en-US Sun, 06 Apr 2025 09:51:57 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 33299065 120 The School of Life 0993538797 Soma 3 4.21 2016
author: The School of Life
name: Soma
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 54985743 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806750 Soma 4 3.85 2021
author: Emily Henry
name: Soma
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 22609310
For once, Auburn takes a chance and puts her heart in control, only to discover that Owen is hiding a huge secret. The magnitude of his past threatens to destroy everything Auburn loves most, and the only way to get her life back on track is to cut Owen out of it—but can she do it?]]> 306 Colleen Hoover 1476791457 Soma 3 4.14 2015
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Soma
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2015/03/18
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 840442 253 Bear Grylls 1905026285 Soma 0 to-read 4.01 2007
author: Bear Grylls
name: Soma
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 96259 Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by panic and obsession. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional, gay, savage, and charged with violent eroticism. In the world of American poetry, Siken's voice is striking. In her introduction to the book, competition judge Louise Glück hails the “cumulative, driving, apocalyptic power, [and] purgatorial recklessness�� of Siken’s poems. She notes, “Books of this kind dream big. . . . They restore to poetry that sense of crucial moment and crucial utterance which may indeed be the great genius of the form.”]]> 80 Richard Siken 0300107897 Soma 3 4.34 2005
author: Richard Siken
name: Soma
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 16054217 The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.]]> 561 Deborah Harkness 0670025593 Soma 0 to-read 4.15 2014
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Soma
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42201997 ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019

*Most Anticipated Reads of 2019 by Publishers Weekly, BuzzFeed, The Rumpus, Lit Hub, The Week, and Elle.com*

Fifteen brilliant writers explore what we ��Dz�’t talk to our mothers about, and how it affects us, for better or for worse.

As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize what she was actually trying to write: how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. The outpouring of responses gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers.

While some of the writers in this book are estranged from their mothers, others are extremely close. Leslie Jamison writes about trying to discover who her seemingly perfect mother was before ever becoming a mom. In Cathi Hanauer’s hilarious piece, she finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her mother that isn’t interrupted by her domineering (but lovable) father. André Aciman writes about what it was like to have a deaf mother. Melissa Febos uses mythology as a lens to look at her close-knit relationship with her psychotherapist mother. And Julianna Baggott talks about having a mom who tells her everything.

As Filgate writes, “Our mothers are our first homes, and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them.�� There’s relief in breaking the silence. Acknowledging what we couldn’t say for so long is one way to heal our relationships with others and, perhaps most important, with ourselves.

Contributors include Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.]]> 288 Michele Filgate 1982107340 Soma 5 3.76 2019
author: Michele Filgate
name: Soma
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 48722413 'I wonder who among the crowd has just fallen in love, whose lover has just left them, who has just left someone without a word, who is happy, unhappy, who is afraid, who is confident, who is hoping for a brighter future. I cross the Seine, I walk with men and women who are anonymous and yet who are my reflection. We make up a single heart, a single cell. We are alive...'

In All Men Naturally Want to Know the author traces her blissful childhood in Algeria, a sun-soaked paradise, recalling long trips across the desert with her mother and sister and hazy summer afternoons spent on the beach with her friend Ali. But Nina's mother is French - moving to Algeria for love at a time when most Europeans were desperate to leave - and as civil war approaches, their sunny idyll gives way to increasingly hostile and violent outbreaks. When something unspeakable happens to her mother, the family flee to Paris.

In Paris, Nina lives alone. She is eighteen years old. It's the 1980s. Four nights a week she walks across Paris to a legendary women-only nightclub, the Katmandou. She sits alone at the bar, afraid of her own desires, of her sudden and intoxicating freedom. There she meets the glamorous, deeply troubled Ely, her volatile friends Lizz and Laurence, and the beautiful Julia, with whom she falls desperately in love. And, most importantly, she starts to write.]]> 192 Nina Bouraoui 0241447720 Soma 3 3.68 2018
author: Nina Bouraoui
name: Soma
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 991197
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom��Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.]]> 341 Marjane Satrapi 0375714839 Soma 4 4.38 2007
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Soma
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 54441047 144 Halsey Soma 4 3.82 2020
author: Halsey
name: Soma
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 18220493
Modern day photographer Isabeau is pulled from the present time and thrust back into the year 1894 in Virginia. She must help save Hawk Morgan, a man threatened by a killer, a man endangered by his own erased memories. Hawk must survive in 1894 so his present day ancestor Pierce Morgan, will be alive in Isabeau's future.

Isabeau begins to fall in love with Hawk Morgan but with both their future's uncertain and a killer on the loose, neither one of them may have a tomorrow to look forward to.]]> 286 Grace Brannigan 1939061008 Soma 5 Isabeau is the assistant of a professional photographer. When she and her boss arrive at Hawk's Den, the centuries old house owned by the Pierce Morgan, Isabeau is thrilled by the unique opportunities this house could offer. But when Isabeau reads a VERY old Bible, she faints and suddenly, wakes up on board of a ship!
Thrust back centuries into the past, Isabeau is confused and frustrated. But when she meets Hawk Morgan, the owner of the ship, she feels that he is familiar, somehow. When Hawk takes her back to Hawk's Den, Isabeau tries to settle down. But nothing stays the same , and someone is trying very desperately to kill Hawk. Isabeau might be the only key for him to stay alive. But while she is falling in love with Hawk Morgan, Isabeau is certain that she will be thrust back into the present day and leave him behind. But when days turn into weeks, even that is not certain, anymore.
Why did Isabeau get thrust back in time? Who is trying to kill Hawk Morgan? How long will Isabeau be able to save him? Will her love grow into something more? And will Isabeau ever go back to her present day? Find out much more when you read this exhilarating, mysterious, utterly-engrossing novel, Once Upon A Remembrance...
I abso-freaking-lutely LOVED this book! I never expected to love it THAT much. I have been a HUGE fan of time-travel since I have read Lauren Kate's Passion (my review here).This one was even BETTER and more thought-out. Grace Brannigan has a very simple writing style so it doesn't distract you from the awesome story-line.
Her characters are believable and love-able. Isabeau is very stubborn and head-strong, which is what I loved about her. Hawk is old-fashioned "wink" but he is gorgeous, and oh-so-protective even when he wants to hide it. He is so damn swoon-worthy, I wished I could change places with Isabeau! Oh, Ms. Brannigan, why did you have to make him so perfect? Why, oh, why? The secondary characters are truly superb, they really ADD to the story, they are not just cardboard cutouts. My favorite was Meryl, Hawk's best friend, his sarcasm and funny attitude really lit up the book.
This book was -and I am pretty sure- will always be one of the BEST time-travel romances I have EVER read! It is one of those books that I want to buy in paperback just to have on my shelf and read it over and over again. If you want a truly enjoyable, utterly-romantic, mysterious read, then Once Upon a Remembrance will not disappoint!]]> 3.90 2012
author: Grace Brannigan
name: Soma
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:
Oh My God! Can I just rave about this book throughout the whole review? Please? Pretty please? "sad face" This is my first Grace Brannigan book and I assure you, that it will NOT be my last. I cannot even begin to describe the uniqueness of this!
Isabeau is the assistant of a professional photographer. When she and her boss arrive at Hawk's Den, the centuries old house owned by the Pierce Morgan, Isabeau is thrilled by the unique opportunities this house could offer. But when Isabeau reads a VERY old Bible, she faints and suddenly, wakes up on board of a ship!
Thrust back centuries into the past, Isabeau is confused and frustrated. But when she meets Hawk Morgan, the owner of the ship, she feels that he is familiar, somehow. When Hawk takes her back to Hawk's Den, Isabeau tries to settle down. But nothing stays the same , and someone is trying very desperately to kill Hawk. Isabeau might be the only key for him to stay alive. But while she is falling in love with Hawk Morgan, Isabeau is certain that she will be thrust back into the present day and leave him behind. But when days turn into weeks, even that is not certain, anymore.
Why did Isabeau get thrust back in time? Who is trying to kill Hawk Morgan? How long will Isabeau be able to save him? Will her love grow into something more? And will Isabeau ever go back to her present day? Find out much more when you read this exhilarating, mysterious, utterly-engrossing novel, Once Upon A Remembrance...
I abso-freaking-lutely LOVED this book! I never expected to love it THAT much. I have been a HUGE fan of time-travel since I have read Lauren Kate's Passion (my review here).This one was even BETTER and more thought-out. Grace Brannigan has a very simple writing style so it doesn't distract you from the awesome story-line.
Her characters are believable and love-able. Isabeau is very stubborn and head-strong, which is what I loved about her. Hawk is old-fashioned "wink" but he is gorgeous, and oh-so-protective even when he wants to hide it. He is so damn swoon-worthy, I wished I could change places with Isabeau! Oh, Ms. Brannigan, why did you have to make him so perfect? Why, oh, why? The secondary characters are truly superb, they really ADD to the story, they are not just cardboard cutouts. My favorite was Meryl, Hawk's best friend, his sarcasm and funny attitude really lit up the book.
This book was -and I am pretty sure- will always be one of the BEST time-travel romances I have EVER read! It is one of those books that I want to buy in paperback just to have on my shelf and read it over and over again. If you want a truly enjoyable, utterly-romantic, mysterious read, then Once Upon a Remembrance will not disappoint!
]]> 53285047 We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library]]> 305 Mona Awad 0525559752 Soma 4 3.43 2019
author: Mona Awad
name: Soma
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 17457544 Book #1: Cassandra's sharp shooting skills surpass even the men who compete and those same skills come in handy when she's presented with the challenge of taking back her father's ranch. She's been gone ten years and knows the men will think she's just a high-maintenance female from back east. They'll all have a surprise when she starts giving the orders and takes back what belongs to her!



But she also worries about the relationship she'd had with Gabe ten years ago and knows they will see each other. Can she forgive him and start over to work on re-establishing what they had? Or will she hire a new manager for the ranch?

**Book #2:�� Dani's story coming in late 2014]]> 162 Tonya Kinzer 1301170380 Soma 0 to-read 4.36 2012
author: Tonya Kinzer
name: Soma
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 23437156 Alternate cover of ISBN 9781627792127

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

A convict with a thirst for revenge

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager

A runaway with a privileged past

A spy known as the Wraith

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they ��Dz�’t kill each other first.]]> 480 Leigh Bardugo 1627792120 Soma 3 4.47 2015
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Soma
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 43121509
This collection bravely explores life at its darkest and most inspiring moments—drawing on central themes of love, loss, mental health, and abuse. An attempt to understand and to be understood, In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive is an ode to vulnerability that delivers concentrated, thought-provoking, and earnest verse.]]> 83 Clementine von Radics 1524850616 Soma 4 3.80 2019
author: Clementine von Radics
name: Soma
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 15772673
Ohneka Falls is a small, Western New York town where everyone knows everyone and nothing of note happens. Ani Romero is a sixteen-year-old girl who wants to play sports, hang out, and kiss Mike, her middle-school crush. A childhood carrier of the zombie virus, she died at fourteen but didn't become a mindless, brain-eating monster. Her controlling mother forces her to join the emo crowd to hide her condition behind a wall of black clothes and makeup, and her friends abandon her. When creeper Dylan learns her secret, he falls into obsession, with Ani and with death. She bites him in self-defense. Persecuted by the jocks and ignored by Mike, Ani struggles through the motions of life hoping her mother's research unveils a cure, or Dylan dooms them all to a hungry, walking death. As her emo facade crumbles in the face of jealousy and obsession, Ani knows that the worst thing she can do is be true to herself.]]> 238 Patrick Freivald 1936564505 Soma 0 to-read 3.82 1981
author: Patrick Freivald
name: Soma
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 45032 488 Jane Austen Soma 4 3.86 1814
author: Jane Austen
name: Soma
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 9550620
Morgan Rowlands holds profound magickal power . . . a power that some will stop at nothing to obtain. Though she knows she has much still to learn, magick has brought her more than she could ever have the love of her soul mate. Yet her dreams uncover something else--a dark force threatening her entire world. As the darkness closes in, Morgan realizes that she must make a choice between light or dark; hatred or love. Is she strong enough to make the sacrifice and discover her true nature, or will the darkness consume all she holds dear?]]> 565 Cate Tiernan 0142419559 Soma 0 to-read 4.39 2001
author: Cate Tiernan
name: Soma
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.]]> 336 Colleen Hoover 153872474X Soma 3 4.29 2018
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Soma
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/18
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 668 Ayn Rand's first published novel, a timeless story that explores the struggles of the individual against the state in Soviet Russia.

First published in 1936, 'We the Living' portrays the impact of the Russian Revolution on three human beings who demand the right to live their own lives and pursue their own happiness. It tells of a young woman’s passionate love, held like a fortress against the corrupting evil of a totalitarian state.

'We the Living' is not a story of politics, but of the men and women who have to struggle for existence behind the Red banners and slogans. It is a picture of what those slogans do to human beings. What happens to the defiant ones? What happens to those who succumb?

Against a vivid panorama of political revolution and personal revolt, Ayn Rand shows what the theory of socialism means in practice.

Ayn Rand (1905��1982) was born in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg to a prosperous Jewish family as Alisa Rosenbaum. When the Bolsheviks requisitioned her family's business, they fled to the Crimea, and she later moved to America as soon as she was offered the chance. After beginning her writing career with screenplays, she published the novel 'We the Living' in 1936. Her status was later established with 'The Fountainhead' (1943) and her magnus opus, 'Atlas Shrugged' (1957). Also a prolific non-fiction writer, as well as the founder of the philosophical school of Objectivism, she has had an unequivocal impact on both literature and culture, regardless of one's perspective of her works.]]> 464 Ayn Rand 0451187849 Soma 4 3.93 1936
author: Ayn Rand
name: Soma
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1936
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/13
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 14061957 Alternative Cover Edition #1

The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.]]> 350 Leigh Bardugo Soma 4 3.97 2014
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Soma
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 14061955 Alternative Cover Edition #1

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her—or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.]]> 435 Leigh Bardugo Soma 4 3.81 2013
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Soma
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/24
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 10194157 Alternative Cover Edition #1

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.]]> 358 Leigh Bardugo 1250048117 Soma 4 3.93 2012
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Soma
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/14
date added: 2024/03/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 103273 “The thought . . . called up the flavors of an elaborate and bold cuisine, bent on making the flavors�� highest notes vibrate, juxtaposing them in modulations, in chords, and especially in dissonances that would assert themselves as an incomparable experience.�� �� From Under the Jaguar Sun
��
These intoxicating stories delve down to the core of our senses. Taste, hearing, and smell. Amid the flavors of Mexico’s fiery chilies and spices, a couple on holiday discovers dark truths about the maturing of desire in the title story, “Under the Jaguar Sun.�� In “A King Listens,�� a gripping portrait of a frenzied mind, the menacing echoes in a huge palace spur a tyrant’s thoughts to the heights of paranoid intensity. “The Name, the Nose�� drives to a startling conclusion as men across time and space pursue the women whose aromas have enchanted them. Mordant and deliciously offbeat, this trio of tales is a treat from a master of short fiction.

“[Calvino is] a learned, daring, ingeniously gifted magus . . . Under the Jaguar Sun . . . fuses fable with neuron . . . The reader is likely to salivate.�� �� Cynthia Ozick, New York Times Book Review]]> 96 Italo Calvino 0156927942 Soma 2 3.81 1986
author: Italo Calvino
name: Soma
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1986
rating: 2
read at: 2024/03/11
date added: 2024/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 75555793 *The Sunday Times and Global number one bestseller*
*Winner of Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards*
*A Book of the Year in The Times, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Financial Times*

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young - but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they worry about sex and friendship and the times they live in. Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?]]> 337 Sally Rooney 0571365442 Soma 4 3.50 2021
author: Sally Rooney
name: Soma
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/09
date added: 2024/03/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 61207013 91 Annie Ernaux Soma 2 3.54 1993
author: Annie Ernaux
name: Soma
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/16
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 36348525
Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale and satire.]]> 291 Ling Ma 0374261598 Soma 4 3.90 2018
author: Ling Ma
name: Soma
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/07
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Soma 4 4.18 2019
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Soma
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2024/01/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 11996 "As far back as I can recall, I have been in the bunker."

A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered... if indeed there were crimes.

The youngest of forty—a child with no name and no past—she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden—in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights—she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings.

Then everything changes... and nothing changes.

A young woman who has never known men—a child who knows of no history before the bars and restraints—must now reinvent herself, piece by piece, in a place she has never been... and in the face of the most challenging and terrifying of unknowns: freedom.]]> 208 Jacqueline Harpman 0380731819 Soma 3 4.22 1995
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Soma
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/05
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 57693262 For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.

Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.

As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.]]> 384 Coco Mellors 1635576814 Soma 4 3.70 2022
author: Coco Mellors
name: Soma
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/23
date added: 2023/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 46041465
When it comes to the trials and triumphs of becoming an adult, journalist and former Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, getting dumped, realizing that Ivan from the corner shop might just be the only reliable man in her life, and that absolutely no one can ever compare to her best girlfriends. Everything I Know About Love is about bad dates, good friends and—above all else�� realizing that you are enough.

Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humor, Dolly Alderton’s unforgettable debut weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age—making you want to pick up the phone and tell your best friends all about it. Like Bridget Jones�� Diary but all true, Everything I Know About Love is about the struggles of early adulthood in all its terrifying and hopeful uncertainty.]]> 368 Dolly Alderton 0062968785 Soma 4 3.98 2018
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Soma
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/06
date added: 2023/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 1967070
But there's another mother there and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and all the tools she can find if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life.

This beloved tale has now become a visual feast. Acclaimed artist P. Craig Russell brings Neil Gaiman's enchanting nationally bestselling children's book Coraline to new life in this gorgeously illustrated graphic novel adaptation]]> 192 P. Craig Russell 006082543X Soma 4 Coraline moves into huge old house with her parents, but they are not the only people there. Each couple of rooms ( a flat) are/is rented to other people. There are the two old talkative women, who were previous-actresses. There is the old man upstairs, who claims that he is teaching mice how to play instruments!
And there is another empty flat right behind Caroline's. As Caroline explores every inch of the garden, and then the house, she discovers a door in the drawing room that should have led to the empty flat. The door only leads to a huge brick wall, nothing else. But at night, Coraline hears noises, and she can't help but take another look at what's behind the old door.
This time, there is no brick wall, just a long hallway, and Coraline's adventure begins right when she steps foot into the hallway. She has to save her parents and three lost souls in order to get out of the horrible magic world...
What will Coraline find on the other side? Will she be able to save her parents and the three lost souls? Find out in this cute, and imaginative bestseller Coraline...
I liked this book very much, I didn't know that it was Children's Fantasy, but I still enjoyed it! You know? Sometimes you just need a break from all these love stories, and paranormal fantasies like vampires, werewolves, and zombies. You just need to leap back into childhood and enjoy a short adventure.
This book is definitely suitable for kids of all ages, it's a tale about family, love, and adventure. Want an enjoyable read? Then CORALINE is the one...]]> 4.07 2008
author: P. Craig Russell
name: Soma
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2012/07/26
date added: 2023/11/17
shelves:
review:
When I first saw this book while browsing my collection of e-books, I was like: "A National Bestseller, it's gotta be good!" It is a very quick read -less than 200 pages- I finished it in an hour or so, and it was wonderful!
Coraline moves into huge old house with her parents, but they are not the only people there. Each couple of rooms ( a flat) are/is rented to other people. There are the two old talkative women, who were previous-actresses. There is the old man upstairs, who claims that he is teaching mice how to play instruments!
And there is another empty flat right behind Caroline's. As Caroline explores every inch of the garden, and then the house, she discovers a door in the drawing room that should have led to the empty flat. The door only leads to a huge brick wall, nothing else. But at night, Coraline hears noises, and she can't help but take another look at what's behind the old door.
This time, there is no brick wall, just a long hallway, and Coraline's adventure begins right when she steps foot into the hallway. She has to save her parents and three lost souls in order to get out of the horrible magic world...
What will Coraline find on the other side? Will she be able to save her parents and the three lost souls? Find out in this cute, and imaginative bestseller Coraline...
I liked this book very much, I didn't know that it was Children's Fantasy, but I still enjoyed it! You know? Sometimes you just need a break from all these love stories, and paranormal fantasies like vampires, werewolves, and zombies. You just need to leap back into childhood and enjoy a short adventure.
This book is definitely suitable for kids of all ages, it's a tale about family, love, and adventure. Want an enjoyable read? Then CORALINE is the one...
]]> 44279110
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522131 Soma 1 3.62 2018
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Soma
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2023/11/07
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 68783
Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching documnet that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.]]> 169 Susanna Kaysen 0679746048 Soma 3 3.95 1993
author: Susanna Kaysen
name: Soma
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/31
date added: 2023/10/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 17233800
The girl with straight A's and the perfect life—that's who people expect Rachel Young to be. So the private school junior keeps secrets from her wealthy family…and she's just added two more to the list. One involves racing strangers down dark country roads in her Mustang GT. The other? Seventeen-year-old Isaiah Walker—a guy she has no business even talking to. But after the foster kid with the tattoos and intense gray eyes comes to her rescue, she can't get him out of her mind.

The last thing Isaiah needs is to get tangled up with a rich girl who wants to slum it on the south side for kicks. But when their shared love of street racing puts their lives in jeopardy, Isaiah and Rachel will have six weeks to come up with a way out. Six weeks to discover just how far they'll go to save each other.]]> 474 Katie McGarry 037321099X Soma 5 wish-list Rachel is a good girl in a rich private school with an intense love of cars and 4 brothers to spare. When she decides to drag race for one night, she meets Isaiah, and they get themselves into a whole bunch of problems. Isaiah is not one to fall for love. In fact, he doesn't even believe it exists, after most of the women in his life broke his heart. But when he finds the blond, delicate angel in a Mustang GT trying to drag race, everything flies out the window.
-----
A lock of her long golden bangs falls forward and highlights the sexy curve of her chin and her thick eye-lashes. I'll do anything to keep her talking as the sound of her voice creates a contact high. Rachel's this brilliant flame blazing in the darkness. I don't know what the hell is going on, but I've always been the kind of guy that likes fire.
---
This is the kind of review that I find the hardest to write. Because no matter how much I gush and try to explain its perfection, I feel like i'm still not giving the book it's fair share! I met Noah and Echo in Pushing the Limits, and i thought they were the perfect broken couple. Then I met Beth and Ryan in Dare You To, and i thought they were the perfect couple. But right now, I think Isaiah and Rachel made EVERY couple in YA seem like amateurs next to them! I fell in love head over heels with both of them, and although it's been days since I've finished this, i can't get them out of my head.
Okay, Rachel is a good girl with the innocent vibe. I LOVED her innocence and her courage. She hated being seen weak, but she never really understood that asking for help is the strongest she'll ever be. Isaiah is just amazing. He's a tough, tattooed guy, with earrings and a don't-mess-with-me attitude but he has a golden heart. I fell in love with him so damn much! These two make the perfect couple and Katie McGarry has crafted the most believable love story, starring these two. I loved that she also contributed the foster care part, and how hard it is for kids to grow out of the foster care. It felt raw and believable.
As always, our characters from the previous two books, appear in this one too. And this time,it was an amazing experience. Like, there are 6 people in the room. You're reading the POV of two of them, and you feel like you already know the other four. In this book, there are even more new characters. I fell in love with Abby, Isaiah's friend. She is such a cool, but broken girl and i am HOPING that she'll get her book! Then, I also loved Rachel's family. Her brothers care so much for her that it hurts, and although they were not perfect, I liked Ethan and West a lot.
----
If someone told me the dad I never knew croaked, I could guarantee there wouldn't be any tears. If Rachel's an awful person then I must be related to Satan.
---
This book is pure perfection. It's an amazing mix of love and family. Katie McGarry writes real, unique romances with characters that'll haunt you with their broken selves. This is my favorite series so far, in every genre possible. So, you can't imagine how happy I was that it wasn't OVER! We still have West's story coming from the author, probably next year, but i KNOW it's worth the wait. For you people, who have started this series, I know you LOVED it as much as I did, and for the ones who haven't started it yet, you are missing out on the most AMAZING and RADIANT gem in the whole YA genre! Go grab a copy NOW!
---
"I feel like a mouse with you," I whisper. "The one that's already been caught by the cat."
That's when he touches me. Isaiah runs his hand through my hair, and every cell in my body vibrates with the gentle pull. "Rachel."
"Yes." It's hard to breath.
"Kiss me."
---
Her breathing hitches as my lips come close to hers. I'm going to kiss her. "Tell me I'm who you want." So I know there are no mistakes.
Her nose slides against mine as she slowly nods. "I don't want anyone else."
God help us both for her allowing the devil permission.
]]> 4.26 2013
author: Katie McGarry
name: Soma
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2013/10/13
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves: wish-list
review:
I am a huge fan Katie McGarry's. I fell in love with her characters in Pushing the Limits, then more in Crossing the Line, then even more in Dare You To. But I NEVER thought I would love fictional characters as much as I loved the ones in Crash Into You!
Rachel is a good girl in a rich private school with an intense love of cars and 4 brothers to spare. When she decides to drag race for one night, she meets Isaiah, and they get themselves into a whole bunch of problems. Isaiah is not one to fall for love. In fact, he doesn't even believe it exists, after most of the women in his life broke his heart. But when he finds the blond, delicate angel in a Mustang GT trying to drag race, everything flies out the window.
-----
A lock of her long golden bangs falls forward and highlights the sexy curve of her chin and her thick eye-lashes. I'll do anything to keep her talking as the sound of her voice creates a contact high. Rachel's this brilliant flame blazing in the darkness. I don't know what the hell is going on, but I've always been the kind of guy that likes fire.
---
This is the kind of review that I find the hardest to write. Because no matter how much I gush and try to explain its perfection, I feel like i'm still not giving the book it's fair share! I met Noah and Echo in Pushing the Limits, and i thought they were the perfect broken couple. Then I met Beth and Ryan in Dare You To, and i thought they were the perfect couple. But right now, I think Isaiah and Rachel made EVERY couple in YA seem like amateurs next to them! I fell in love head over heels with both of them, and although it's been days since I've finished this, i can't get them out of my head.
Okay, Rachel is a good girl with the innocent vibe. I LOVED her innocence and her courage. She hated being seen weak, but she never really understood that asking for help is the strongest she'll ever be. Isaiah is just amazing. He's a tough, tattooed guy, with earrings and a don't-mess-with-me attitude but he has a golden heart. I fell in love with him so damn much! These two make the perfect couple and Katie McGarry has crafted the most believable love story, starring these two. I loved that she also contributed the foster care part, and how hard it is for kids to grow out of the foster care. It felt raw and believable.
As always, our characters from the previous two books, appear in this one too. And this time,it was an amazing experience. Like, there are 6 people in the room. You're reading the POV of two of them, and you feel like you already know the other four. In this book, there are even more new characters. I fell in love with Abby, Isaiah's friend. She is such a cool, but broken girl and i am HOPING that she'll get her book! Then, I also loved Rachel's family. Her brothers care so much for her that it hurts, and although they were not perfect, I liked Ethan and West a lot.
----
If someone told me the dad I never knew croaked, I could guarantee there wouldn't be any tears. If Rachel's an awful person then I must be related to Satan.
---
This book is pure perfection. It's an amazing mix of love and family. Katie McGarry writes real, unique romances with characters that'll haunt you with their broken selves. This is my favorite series so far, in every genre possible. So, you can't imagine how happy I was that it wasn't OVER! We still have West's story coming from the author, probably next year, but i KNOW it's worth the wait. For you people, who have started this series, I know you LOVED it as much as I did, and for the ones who haven't started it yet, you are missing out on the most AMAZING and RADIANT gem in the whole YA genre! Go grab a copy NOW!
---
"I feel like a mouse with you," I whisper. "The one that's already been caught by the cat."
That's when he touches me. Isaiah runs his hand through my hair, and every cell in my body vibrates with the gentle pull. "Rachel."
"Yes." It's hard to breath.
"Kiss me."
---
Her breathing hitches as my lips come close to hers. I'm going to kiss her. "Tell me I'm who you want." So I know there are no mistakes.
Her nose slides against mine as she slowly nods. "I don't want anyone else."
God help us both for her allowing the devil permission.

]]> 13571953
Miki Jones's carefully controlled life spins into chaos after she's run down in the street, left broken and bloody. She wakes up fully healed in a place called the lobby - pulled from her life, through time and space into some kind of game in which she and a team of other teens are sent on missions to eliminate the Drau, terrifying and beautiful alien creatures.

There are no practice runs, no training, and no way out. Every moment of the game is kill or be killed, and Miki has only the questionable guidance of Jackson Tate, the team's alluring and secretive leader. He evades her questions, holds himself aloof from the others, and claims it's every player for himself. But when he puts himself at risk to watch Miki's back, he leaves her both frustrated and fascinated. Jackson says the game isn't really a game, that what Miki and her new teammates do now determines their survival. And the survival of every other person on the planet. She laughs. He doesn't. And then the game takes a deadly and terrifying turn.]]> 364 Eve Silver 0062192132 Soma 0 to-read 3.88 2013
author: Eve Silver
name: Soma
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18775359 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781476712840.

When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid Soma 3 3.91 2014
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Soma
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/15
date added: 2023/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 67238 166 N.H. Kleinbaum 0553282980 Soma 2 4.19 1988
author: N.H. Kleinbaum
name: Soma
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1988
rating: 2
read at: 2023/03/20
date added: 2023/03/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 37903770 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780393356182

Neil Gaiman, long inspired by ancient mythology in creating the fantastical realms of his fiction, presents a bravura rendition of the Norse gods and their world from their origin though their upheaval in Ragnarok.

In Norse Mythology, Gaiman stays true to the myths in envisioning the major Norse pantheon: Odin, the highest of the high, wise, daring, and cunning; Thor, Odin’s son, incredibly strong yet not the wisest of gods; and Loki—son of a giant—blood brother to Odin and a trickster and unsurpassable manipulator.

Gaiman fashions these primeval stories into a novelistic arc that begins with the genesis of the legendary nine worlds and delves into the exploits of deities, dwarfs, and giants. Through Gaiman’s deft and witty prose, these gods emerge with their fiercely competitive natures, their susceptibility to being duped and to duping others, and their tendency to let passion ignite their actions, making these long-ago myths breathe pungent life again.]]> 301 Neil Gaiman Soma 3 4.11 2017
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Soma
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/12
date added: 2023/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 58690308 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....

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

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

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]> 377 Emily Henry 0593334833 Soma 4 4.09 2022
author: Emily Henry
name: Soma
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/28
date added: 2023/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 194746 No Longer Human, this leading postwar Japanese writer's second novel, tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. In consequence, he feels himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title).

Donald Keene, who translated this and Dazai's first novel, The Setting Sun, has said of the author's work: "His world �� suggests Chekhov or possibly postwar France, �� but there is a Japanese sensibility in the choice and presentation of the material. A Dazai novel is at once immediately intelligible in Western terms and quite unlike any Western book." His writing is in some ways reminiscent of Rimbaud, while he himself has often been called a forerunner of Yukio Mishima.

Cover painting by Noe Nojechowiz, from the collection of John and Barbara Duncan; design by Gertrude Huston]]> 176 Osamu Dazai Soma 2 3.99 1948
author: Osamu Dazai
name: Soma
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1948
rating: 2
read at: 2023/02/10
date added: 2023/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned �� from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren �� an enigmatic artist and single mother �� who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town �� and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]> 338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 Soma 4 4.05 2017
author: Celeste Ng
name: Soma
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/16
date added: 2023/01/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 10917 New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age 13 she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged ... until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.]]> 423 Jodi Picoult 0743454537 Soma 4 4.10 2004
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Soma
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/07
date added: 2023/01/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 36809135
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.

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

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]> 384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Soma 3 4.35 2018
author: Delia Owens
name: Soma
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/22
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 32187419 A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple.

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind--and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa's orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil--and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expect. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances's intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.

Written with gem-like precision and probing intelligence, Conversations With Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth."]]> 304 Sally Rooney 0451499077 Soma 3 3.74 2017
author: Sally Rooney
name: Soma
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/02
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 44890081
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]> 373 Kate Elizabeth Russell 006294150X Soma 3 4.09 2020
author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: Soma
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/12
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 54578805
sometimes i fall asleep thinking about you is a collection of poetry on the feeling of never getting closure, that lingering longing you still get even when you know you shouldn’t, and how it feels to finally be able to say, “I have finally let you go,�� after years of struggling to find the words.

Find out why this book is viral on TikTok.]]> 160 Catarine Hancock 1771682345 Soma 3 3.74
author: Catarine Hancock
name: Soma
average rating: 3.74
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/24
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.��

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Soma 2 4.10 1969
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Soma
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1969
rating: 2
read at: 2022/06/03
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 18521 A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.]]> 112 Virginia Woolf Soma 3 4.21 1929
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Soma
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1929
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/27
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 51135126 Helium, Rudy Fransico has created a collection of poems that savor the day-to-day. Treating it as worship, turning it into an opportunity to plant new seeds of growth. Language so often fails us, but Fransico has found his way around this as he creates his own words for the things our language cannot give name to. "Felenter (Noun) Definition: Someone who finds joy in things that people believe to be mundane." I'll Fly Away Uses fascinating metaphors to convey common emotional states. These poems are an act of remembrance, and an act of believing that you dear reader, are a celebration waiting for the lights to come up.]]> 124 Rudy Francisco 1943735697 Soma 2 4.32 2020
author: Rudy Francisco
name: Soma
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2022/03/07
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 27362503
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up �� she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating�� rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan �� her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]> 386 Colleen Hoover 1668021048 Soma 3 4.11 2016
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Soma
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/02/05
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

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

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 Soma 4 4.05 2019
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Soma
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/28
date added: 2022/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n�� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 Soma 4 4.20 2019
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Soma
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/27
date added: 2022/11/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 18068199 40 William G. Bentrim Soma 0 to-read 5.00
author: William G. Bentrim
name: Soma
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54208009
Everything else, however, is slightly different.

Both obsessive, eccentric personalities, Aldo Damiani and Charlotte Regan struggle to be without each other from the moment they meet. The truth—that he is a clinically depressed, anti-social theoretician and she is a manipulative liar with a history of self-sabotage—means the deeper they fall in love, the more troubling their reliance on each other becomes.

An intimate study of time and space, ALONE WITH YOU IN THE ETHER is a fantasy writer's magicless glimpse into the nature of love, what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.]]> 248 Olivie Blake Soma 3 4.00 2020
author: Olivie Blake
name: Soma
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2022/09/08
date added: 2022/09/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Soma 4 3.82 2020
author: Chloe Gong
name: Soma
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/05
date added: 2022/06/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 43554866 The highly anticipated spoken word poetry collection from Lana Del Rey, Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass

��'Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass' is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.�� (Lana Del Rey)

Lana Del Rey brings her breathtaking poetry to life in an unprecedented audiobook. In this stunning spoken word performance, Lana Del Rey reads 14 poems from her debut book Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass accompanied by music from Grammy Award-winning musician Jack Antonoff. Lana’s debut book solidifies her further as “the essential writer of her times�� (The Atlantic). This audiobook features Lana reading select poems from the book, including "LA Who Am I to Love You?", "The Land of 1,000 Fires", "Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving", "Never to Heaven", "Tessa DiPietro", "Happy", and several others. The result is an extraordinary poetic landscape that reflects the unguarded spirit of its creator.]]> 1 Lana Del Rey Soma 2 4.03 2020
author: Lana Del Rey
name: Soma
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2022/06/02
date added: 2022/06/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Soma 3 4.39 2017
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Soma
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/29
date added: 2022/04/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]> 408 Madeline Miller Soma 4 4.30 2011
author: Madeline Miller
name: Soma
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/16
date added: 2022/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 2501455 375 Ahlam Mosteghanemi 9953890579 Soma 4 3.78 1997
author: Ahlam Mosteghanemi
name: Soma
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/15
date added: 2022/04/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 16331 288 Agatha Christie 1579126251 Soma 3 4.07 1930
author: Agatha Christie
name: Soma
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1930
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/14
date added: 2022/04/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 55648820
When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York's Black literati. What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can't deny their chemistry - or the fact that they've been secretly writing to each other in their books ever since.

Over the next seven days in the middle of a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect, but Eva's not sure how she can trust the man who broke her heart, and she needs to get him out of New York so that her life can return to normal. But before Shane disappears again, there are a few questions she needs answered...

With its keen observations of Black life and the condition of modern motherhood, as well as the consequences of motherless-ness, Seven Days in June is by turns humorous, warm and deeply sensual.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781538719107.]]> 336 Tia Williams Soma 0 to-read 3.98 2021
author: Tia Williams
name: Soma
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Soma 4 3.67 2015
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Soma
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2022/03/19
date added: 2022/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 36356630
Selected from The Handmaid’s Tale and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood.

VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.

A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us human]]> 133 Margaret Atwood 1784874116 Soma 4 3.33
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Soma
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/03
date added: 2022/02/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 41086877 Librarian note: See an alternate cover edition here.

Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in the west of Ireland, but the similarities end there. In school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation �� awkward but electrifying �� something life-changing begins.

Normal People is a story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can’t.]]> 266 Sally Rooney Soma 3 3.84 2018
author: Sally Rooney
name: Soma
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2022/01/21
date added: 2022/01/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 54335207
This is a story about not letting society dictate the limits of your potential. it’s time to take back your power & realize that you ��Dz�’t need a king in order to be a queen.]]> 160 Amanda Lovelace 1524851949 Soma 3 3.96 2021
author: Amanda Lovelace
name: Soma
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/12/14
date added: 2021/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 52945057 more forgetting time.
more midnight dances with yourself."

amanda lovelace, the bestselling & award-winning author of the “women are some kind of magic�� poetry series, presents a new companion series, “you are your own fairy tale�� the first installment, break your glass slippers, is about overcoming those who ��Dz�’t see your worth, even if that person is sometimes yourself. in the epic tale of your life, you are the most important character while everyone is but a forgotten footnote. even the prince.

��]]> 160 Amanda Lovelace 1524851892 Soma 3 3.95 2020
author: Amanda Lovelace
name: Soma
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/12/14
date added: 2021/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 63697 243 Oliver Sacks Soma 4 toreadnew 4.08 1985
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Soma
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2021/12/08
date added: 2021/12/08
shelves: toreadnew
review:

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

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 Victoria E. Schwab 0765387565 Soma 4 4.16 2020
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Soma
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/23
date added: 2021/10/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 22731743 "Anyone in a fairy country like the Land of Oz can do anything"

Believing that the modern fairy tale no longer required 'a fearsome moral' rendered by 'horrible and blood-curdling incidents', L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) decided to create a world in which 'the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out'. Since the early successes of the Oz series during the author's lifetime, and with the production of numerous stage, film, television and literary adaptations in the years since his death, Baum's magical fairyland of Oz - devised 'solely to please children of today' - has continually delighted and influenced the imaginations of millions across the world for over a century.

Journey through the magical world of Oz with Dorothy and friends in this 15 book collection by L. Frank Baum, redesigned and anglicised. These beloved children's classics will make the perfect gift; timeless and loved by all.

This collection includes the following books: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Marvellous Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, The Emerald City of Oz, The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Tik Tok of Oz, The Scarecrow of Oz, Rinkitink in Oz, The Lost Princess of Oz, The Tin Woodman of Oz, The Magic of Oz Glinda of Oz, The Royal Book of Oz]]> 3816 L. Frank Baum 1782261680 Soma 0 to-read 4.46
author: L. Frank Baum
name: Soma
average rating: 4.46
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 31920 408 Robert C. Solomon 0534625509 Soma 5 4.21 1982
author: Robert C. Solomon
name: Soma
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/25
date added: 2020/12/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 43819413 Aphrodite Made Me Do It. In this empowering retelling, she uses the mythology of the goddess to weave a common thread through the past and present. By the end of this book, Aphrodite make you believe in the possibility of your own healing.]]> 191 Trista Mateer Soma 3 3.95 2019
author: Trista Mateer
name: Soma
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/09/04
date added: 2020/09/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 41219132
Filled with wisdom and encouragement, every single page is a testament to the power of words, and the impact they can have on the relationships you build with others. And most importantly, the one you have with yourself.

Lang Leav captures the intricacies of emotions like few others can. It's no wonder she has been recognized as a major influencer of the modern poetry movement and her writing has inspired a whole new generation of poets to pick up a pen.

Love Looks Pretty on You is truly the must-have book for poetry lovers all over the world.]]> 224 Lang Leav 144949935X Soma 3 3.81 2019
author: Lang Leav
name: Soma
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/08/10
date added: 2020/08/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 31685789
Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.

Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough ... not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.

Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.]]> 321 Emma Donoghue Soma 4 4.18 2010
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Soma
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2020/08/19
date added: 2020/08/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Soma 4 4.12 1984
author: Milan Kundera
name: Soma
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/25
date added: 2020/07/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Soma 4 4.04 1942
author: Albert Camus
name: Soma
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/06
date added: 2020/07/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 29381852
أفكر فيمن سيأتي ويُنقذني من معمعة الموت تلك، من سيقدر على أن يتعايش مع رائحة الموت التي تفوح من مساميّ الصغيرة، من سيتمكن من إلجامُ صوت الموت الصادح داخل رأسي، من سينتشلني من لجته التي تكاد تُجهزِ عليّ، وتفتك بي.

أُفكر وأُفكر وأُفكر بلا إجابات شافية ولا نتائج مُقنعة، فأدور في مطحنة الأفكار وأتيه في دهاليز الأسئلة.


]]> 164 أثير عبدالله النشمي 6144325379 Soma 3 2.73 2016
author: أثير عبدالله النشمي
name: Soma
average rating: 2.73
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2020/04/26
date added: 2020/05/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 39939417 In this moving story two teens fall in love with just one minor complication—they can’t get within five feet of each other without risking their lives.

Can you love someone you can never touch?

Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.

The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.

�¾�����’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.

What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too?]]> 288 Rachael Lippincott Soma 3 4.19 2018
author: Rachael Lippincott
name: Soma
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2020/04/12
date added: 2020/04/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 192414 232 Julian Baggini 0631228748 Soma 5 3.96 2001
author: Julian Baggini
name: Soma
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2020/04/03
date added: 2020/04/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 32075671 An alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062498533 can be found here.

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.]]> 454 Angie Thomas 0062498533 Soma 3 4.46 2017
author: Angie Thomas
name: Soma
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2020/03/17
date added: 2020/03/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 36049650 166 Pierre Alex Jeanty Soma 2 3.92
author: Pierre Alex Jeanty
name: Soma
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2020/01/04
date added: 2020/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 9807553 95 Oscar Wilde Soma 5 3.70 1887
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Soma
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1887
rating: 5
read at: 2012/01/19
date added: 2019/11/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 16254820 56 Laurel A. Rockefeller 1480157864 Soma 0 to-read 5.00
author: Laurel A. Rockefeller
name: Soma
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 29431081 The Universe of Us.

Planets, stars, and constellations feature prominently in this beautiful, original poetry collection from Lang Leav.�� Inspired by the wonders of the universe, the best-selling poetess writes about love and loss, hope and hurt, being lost and found.�� Lang's poetry encompasses the breadth of emotions we all experience and evokes universal feelings with her skillfully crafted words.]]> 225 Lang Leav 1449480128 Soma 4 4.06 2016
author: Lang Leav
name: Soma
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/08
date added: 2019/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 34594981
Helium is the debut poetry collection by internet phenom Rudy Francisco, whose work has defined poetry for a generation of new readers. Rudy's poems and quotes have been viewed and shared millions of times as he has traveled the country and the world performing for sell-out crowds. Helium is filled with work that is simultaneously personal and political, blending love poems, self-reflection, and biting cultural critique on class, race and gender into an unforgettable whole. Ultimately, Rudy's work rises above the chaos to offer a fresh and positive perspective of shared humanity and beauty.]]> 112 Rudy Francisco 1943735190 Soma 4 4.29 2017
author: Rudy Francisco
name: Soma
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/05
date added: 2019/11/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 34237641 160 Pierre Alex Jeanty 0997426586 Soma 3 3.80
author: Pierre Alex Jeanty
name: Soma
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/27
date added: 2019/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 45196513 99 Hawkar Kalary Soma 0 3.56
author: Hawkar Kalary
name: Soma
average rating: 3.56
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2019/09/16
date added: 2019/09/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 36282706
cover art by mikaela bailey.]]> 165 Catarine Hancock Soma 5 3.39 2017
author: Catarine Hancock
name: Soma
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/17
date added: 2019/09/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 17571140 One Tiny Lie and Ten Tiny Breaths.

Owning a strip club isn’t the fantasy most guys expect it to be. With long hours, a staff with enough issues to keep a psych ward in business, and the police regularly on his case, twenty-nine-year-old Cain is starting to second guess his unspoken mission to save the women he employs. And then blond, brown-eyed Charlie Rourke walks through his door, and things get really complicated. Cain abides by a strict “no sleeping with the staff�� rule. But being around Charlie challenges Cain’s self-control... and it’s been a long time since any woman has done that.

Twenty-two-year-old Charlie Rourke needs a lot of money, really fast, in order to vanish before it’s too late. Taking her clothes off for men makes her stomach curl but Charlie tells herself that at least she’s putting her acting and dancing skills to good use. And though her fellow dancers seem eager to nab their sexy, sophisticated, and genuinely caring boss, she’s not interested. After all, Charlie Rourke doesn’t really exist—and the girl pretending to be her can't get distracted by romance.

Unfortunately, Charlie soon discovers that developing feelings for Cain is inevitable, and that those feelings may not be unrequited—but losing him when he finds out what she’s involved with will be more painful than any other sentence awaiting her.]]> 345 K.A. Tucker 147674050X Soma 3 4.18 2013
author: K.A. Tucker
name: Soma
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2019/07/07
date added: 2019/07/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 17302495
Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no�� to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton?

As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.]]> 279 K.A. Tucker 1476740488 Soma 2 4.24 2013
author: K.A. Tucker
name: Soma
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2019/07/02
date added: 2019/07/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 17378527
All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.]]> 439 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424984 Soma 4 4.26 2016
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Soma
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/26
date added: 2019/06/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 6514 294 Sylvia Plath 0571268862 Soma 3 toreadnew 4.05 1963
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Soma
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/26
date added: 2019/06/26
shelves: toreadnew
review:

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

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

Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.]]> 391 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424968 Soma 4 4.26 2014
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Soma
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/25
date added: 2019/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 17347389 439 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424941 Soma 4 4.22 2013
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Soma
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/24
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 13449693
It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

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

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

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

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we've never been before.]]> 408 Maggie Stiefvater 0545424933 Soma 4 4.06 2012
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Soma
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/23
date added: 2019/06/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 24178 Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan, is a classic of children's literature that is "just about perfect." This high-quality paperback features vibrant illustrations colorized by Rosemary Wells!

Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's Web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter.

E. B. White's Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. This edition contains newly color illustrations by Garth Williams, the acclaimed illustrator of E. B. White's Stuart Little and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, among many other books.]]> 184 E.B. White 0064410935 Soma 3 4.20 1952
author: E.B. White
name: Soma
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/22
date added: 2019/06/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 6482837 New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver emerged as one of today's foremost authors of young adult fiction. Like Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why and Gayle Forman's If I Stay, Before I Fall raises thought-provoking questions about love, death, and how one person's life can affect so many others.

For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12��"Cupid Day"—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.

However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

Named to numerous state reading lists, this novel was also recognized as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, The Daily Beast, NPR, and Publishers Weekly. It has been optioned for film by Fox 2000 Pictures.

Supports the Common Core State Standards.]]> 470 Lauren Oliver 0061726818 Soma 4 3.89 2010
author: Lauren Oliver
name: Soma
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/18
date added: 2019/06/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 32953070 93 فهد العودة Soma 4 3.25 2016
author: فهد العودة
name: Soma
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/04
date added: 2019/05/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 10560393
Before she wrote Rebecca, the novel that would cement her reputation as a twentieth-century literary giant, a young Daphne du Maurier penned short fiction in which she explored the images, themes, and concerns that informed her later work. Originally published in periodicals during the early 1930s, many of these stories never found their way into print again . . . until now.

Tales of human frailty and obsession, and of romance gone tragically awry, the thirteen stories in The Doll showcase an exciting budding talent before she went on to write one of the most beloved novels of all time. In these pages, a waterlogged notebook washes ashore revealing a dark story of jealousy and obsession, a vicar coaches a young couple divided by class issues, and an older man falls perilously in love with a much younger woman—with each tale demonstrating du Maurier’s extraordinary storytelling gifts and her deep understanding of human nature.]]> 209 Daphne du Maurier 0062080342 Soma 4 3.66 1937
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Soma
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2019/05/04
date added: 2019/05/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 5947099
Tender, knowing, and slyly comic, Memories of My Melancholy Whores is an exquisite addition to the master’s work.
--back cover]]> 115 Gabriel García Márquez 1400095948 Soma 0 to-read 3.59 2004
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Soma
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>