jana's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 29 Apr 2025 05:16:32 -0700 60 jana's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Between the World and Me 25489625 “This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.�
Ěý
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,� a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Ěý
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.]]> 152 Ta-Nehisi Coates jana 0 to-read 4.40 2015 Between the World and Me
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: jana
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Water Dancer 43982054 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here and here.

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.

So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he’s enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.

This is the dramatic story of an atrocity inflicted on generations of women, men, and children—the violent and capricious separation of families—and the war they waged to simply make lives with the people they loved. Written by one of today’s most exciting thinkers and writers, The Water Dancer is a propulsive, transcendent work that restores the humanity of those from whom everything was stolen.]]> 416 Ta-Nehisi Coates jana 0 to-read 4.03 2019 The Water Dancer
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: jana
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Floating World (The Floating World, #1)]]> 215149209 From Axie Oh, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in this romantic fantasy reimagining the Korean legend of Celestial Maidens.

Sunho lives in the Under World, a land of perpetual darkness. An ex-soldier, he can remember little of his life from before two years ago, when he woke up alone with only his name and his sword. Now he does odd-jobs to scrape by, until he comes across the score of a lifetime—a chest of coins for any mercenary who can hunt down a girl who wields silver light.

Meanwhile, far to the east, Ren is a cheerful and spirited acrobat traveling with her adoptive family and performing at villages. But everything changes during one of their festival performances when the village is attacked by a horrific humanlike demon. In a moment of fear and rage, Ren releases a blast of silver light—a power she has kept hidden since childhood—and kills the monster. But her efforts are not in time to prevent her adoptive family from suffering a devastating loss, or to save her beloved uncle from being grievously wounded.

Determined to save him from succumbing to the poisoned wound, Ren sets off over the mountains, where the creature came from—and from where Ren herself fled ten years ago. Her path sets her on a collision course with Sunho, but he doesn't realize she's the girl that he—and a hundred other swords-for-hire—is looking for. As the two grow closer through their travels, they come to realize that their pasts—and destinies—are far more entwined than either of them could have imagined...]]> 368 Axie Oh 1250853087 jana 0 to-read 4.17 2025 The Floating World (The Floating World, #1)
author: Axie Oh
name: jana
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1)]]> 25494343 Lady Midnight is a Shadowhunters novel.

It’s been five years since the events of City of Heavenly Fire that brought the Shadowhunters to the brink of oblivion. Emma Carstairs is no longer a child in mourning, but a young woman bent on discovering what killed her parents and avenging her losses.

Together with her parabatai Julian Blackthorn, Emma must learn to trust her head and her heart as she investigates a demonic plot that stretches across Los Angeles, from the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica. If only her heart didn’t lead her in treacherous directions�

Making things even more complicated, Julian’s brother Mark—who was captured by the faeries five years ago—has been returned as a bargaining chip. The faeries are desperate to find out who is murdering their kind—and they need the Shadowhunters� help to do it. But time works differently in faerie, so Mark has barely aged and doesn’t recognize his family. Can he ever truly return to them? Will the faeries really allow it?

Glitz, glamours, and Shadowhunters abound in this heartrending opening to Cassandra Clare’s Dark Artifices series.]]> 688 Cassandra Clare 1442468351 jana 0 to-read 4.35 2016 Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: jana
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)]]> 256683
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...]]> 485 Cassandra Clare 1416914285 jana 0 to-read 4.08 2007 City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: jana
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales, #1)]]> 46777 Welcome to the realm of very scary faeries!

Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces Kaye back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms - a struggle that could very well mean her death.]]> 272 Holly Black 0689867042 jana 0 to-read 3.72 2002 Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales, #1)
author: Holly Black
name: jana
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pride and Prejudice 15769088 alternate cover edition of ASIN B008476HBM

In this historic romance, young Elizabeth Bennet strives for love, independence and honesty in the vapid high society of 19th century England.
--amazon.com]]> 446 Jane Austen jana 0 to-read, currently-reading 4.44 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: jana
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1813
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/25
shelves: to-read, currently-reading
review:

]]> Ripe 62919394
Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, its size changing in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever-closer as the world around her unravels.

When her CEO’s demands cross an illegal threshold and she ends up unexpectedly pregnant, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. Sharp but vulnerable, funny yet unsettling, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through a late-capitalist hellscape and offers an incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.]]> 288 Sarah Rose Etter 1668011638 jana 0 to-read 3.60 2023 Ripe
author: Sarah Rose Etter
name: jana
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 1857397 Oscar Wilde brings his enormous gifts for astute social observation and sparkling prose to The Picture of Dorian Gray, his dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. This dandy, who remains forever unchanged; petulant, hedonistic, vain, and amoral; while a painting of him ages and grows increasingly hideous with the years, has been horrifying, enchanting, obsessing, even corrupting readers for more than a hundred years.

Taking the reader in and out of London drawing rooms, to the heights of aestheticism, and to the depths of decadence, The Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a melodrama about moral corruption. Laced with bon mots and vivid depictions of upper-class refinement, it is also a fascinating look at the milieu of Wilde’s fin-de-siècle world and a manifesto of the creed “Art for Art’s Sake.�

The ever-quotable Wilde, who once delighted London with his scintillating plays, scandalized readers with this, his only novel. Upon publication, Dorian was condemned as dangerous, poisonous, stupid, vulgar, and immoral, and Wilde as a “driveling pedant.� The novel, in fact, was used against Wilde at his much-publicized trials for “gross indecency,� which led to his imprisonment and exile on the European continent. Even so, The Picture of Dorian Gray firmly established Wilde as one of the great voices of the Aesthetic movement, and endures as a classic that is as timeless as its hero.

]]> 248 Oscar Wilde 1593080255 jana 5 classics, favorites


Reread: Still my favorite book‼️‼️]]> 4.00 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: jana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/14
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: classics, favorites
review:
My favorite classic 100%, maybe even my favorite novel



Reread: Still my favorite book‼️‼️
]]> Still Life with Tornado 28588459 “I am sixteen years old. I am a human being.�

Actually Sarah is several human beings. At once. And only one of them is sixteen. Her parents insist she’s a gifted artist with a bright future, but now she can’t draw a thing, not even her own hand. Meanwhile, there’s a ten-year-old Sarah with a filthy mouth, a bad sunburn, and a clear memory of the family vacation in Mexico that ruined everything. She’s a ray of sunshine compared to twenty-three-year-old Sarah, who has snazzy highlights and a bad attitude. And then there’s forty-year-old Sarah (makes good queso dip, doesn’t wear a bra, really wants sixteen-year-old Sarah to tell the truth about her art teacher). They’re all wandering Philadelphia—along with a homeless artist allegedly named Earl—and they’re all worried about Sarah’s future.

But Sarah’s future isn’t the problem. The present is where she might be having an existential crisis. Or maybe all those other Sarahs are trying to wake her up before she’s lost forever in the tornado of violence and denial that is her parents� marriage.

“I am a human being. I am sixteen years old. That should be enough.�]]> 295 A.S. King 1101994886 jana 5 favorites, misc 3.84 2016 Still Life with Tornado
author: A.S. King
name: jana
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/11
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: favorites, misc
review:
A.S. King never fails to amaze me, this book was perfection.
]]> Dig 40714769
"Because we want them to thrive," Marla always says.

What does thriving look like? Like carrying a snow shovel everywhere. Like selling pot at the Arby's drive-thru window. Like a first class ticket to Jamaica between cancer treatments. Like a flea-circus in a doublewide. Like the GPS coordinates to a mound of dirt in a New Jersey forest.

As the rot just beneath the surface of the Hemmings precious white suburban respectability begins to spread, the far flung grand children gradually find their ways back to each other, just in time to uncover the terrible cost of maintaining the family name.]]> 394 A.S. King 1101994916 jana 5 favorites, misc, imptoread Perfection. 4.16 2019 Dig
author: A.S. King
name: jana
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/20
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: favorites, misc, imptoread
review:
Perfection.
]]> <![CDATA[Evocation (The Summoner’s Circle, #1)]]> 123288408 The Devil knows your name, David Aristarkhov.

As a teen, David Aristarkhov was a psychic prodigy, operating under the shadow of his oppressive occultist father. Now, years after his father’s death and rapidly approaching his thirtieth birthday, he is content with the high-powered life he’s curated as a Boston attorney, moonlighting as a powerful medium for his secret society.

But with power comes a price, and the Devil has come to collect on an ancestral deal. David’s days are numbered, and death looms at his door.

Reluctantly, he reaches out to the only person he’s ever trusted, his ex-boyfriend and secret Society rival Rhys, for help. However, the only way to get to Rhys is through his wife, Moira. Thrust into each other’s care, emotions once buried deep resurface, and the trio race to figure out their feelings for one another before the Devil steals David away for good�

The first book in a spellbinding and vibrant new series from The Sunday Times bestselling author of A Dowry of Blood. ]]> 301 S.T. Gibson 191520268X jana 0 to-read 3.61 2024 Evocation (The Summoner’s Circle, #1)
author: S.T. Gibson
name: jana
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1984 34479625 500 George Orwell 1432839683 jana 0 4.09 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: jana
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: currently-reading, classics, dystopian, imptoread
review:

]]> Tricks (Tricks, #1) 5510384
Five moving stories remain separate at first, then interweave to tell a larger, powerful story—a story about making choices, taking leaps of faith, falling down, and growing up. A story about kids figuring out what sex and love are all about, at all costs, while asking themselves, "Can I ever feel okay about myself?"]]> 627 Ellen Hopkins 1416950079 jana 0 to-read 4.28 2009 Tricks (Tricks, #1)
author: Ellen Hopkins
name: jana
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Identical 2241059 Or in a better place?

Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical down to the dimple. As daughters of a district-court judge father and a politician mother, they are an all-American family—on the surface. Behind the facade each sister has her own dark secret, and that's where their differences begin.

For Kaeleigh, she's the misplaced focus of Daddy's love, intended for a mother whose presence on the campaign trail means absence at home. All that Raeanne sees is Daddy playing a game of favorites—and she is losing. If she has to lose, she will do it on her own terms, so she chooses drugs, alcohol, and sex.

Secrets like the ones the twins are harboring are not meant to be kept—from each other or anyone else. Pretty soon it's obvious that neither sister can handle it alone, and one sister must step up to save the other, but the question is—who?]]> 565 Ellen Hopkins 1416950052 jana 0 to-read 4.30 2008 Identical
author: Ellen Hopkins
name: jana
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Crank (Crank, #1) 270730 Crank, Ellen Hopkins chronicles the turbulent and often disturbing relationship between Kristina, a character based on her own daughter, and the "monster," the highly addictive drug crystal meth, or "crank." Kristina is introduced to the drug while visiting her largely absent and ne'er-do-well father. While under the influence of the monster, Kristina discovers her sexy alter-ego, Bree: "there is no perfect daughter, / no gifted high school junior, / no Kristina Georgia Snow. / There is only Bree." Bree will do all the things good girl Kristina won't, including attracting the attention of dangerous boys who can provide her with a steady flow of crank.]]> 537 Ellen Hopkins 0689865198 jana 0 to-read 4.17 2004 Crank (Crank, #1)
author: Ellen Hopkins
name: jana
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nineteen Minutes 14866
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.

Nineteen Minutes is New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult's most raw, honest, and important novel yet. Told with the straightforward style for which she has become known, it asks simple questions that have no easy answers: Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back? And who -- if anyone -- has the right to judge someone else?]]> 440 Jodi Picoult 0743496728 jana 0 to-read 4.16 2007 Nineteen Minutes
author: Jodi Picoult
name: jana
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Storyteller 42729270 468 Pierre Jarawan 1642860115 jana 4 4.16 2016 The Storyteller
author: Pierre Jarawan
name: jana
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/02
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: history, misc, favorites, imptoread
review:

]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 jana 5 classics, history, imptoread 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: jana
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history, imptoread
review:

]]> Birthday Girl 39555142 JORDAN

He took me in when I had nowhere else to go. He doesn’t use me, hurt me, or forget about me. He listens to me, protects me, and sees me. I can feel his eyes on me over the breakfast table, and my heart pumps so hard when I hear him pull in the driveway after work.

I have to stop this. It can’t happen.

My sister once told me there are no good men, and if you find one, he’s probably unavailable. Only Pike Lawson isn’t the unavailable one.
I am.

PIKE

I took her in, because I thought I was helping. As the days go by, though, it’s becoming anything but easy. I have to stop my mind from drifting to her and stop holding my breath every time I bump into her in the house. I can’t touch her, and I shouldn’t want to.

But we’re not free to give into this. She’s nineteen, and I’m thirty-eight.

And her boyfriend’s father.

Unfortunately, they both just moved into my house.]]> 349 Penelope Douglas jana 1 romance, hate, pos-authors 3.85 2018 Birthday Girl
author: Penelope Douglas
name: jana
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2021/12/27
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: romance, hate, pos-authors
review:

]]> The Ivies 48896122 Enroll in this boarding school thriller about a group of prep school elites who would kill to get into the college of their dreams...literally.

Everyone knows the Ivies: the most coveted universities in the United States. Far more important are the Ivies. The Ivies at Claflin Academy, that is. Five girls with the same mission: to get into the Ivy League by any means necessary. I would know. I'm one of them. We disrupt class ranks, club leaderships, and academic competitions...among other things. We improve our own odds by decreasing the fortunes of others. Because hyper-elite competitive college admissions is serious business. And in some cases, it's deadly.

Alexa Donne delivers a nail-biting and timely thriller about teens who will stop at nothing to get into the college of their dreams. Too bad no one told them murder isn't an extracurricular.
]]> 312 Alexa Donne 0593303709 jana 2 3.67 2021 The Ivies
author: Alexa Donne
name: jana
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2021/09/17
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: murder-mysteries-thrillers, hate
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Where She Went (If I Stay, #2)]]> 8492825 Now living on opposite coasts, Mia is Juilliard's rising star and Adam is LA tabloid fodder, thanks to his new rock star status and celebrity girlfriend. When Adam gets stuck in New York by himself, chance brings the couple together again, for one last night. As they explore the city that has become Mia's home, Adam and Mia revisit the past and open their hearts to the future - and each other.

Told from Adam's point of view in the spare, lyrical prose that defined If I Stay, Where She Went explores the devastation of grief, the promise of new hope, and the flame of rekindled romance.

]]> 264 Gayle Forman 0525422943 jana 4 favorites, romance, ya 3.98 2011 Where She Went (If I Stay, #2)
author: Gayle Forman
name: jana
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/08
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: favorites, romance, ya
review:
this was ten times better than the first, but way too short!! i want moreeee
]]> If I Stay (If I Stay, #1) 4374400 208 Gayle Forman 0525421033 jana 3 favorites, romance, ya 3.92 2009 If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)
author: Gayle Forman
name: jana
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/06
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: favorites, romance, ya
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Letters to the Lost (Letters to the Lost, #1)]]> 30038855
Declan Murphy isn't the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he's trying to escape the demons of his past.

When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can't resist writing back. Soon, he's opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they're not actually strangers. When life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, sparks will fly as Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.]]> 391 Brigid Kemmerer 1681190087 jana 5 romance, ya i’m crying at 4 am, welp 4.30 2017 Letters to the Lost (Letters to the Lost, #1)
author: Brigid Kemmerer
name: jana
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/20
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: romance, ya
review:
i’m crying at 4 am, welp
]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 jana 5 favorites, romance
I also loved how everything wasn’t so black and white, but at the same time it was (if that makes sense lmao). And loved Evelyn’s character and how she didn’t really claim to be this amazing perfect person. But still owned what she knew she had, like her beauty, money, etc.

ALSO I LOVED LOVED HOW CELIA AND EVELYN GOT MARRIED AT THE END IT WAS SO CUTE AND PRECIOUS AND THE BEST OF ALL OF EVELYN’S WEDDINGS]]> 4.39 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: jana
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/08
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: favorites, romance
review:
Ok so this book was so good. I feel like I could feel the writing if that makes sense, like I could feel what every character was feeling so differently from every other book I’ve read. Celia and Evelyn have my whole heart and aaah their story just makes me cry thinking about it.

I also loved how everything wasn’t so black and white, but at the same time it was (if that makes sense lmao). And loved Evelyn’s character and how she didn’t really claim to be this amazing perfect person. But still owned what she knew she had, like her beauty, money, etc.

ALSO I LOVED LOVED HOW CELIA AND EVELYN GOT MARRIED AT THE END IT WAS SO CUTE AND PRECIOUS AND THE BEST OF ALL OF EVELYN’S WEDDINGS
]]> Fahrenheit 451 13079982 Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.� But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 194 Ray Bradbury jana 3 3.97 1953 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: jana
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1953
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/14
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, dystopian, favorites, imptoread
review:
3.75 stars. i think the reason i loved this book was, THE WRITING THE WRITING THE WRITING. at times i didn’t really know what was going on cause it took me a few seconds to catch up. the world building wasn’t the greatest but this book is definitely more of a learn from the themes book rather than a plot book. i feel like the ending was so slow, i didn’t really feel anything i wasn’t excited. the beginning was probably my favorite because of clarisse, she gave me major luna lovegood and anne with an E vibes!
]]> <![CDATA[These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1)]]> 50892212
A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a former flapper who has returned to assume her role as the proud heir of the Scarlet Gang—a network of criminals far above the law. Their only rivals in power are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love…and first betrayal.

But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability culminating in clawing their own throats out, the people start to whisper. Of a contagion, a madness. Of a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together, for if they can’t stop this mayhem, then there will be no city left for either to rule.

Perfect for fans of The Last Magician and Descendant of the Crane, this heart-stopping debut is an imaginative Romeo and Juliet retelling set in 1920s Shanghai, with rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.]]> 449 Chloe Gong 1534457690 jana 5 3.82 2020 These Violent Delights (These Violent Delights, #1)
author: Chloe Gong
name: jana
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/26
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: fantasy, favorites, romance, ya
review:
THE YEAR ISNT EVEN OVER AND IVE ALREADY DECIDED THAT THIS IS THE BEST BOOK IVE READ SO FAR OMG ITS SO GOOD PLEASE READ IT. THE ANGST, THE FIGHT SCENES I COULD UNDERSTAND FULLY, THE WRITING, THE REPRESENTATION, ITS ALL JUST SO PERFECT. I MIGHT CRY NO WAIT I DID CRY. I WOULD LAY MY LIFE DOWN FOR ANY ONE OF THESE CHARACTERS, ESPECIALLY JULIETTE AND MARSHALL BECAUSE THEYRE THE LOMLs AAAAAAAAH THIS IS SUCH A CHAOTIC REVIEW BUT I HOPE WHAT YOU LEARN FROM IT IS THAT YOU HAVE TO READ THIS ASAP
]]> Freefall 6936391 How do you come back from the point of no return?

Seth McCoy was the last person to see his best friend Isaac alive, and the first to find him dead. It was just another night, just another party, just another time where Isaac drank too much and passed out on the lawn. Only this time, Isaac didn’t wake up.

Convinced that his own actions led to his friend’s death, Seth is torn between turning his life around . . . or losing himself completely.

Then he meets Rosetta: so beautiful and so different from everything and everyone he’s ever known. But Rosetta has secrets of her own, and Seth will soon realize he isn’t the only one who needs saving . . .]]> 315 Mindi Scott 1442402784 jana 3 favorites, misc, ya 3.75 2010 Freefall
author: Mindi Scott
name: jana
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/28
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: favorites, misc, ya
review:
someone please read this book so that i can talk about how in love i am with Seth McCoy
]]> Sadie 34810320 A missing girl on a journey of revenge. A Serial-like podcast following the clues she's left behind. And an ending you won't be able to stop talking about.

Sadie hasn't had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she's been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water.

But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie's entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister's killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray―a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America―overhears Sadie's story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie's journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it's too late.

Courtney Summers has written the breakout book of her career. Sadie is propulsive and harrowing and will keep you riveted until the last page.]]> 308 Courtney Summers 1250105714 jana 5 4.04 2018 Sadie
author: Courtney Summers
name: jana
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/19
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: murder-mysteries-thrillers, imptoread, ya, favorites
review:
I don’t exactly know how to explain my feelings for this book. It had a certain feeling to it that made it seem so real and life-like. And I think that’s what made this book force me to feel so much. Please read this, because it’s message is so important and I cannot stress enough how much it made me bawl. The writing is flat out amazing and I will definitely be reading more by Courtney Summers.
]]> The Scarlet Ibis 102863
The narrator is six years old when Doodle is born. Doodle is a sickly child, and everyone but Aunt Nicey thinks he will die. Daddy even buys Doodle a coffin. When Doodle has lived for two months, Mama and Daddy name him William Armstrong. The narrator doesn't think the name suits him, so he nicknames him Doodle.

This is a tragic short story following the narrator as he tries to teach his weak younger brother to walk and play like a normal boy. It was first published in The Atlantic Monthly and won the "Atlantic First" award.]]> 36 James Hurst 0886820006 jana 5 classics 3.85 1960 The Scarlet Ibis
author: James Hurst
name: jana
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/10
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics
review:

]]> The Sniper 13605031 Liam O'Flaherty jana 4 classics 3.71 1923 The Sniper
author: Liam O'Flaherty
name: jana
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1923
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/10
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics
review:

]]> The Paper Menagerie 39803561 32 Ken Liu jana 5 classics 4.58 2011 The Paper Menagerie
author: Ken Liu
name: jana
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/10
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics
review:
Yes I cried. Do we have a problem?
]]> Montana 1948 781653 182 Larry Watson 0671507036 jana 4 classics, history 3.82 1993 Montana 1948
author: Larry Watson
name: jana
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/04
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history
review:

]]> The Queen's Gambit 62022 258 Walter Tevis 1400030609 jana 3 classics To be honest I started skimming thirty pages in, I can’t believe I’m saying this but for the first time I like the adaptation more than the book. ]]> 4.14 1983 The Queen's Gambit
author: Walter Tevis
name: jana
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2021/12/03
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics
review:
3.5 stars
To be honest I started skimming thirty pages in, I can’t believe I’m saying this but for the first time I like the adaptation more than the book.
]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 jana 3 classics It was just okay. 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: jana
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics
review:
It was just okay.
]]> The Fire Next Time 464260 The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,� written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,� The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.]]> 106 James Baldwin 067974472X jana 5 classics, history, imptoread 4.55 1963 The Fire Next Time
author: James Baldwin
name: jana
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history, imptoread
review:
Absolutely speechless, this book changed my brain chemistry.
]]> A Raisin in the Sun 505483 A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.

Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever.ĚýĚýThe play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."

"The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times.ĚýĚý"It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic."ĚýĚýThis Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.]]> 151 Lorraine Hansberry 0679755330 jana 5 classics, history, imptoread 3.89 1959 A Raisin in the Sun
author: Lorraine Hansberry
name: jana
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1959
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history, imptoread
review:

]]> Their Eyes Were Watching God 37415 238 Zora Neale Hurston 0061120065 jana 4 classics, history, imptoread 3.98 1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God
author: Zora Neale Hurston
name: jana
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/15
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history, imptoread
review:
“Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin� thing, but still and all, it takes its shape de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.�
]]> <![CDATA[Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)]]> 52397
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.]]> 345 Octavia E. Butler 0446675504 jana 3 4.21 1993 Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: jana
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, dystopian, imptoread
review:

]]> Number the Stars 47281 137 Lois Lowry 0440227534 jana 4 4.19 1989 Number the Stars
author: Lois Lowry
name: jana
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/10
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history, misc, non-fic, imptoread
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)]]> 37781 Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.]]> 215 Chinua Achebe jana 5 classics, history, imptoread 3.73 1958 Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)
author: Chinua Achebe
name: jana
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1958
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history, imptoread
review:

]]> The Grapes of Wrath 18114322
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.]]> 496 John Steinbeck 067001690X jana 4 classics, history, imptoread 4.06 1939 The Grapes of Wrath
author: John Steinbeck
name: jana
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1939
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history, imptoread
review:

]]> Animal Farm 170448 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]> 141 George Orwell 0451526341 jana 5 classics, history, imptoread 4.07 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: jana
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, history, imptoread
review:

]]> The Crucible 17250
Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing, "Political opposition... is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence."

WIth an introduction by Christopher Bigsby.
(back cover)]]> 143 Arthur Miller 0142437336 jana 5 classics, imptoread 3.60 1953 The Crucible
author: Arthur Miller
name: jana
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/20
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: classics, imptoread
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain (Forbidden Bookshelf)]]> 23117731 Award-winning journalist Gerard Colby takes readers behind the scenes of one of America’s most powerful and enduring corporations; now with a new introduction by the author

Their name is everywhere. America’s wealthiest industrial family by far and a vast financial power, the Du Ponts, from their mansions in northern Delaware’s “Chateau Country,� have long been leaders in the relentless drive to turn the United States into a plutocracy.

The Du Pont story in this country began in 1800. Éleuthère IrĂ©nĂ©e du Pont, official keeper of the gunpowder of corrupt King Louis XVI, fled from revolutionary France to America. Two years later he founded the gunpowder company that called itself “America’s armorer”—and that President Wilson’s secretary of war called a “species of outlawsâ€� for war profiteering.ĚýDu Pont DynastyĚýintroduces many colorful characters, including “Generalâ€� Henry du Pont, who profited from the Civil War to build the Gunpowder Trust, one of the first corporate monopolies; Alfred I. du Pont, betrayed by his cousins and pushed out of the organization, landing in social exile as the powerful “Count of Floridaâ€�; the three brothers who expanded Du Pont’s control to General Motors, fought autoworkersâ€� right to unionize, and then launched a family tradition of waging campaigns to destroy FDR’s New Deal regulatory reforms; Governor Pete du Pont, who ran for president and backed Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Republican Revolution; and Irving S. Shapiro, the architect of Du Pont’s ongoing campaign to undermine effective environmental regulation.

From plans to force President Roosevelt from office, to munitions sales to warlords and the rising Nazis, to Freon’s damage to the planet’s life-protecting ozone layer, to the manufacture of deadly gases and the covered-up poisoning of Du Pont workers, to the reputation the company earned for being the worst polluter of America’s air and water, the Du Pont reign has been dappled with scandal for centuries.

Culled from years of painstaking research and interviews, this fully documented book unfolds like a novel. Laying bare the bitter feuds, power plays, smokescreens, and careless unaccountability that erupted in murder, Colby pulls back the curtain on a dynasty whose formidable influence continues to this day.

Suppressed in myriad ways and the subject of the author’s landmark federal lawsuit,ĚýDu Pont DynastyĚýis an essential history of the United States.]]> 1514 Gerard Colby 1453220887 jana 0 to-read 3.46 1974 Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain (Forbidden Bookshelf)
author: Gerard Colby
name: jana
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp]]> 15819523
From an early age, Richard Hell dreamed of running away. His father died when he was seven, and at seventeen he left his mother and sister behind and headed for New York City, place of limitless possibilities. He arrived penniless with the idea of becoming a poet; ten years later he was a pivotal voice of the age of punk, starting such seminal bands as Television, the Heartbreakers, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids—whose song "Blank Generation" remains the defining anthem of the era. Hell was significantly responsible for creating CBGB as punk ground zero; his Voidoids toured notoriously with the Clash, and Malcolm McLaren would credit Hell as inspiration for the Sex Pistols. There were kinetic nights in New York's club demi-monde, descent into drug addiction, and an ever-present yearning for redemption through poetry, music, and art.

"We lived in the suburbs in America in the fifties," Hell writes. "My roots are shallow. I'm a little jealous of people with strong ethnic and cultural roots. Lucky Martin Scorsese or Art Spiegelman or Dave Chappelle. I came from Hopalong Cassidy and Bugs Bunny and first grade at ordinary Maxwell Elementary." How this legendary downtown artist went from a prosaic childhood in the idyllic Kentucky foothills to igniting a movement that would take over New York's and London's restless youth cultures—and spawn the careers of not only Hell himself, but a cohort of friends such as Tom Verlaine, Patti Smith, the Ramones, and Debbie Harry—is just part of the fascinating story Hell tells. With stunning powers of observation, he delves into the details of both the world that shaped him and the world he shaped.

An acutely rendered, unforgettable coming-of-age story, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp evokes with feeling, clarity, and piercing intelligence that classic journey: the life of one who comes from the hinterlands into the city in search of art and passion.]]> 248 Richard Hell 0062190857 jana 0 to-read 3.63 2013 I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp
author: Richard Hell
name: jana
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Nickel Boys 42279228 This follow-up to The Underground Railroad brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys unjustly sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood's only salvation is his friendship with fellow "delinquent" Turner, which deepens despite Turner's conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Based on the real story of a reform school that operated for 111 years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative that showcases a great American novelist writing at the height of his powers.]]> 213 Colson Whitehead 0385537077 jana 4 history, misc RTC 4.28 2019 The Nickel Boys
author: Colson Whitehead
name: jana
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: history, misc
review:
RTC
]]> The Underground Railroad 30555488
In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor--engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver's Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey--hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.]]> 320 Colson Whitehead 0385542364 jana 0 to-read 4.04 2016 The Underground Railroad
author: Colson Whitehead
name: jana
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Real Friends (Real Friends #1)]]> 31145178 When best friends are not forever . . .

Shannon and Adrienne have been best friends ever since they were little. But one day, Adrienne starts hanging out with Jen, the most popular girl in class and the leader of a circle of friends called The Group. Everyone in The Group wants to be Jen's #1, and some girls would do anything to stay on top . . . even if it means bullying others.

Now every day is like a roller coaster for Shannon. Will she and Adrienne stay friends? Can she stand up for herself? And is she in The Group—or out?

Newbery Honor author Shannon Hale and New York Times bestselling illustrator LeUyen Pham join forces in this graphic memoir about how hard it is to find your real friends—and why it's worth the journey.]]> 224 Shannon Hale jana 3 comics 4.20 2017 Real Friends (Real Friends #1)
author: Shannon Hale
name: jana
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: comics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]> 297673
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.]]> 335 Junot DĂ­az 1594489580 jana 0 to-read 3.89 2007 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
author: Junot DĂ­az
name: jana
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)]]> 62202008 When two young rival journalists find love through a magical connection, they must face the depths of hell, in a war among gods, to seal their fate forever.

After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again. But eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow just wants to hold her family together. Her mother is suffering from addiction and her brother is missing from the front lines. Her best bet is to win the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

To combat her worries, Iris writes letters to her brother and slips them beneath her wardrobe door, where they vanish—into the hands of Roman Kitt, her cold and handsome rival at the paper. When he anonymously writes Iris back, the two of them forge a connection that will follow Iris all the way to the front lines of battle: for her brother, the fate of mankind, and love.

Shadow and Bone meets Lore in Rebecca Ross's Divine Rivals, an epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.]]> 356 Rebecca Ross jana 0 to-read 4.23 2023 Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: jana
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lie With Me 40539136 The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress/writer Molly Ringwald.

We drive at high speed along back roads, through woods, vineyards, and oat fields. The bike smells like gasoline and makes a lot of noise, and sometimes I’m frightened when the wheels slip on the gravel on the dirt road, but the only thing that matters is that I’m holding on to him, that I’m holding on to him outside.

Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.

Dazzlingly rendered in English by Ringwald in her first-ever translation, Besson’s powerfully moving coming-of-age story captures the eroticism and tenderness of first love—and the heartbreaking passage of time.]]> 149 Philippe Besson 1501197878 jana 0 to-read 4.25 2017 Lie With Me
author: Philippe Besson
name: jana
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hamlet 1420 289 William Shakespeare 0521618746 jana 4 4.02 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: jana
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1601
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Antiracist Baby 52535437 Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grown-ups in their lives to the concept and power of antiracism. Providing the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age, Antiracist Baby is the perfect gift for readers of all ages dedicated to forming a just society.]]> 24 Ibram X. Kendi 0593110412 jana 5 4.04 2020 Antiracist Baby
author: Ibram X. Kendi
name: jana
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/08/31
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
review:

]]> I Am Made of Death 212398691 From bestselling author Kelly Andrew comes the most electrifying dark romance of the decade...

Following the death of his father, Thomas Walsh had to grow up quickly, taking on odd-jobs to keep food on the table and help pay his gravely ill mother's medical bills. When he's offered a highly paid position as an interpreter for an heiress who exclusively signs, Thomas -- the hearing child of a Deaf adult -- jumps at the opportunity.

But the job is not without its challenges. Thomas is expected to accompany Vivienne wherever she goes, but from the start, she seems determined to shake him. To make matters worse, her parents keep her on an extremely short leash. She is not to go anywhere without express permission. She is not to deviate from her routine.

She is, most importantly, not to be out after dark.

A selective-mute, Vivienne Farrow hasn't said a word in years -- not since going missing in Red Rock Canyon when she was four years old. No one knows quite what happened to her out in the dark. They only know that the sound of her voice is now as deadly as a poison. Anyone who hears her speak suffers a horrible death.

Ever since that fatal family vacation, Vivienne has been desperately searching for a way to regain control of both her voice and her body. Because the face staring out of the mirror isn't hers. It's something with teeth.

Thankfully, Vivienne has a plan. She's finally found someone who claims to be able to perform a surgical exorcism. She just needs to find a way to get rid of Thomas first. But Thomas can't afford to walk away, nor is he willing to abandon the mysterious girl he's quickly falling for, no matter what dark powers threaten to swallow them both whole.]]> 368 Kelly Andrew 1546104488 jana 0 to-read 4.00 2025 I Am Made of Death
author: Kelly Andrew
name: jana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Champions (The Cheerleaders, #2)]]> 206306779 From the author of The Cheerleaders comes another dark YA thriller set in the same town of Sunnybrook. When a mysterious accident befalls a member of the all-star high school football team, the town's deadly history stands to repeat itself—and the price of discovering the truth is higher than anyone could imagine.

It was the deaths of five cheerleaders that made the town of Sunnybrook infamous. Eleven years later, the girls' killer has been brought to justice, and the town just wants to move on. By the time Hadley moves to Sunnybrook, though, the locals are more interested in the Tigers, the high school's championship-winning football team. The Tigers are Sunnybrook’s homegrown heroes--something positive in a town with so much darkness in its past.

Hadley could care less about football, but shortly after she gets assigned to cover the team's latest championship bid for the school newspaper, one of the Tigers is poisoned at a party, and almost immediately after, Hadley starts getting strange emails warning her to stay far away from the football team.

It's becoming clear Sunnybrook's golden boys have secrets, and after a second player is mysteriously killed, Hadley’s beginning to suspect that someone wants the team to pay for their sins. Or does this new target on the football team have something to do with what happened to the cheerleaders all those years ago?

As an outsider in Sunnybrook, Hadley feels like she's the only one who can see the present clearly, but it looks like she’s going to have to dig up the darkness of the past to get to the bottom of what’s happening now. Luckily, there are still some Sunnybrook High grads who never left--people who were around eleven years ago—and if she can just convince them to talk, she might be able stop a killer before another Tiger dies.]]> 326 Kara Thomas 0593380002 jana 3
A huge improvement from the first one, still not perfect.]]> 3.97 2024 The Champions (The Cheerleaders, #2)
author: Kara Thomas
name: jana
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: murder-mysteries-thrillers, ya
review:
*3.5 stars*

A huge improvement from the first one, still not perfect.
]]> <![CDATA[The Reappearance of Rachel Price]]> 182484360
Lights. Camera. Lies.

18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And � could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.]]> 438 Holly Jackson 0593374207 jana 2
The romance was fine, it was awkward and didn’t feel natural at all.

I also hate when authors use the “We’re family and so fuck everyone else� it felt like a cheap way to create the sudden shift of Bel starting to care about Rachel.

I think Holly Jackson really struggles with creating 3-dimensional main characters because Bel would make the same choices every time without fail and was overall so annoying. All of her characters end up headstrong and stubborn, THOSE ARE THEIR ONLY TRAITS.

It was funny at times and I genuinely laughed at times, so that was a pro!

The book was so slow and it tried doing way too much all at once. It reminded me of Inheritance Games at times because of that and I HATE that book so it didn’t really make the book any better,
]]> 4.09 2024 The Reappearance of Rachel Price
author: Holly Jackson
name: jana
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: murder-mysteries-thrillers, ya
review:
It was okay. I figured out the majority of the ending halfway through.

The romance was fine, it was awkward and didn’t feel natural at all.

I also hate when authors use the “We’re family and so fuck everyone else� it felt like a cheap way to create the sudden shift of Bel starting to care about Rachel.

I think Holly Jackson really struggles with creating 3-dimensional main characters because Bel would make the same choices every time without fail and was overall so annoying. All of her characters end up headstrong and stubborn, THOSE ARE THEIR ONLY TRAITS.

It was funny at times and I genuinely laughed at times, so that was a pro!

The book was so slow and it tried doing way too much all at once. It reminded me of Inheritance Games at times because of that and I HATE that book so it didn’t really make the book any better,

]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

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

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 jana 0 to-read 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: jana
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Four (Heartstopper, #4)]]> 51574372
Nick’s been feeling the same, but he’s got a lot on his mind � not least coming out to his dad, and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder.

As summer turns to autumn and a new school year begins, Charlie and Nick are about to learn a lot about what love means.]]> 384 Alice Oseman 144495279X jana 0 comics, romance, ya 4.67 2021 Heartstopper: Volume Four (Heartstopper, #4)
author: Alice Oseman
name: jana
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: comics, romance, ya
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heartstopper: Volume Five (Heartstopper, #5)]]> 53344030
Nick and Charlie are very much in love. They've finally said those three little words, and Charlie has almost persuaded his mum to let him sleep over at Nick's house ... But with Nick going off to university next year, is everything about to change?

By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper encompasses all the small moments of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.]]> 336 Alice Oseman 1444957651 jana 0 comics, romance, ya 4.47 2023 Heartstopper: Volume Five (Heartstopper, #5)
author: Alice Oseman
name: jana
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves: comics, romance, ya
review:

]]> An Ideal Husband 5296 Sooner or later, Wilde notes, we shall all have to pay for what we do. But he adds that, No one should be entirely judged by their past.Together with The Importance of Being Earnest, it is often considered Wilde's dramatic masterpiece. After Earnest, it is his most popularly produced play"]]> 78 Oscar Wilde 048641423X jana 4 classics 4.01 1893 An Ideal Husband
author: Oscar Wilde
name: jana
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1893
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/05
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: classics
review:

]]> The Blind Assassin 78433 The Blind Assassin is a richly layered and uniquely rewarding experience.

It opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. But just as the reader expects to settle into Laura's story, Atwood introduces a novel-within-a-novel. Entitled The Blind Assassin, it is a science fiction story told by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy backstreet rooms. When we return to Iris, it is through a 1947 newspaper article announcing the discovery of a sailboat carrying the dead body of her husband, a distinguished industrialist.

For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The Blind Assassin proves once again that Atwood is one of the most talented, daring, and exciting writers of our time. Like The Handmaid's Tale, it is destined to become a classic.]]> 637 Margaret Atwood jana 2 classics 3.96 2000 The Blind Assassin
author: Margaret Atwood
name: jana
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2000
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: classics
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen jana 0 to-read 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: jana
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 jana 0 to-read 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: jana
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> This Book Kills 202204725
All Jess Choudhary wants is to keep her head down, do her work, and make it through high school without any problems. As a scholarship student—and one of only two students of Indian heritage—her future at the elite school depends on her ability to keep a low profile and spotless record. But when one of the most popular and richest kids in the school ends up dead in the exact same way as a character in a short story she wrote, Jess unintentionally finds herself at the center of the investigation.

And then Jess receives an anonymous text thanking her for the inspiration.

As rumors run rampant about who the murderer could be, Jess knows if she doesn't solve this mystery herself, she'll finally have something in common with she'll be dead too.]]> 357 Ravena Guron 1728296900 jana 0 to-read 3.86 2023 This Book Kills
author: Ravena Guron
name: jana
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Letters from a Stoic 13065606 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Seneca’s Letters are a treasure of practical wisdom on how to live and enjoy life. The focus is on living a simple, stress-free life thorough the use of rationalism. The letters provide practical steps for people to deal with the human suffering that comes with life’s problems. Topics featured range from discussions on the shortness of life and anger to immortality and death. The Letters are part of the foundation of Stoic thought making Seneca one of the indispensable thinkers from Ancient Roman philosophy. Although Stoicism is not now as widely practiced as it once was, many people can still find wisdom and inspiration through Seneca's words and letters.

“In the last three years, I’ve begun to explore one philosophical system in particular: Stoicism. Through my preferred Stoic writer, Lucius Seneca, I’ve found it to be a simple and immensely practical set of rules for better results with less effort.�

Timothy Ferriss, author of Four Hour Workweek.

*Includes link to free audio recording of the Letters.
*Image gallery.
*Special low price.
]]> 254 Seneca 1937810127 jana 0 currently-reading 4.25 64 Letters from a Stoic
author: Seneca
name: jana
average rating: 4.25
book published: 64
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Men Who Hate Women 48635408
Men Who Hate Women examines the rise of secretive extremist communities who despise women and traces the roots of misogyny across a complex spider web of groups. It includes eye-opening interviews with former members of these communities, the academics studying this movement, and the men fighting back.

Women's rights activist Laura Bates wrote this book as someone who has been the target of many hate-fueled misogynistic attacks online. At first, the vitriol seemed to be the work of a small handful of individual men... but over time, the volume and consistency of the attacks hinted at something bigger and more ominous. As Bates went undercover into the corners of the internet, she found an unseen, organized movement of thousands of anonymous men wishing violence (and worse) upon women.
In the book, Bates explores:

Extreme communities like incels, pick-up artists, MGTOW, Men's Rights Activists and more
The hateful, toxic rhetoric used by these groups
How this movement connects to other extremist movements like white supremacy
How young boys are targeted and slowly drawn in
Where this ideology shows up in our everyday lives in mainstream media, our playgrounds, and our government

By turns fascinating and horrifying, Men Who Hate Women is a broad, unflinching account of the deep current of loathing toward women and anti-feminism that underpins our society and is a must-read for parents, educators, and anyone who believes in equality for women.]]> 366 Laura Bates jana 0 4.34 2020 Men Who Hate Women
author: Laura Bates
name: jana
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unlikeable Female Characters: The Women Pop Culture Wants You to Hate]]> 61492455
Today, unlikeable female characters are everywhere in film, TV, and wider pop culture. For the first time ever, they are being accepted by audiences and even showered with industry awards. We are finally accepting that women are―gasp―fully fledged human beings. How did we get to this point?

Unlikeable Female Characters traces the evolution of highly memorable female characters, examining what exactly makes them popular, how audiences have reacted to them, and the ways in which pop culture is finally allowing us to celebrate the complexities of being a woman.

Anna Bogutskaya, film programmer, broadcaster, and co-founder of the horror film collective and podcast The Final Girls, takes us on a journey through popular film, TV, and music, looking at the nuances of womanhood on and off-screen to reveal whether pop culture―and society―is finally ready to embrace complicated women.]]> 340 Anna Bogutskaya 1728274745 jana 0 to-read 3.70 2023 Unlikeable Female Characters: The Women Pop Culture Wants You to Hate
author: Anna Bogutskaya
name: jana
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Love in the Time of Cholera 9712 348 Gabriel García Márquez 140003468X jana 0 to-read 3.92 1985 Love in the Time of Cholera
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: jana
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir]]> 203931803 A powerful memoir that reckons with mental health as well as the insidious ways men impact the lives of women.

In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs, such as when a doctor noted, “There is a you inside that feels invisible to those looking at you from the outside.�

In Men Have Called Her Crazy, Tendler recounts her hospital experience as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed. As the title suggests, many of these moments are impacted by men: unrequited love in high school; the twenty-eight-year-old she lost her virginity to when she was sixteen; the frustrations and absurdities of dating in her mid-thirties; and her decision to freeze her eggs as all her friends were starting families.

This stunning literary self-portrait examines the unreasonable expectations and pressures women face in the 21st century. Yet overwhelming and despairing as that can feel, Tendler ultimately offers a message hope. Early in her stay in the hospital, she says, “My wish for myself is that one day I’ll reach a place where I can face hardship without trying to destroy myself.� By the end of the book, she fulfills that wish.]]> 304 Anna Marie Tendler 1668032341 jana 0 to-read wish me luck 3.42 2024 Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir
author: Anna Marie Tendler
name: jana
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:
wish me luck
]]> The Yellow Wall-Paper 286957
In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid� wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness.

A condemnation of the patriarchy, The Yellow Wallpaper explores with terrifying economy the oppression, grave misunderstanding, and willful dismissal of women in late nineteenth-century society.

First published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.

Excerpt:
Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.]]> 62 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1558611584 jana 4 classics 4.11 1892 The Yellow Wall-Paper
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: jana
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1892
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: classics
review:

]]> Desiree's Baby 3088548 7 Kate Chopin 1883049334 jana 4 classics 4.02 1893 Desiree's Baby
author: Kate Chopin
name: jana
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1893
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction]]> 949715
Set in and around New Orleans, The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother who, determined to control her own life, flouts convention by moving out of her husband’s house, having an adulterous affair, and becoming an artist.

Beautifully written, with sensuous imagery and vivid local descriptions, The Awakening has lost none of its power to provoke and inspire. Additionally, this edition includes thirteen of Kate Chopin’s magnificent short stories.
--back cover

Stories Included in the Volume:
The Awakening
Emancipation: A Life Fable
A Shameful Affair
At the â€Cadian Ball
Désirée’s Baby
A Gentleman of Bayou TĂŞche
A Respectable Woman
The Story of an Hour
´ˇłŮłóĂ©˛Ô˛ąĂŻ˛ő±đ
A Pair of Silk Stockings
Elizabeth Stock’s One Story
The Storm
The Godmother
A Little Country Girl]]> 297 Kate Chopin 1593080018 jana 3 classics 3.96 1899 The Awakening and Selected Short Fiction
author: Kate Chopin
name: jana
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1899
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: classics
review:

]]> The Awakening 58345 The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation.

Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin brought to The Awakening.]]> 195 Kate Chopin 0543898083 jana 3 classics, romance 3.69 1899 The Awakening
author: Kate Chopin
name: jana
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1899
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: classics, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Beautiful (The Beautiful, #1)]]> 43561481 New York Times bestselling author Renée Ahdieh returns with a sumptuous, sultry and romantic new series set in 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight.

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and–especially–to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as Le Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sèbastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of Le Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sèbastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose–one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

At once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series The Beautiful.]]> 440 Renée Ahdieh 1524738182 jana 0 to-read 3.74 2019 The Beautiful (The Beautiful, #1)
author: Renée Ahdieh
name: jana
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the City of Time (In the City of Time, #1)]]> 55822825 From the author of the highly acclaimed Ink, Iron, and Glass series, this YA duology sends three science prodigies on a time-traveling adventure to save the Earth—if they don’t accidentally destroy it first—in Gwendolyn Clare's In the City of Time.

In 1891, Willa Marconi's life falls apart when her mentor at the University of Bologna unexpectedly dies. She loses her laboratory access and her stipend, but she refuses to let anyone take her research away. While testing her prototype radio equipment, she detects a mysterious signal and pursues its origin.

In 2034, a cataclysmic event has rendered the Earth uninhabitable, and humankind survives by living inside of artificial worlds. Riley would do anything for Jaideep, who lost his parents in the collapse of the Bay Area pocket universe—and anything includes building a time machine so they can travel back to the 19th century, prevent the destabilization of the planet, and rewrite history.

But the experiment goes wrong, accidentally pulling Willa forward in time and stranding the three of them in a strange, seemingly abandoned city. Now they’ve got a glitchy time machine, a scary android time cop hot on their trail, and some tangled temporal mechanics to unravel. Can they save the Earth when the Continuity Agency is dead-set on preserving the current timeline?]]> 334 Gwendolyn Clare 1250230756 jana 0 dnf, romance, sci-fi, ya 3.34 2022 In the City of Time (In the City of Time, #1)
author: Gwendolyn Clare
name: jana
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: dnf, romance, sci-fi, ya
review:
IM LITERALLY NEVER GOING TO READ THIS LMFAO
]]> <![CDATA[Past Present Future (Rowan & Neil, #2)]]> 199403263
When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different states.

In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice.

In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves.

Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?]]> 382 Rachel Lynn Solomon jana 0 dnf, romance, ya 3.99 2024 Past Present Future (Rowan & Neil, #2)
author: Rachel Lynn Solomon
name: jana
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: dnf, romance, ya
review:
trash. straight trash. ruined the first book for me.
]]> <![CDATA[To Steal from Thieves (Thieves & Kings, #1)]]> 215749025 In this high-stakes heist novel, an alchemologist and a con man team up to steal a rare necklace—but complicated feelings of attraction and deception threaten to destroy everything and everyone they love—for fans of Alexandra Bracken and Judy I. Lin.

Within the dazzling halls of London’s Crystal Palace, the event of the season has arrived: The Great Exhibition. An opportunity for the greatest minds of the century to come together under one roof in an unprecedented display of art and invention. And for two unlikely partners in crime, it’s about to become the score of a lifetime.

Charming conman Kane Durante works alone—or on occasion with his best friend, Fletcher. But when his boss, the infamous Kingpin of London’s magical dark market, gives him the impossible task of stealing a priceless artifact from the Great Exhibition, he knows it’s a job he can’t pull off alone. Enter Zaria Mendoza, daughter of one of London’s greatest alchemologists. Ever since her father’s death, Zaria’s been struggling to keep her underground business afloat, and impatient clients are becoming violent. When the infuriatingly handsome Kane offers her the promise of enough money to get out of debt and leave London entirely, she knows she can’t walk away from this dangerous partnership.

But robbing one of the most public, heavily-guarded buildings in London isn’t going to be easy, especially when love and betrayal threaten to ruin everything they've worked so hard for.]]> 400 M.K. Lobb 0316575488 jana 0 to-read 3.99 2025 To Steal from Thieves (Thieves & Kings, #1)
author: M.K. Lobb
name: jana
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Watch Me (Shatter Me: The New Republic, #1)]]> 216364822 Lose yourself in this exhilarating return to the #1 global bestselling Shatter Me universe, the first book in a new series set ten years after the fall of The Reestablishment.

James Anderson had a plan. Or half of one. All that matters is that he managed to do what his older brother, the famous Aaron Warner Anderson, never did: infiltrate Ark Island, the last refuge of The Reestablishment. In the past decade no outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but as far as James is concerned, a win is a win.

It’s been ten years since the fall of The Reestablishment. Ten years since the notorious duo � Juliette Ferrars and Aaron Warner Anderson � led a worldwide rebellion and established the New Republic of the West. But after a decade of unsettling quiet, The Reestablishment is ready to make a devastating move, and they have the perfect person for the job.

Rosabelle Wolff had a plan. She always has a plan. On Ark Island, where constant surveillance is packaged as security, even emotions must be experienced with caution. A trained assassin, her every movement is monitored by synthetic intelligence—and when she’s given an order to kill, she never hesitates.

Brimming with pulse-pounding action and torturous romance, Watch Me is an explosive journey through a dystopian landscape where enemies-to-lovers has never felt more impossible. Step into a beloved and breathtaking world that demands an answer to a desperate question�

Who are we when no one is watching?]]> 368 Tahereh Mafi 0063419009 jana 0 to-read 4.34 2025 Watch Me (Shatter Me: The New Republic, #1)
author: Tahereh Mafi
name: jana
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/22
shelves: to-read
review:
we do NOT need another one of these books
]]> The Holy Qur'an 23574576




The first full compilation was by Abu Bakar, the first Caliph, and it was then recompiled in the original dialect by the third Caliph Uthman, after the best reciters had fallen in battle. Muslims believe that the truths of The Holy Qur'an are fully and authentically revealed only in the original classical Arabic. However, as the influence of Islam grows and spreads to the modern world, it is recognised that translation is an important element in introducing and explaining Islam to a wider audience.





This translation, by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, is considered to be the most faithful rendering available in English.]]> 380 Abdullah Yusuf Ali jana 5 4.14 The Holy Qur'an
author: Abdullah Yusuf Ali
name: jana
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/14
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> Women and Children First 123006739 A gripping literary puzzle that unwinds the private lives of ten women as they confront tragedy in a small Massachusetts town.

Nashquitten, MA, is a decaying coastal enclave that not even tourist season can revive, full of locals who have run the town’s industries for generations. When a young woman dies at a house party, the circumstances around her death suspiciously unclear, the tight-knit community is shaken. As a mother grieves her daughter, a teacher her student, a best friend her confidante, the events around the tragedy become a lightning rod: blame is cast, secrets are buried deeper. Some are left to pick up the pieces, while others turn their backs, and all the while, a truth about that dreadful night begins to emerge.

Told through the eyes of ten local women, Grabowski’s Women and Children First is an exquisite portrait of grief and a powerful reminder of life’s interconnectedness. Touching on womanhood, class, and sexuality, ambition, disappointment, and tragedy, this novel is a stunning rendering of love and loss, and a bracing lesson from a phenomenal new literary talent that no one walks this earth alone.]]> 336 Alina Grabowski 1638930791 jana 0 to-read 3.39 2024 Women and Children First
author: Alina Grabowski
name: jana
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Prisoner’s Throne (The Stolen Heir Duology, #2)]]> 61250159 An imprisoned prince. A vengeful queen. And a battle that will determine the future of Elfhame.
Ěý
Prince Oak is paying for his betrayal. Imprisoned in the icy north and bound to the will of a monstrous new queen, he must rely on charm and calculation to survive. With High King Cardan and High Queen Jude willing to use any means necessary to retrieve their stolen heir, Oak will have to decide whether to attempt regaining the trust of the girl he’s always loved or to remain loyal to Elfhame and hand over the means to end her reign—even if it means ending Wren, too.
�
Ěý
With a new war looming on the horizon and treachery lurking in every corner, neither Oak’s guile nor his wit will be enough to keep everyone he loves alive. It’s just a question of whom he will doom.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Black comes the stunning blood-soaked conclusion to the Stolen Heir duology.
Ěý]]> 359 Holly Black 0316592730 jana 0 to-read 3.88 2024 The Prisoner’s Throne (The Stolen Heir Duology, #2)
author: Holly Black
name: jana
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> This Fatal Kiss 203613906 Spirit away with a whimsical fantasy filled with dark magic and flirty, polyamorous romance.

Cursed to haunt the river running through the magical spa town where she drowned, Gisela is a water nymph who dreams of returning to the living world and the family she left behind. All it takes to regain her humanity is a kiss from a mortal...but everyone sees her as a monster.

And then there’s Kazik, the brooding, interfering, spirit-hunting grandson of a local witch. He's determined to rid the world of unholy creatures like Gisela. After Kazik botches Gisela’s exorcism, she strikes up a deal. She won’t tell the other spirits that he’s losing his magic, if he agrees to play matchmaker and helps her get a kiss. But Gisela’s plan goes awry when Kazik also falls for the devilishly handsome young man that she sets her heart on—someone who could be linked to Gisela’s troubled past.

Finely crafted with a magical setting, this delectable quest through the spirit world is an enchanting read for fans of queer romantasy.]]> 416 Alicia Jasinska 1682637360 jana 0 fantasy, romance, ya, to-read 4.00 2024 This Fatal Kiss
author: Alicia Jasinska
name: jana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: fantasy, romance, ya, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Better Than the Movies (Better than the Movies, #1)]]> 151682212 In this rom-com about rom-coms, in the spirit of Kasie West and Jenn Bennett, a hopeless romantic teen attempts to secure a happily-ever-after moment with her forever crush, but finds herself reluctantly drawn to the boy next door.

Perpetual daydreamer Liz Buxbaum gave her heart to Michael a long time ago. But her cool, aloof forever crush never really saw her before he moved away. Now that he’s back in town, Liz will do whatever it takes to get on his radar - and maybe snag him as a prom date - even befriend Wes Bennet.

The annoyingly attractive next-door neighbor might seem like a prime candidate for romantic-comedy fantasies, but Wes has only been a pain in Liz’s butt since they were kids. Pranks involving frogs and decapitated lawn gnomes do not a potential boyfriend make. Yet, somehow, Wes and Michael are hitting it off, which means Wes is Liz’s in.

But as Liz and Wes scheme to get Liz noticed by Michael so she can have her magical prom moment, she’s shocked to discover that she likes being around Wes. And as they continue to grow closer, she must reexamine everything she thought she knew about love - and rethink her own ideas of what happily ever after should look like.]]> 364 Lynn Painter jana 3 comedy, romance, ya 4.25 2021 Better Than the Movies (Better than the Movies, #1)
author: Lynn Painter
name: jana
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/10
date added: 2024/07/10
shelves: comedy, romance, ya
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nothing Like the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #2)]]> 207293948
Flash forward months later, and Wes and Liz find themselves in college, together. In a healthier place now, Wes knows he broke Liz’s heart when he ended things, but he is determined to make her fall back in love with him.

Wes knows Liz better than anyone, and he has a foolproof plan to win her back with rom-com-worthy grand gestures she loves. Only . . . Liz will have none of it! Wes has to scheme like a rom-com hero to figure out how to see her. Even worse, Liz has a new friend . . . a guy friend.

Still, Wes won’t give up, adapting his clever plans and going hard to get Liz’s attention and win back her affection. But after his best efforts get him nowhere, Wes is left wondering if their relationship is really over for good.]]> 442 Lynn Painter 1665947136 jana 0 to-read 3.99 2024 Nothing Like the Movies (Better Than the Movies, #2)
author: Lynn Painter
name: jana
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Thousand Boy Kisses (A Thousand Boy Kisses, #1)]]> 25912358
When seventeen-year-old Rune Kristiansen returns from his native Norway to the sleepy town of Blossom Grove, Georgia, where he befriended Poppy Litchfield as a child, he has just one thing on his mind. Why did the girl who was one half of his soul, who promised to wait faithfully for his return, cut him off without a word of explanation? Rune's heart was broken two years ago when Poppy fell silent. When he discovers the truth, he finds that the greatest heartache is yet to come.

A stand-alone young adult tearjerker romance, recommended for ages fourteen and up.]]> 316 Tillie Cole jana 0 to-read, pos-authors
anyways much love
xoxo
jana]]> 3.99 2016 A Thousand Boy Kisses (A Thousand Boy Kisses, #1)
author: Tillie Cole
name: jana
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: to-read, pos-authors
review:
i will no longer be reading this book bc i just found out this woman wrote a KKK romance novel??? i just love it when white women have the audacity, like wow!

anyways much love
xoxo
jana
]]> <![CDATA[This Ravenous Fate (This Ravenous Fate, #1)]]> 200174131 The first book in a decadent fantasy duology set in Jazz Age Harlem, where at night the dance halls come to life—and death waits in the dark.

It's 1926 and reapers, the once-human vampires with a terrifying affliction, are on the rise in New York. But the Saint family's thriving reaper-hunting enterprise holds reign over the city, giving them more power than even the organized criminals who run the nightclubs. Eighteen year-old Elise Saint, home after five years in Paris, is the reluctant heir to the empire. Only one thing weighs heavier on Elise's mind than her family obligations: the knowledge that the Harlem reapers want her dead.

Layla Quinn is a young reaper haunted by her past. Though reapers have existed in America for three centuries, created by New World atrocities and cruel experiments, Layla became one just five years ago. The night she was turned, she lost her parents, the protection of the Saints, and her humanity, and she'll never forget how Elise Saint betrayed her.

But some reapers are inexplicably turning part human again, leaving a wake of mysterious and brutal killings. When Layla is framed for one of these attacks, the Saint patriarch offers her a deal she can't refuse: to work with Elise to investigate how these murders might be linked to shocking rumors of a reaper cure. Once close friends, now bitter enemies, Elise and Layla explore the city's underworld, confronting their intense feelings for one another and uncovering the sinister truths about a growing threat to reapers and humans alike.]]> 457 Hayley Dennings 1728297869 jana 0 to-read 3.43 2024 This Ravenous Fate (This Ravenous Fate, #1)
author: Hayley Dennings
name: jana
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Queen's Assassin (The Queen's Secret, #1)]]> 39334176 Perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Red Queen, this is the first novel in a sweeping YA fantasy-romance duet about a deadly assassin, his mysterious apprentice, and the country they are sworn to protect from #1 NYT bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz.

Caledon Holt is the Kingdom of Renovia's deadliest weapon. No one alive can best him in brawn or brains, which is why he's the Guild's most dangerous member and the Queen's one and only assassin. He's also bound to the Queen by an impossible vow--to find the missing Deian Scrolls, the fount of all magical history and knowledge, stolen years ago by a nefarious sect called the Aphrasians.

Shadow has been training all her life to follow in the footsteps of her mother and aunts--to become skilled enough to join the ranks of the Guild. Though magic has been forbidden since the Aphrasian uprising, Shadow has been learning to control her powers in secret, hoping that one day she'll become an assassin as feared and revered as Caledon Holt.

When a surprise attack brings Shadow and Cal together, they're forced to team up as assassin and apprentice to hunt down a new sinister threat to Renovia. But as Cal and Shadow grow closer, they'll uncover a shocking web of lies and secrets that may destroy everything they hold dear. With war on the horizon and true love at risk, they'll stop at nothing to protect each other and their kingdom in this stunning first novel in the Queen's Secret series.]]> 384 Melissa de la Cruz jana 0 dnf, fantasy, romance, ya 3.38 2020 The Queen's Assassin (The Queen's Secret, #1)
author: Melissa de la Cruz
name: jana
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/29
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves: dnf, fantasy, romance, ya
review:
Super duper cool secret about this book: Don’t read it, or else your brain cells might die!!!
]]> <![CDATA[The Queen's Rising (The Queen’s Rising, #1)]]> 35098412
Growing up in the southern kingdom of Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her. While some are born with a talent for one of the five passions—art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge—Brienna struggled to find hers until she chose knowledge. However, despite all her preparations, Brienna’s greatest fear comes true: she is left without a patron.

Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. Suspicious of his intent, she reluctantly accepts. But there is much more to his story, for there is a dangerous plot to overthrow the king of Maevana—the rival kingdom of Valenia—and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the northern throne. And others are involved, some closer to Brienna than she realizes.

With war brewing, Brienna must choose whose side she will remain loyal to—passion or blood. Because a queen is destined to rise and lead the battle to reclaim the crown. Who will be that queen?

With gorgeous description and detailed rendering of a world where not everything is what it seems, debut author Rebecca Ross weaves an intricate tale of revenge, loyalty, and, ultimately, self-discovery.]]> 439 Rebecca Ross 0062471341 jana 0 to-read 3.92 2018 The Queen's Rising (The Queen’s Rising, #1)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: jana
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Five Total Strangers 49169365 A hitched ride home in a snow storm turns sinister when one of the passengers is plotting for the ride to end in disaster.

When Mira flies home to spend Christmas with her mother in Pittsburgh, a record-breaking blizzard results in a cancelled layover. Desperate to get to her grief-ridden mother in the wake of a family death, Mira hitches a ride with a group of friendly college kids who were on her initial flight.

As the drive progresses and weather conditions become more treacherous, Mira realizes that the four other passengers she's stuck in the car with don't actually know one another.

Soon, they're not just dealing with heavy snowfall and ice-slick roads, but the fact that somebody will stop at nothing to ensure their trip ends in a deadly disaster.]]> 302 Natalie D. Richards 1492657212 jana 2
I knew who was writing the letters after the first letter, and it was also the only reason I kept reading, to find out who was writing the letters.

All of the characters felt fake, even the main character. I didn’t care what happened to any of them and it was all very boring.

]]> 3.27 2020 Five Total Strangers
author: Natalie D. Richards
name: jana
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/26
date added: 2024/06/26
shelves: murder-mysteries-thrillers, ya
review:
It was very underwhelming, everything that was supposed to make us feel stressed and in the edge of our seats fell flat. Like everything was anticlimactic.

I knew who was writing the letters after the first letter, and it was also the only reason I kept reading, to find out who was writing the letters.

All of the characters felt fake, even the main character. I didn’t care what happened to any of them and it was all very boring.


]]> Anna Karenina 155
Set against this tragic affair is the story of Konstantin Levin, a melancholy landowner whom Tolstoy based largely on himself. While Anna looks for happiness through love, Levin embarks on his own search for spiritual fulfillment through marriage, family, and hard work. Surrounding these two central plot threads are dozens of characters whom Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together, creating a breathtaking tapestry of nineteenth-century Russian society.

From its famous opening sentence � "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”—to its stunningly tragic conclusion, this enduring tale of marriage and adultery plumbs the very depths of the human soul.]]> 803 Leo Tolstoy 1593080271 jana 0 to-read 4.00 1878 Anna Karenina
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: jana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1878
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Realm Breaker (Realm Breaker, #1)]]> 54513688 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B08CZHZSRW.
---
Save the world or end it.

A strange darkness is growing in the Ward. Even Corayne an-Amarat can feel it, tucked away in her small town at the edge of the sea.

Fate knocks on her door, in the form of a mythical immortal and a lethal assassin, who tell Corayne that she is the last of an ancient lineage—with the power to save the world from destruction.

Because a man who would burn kingdoms to the ground is raising an army unlike any seen before, bent on uprooting the foundations of the world. With poison in his heart and a stolen sword in his hand, he'll break the realm itself to claim it. And only Corayne can stop him.

Alongside an unlikely group of reluctant allies, Corayne finds herself on a desperate journey to complete an impossible task, with untold magic singing in her blood and the fate of the world on her shoulders.]]> 576 Victoria Aveyard jana 0 to-read 3.57 2021 Realm Breaker (Realm Breaker, #1)
author: Victoria Aveyard
name: jana
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 jana 0 to-read 4.62 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: jana
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:
OMG WE’RE FINALLY GETTING HAYMITCH’S STORY GUYS THIS IS NOT A DRILL THIS IS REAL GUYS GUYS
]]> Not in Love (Not in Love, #1) 198716261 A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science.

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through - and he's a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can't stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business - one that plays for keeps.]]> 384 Ali Hazelwood 1408728915 jana 0 to-read 3.59 2024 Not in Love (Not in Love, #1)
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: jana
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Of Jade and Dragons (Fall of the Dragon, #1)]]> 199087657
Disguised as her brother, Ying manages to infiltrate the guild’s male-only apprenticeship trial with the help of an unlikely ally—Aogiya Ye-yang, the taciturn eighth prince of the High Command. With her father’s renown placing a target firmly on her back, Ying must stay one step ahead of her fellow competitors, the jealous guild masters, and the killer still hunting for her father’s journal. Complicating everything is her increasingly tangled relationship with the prince, who may have mysterious plans of his own.

The secrets concealed within the guild can be as deadly as the weapons they build—and with her life and the future of her homeland at stake, Ying doesn’t know who to trust. Can she avenge her father even if it means going against everything he stood for, or will she be next in the mastermind’s line of fire?]]> 470 Amber Chen 0593622758 jana 0 to-read 3.70 2024 Of Jade and Dragons (Fall of the Dragon, #1)
author: Amber Chen
name: jana
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Night Shift (Daydreamers, #1) 199020721 The bookworm and the basketball player are about to meet their match.

Kendall Holiday spends her Friday nights exactly where she wants to be: with her head buried in a spicy romance novel while she works the graveyard shift at her university's library. She knows she could join her friends for a weekend of drunken debauchery and college parties, but she likes her alone time, so she tells herself she isn't hiding when she gets lost in the pages of fictional love stories.

But that all changes when Vincent Knight, captain of the basketball team, turns up with an injured wrist, a sour mood, and a pressing need for poetry recommendations for a class he hates. Vincent is tall, smart-mouthed, and challenges Kendall like no one has before. Suddenly, she's falling headfirst into her very own romance novel—but it takes a lot more truth than tropes to get to a happy ever after in real life.

NIGHT SHIFT is a 75k-word sweet and spicy single-POV college romance perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Hannah Grace, and Elena Armas.]]> 283 Annie Crown jana 0 to-read 3.53 2023 Night Shift (Daydreamers, #1)
author: Annie Crown
name: jana
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Foul Heart Huntsman (Foul Lady Fortune, #2)]]> 101138075
Rosalind Lang has suffered the worst possible fate for a national spy: she’s been exposed. With the media storm camped outside her apartment for the infamous Lady Fortune, she’s barely left her bedroom in weeks, plotting her next course of action after Orion was taken and his memories of Rosalind wiped. Though their marriage might have been a sham, his absence hurts her more than any physical wound. She won’t rest until she gets him back.

But with her identity in the open, the task is near impossible. The only way to leave the city and rescue Orion is under the guise of a national tour. It’s easy to convince her superiors that the countryside needs unity more than ever, and who better than an immortal girl to stir pride and strength into the people?

When the tour goes wrong, however, everything Rosalind once knew is thrown up in the air. Taking refuge outside Shanghai, old ghosts come into the open and adversaries turn to allies. To save Orion, they must find a cure to his mother’s traitorous invention and take this dangerous chemical weapon away from impending foreign invasion—but the clock is ticking, and if Rosalind fails, it’s not only Orion she loses, but her nation itself.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends comes the second book in the captivating Foul Lady Fortune duology following an immortal assassin in 1930s Shanghai as she races to save her country and her love.]]> 560 Chloe Gong 1665905611 jana 5 fantasy, romance, sci-fi, ya
CHLOE GONG HOW DO YOU DO THIS?! WHAT IS YOUR SECRET, THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NOW AND YOU DO IT TO ME EVERY YEAR HOW?!

Guys, everyone, please read this. Please, please, please please please please please please please please, PLEASE ]]> 4.33 2023 Foul Heart Huntsman (Foul Lady Fortune, #2)
author: Chloe Gong
name: jana
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: fantasy, romance, sci-fi, ya
review:
Be still my heart.

CHLOE GONG HOW DO YOU DO THIS?! WHAT IS YOUR SECRET, THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NOW AND YOU DO IT TO ME EVERY YEAR HOW?!

Guys, everyone, please read this. Please, please, please please please please please please please please, PLEASE
]]> <![CDATA[The Priest and the Shepherd (Foul Lady Fortune, #0.5)]]> 181703802 The Priest and the Shepherd is now free to read on Simon Teen.

Set six years before the events of Foul Lady Fortune, The Priest and the Shepherd follows Orion's sister, Phoebe, and his best friend, Silas!]]> 50 Chloe Gong jana 0 to-read 4.02 2022 The Priest and the Shepherd (Foul Lady Fortune, #0.5)
author: Chloe Gong
name: jana
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Kite Runner 77203 371 Khaled Hosseini 159463193X jana 5 4.34 2003 The Kite Runner
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: jana
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/29
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves:
review:
I’m numb. What a masterpiece.
]]> <![CDATA[The One That Got Away with Murder]]> 122765706 Be careful who you fall for...

Robbie and Trevor Cresmont have a body count—the killer kind. Handsome and privileged, the Crestmont brothers' have enough wealth to ensure they’ll never be found guilty of any wrongdoing, even if all of Happy Valley believes they're behind the deaths of their ex-girlfriends. First there was soccer star Victoria Moreno, Robbie’s ex, who mysteriously drowned at the family lake house. Then, a year later, Trevor’s girlfriend died of a suspicious overdose.

But the Crestmonts aren’t the only ones with secrets. Lauren O'Brian might be the new girl at school, but she's never been a good girl. With a dark past of her own, she's desperate for a fresh start. Except when she starts a no-strings-attached relationship with Robbie, her chance is put in jeopardy. During what’s meant to be their last weekend together, Lauren stumbles across shocking evidence that just might implicate Robbie.

With danger closing in, Lauren doesn't know who to trust. And after a third death rocks the town, she must decide whether to end things with Robbie or risk becoming another cautionary tale.

This is an edge-of-your-seat debut YA thriller about a teen who is forced to confront her past in order to catch a murderer before she ends up the next victim. Perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.]]> 382 Trish Lundy 1250292158 jana 2 RTC 3.76 2024 The One That Got Away with Murder
author: Trish Lundy
name: jana
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves: murder-mysteries-thrillers, ya
review:
RTC
]]>