
This stirring adventure fantasy begins the tale of the hobbits that was continued by J.R.R. Tolkien in his bestselling epic The Lord of the Rings.]]> 0 J.R.R. Tolkien Briynne 4 with-the-kids 4.71 1937 [J.R.R. Tolkien] The Hobbit: Illustrated Edition - Hardcover
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.71
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/07
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
What a wonderful book. The kids and I enjoyed this a lot. My own opinion is that Tolkien sometimes tends to use 100 words where 10 would do, but neither of the kids were bothered. We loved the parts with Golem. "Nasty little pocketses" has become a catchphrase in our home. Smaug was also a crowd-pleaser, as were dwarvish manners. The illustrations were nice and helped move the story along, especially for my youngest.
]]> <![CDATA[Treasury of Egyptian Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters & Mortals]]> 17262615 National Geographic Treasury of Egyptian Mythology is a stunning tableau of Egyptian myths, including those of pharaohs, queens, the boisterous Sun God Ra, and legendary creatures like the Sphinx. The lyrical storytelling of award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli dramatizes the timeless tales of ancient Egypt in the year when Angelina Jolie will make Cleopatra a multimedia star. And just like the popular National Geographic Treasury of Greek Mythology, the stories in this book will be beautifully illustrated to bring ancient characters vividly to life.

The stories are embellished with sidebars that provide historical, cultural, and geographic context and a mapping feature that adds to the fun and fascination. Resource notes and ample back matter direct readers to discover more about ancient Egypt. With its attractive design and beautiful narrative, this accessible treasury stands out from all other mythology titles in the marketplace.]]> 192 Donna Jo Napoli 1426313802 Briynne 3 with-the-kids 3.89 2013 Treasury of Egyptian Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters & Mortals
author: Donna Jo Napoli
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
Beautiful illustrations. The kids and I liked this, but the consensus seemed to be that the Greek stories were a little more fun.
]]> <![CDATA[Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)]]> 60526802
1972, BLACK RIVER FALLS, Alicia Western, twenty years old, with forty thousand dollars in a plastic bag, admits herself to the hospital. A doctoral candidate in mathematics at the University of Chicago, Alicia has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and she does not want to talk about her brother, Bobby. Instead, she contemplates the nature of madness, the human insistence on one common experience of the world; she recalls a childhood where, by the age of seven, her own grandmother feared for her; she surveys the intersection of physics and philosophy; and she introduces her cohorts, her chimeras, the hallucinations that only she can see. All the while, she grieves for Bobby, not quite dead, not quite hers. Told entirely through the transcripts of Alicia’s psychiatric sessions, Stella Maris is a searching, rigorous, intellectually challenging coda to The Passenger, a philosophical inquiry that questions our notions of God, truth, and existence.]]> 190 Cormac McCarthy 0307269000 Briynne 4 The Passenger, I was picking this up as I closed the cover of the first book.

In many ways, Stella Maris is a much more coherent read than The Passenger. Likely because it is basically a character study of Alicia and not a novel per-se. I still had to go back and count lines to figure out if she or her psychiatrist was speaking, but it had fewer loose ends than the first book.

I tore through this book, and it was the most fascinating discussion of math as philosophy I have ever read. Possibly the only such discussion I've ever read, in fairness, but still really interesting. McCarthy dives into heavy stuff here. The natures of reality, of insanity, and of taboo. There is a fantastic bit toward the end where Alicia ponders the role of the development of language in the subsequent (as she sees it) development of madness. I have no idea if it makes sense, but it was very elegant to read.

Obviously you need to read these two books. Today, if you can. The 4 out of 5 is just an irrational response to my sadness at this being the last book. ]]> 3.83 2022 Stella Maris (The Passenger, #2)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/28
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:
I chain read this. As in, as I finished the last sentence of The Passenger, I was picking this up as I closed the cover of the first book.

In many ways, Stella Maris is a much more coherent read than The Passenger. Likely because it is basically a character study of Alicia and not a novel per-se. I still had to go back and count lines to figure out if she or her psychiatrist was speaking, but it had fewer loose ends than the first book.

I tore through this book, and it was the most fascinating discussion of math as philosophy I have ever read. Possibly the only such discussion I've ever read, in fairness, but still really interesting. McCarthy dives into heavy stuff here. The natures of reality, of insanity, and of taboo. There is a fantastic bit toward the end where Alicia ponders the role of the development of language in the subsequent (as she sees it) development of madness. I have no idea if it makes sense, but it was very elegant to read.

Obviously you need to read these two books. Today, if you can. The 4 out of 5 is just an irrational response to my sadness at this being the last book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Passenger (The Passenger #1)]]> 60581087
Traversing the American South, from the garrulous barrooms of New Orleans to an abandoned oil rig off the Florida coast, The Passenger is a breathtaking novel of morality and science, the legacy of sin, and the madness that is human consciousness.]]> 385 Cormac McCarthy 0593535227 Briynne 4 Stella Maris would be the last McCarthy novels ever. I read the first few chapters last year when it was released, and I just couldn't quite do it. The box set has been sitting on my shelf, and those distinctive blue spines had been catching my eye just about every day.

I listened to a fair bit of this on audio, and the narrators were very good. And, frankly very helpful in sorting out who is talking when. McCarthy, may he rest in peace, could have made life a little easier for us mere mortals with some punctuation and the use of a "he said" here and there. But no one reads McCarthy for boring things like punctuation and coherent timelines and words one can actually define.

I don't know how to rate the story. I didn't properly understand it all, and I need to probably read it three more times before I can get my head wrapped all the way around it. I was unaware that you were allowed to write a book that opens with a mystery that is never again addressed, let alone solved, introduce shadowy figures who are never identified, and basically litter a novel with unresolved plot points. This is not how people write books. It makes no sense. It's unsatisfying and frustrating. But somehow, miraculously, it works.

McCarthy's use of language, while sometimes almost self-consciously grandiose and theatrical, is like nothing anywhere. It is magnificent. It soars off the page, and you can feel the writer's love-affair with words and what they can be made to do. The characters, and perhaps by definition the author, are searingly intelligent. It was thrilling to watch their minds work, even when I had little idea what they were talking about.

I can't wait to re-read this.]]> 3.58 2022 The Passenger (The Passenger #1)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/27
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:
I wish 4.5 stars were an option. I had a lot of feelings about starting this book, knowing that it and Stella Maris would be the last McCarthy novels ever. I read the first few chapters last year when it was released, and I just couldn't quite do it. The box set has been sitting on my shelf, and those distinctive blue spines had been catching my eye just about every day.

I listened to a fair bit of this on audio, and the narrators were very good. And, frankly very helpful in sorting out who is talking when. McCarthy, may he rest in peace, could have made life a little easier for us mere mortals with some punctuation and the use of a "he said" here and there. But no one reads McCarthy for boring things like punctuation and coherent timelines and words one can actually define.

I don't know how to rate the story. I didn't properly understand it all, and I need to probably read it three more times before I can get my head wrapped all the way around it. I was unaware that you were allowed to write a book that opens with a mystery that is never again addressed, let alone solved, introduce shadowy figures who are never identified, and basically litter a novel with unresolved plot points. This is not how people write books. It makes no sense. It's unsatisfying and frustrating. But somehow, miraculously, it works.

McCarthy's use of language, while sometimes almost self-consciously grandiose and theatrical, is like nothing anywhere. It is magnificent. It soars off the page, and you can feel the writer's love-affair with words and what they can be made to do. The characters, and perhaps by definition the author, are searingly intelligent. It was thrilling to watch their minds work, even when I had little idea what they were talking about.

I can't wait to re-read this.
]]> <![CDATA[The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction]]> 846034 The Viking reputation is one of bloodthirsty seafaring warriors, repeatedly plundering the British Isles and the North Atlantic throughout the early Middle Ages. Yet Vikings were also traders, settlers, and farmers, with a complex artistic and linguistic culture, whose expansion overseas led them to cross the Atlantic for the first time in European history. Highlighting the latest archaeological evidence, Julian Richards reveals the whole Viking world: their history, their culture, and their legacy of overseas expansion for trade, colonization, and plunder. Viking identity is explored through what we have learned about their towns, art, shipbuilding, and religious rituals. Here the Viking story is brought up to the present, from the tales of adventure found in medieval Icelandic sagas, to their exploitation as a symbol of nationalism in the nineteenth century by Wagner, and later by Hitler and the Nazi party. The author also highlights their impact and influence on the history and people of Northern Europe. Vikings, a fascinating new look at a people and culture that have been reinvented throughout history, will take readers closer to discovering who they really were.

]]> 152 Julian D. Richards 0192806076 Briynne 3 3.39 2005 The Vikings: A Very Short Introduction
author: Julian D. Richards
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/25
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves: yale-open-course-early-middle-ages
review:
Exactly what it professes to be.
]]> <![CDATA[The Atlas Complex (The Atlas, #3)]]> 83668117
Only the extraordinary are chosen.

Only the cunning survive.

An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment.

Old alliances quickly fracture as the initiates take opposing strategies as to how to deal with the deadly bargain they have so far failed to uphold. Those who remain with the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities, while elsewhere, an unlikely pair from the Society cohort partner to influence politics on a global stage.

And still the outside world mobilizes to destroy them, while the Caretaker himself, Atlas Blakely, may yet succeed with a plan foreseen to have world-ending stakes. It’s a race to survive as the six Society recruits are faced with the question of what they're willing to betray for limitless power―and who will be destroyed along the way.

Also by Olivie Blake
The Atlas Six
The Atlas Paradox
Alone with You in the Ether
One for My Enemy
Masters of Death]]> 496 Olivie Blake 1250855136 Briynne 3 2.93 2024 The Atlas Complex (The Atlas, #3)
author: Olivie Blake
name: Briynne
average rating: 2.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:
I like the trilogy, but this last book fizzled a bit for me. It felt a little wandering and directionless to me. But, all in all, a good series.
]]> The Warm Hands of Ghosts 154462576 New York Times bestselling author of The Bear and the Nightingale

January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, she receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, along with his personal effects—but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, Laura returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Soon after arriving, she hears whispers about haunted trenches, and a strange hotelier whose wine gives soldiers the gift of oblivion. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something—or someone—else?

November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier, a German by the name of Hans Winter. Against all odds, the two men form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. Unable to bear the thought of returning to the killing fields, especially on opposite sides, they take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.

As shells rain down on Flanders, and ghosts move among those yet living, Laura’s and Freddie’s deepest traumas are reawakened. Now they must decide whether their world is worth salvaging—or better left behind entirely.]]> 325 Katherine Arden 0593128257 Briynne 5 3.97 2024 The Warm Hands of Ghosts
author: Katherine Arden
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves:
review:
I absolutely loved this. It was completely different from the Winternight trilogy, but just as wonderfully written. This is a difficult one to describe; it's part meditation on the horrors of World War I, part Charlie Daniels homage, part exploration of women's liberation, and part gothic ghost story. You must read this. It was a delight.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)]]> 24548235 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

The landmark publishing event of 2015 -- a full-colour illustrated edition of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with breathtaking illustrations by Jim Kay, winner of the Kate Greenaway medal.

For the first time, J.K. Rowling's beloved Harry Potter books will be presented in lavishly illustrated full-color editions. Prepare to be spellbound by Jim Kay's dazzling depiction of the wizarding world and much loved characters in this full-colour illustrated hardback edition of the nation's favourite children's book -- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Jim Kay has created over 100 stunning illustrations, making this deluxe format a perfect gift as much for a child being introduced to the series, as for the dedicated fan. Brimming with rich detail and humour that perfectly complements J.K. Rowling's timeless classic, Jim Kay's glorious illustrations will captivate fans and new readers alike.

When a letter arrives for unhappy but ordinary Harry Potter, a decade-old secret is revealed to him that apparently he's the last to know. His parents were wizards, killed by a Dark Lord's curse when Harry was just a baby, and which he somehow survived. Leaving his unsympathetic aunt and uncle for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry stumbles upon a sinister mystery when he finds a three-headed dog guarding a room on the third floor. Then he hears of a missing stone with astonishing powers, which could be valuable, dangerous -- or both. An incredible adventure is about to begin!]]> 245 J.K. Rowling 1408845644 Briynne 5 with-the-kids
____
I had, unfortunately and quite stupidly, considered myself a bit too cool to read Harry Potter books until about the time the fifth book came out, and I decided to give it a try. I was amazed and felt like kicking myself. It's too rare that an author produces a work of honestly imaginative and original work, and I had missed out on it for years. The world the author created in this book absolutely delighted me with it's scope and detail; I loved the cleverly named wizarding world and the sense of childlike wonder of it all. Fantastic book.]]> 4.74 1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.74
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/01
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
*Updated review* I just finished reading this gorgeous illustrated version of the 1st Harry Potter book with my kids in preparation for our first visit to Universal. My daughter had read it independently, but it was my son's first experience with the book. The movies are lovely, but Rowling's use of language is really special. I had forgotten a lot of details in the almost 20 years (!!!) that had gone by since the first time I read this. So much fun to share and experience with my kids.

____
I had, unfortunately and quite stupidly, considered myself a bit too cool to read Harry Potter books until about the time the fifth book came out, and I decided to give it a try. I was amazed and felt like kicking myself. It's too rare that an author produces a work of honestly imaginative and original work, and I had missed out on it for years. The world the author created in this book absolutely delighted me with it's scope and detail; I loved the cleverly named wizarding world and the sense of childlike wonder of it all. Fantastic book.
]]> <![CDATA[Snow White and Other Grimms' Fairy Tales (MinaLima Edition)]]> 60523273 The ninth book in Harper Design's deluxe classic illustrated series--a beautiful and inventive fresh take on the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales, including "Snow White," with stunning full-color artwork and interactive features created by MinaLima, the award-winning design studio behind the graphics for the Harry Potter film franchise.

Snow White and Other Grimms' Fairy Tales includes twenty-three of the most popular tales penned by German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, taken from their original collection Children's and Household Tales, first published in 1812.

Here are beloved characters, including Snowdrop (Snow White), Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), Ashputtel (Cinderella), Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, The Elves and The Shoemaker, all reimagined by the brilliant award-winning designers at MinaLima. This deluxe edition is illustrated with specially commissioned artwork and includes nine extraordinary interactive features ranging from a pop-up forest and pull-tab mirror for Snow White and a wall of thorns encasing Sleeping Beauty to a three-dimensional ball gown for Cinderella and a pop-up tower for Rapunzel.

Filled with marvels, this beautiful edition will enchant readers of every age and is sure to become a treasured keepsake.]]> 224 Jacob Grimm 0063208245 Briynne 5 with-the-kids 4.28 2022 Snow White and Other Grimms' Fairy Tales (MinaLima Edition)
author: Jacob Grimm
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/01
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
Another wonderful, gorgeous Minalima-illustrated classic I read with my kids. We were so delighted by the interactive art, and my kids got a kick out of spotting the differences between the Disney versions of these stories and the more original and gruesome Grimm versions presented here.
]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Garden (MinaLima Edition)]]> 36220695
After tragedy leaves Mary Lennox orphaned, the bratty ten-year-old British girl is sent from her home in India to Yorkshire, to live with Archibald Craven, a distant uncle whom she has never met.

At first, life in the isolated Misselthwaite Manor is as cold and desolate as the bleak moor outside her window. Then Mary learns the story of the late Mrs. Craven, the estate’s mistress, who spent hours in a walled garden tending to her roses. Mrs. Craven died after an accident in the garden, and her forlorn husband forbid anyone to enter it again, locking it and burying the key. The tale piques Mary’s curiosity and inspires her to find this secret garden, a search that introduces her to new friends, including a robin redbreast; Dickson, a twelve-year-old boy with a kindness to animals; and Colin, her secluded sickly first-cousin. Spending time in the garden transforms Mary and Colin and ultimately, life at Misselthwaite Manor itself.

Originally published in 1911, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s poignant story has captured reader’s hearts for more than a century. Part of Harper Design’s series of deluxe reimagined children’s classics, this captivating unabridged gift edition takes readers on a memorable journey that teaches them lessons about hardship, friendship, happiness, and restoration.

Illustrated throughout, The Secret Garden comes with ten interactive features, including:

A layout of the Manor House and grounds
A map of the Secret Garden
A dial showing how plants grow throughout the season
A cut-out paper doll of Mary and her clothes
A removable letter to Dickon from his older sister, the maid who tells Mary the story of the garden]]> 379 Frances Hodgson Burnett 0062692577 Briynne 4 with-the-kids
I have spent most of my life pining for a walled garden to discover thanks to this book, and I loved being able to share this with my children. We're already planning to plant more flowers next Spring. My littlest one has requested "daffy-down-dillies". Thank you Ben Weatherstaff.]]> 4.37 1911 The Secret Garden (MinaLima Edition)
author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1911
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/04
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
I read this book as a child and loved the magic of it. I recently finished rereading this absolutely stunning illustrated edition with my kids and remembered why it's always held a special spot in my heart. Look, there is no denying that the casual colonial racism on full display in the early chapters has to be addressed with the kiddos. The Yorkshire dialect dialogue is confusing and really, really complicated to do for a read-aloud. There's all sorts of stuff that is weird and has aged poorly, but at it's core this is a magnificent story about the healing power of nature, love, and belonging. Our family did a lot of vegetable gardening this summer, and it thrilled me to see my kids wandering the rows learning what edible plants look like and smell like and just are like outside a grocery store. They were so delighted every time they spotted a cucumber or woefully overgrown zucchini. This book tied in so nicely with what they were experiencing in real life and whetted their appetite for more.

I have spent most of my life pining for a walled garden to discover thanks to this book, and I loved being able to share this with my children. We're already planning to plant more flowers next Spring. My littlest one has requested "daffy-down-dillies". Thank you Ben Weatherstaff.
]]> The Invention of Hugo Cabret 9673436 534 Brian Selznick Briynne 4 with-the-kids 4.22 2007 The Invention of Hugo Cabret
author: Brian Selznick
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/19
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
My kids and I finished reading this together last night. It was wonderful. The format, which includes page after page of beautiful illustrations, tells the story in a way that is accessible and engaging to even very young listeners and lookers. My four year old would close his eyes and snuggle while listening to the written words, but would pop up like a jack-in-the-box whenever I said, "Look! Pictures!" My seven-year-old loved it, and they are both looking forward to watching the movie this weekend. I thought the setting was interesting, the story bittersweet and full of appropriate levels of action and adventure, and the characters vivid. Highly recommend!
]]> Peter Pan 23215466
For more than a century, the adventures of Peter Pan—the boy who can fly and never grows up—and Wendy Darling have captured the hearts of generations of readers. In this enchanting illustrated volume, the fantastical world of Neverland and its magical inhabitants, including the Lost Boys, Captain Hook, Tiger Lily, and the beloved Tinker Bell, are brought to life like never before.

Peter Pan is packed with a lush array of colorful illustrations and interactive removable features, including a detailed map of Neverland, a croc o’clock with hands you can rotate to tell time, Peter’s shadow, and more. Beautiful and captivating, filled with breathtaking artwork, this stunning book is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of all ages.]]> 256 J.M. Barrie 0062362224 Briynne 3 with-the-kids
We're looking forward to our next MinaLima classic!]]> 4.03 1911 Peter Pan
author: J.M. Barrie
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1911
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/22
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
I was a little disappointed with this story. My kids and I loved the fancy illustrations and interactive elements, but this is basically a children's story written at a high-school level. They literally had no idea what the sentences meant, even when they understood the words. I ended up translating half the book to them. Much of the humor was way over their heads, although we did have some good laughs here and there. My kids were engrossed by the action scenes, and they loved the crocodile. I personally found Barrie's voice to be somewhat smug and self-satisfied at his own cleverness at times. We were all surprised by the rudeness and outright malice of the original Tinker Bell, and to varying degrees (my little one obviously less so than my older child) found Peter Pan to be a somewhat pathetic figure. I feel like he is meant to be a paragon of what it means to be a child, but he's portrayed as selfish and thoughtless, and he forgets even his very best friends. I find this to be a rather sad view of childhood on the author's part; certainly children, like adults, can be those things, but children can also be giving, caring, and genuinely thoughtful little people who want nothing in return but a hug.

We're looking forward to our next MinaLima classic!
]]> The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1) 59058504
Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.]]> 376 Olivie Blake 1250854512 Briynne 4 3.60 2020 The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1)
author: Olivie Blake
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/21
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves:
review:
This was so much fun! I'm already reading the second book in the series. This is basically Goldilocks- it's smart but reads without a lot of effort, there is magic but we don't have to sit though painstaking explanations about how it works, there is world-building without feeling like you are reading a technical manual, there is romance and intrigue and mystery without it going overboard into any particular genre. I wouldn't necessarily say that the big reveal at the end came as a surprise (at all), but it was entertaining all the same. I would definitely recommend this one.
]]> The Stage Kiss 143245005 In this slow-burn yet highly combustible enemies-to-lovers romance, perfect for fans of Rachel Lynn Solomon and Abby Jimenez, two stage actors find themselves falling for each other with each onstage kiss...against their better judgment.

Actress Eden Blake’s biggest claim to fame is a mortifying pharmaceutical commercial for male enhancement pills. That is until the female lead on the nationwide tour of Broadway’s hit Pride & Prejudice musical abruptly quits and Eden is called up to fill the role.

The cast of Liz and Darcy: The Musical has just settled into a three-week run in Washington, DC, and Broadway royalty Brennon Thorne is set to play Darcy. Despite Brennon’s reputation as being “a dream to work with,� Eden’s first impression of him is more like a nightmare. Now, she’ll have to kiss the pompous jerk eight shows per week.

Brennon can’t disguise his disdain for understudies like Eden. But New York is filled with reminders of his most recent failed relationship, and this American tour is a much-needed distraction from his loneliness. As Eden and Brennon take the stage playing Jane Austen’s most memorable characters, their reality begins to mirror Elizabeth and Darcy’s—explosive chemistry and all. Together, they power through press performances and curtain calls, even as rumors of Brennon’s checkered romantic past resurface and prove to Eden that he can’t be trusted.

But with each choreographed stage kiss, Eden and Brennon’s passion for the stage—and each other—ignites. Maybe, just maybe, not all rumors are to be believed—and not all showmances are doomed to fail.]]> 336 Amelia Jones 1639105840 Briynne 2 Pride and Prejudice modern retelling set in an off-Broadway touring company that is doing a Pride and Prejudice show? That has to be fun, doesn't it?? And it's available to borrow now???" And then I read it and just shake my head at myself. But it's only the 42nd time I've used that same bad logic with the same result, so I probably shouldn't be hard on myself. ]]> 3.31 The Stage Kiss
author: Amelia Jones
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.31
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves:
review:
Why do I do this? I scroll through Libby and think, "Oh...a Pride and Prejudice modern retelling set in an off-Broadway touring company that is doing a Pride and Prejudice show? That has to be fun, doesn't it?? And it's available to borrow now???" And then I read it and just shake my head at myself. But it's only the 42nd time I've used that same bad logic with the same result, so I probably shouldn't be hard on myself.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)]]> 34381546
Now he has escaped, leaving only two clues as to where he might be headed: Harry Potter's defeat of You-Know-Who was Black's downfall as well. And the Azkaban guards heard Black muttering in his sleep, "He's at Hogwarts... he's at Hogwarts."

Harry Potter isn't safe, not even within the walls of his magical school, surrounded by his friends. Because on top of it all, there may well be a traitor in their midst.]]> 326 J.K. Rowling 0545791340 Briynne 4 with-the-kids
I adore these illustrated versions of Harry Potter. We finished #3 last night, and I think we all felt a sense of accomplishment. These are huge books for my seven year old. I love Professor Lupin; while many Hogwarts professors are good people and intelligent teachers, Lupin in certainly the most warm and caring. Harry's psychological battle with the dementors throughout the book is interesting, and it is so wonderful to watch him triumph in the end. We are taking a slight break, but we'll be back for The Goblet of Fire this summer. We've already planned to listen to it on our summer road trip - can't wait! ]]> 4.84 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.84
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
*Updated Review*

I adore these illustrated versions of Harry Potter. We finished #3 last night, and I think we all felt a sense of accomplishment. These are huge books for my seven year old. I love Professor Lupin; while many Hogwarts professors are good people and intelligent teachers, Lupin in certainly the most warm and caring. Harry's psychological battle with the dementors throughout the book is interesting, and it is so wonderful to watch him triumph in the end. We are taking a slight break, but we'll be back for The Goblet of Fire this summer. We've already planned to listen to it on our summer road trip - can't wait!
]]> <![CDATA[D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths]]> 79626
"For any child fortunate enough to have this generous book...the kings and heroes of ancient legend will remain forever matter-of-fact; the pictures interpret the text literally and are full of detail and witty observation."--The HornBook

"The drawings, particularly the full-page ones in this oversized volume, are excellentand excitingly evocative."--The NewYork Times

"Parents, uncles, and aunts who have been searching for a big picture book that has good reading-aloud value for the younger ones and fine read-it-yourself value on up, have it in this volume...a children's classic."--Christian Science Monitor]]> 208 Ingri d'Aulaire 0440406943 Briynne 4 with-the-kids Iliad and Odyssey.

I want my kids to have a passing familiarity with all kinds of classical literature so that they can read Romantic-era poetry someday and not feel as if they are drooling idiots. But more than that, these are just fantastic stories that speak to what it has meant to be human for thousands and thousands of years. ]]> 4.41 1962 D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
author: Ingri d'Aulaire
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/18
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
What a fantastic collection of greek myths for children. The pictures are charmingly wonky - my kids laughed themselves silly at the picture of Charybdis (which, realistically, looked like a potato with teeth and eyes). But the point is that they know who Scylla and Charybdis are. They get a great basic intro to the major figures of the Titan and Olympian pantheons. The more adult themes are softened in a way that gets the general idea across without the R-rating most mythology deserves (Hera comes across like a miffed '50s housewife everytime Zeus gets "married" again. It's cute. And much less distressing than his actual behavior.) The book covers the heroes - Heracles, Jason, Perseus, Theseus. My daughter and I noted with some glee how often the women in the stories (Ariadne, and more problematically Medea) do the actual problem solving while the heroes do the chest-thumping. This was a perfect match for watching "Percy Jackson" on Disney+ and tied in nicely to our reading of the Iliad and Odyssey.

I want my kids to have a passing familiarity with all kinds of classical literature so that they can read Romantic-era poetry someday and not feel as if they are drooling idiots. But more than that, these are just fantastic stories that speak to what it has meant to be human for thousands and thousands of years.
]]> A Love Song for Ricki Wilde 173404023
Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.]]> 352 Tia Williams 153872670X Briynne 4 Seven Days in June, but they were enjoyable all the same. Ricki's chaotic energy would stress me out in real life, but she's fun on the page. Ezra was lovely. I like magical realism that doesn't apologize for itself, and Williams just goes for it like she's having an absolute ball in this. I will definitely be reading whatever she comes up with next.]]> 3.98 2024 A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
author: Tia Williams
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/02/20
shelves:
review:
This was a quick, fun read that was great for a lazy winter weekend. The characters and story didn't quite hit me like the ones in Seven Days in June, but they were enjoyable all the same. Ricki's chaotic energy would stress me out in real life, but she's fun on the page. Ezra was lovely. I like magical realism that doesn't apologize for itself, and Williams just goes for it like she's having an absolute ball in this. I will definitely be reading whatever she comes up with next.
]]> <![CDATA[The Atlas Paradox (The Atlas, #2)]]> 59808248 Five are now members of the Society.
Two paths lie before them.

All must pick a side.

Alliances will be tested, hearts will be broken, and The Society of Alexandrians will be revealed for what it a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way.]]> 416 Olivie Blake 1250855098 Briynne 4 3.59 2022 The Atlas Paradox (The Atlas, #2)
author: Olivie Blake
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/13
date added: 2024/02/16
shelves:
review:
I've been enjoying this series so much. Pure fun.
]]> <![CDATA[The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800]]> 892133 301 Jonathan P. Berkey 0521588138 Briynne 3 3.72 1999 The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800
author: Jonathan P. Berkey
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/01
date added: 2024/02/01
shelves: yale-open-course-early-middle-ages
review:
While some of this was a dense, slow-going read, it was also very informative. I don't pretend to have absorbed all the details in this book, but it was very useful as a supplement to the lectures I listened to on the emergence of the Islamic world, the Umayyad Caliphate, the flowering of culture in the Abbasid period, and the differences between the Sunni, Shi'a, and Sufi interpretations of the religion. It was also really interesting to better understand the historical events that led to the major schism between Sunni and Shia in the first place. This entire subject represents a blank space in my formal education, and this did an admirable job of beginning to fill in these huge gaps in my understanding. Now I at least feel that I have some vague notion of what I don't know, which is always an excellent place to start.
]]> <![CDATA[I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems]]> 57007429
“I'm sure you could benefit from jumping on a treadmill�

“Women WANT a male leader...It’s honest to god the basic human playbook�

These are some of the thousands of online messages Kate Baer has received. Like countless other writers—particularly women—with internet profiles, as Kate’s online presence grew, so did the darker messages crowding her inbox. These missives from strangers have ranged from “advice� and opinions to outright harassment.

At first these messages resulted in an immediate delete and block. Until, on a whim, Baer decided to transform the cruelty into art, using it to create fresh and intriguing poems. These pieces, along with ones made from notes of gratitude and love, as well as from the words of public figures, have become some of her most beloved work. Baer offers us a lesson in empowerment, showing how we too can turn bitterness into beauty.]]> 96 Kate Baer 0063137992 Briynne 3 4.28 2021 I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems
author: Kate Baer
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/27
date added: 2024/01/29
shelves:
review:

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

These are splendid, searching stories, written in Jhumpa Lahiri’s adopted language of Italian and seamlessly translated by the author and by Knopf editor Todd Portnowitz. Stories steeped in the moods of Italian master Alberto Moravia and guided, in the concluding tale, by the ineluctable ghost of Dante Alighieri, whose words lead the protagonist toward a new way of life.]]> 224 Jhumpa Lahiri Briynne 4
I would definitely recommend this collection. They read quickly and offer a lot to think about. ]]> 3.77 2023 Roman Stories
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/05
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves:
review:
I tend to have a hard time with short stories, but these were really lovely. They are mostly told from an outsider's perspective, which is fundamentally different reading experience than reading a Roman writing about Rome, or even an expat story with all its inherent confidence. These characters were immigrants who worked service jobs, who lived on the fringes of society, or who felt themselves to be culturally separated from their neighbors even if they had grown up there. Having said that, one of the few stories about an Italian man ("P's Parties") was my favorite of the lot.

I would definitely recommend this collection. They read quickly and offer a lot to think about.
]]> <![CDATA[Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6)]]> 53205854 No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!]]> 168 Martha Wells 1250765374 Briynne 3 4.25 2021 Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6)
author: Martha Wells
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/03
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves:
review:
Another solid Murderbot novella. This one had a good twist at the end.
]]> <![CDATA[Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)]]> 35519109
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?]]> 163 Martha Wells Briynne 3 4.38 2018 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)
author: Martha Wells
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/27
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves:
review:
I think it's fair to say that my interest in this series is about 98% character-driven and 2% plot-driven. And since this installment was more plot-focused and had less character development, I didn't love it quite as much as the first few novellas. I'm still excited to try the full-length novel, though.
]]> The Weight of Ink 40776163 An intellectual and emotional jigsaw puzzle of a novel for readers ofA. S. Byatt’s Possession and Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book.

Set in London of the 1660s and of the early twenty-first century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, anemigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi, just before the plague hits the city; and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.

As the novel opens, Helen has been summoned by a former student to view a cache of seventeenth-century Jewish documents newly discovered in his home during a renovation. Enlisting the help of Aaron Levy, an American graduate student as impatient as he is charming, and in a race with another fast-moving team of historians, Helen embarks on one last project: to determine the identity of the documents� scribe, the elusive“Aleph.”�

Electrifying and ambitious, sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, The Weight of Ink is a sophisticatedwork of historical fiction about women separated by centuries, and the choices and sacrifices they must makein orderreconcile the life of the heart and mind.]]> 704 Rachel Kadish Briynne 0 to-read 4.12 2017 The Weight of Ink
author: Rachel Kadish
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> No One Is Talking About This 53733106
As this urgent, genre-defying book opens, a woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. She is overwhelmed by navigating the new language and etiquette of what she terms "the portal," where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts. When existential threats—from climate change and economic precariousness to the rise of an unnamed dictator and an epidemic of loneliness—begin to loom, she posts her way deeper into the portal's void. An avalanche of images, details, and references accumulate to form a landscape that is post-sense, post-irony, post-everything. "Are we in hell?" the people of the portal ask themselves. "Are we all just going to keep doing this until we die?"

Suddenly, two texts from her mother pierce the fray: "Something has gone wrong," and "How soon can you get here?" As real life and its stakes collide with the increasingly absurd antics of the portal, the woman confronts a world that seems to contain both an abundance of proof that there is goodness, empathy, and justice in the universe, and a deluge of evidence to the contrary.

Fragmentary and omniscient, incisive and sincere, No One Is Talking About This is at once a love letter to the endless scroll and a profound, modern meditation on love, language, and human connection from a singular voice in American literature.]]> 210 Patricia Lockwood 0593189582 Briynne 4
Then the second part comes around and sort of wrecks things a bit. Don’t get me wrong - it’s a very good novel. It’s just that without the not-entirely-convincing “It’s a Wonderful Life� epiphany about the beauty of the analog world, it would have been the sort of novel that had the potential to change how novels get written. Alas. But still very much worth reading.]]> 3.57 2021 No One Is Talking About This
author: Patricia Lockwood
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/05
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves:
review:
Four and a half stars, honestly. The writing in the first part of this novel is really, really good - it’s completely different from anything I’ve read, and dead-on accurate to what the internet and its rabidly-dedicated denizens feel like. I picked this up because it was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and after about twenty pages I thought, “yeah - that makes sense.� The writing is aggressive and lean, and the narrator’s voice is insanely vivid. You can see every manic, shallow, morally-bankrupt, intelligent, vulgar, desperate-to-not-be-left-behind cell of this woman in stunning detail.

Then the second part comes around and sort of wrecks things a bit. Don’t get me wrong - it’s a very good novel. It’s just that without the not-entirely-convincing “It’s a Wonderful Life� epiphany about the beauty of the analog world, it would have been the sort of novel that had the potential to change how novels get written. Alas. But still very much worth reading.
]]> <![CDATA[The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War]]> 195607632
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Fort Sumter.

Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.�

At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.

Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.]]> 559 Erik Larson 0385348754 Briynne 0 to-read 4.38 2024 The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
author: Erik Larson
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)]]> 35519101
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

]]> 158 Martha Wells 1250191785 Briynne 3 4.21 2018 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
author: Martha Wells
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/10
date added: 2023/12/11
shelves:
review:
The third outing in this series was very solid, but it just didn't have quite the punch of the first two novellas. Instead of being unintentionally funny, like ART, Miki the bot was unintentionally depressing to Murderbot. Miki's humans were kind to her, protected her, and invited her to sit on people chairs. Murderbot noticed, and had to excuse himself to go feel emotions in a storage cupboard. And that made me sad, so three stars.
]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 alternate cover for ISBN 9781250186928

It has a dark past � one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A� stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.]]> 158 Martha Wells Briynne 5 All Systems Red! Murderbot and ART are a perfect odd-couple. I'm sorry, but that bit where Murderbot basically compares ART to a lurking mouth-breather when he's hanging around in his feed is hilarious. This series is so hard to explain adequately to people (although I keep trying at the dinner table to my children), but I promise it is really fun and you should absolutely check it out. ]]> 4.23 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/09
date added: 2023/12/11
shelves:
review:
I liked this even better than All Systems Red! Murderbot and ART are a perfect odd-couple. I'm sorry, but that bit where Murderbot basically compares ART to a lurking mouth-breather when he's hanging around in his feed is hilarious. This series is so hard to explain adequately to people (although I keep trying at the dinner table to my children), but I promise it is really fun and you should absolutely check it out.
]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Briynne 5
Even though Murderbot hates all the expectations of human interactions, he reluctantly accepts that he likes (most) of his humans and doesn't want them to get eaten by alien monsters or slaughtered by hijacked bots. So he gets to work. I cannot wait to see where this series goes. ]]> 4.11 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves:
review:
This was a delight. I identified so deeply with this human-bot hybrid. He's bored and just wants to watch his shows and not have to interact with the humans. He just wants to put his helmet on so the humans can pretend he's a robot, and so he can make whatever facial expression he wants and not worry about keeping his face together. He really wants to go back to his cubicle now and not sit in the staff canteen with everyone. The expression "Murderbot + humans = awkward" is absolute gold. I loved the part where he admitted he hadn't read the group's file because he didn't want to and didn't care. (I know "he" is probably not exactly accurate, but "it" feels awful and dehumanizing for a robot who is partially organic person and has so many feelings. And since I got zero lady vibes while I was reading this, "he" was my default mental pronoun for Murderbot.)

Even though Murderbot hates all the expectations of human interactions, he reluctantly accepts that he likes (most) of his humans and doesn't want them to get eaten by alien monsters or slaughtered by hijacked bots. So he gets to work. I cannot wait to see where this series goes.
]]> The Vaster Wilds 62952130
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.

Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.]]> 272 Lauren Groff 0593418395 Briynne 3
Groff plays with conventional literary expectations in a way that feels a little bait-and-switch. I think readers have been conditioned by a long history of novels that repay plucky underdogs with victory after they endure their trials to expect something more than the author gives us in this novel. I don't question the likelihood of the outcome of this novel. It absolutely makes sense. However, I don't actually read novels for reality. That is the function of a decent newspaper. A novel is supposed to tell a story that makes me feel something or teaches me something or helps me experience the world in a way I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

The experience of this book was unrelenting, unmitigated human misery from start to finish. Obviously, no one wants to crank up the time machine to visit Jamestown colony during the Starving Time. Or, frankly, any part of 17th century colonial America if you happen to be a woman. It's depressing and scary. But I still expected a little more light to play against the dark in this story. Or, at minimum, a moral or philosophical takeaway that justified all the horror and violence. An attempt was made at the latter, but it didn't quite do it for me.

I don't think I recommend this book, even though it was well written and I thought about it constantly when I had to put it down. Or if I do, it is with the strong caveat that reading it will likely deal your Christmas cheer a very serious setback, and that it absolutely should not be read before an anticipated holiday dinner. ]]> 3.73 2016 The Vaster Wilds
author: Lauren Groff
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/04
date added: 2023/12/04
shelves:
review:
Groff is, without doubt, a very talented writer. Why exactly she chose to apply her talent to this particular story is a mystery though. The narrative is fast-moving and had me on the edge of my seat; the main character is indomitable and compelling. But, oh my goodness, was this just about the most depressing thing I have ever read.

Groff plays with conventional literary expectations in a way that feels a little bait-and-switch. I think readers have been conditioned by a long history of novels that repay plucky underdogs with victory after they endure their trials to expect something more than the author gives us in this novel. I don't question the likelihood of the outcome of this novel. It absolutely makes sense. However, I don't actually read novels for reality. That is the function of a decent newspaper. A novel is supposed to tell a story that makes me feel something or teaches me something or helps me experience the world in a way I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

The experience of this book was unrelenting, unmitigated human misery from start to finish. Obviously, no one wants to crank up the time machine to visit Jamestown colony during the Starving Time. Or, frankly, any part of 17th century colonial America if you happen to be a woman. It's depressing and scary. But I still expected a little more light to play against the dark in this story. Or, at minimum, a moral or philosophical takeaway that justified all the horror and violence. An attempt was made at the latter, but it didn't quite do it for me.

I don't think I recommend this book, even though it was well written and I thought about it constantly when I had to put it down. Or if I do, it is with the strong caveat that reading it will likely deal your Christmas cheer a very serious setback, and that it absolutely should not be read before an anticipated holiday dinner.
]]> <![CDATA[Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World]]> 77264984 SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome. Now she shines her spotlight on the emperors who ruled the Roman empire, from Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) to Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE). Emperor of Rome is not your usual chronological account of Roman rulers, one after the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Beard asks bigger What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? She tracks down the emperor at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven. She introduces his wives and lovers, rivals and slaves, court jesters and soldiers—and the ordinary people who pressed begging letters into his hands. Emperor of Rome goes directly to the heart of Roman (and our own) fantasies about what it was to be Roman, offering an account of Roman history as it has never been presented before.]]> 510 Mary Beard 1631494104 Briynne 0 to-read 4.23 2023 Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World
author: Mary Beard
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Chenneville 112975135 Consumed with grief, driven by vengeance, a man undertakes an unrelenting odyssey across the lawless post–Civil War frontier seeking redemption in this fearless novel from the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of News of the World.

Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. His recovery took the better part of a year as he struggled to regain his senses and mobility. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John’s beloved sister and her family had been brutally murdered.

Their killer goes by many names. He fought for the North in the late unpleasantness, and wore a badge in the name of the law. But the man John knows as A. J. Dodd is little more than a rabid animal, slaughtering without reason or remorse, needing to be put down.

Traveling through the unforgiving landscape of a shattered nation in the midst of Reconstruction, John braves winter storms and confronts desperate people in pursuit of his quarry. Untethered, single-minded in purpose, he will not be deterred. Not by the U.S. Marshal who threatens to arrest him for murder should he succeed. And not by Victoria Reavis, the telegraphist aiding him in his death-driven quest, yet hoping he’ll choose to embrace a life with her instead.

And as he trails Dodd deep into Texas, John accepts that this final reckoning between them may cost him more than all he’s already lost…]]> 307 Paulette Jiles 0063252686 Briynne 4 News of the World and Simon the Fiddler were such a treat. These books, along with Frazier's Cold Mountain paint the world of the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War with such conviction that you feel like the author somehow managed to see it with her own eyes. I felt that way about Mantel's Cromwell trilogy as well. To me, that is the mark of really wonderful historical fiction. You never get the feeling of the present intruding into the past, or the author's modern sensibilities coloring the characters' feelings. Mind you, having never actually lived in the the 1860s American South, I have no idea if Jiles' take is authentic. But it's awful convincing either way. I really recommend this - she's an automatic read for me at this point. ]]> 3.97 2023 Chenneville
author: Paulette Jiles
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/27
date added: 2023/11/27
shelves:
review:
I love Paulette Jiles. These slim little novels of hers pack a punch. Also, the references to News of the World and Simon the Fiddler were such a treat. These books, along with Frazier's Cold Mountain paint the world of the chaotic aftermath of the Civil War with such conviction that you feel like the author somehow managed to see it with her own eyes. I felt that way about Mantel's Cromwell trilogy as well. To me, that is the mark of really wonderful historical fiction. You never get the feeling of the present intruding into the past, or the author's modern sensibilities coloring the characters' feelings. Mind you, having never actually lived in the the 1860s American South, I have no idea if Jiles' take is authentic. But it's awful convincing either way. I really recommend this - she's an automatic read for me at this point.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)]]> 29241319 259 J.K. Rowling Briynne 4 with-the-kids
I just finished re-reading this with my kids. I adore these illustrated versions; they add so much to the experience and help focus my 7-year-old. Really lovely. Chamber of Secrets isn't my favorite story in the series, but that is the beauty of reading these books through a second time. I get to focus more on the joy and wonder and fun, rather than simply reading the plot. ]]> 4.75 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.75
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/24
date added: 2023/11/24
shelves: with-the-kids
review:
*Updated review*

I just finished re-reading this with my kids. I adore these illustrated versions; they add so much to the experience and help focus my 7-year-old. Really lovely. Chamber of Secrets isn't my favorite story in the series, but that is the beauty of reading these books through a second time. I get to focus more on the joy and wonder and fun, rather than simply reading the plot.
]]> <![CDATA[The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century]]> 35969599 A rollicking true-crime adventure and a thought-provoking exploration of the human drive to possess natural beauty for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief.

On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History, armed with a pair of latex gloves, a miniature LED flashlight, and a diamond-blade glass cutter. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose coppery orange, emerald, and iridescent blue feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying, in which exotic feathers are fastened in intricate patterns around fishing hooks. Over the next few hours, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins--some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them--and escaped into the darkness.

Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico, fly-fishing for trout, when his guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds from a museum? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation, infiltrating the underground network of fly-tiers and feather smugglers, and tracking down the thief and his suspected accomplices in a single-minded search for the missing birds. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.]]> 308 Kirk Wallace Johnson 110198161X Briynne 5
This is my favorite kind of nonfiction. It reads like a novel, teaches you about an aspect of the world you never knew existed, and makes you feel a bit smarter at the end. I hope that Kirk Wallace Johnson finds another obscure crime to research in the future. ]]> 4.06 2018 The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
author: Kirk Wallace Johnson
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/18
date added: 2023/11/20
shelves:
review:
This was so interesting!! Who even knew there were rabbit holes full of feather-obsessed fly tiers to tumble down?

This is my favorite kind of nonfiction. It reads like a novel, teaches you about an aspect of the world you never knew existed, and makes you feel a bit smarter at the end. I hope that Kirk Wallace Johnson finds another obscure crime to research in the future.
]]> Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Briynne 4 4.34 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/11
date added: 2023/11/11
shelves:
review:
This was so much fun, as well as being the somewhat rare case of the second book being all around better than the first. The characters were more fleshed out and real, the story had good pacing once I found my feet after the first chapter of having forgot all the plot points from the first book, and it was impossible to put down. And the ending was fantastic. Heart-breaking and devastating, but fantastic. I’m dying to read the next installment.
]]> Year of Wonders 1022970 320 Geraldine Brooks 0142000787 Briynne 5 3.89 2001 Year of Wonders
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/25
date added: 2023/11/08
shelves:
review:
This was a gorgeous, terrifying novel of an English plague village. Wonderful main character, and an ending that stopped me dead in my tracks.
]]> <![CDATA[Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)]]> 18966819
A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.]]> 466 Pierce Brown 0345539826 Briynne 4 4.47 2015 Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Briynne
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/25
date added: 2023/11/08
shelves:
review:
Whoops...just realized I forgot to add this from earlier this summer. I was tearing through these Pierce Brown novels so fast I didn't get around to it :)
]]> <![CDATA[The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club]]> 196845474 Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.

Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies� motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.

Whip-smart and utterly transportive, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is historical fiction of the highest order: an unforgettable coming-of-age story, a tender romance, and a portrait of a nation on the brink of change.]]> 432 Helen Simonson 1984801317 Briynne 0 to-read 3.84 2024 The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
author: Helen Simonson
name: Briynne
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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