sam's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 18 Apr 2025 17:50:21 -0700 60 sam's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Love Letters to a Serial Killer]]> 199262999 An aimless young woman starts writing to an accused serial killer while he awaits trial and then, once he’s acquitted, decides to move in with him and take the investigation into her own hands in this dark and irresistibly compelling debut thriller. Recently ghosted and sick of watching her friends fade into the suburbs, thirty-something Hannah finds community in a true-crime forum that’s on a mission to solve the murders of four women in Atlanta. After William, a handsome lawyer, is arrested for the killings, Hannah begins writing him letters. It’s the perfect outlet for her pent-up frustration and rage. The exercise empowers her, and even feels healthy at first. Until William writes back. Hannah’s interest in the case goes from curiosity to obsession, leaving space for nothing else as her life implodes around her. After she loses her job, she heads to Georgia to attend the trial and befriends other true-crime junkies like herself. When a fifth woman is discovered murdered, the jury has no choice but to find William not guilty, and Hannah is the first person he calls upon his release. The two of them quickly fall into a routine of domestic bliss. Well, as blissful as one can feel while secretly investigating their partner for serial murder…]]> 320 Tasha Coryell 0593640276 sam 3 3.27 2024 Love Letters to a Serial Killer
author: Tasha Coryell
name: sam
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> I See You've Called in Dead 217204419 “Razor-sharp, darkly comedic, and emotionally piercing. With the satirical bite of Richard Russo’s Straight Man, the introspection of Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove, and the reinvention of Andrew Sean Greer's Less, Kenney’s vivid prose transforms the mundane into unexpected hilarity.�
�Booklist (starred review)

An Indie Next & LibraryReads Pick for April

The Office meets Six Feet Under meets About a Boy in this coming-of-middle-age tale about having a second chance to write your life’s story.

Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who is afraid to live. Yes, his wife recently left him for a “far more interesting� man. Yes, he goes on a particularly awful blind date with a woman who brings her ex. And yes, he has too many glasses of Scotch one night and proceeds to pen and publish his own obituary. The newspaper wants to fire him. But now the company’s system has him listed as dead. And the company can’t fire a dead person. The ensuing fallout forces him to realize that life may be actually worth living.

As Bud awaits his fate at work, his life hangs in the balance. Given another shot by his boss and encouraged by his best friend, Tim, a worldly and wise former art dealer, Bud starts to attend the wakes and funerals of strangers to learn how to live.

Thurber Prize-winner and New York Times bestselling author John Kenney tells a funny, touching story about life and death, about the search for meaning, about finding and never letting go of the preciousness of life.]]> 304 John Kenney sam 0 to-read 4.17 2025 I See You've Called in Dead
author: John Kenney
name: sam
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Concise 48 Laws of Power 18224060 195 Robert Greene sam 0 to-read 4.15 The Concise 48 Laws of Power
author: Robert Greene
name: sam
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girl Friends 60730951 "Men see women in two separate categories. There are the women they sleep with, and the women they fall in love with. And they will treat you differently based on that."

From the day they first meet as teenagers Fern and Jessica are best friends. Despite their differences, they are there for each other throughout everything, navigating the difficulties of growing up and fitting in. That is until Jessica crosses a line that Fern can't forgive.

But now, more than ten years later, Jessica has unexpectedly reappeared in Fern's life.

A lot has changed for them both - but can their relationship be different now they are older? Is it possible for either of them to rewrite the role that they have been cast in? Or will their shared history ultimately be doomed to repeat itself again?

Set between the present day and the past, GIRL FRIENDS is a blisteringly funny and devastating novel: both a joyful celebration of female friendship and a razor-sharp look at the damage we can all cause to those we claim to love the most.]]> 448 Holly Bourne 1529301572 sam 0 to-read 4.06 2022 Girl Friends
author: Holly Bourne
name: sam
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

]]> Dao De Jing 205478817
This bold new translation by two brilliant poets offers a contemporary perspective on a timeless masterpiece of Daoist scripture, introducing Dao De Jing to a new audience while retaining the majesty of the Chinese original. Composed of eighty-one short poems written by the sage Laozi in 400 BC, Dao De Jing is one of the pillars of Chinese thought. Acclaimed poet Li-Young Lee and poet and scholar Yun Wang illuminate Dao De Jing as a unified work of art. This revelatory and faithful translation—presented alongside the original Chinese text—reveals its enduring teachings in their profound simplicity, subtlety, and balance.]]> 192 Lao Tzu 1324079169 sam 0 to-read 4.34 -350 Dao De Jing
author: Lao Tzu
name: sam
average rating: 4.34
book published: -350
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Sarah Kane: Complete Plays 51742 Blasted, was staged at the Royal Court Theatre, London in 1995 it was hailed both as a "masterpiece" and as a "disgusting piece of filth" (Daily Mail). That play, and the others that followed, have been produced all over the world. This anthology includes Kane's never-before-published Channel 4 screenplay, Skin. Complete Plays include Blasted, Phaedra's Love, Cleansed, Crave, 4.48 Psychosis, and Skin.]]> 286 Sarah Kane 0413742601 sam 0 to-read 4.32 2000 Sarah Kane: Complete Plays
author: Sarah Kane
name: sam
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Visions 25229837
“Troy James Weaver’s novel unravels the typical coming-of-age story. It erases the distinction between finding and losing your voice, becoming enlightened by a vision and swallowed by darkness. The plot moves at a breathless pace and the unsettling details linger, hovering at the edge of what can be fully understood.� —Jeff Jackson, author of Mira Corpora

“A noir fueled as much by the dread of what might happen as what actually occurs, with a narrator teetering on the edge of something very dark indeed. Beautifully sparse and precise, like someone tapping softly on your skull with a ball-peen hammer trying to feel out the perfect place to crack it open.� —Brian Evenson, author of Windeye and A Collapse of Horses

“Visions moves at a manic pace reminiscent of Hannah’s Ray. The story breathes, bleeds, pulses. It’s fragmented yet fluid, bleak but not without hope. Don’t be fooled by the thin spine - you may blaze through this book in an afternoon but it will burn a hole in your head. Weaver speaks the truth and I hope to hell everybody is listening.� —Nat Baldwin, musician (Dirty Projectors)

“Untimely death, Richard Ramirez, child abuse, violence, poverty, loneliness� somehow Troy James Weaver is able to take all these ugly facets of humanity and combine them into something so beautiful that it feels almost holy.� —Juliet Escoria, author of Black Cloud

“Visions is a coming-of-age, Harmony Korine-style, This Boy’s Life-meets-Wise Blood fever dream that Troy James Weaver carved into some Ouija board he later used to summon the spirits of David Koresh, Jesus Christ, and Richard Ramirez. I can’t even begin to tell you how insane and beautiful this book is.� —Brian Alan Ellis, author of Something Good, Something Bad, Something Dirty

“Troy James Weaver’s Visions is a smart and disturbing book, told in a voice as haunting as the cultish world it portrays. All those strange voices and visions packed into this slim novella, rendered with an honest complexity make this a remarkable achievement. I’m glad to have read it.� —Brandon Hobson, author of Deep Ellum]]> 134 Troy James Weaver 1940885175 sam 0 to-read 4.24 2015 Visions
author: Troy James Weaver
name: sam
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Try 51594 Frisk, returns in this novel to his characteristic themes of alienated youth, voyeurism and twisted Todenlust, except this time the horrors are as grounded in emotions as they are in the body.]]> 249 Dennis Cooper sam 0 to-read 3.93 1994 Try
author: Dennis Cooper
name: sam
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Closer 563730 131 Dennis Cooper 080213212X sam 0 to-read 3.65 1989 Closer
author: Dennis Cooper
name: sam
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Frisk 51590 240 Dennis Cooper 2867449235 sam 0 to-read 3.69 1991 Frisk
author: Dennis Cooper
name: sam
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power]]> 60880794 From psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Schafler, an invitation to every “recovering perfectionist� to challenge the way they look at perfectionism, and the way they look at themselves.

We’ve been looking at perfectionism all wrong. As psychotherapist and former on-site therapist at Google Katherine Morgan Schafler argues in The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control, you don’t have to stop being a perfectionist to be healthy. For women who are sick of being given the generic advice to “find balance�, a new approach has arrived.

Which of the five types of perfectionist are you? Classic, intense, Parisian, messy, or procrastinator? As you identify your unique perfectionist profile, you'll learn how to manage each form of perfectionism to work for you, not against you. Beyond managing it, you'll learn how to embrace and even enjoy your perfectionism. Yes, enjoy!

Full of stories and brimming with humor, empathy, and depth, this book is a love letter to the ambitious, high achieving, full-of-life clients who filled the author’s private practice, and who changed her life. It’s a clarion call for all women to dare to want more without feeling greedy or ungrateful. Ultimately, this book will show you how to make the single greatest trade you’ll ever make in your life, which is to exchange superficial control for real power.]]> 325 Katherine Morgan Schafler 059332952X sam 0 to-read 4.16 2023 The Perfectionist's Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power
author: Katherine Morgan Schafler
name: sam
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy]]> 25937937 For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan s mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently?
These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In"A Mother s Reckoning," she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.
Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, "A Mother s Reckoning"is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the recent Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent.
"All author profits from the book will be donated to research and to charitable organizations focusing on mental health issues."


"From the Hardcover edition.""]]> 305 Sue Klebold 1101902752 sam 0 to-read 4.18 2016 A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
author: Sue Klebold
name: sam
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I’m Glad My Mom Died 59366244
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died , Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 304 Jennette McCurdy 1982185821 sam 5 4.42 2022 I’m Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: sam
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves:
review:

]]> The Egyptian Book of the Dead 790550 The Egyptian Books of the Dead is unquestionably one of the most influential books in all of history. Embodying a ritual to be performed for the dead, with detailed instructions for the behavior of the disembodied spirit in the Land of the Gods, it served as the most important repository of religious authority for some three thousand years. Chapters were carved on the pyramids of the ancient 5th Dynasty, texts were written in papyrus, and selections were painted on mummy cases well into the Christian Era. In a certain sense it stood behind all Egyptian civilization.

In the year 1888 Dr. E. Wallis Budge, then purchasing agent for the British Museum, followed rumors he heard of a spectacular archaeological find in Upper Egypt, and found in an 18th Dynasty tomb near Luxor "the largest roll of papyrus I had ever seen, tied with a thick band of papyrus, and in a perfect state of preservation." It was a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, written around 1500 B.C. for Ani, Royal Scribe of Thebes, Overseer of the Granaries of the Lords of Abydos, and Scribe of the Offerings of the Lords of Thebes.

The Papyrus of Ani, a full version of the Theban recension, is presented here by Dr. Budge, who later became perhaps the world's most renowned Egyptologist. Reproduced in full are a clear copy of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and interlinear transliteration of their sounds (as reconstructed), a word-for-word translation, and separately a complete smooth translation. All this is preceded by an introduction of more than 150 pages. As a result of this multiple apparatus the reader has a unique opportunity to savor all aspects of the Book of the Dead, or as it is otherwise known, the Book of the Great Awakening.]]> 377 Anonymous 048621866X sam 0 to-read 3.94 -1500 The Egyptian Book of the Dead
author: Anonymous
name: sam
average rating: 3.94
book published: -1500
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism, and Sexual Ethics, 1972-2003]]> 628490
Accessibly organized into four sections, the collection begins with several of Plaskow's foundational essays on feminist theology, including one previously unavailable in English. Section II addresses her nuanced understanding of oppression and includes her important work on anti-Judaism in Christian feminism. Section III contains a variety of short and highly readable pieces that make clear Plaskow's central role in the creation of Jewish feminism, including the essential "Beyond Egalitarianism." Finally, section IV presents her writings on the significance of sexual ethics to the larger project of transforming Judaism.

Intelligently edited with the help of Rabbi Donna Berman, and including pieces never before published, The Coming of Lilith is indispensable for religious studies students, fans of Plaskow's work, and those pursuing a Jewish education.]]> 252 Judith Plaskow 0807036234 sam 0 to-read 4.10 2005 The Coming of Lilith: Essays on Feminism, Judaism, and Sexual Ethics, 1972-2003
author: Judith Plaskow
name: sam
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Unworthy 214151601 The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.]]> 192 Agustina Bazterrica 1668051885 sam 0 to-read 3.64 2023 The Unworthy
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: sam
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> She's Always Hungry 201033505
A woman welcomes a parasite into her body.

A teenager longs for perfect skin.

A scientist tends to fragile alien flora.

A young man takes the night into his own hands.

Unsettling, revelatory, and laced with her signature dark humor, Eliza Clark’s debut short story collection plumbs the depths of that most basic human feeling: hunger.]]> 240 Eliza Clark 0063393263 sam 0 to-read 3.80 2024 She's Always Hungry
author: Eliza Clark
name: sam
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lovesick (Ghostgirl, #3) 7146050 Romance is dead.

Before she can rest in peace, Charlotte Usher must return to the tragic site of her death: high school. She still has one last assignment to complete, but no one explained what happens if you fall in love with your class project. Charlotte would die (again) for love. But when her ticket to the afterlife means having to face the dreaded, all-too-familiar pains of being invisible, it may be too much for her to withstand.]]> 311 Tonya Hurley 0316070262 sam 0 to-read 3.66 Lovesick (Ghostgirl, #3)
author: Tonya Hurley
name: sam
average rating: 3.66
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Doors of Perception 3188964 The Doors of Perception is a philosophical essay, released as a book, by Aldous Huxley. First published in 1954, it details his experiences when taking mescaline.

The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon in May 1953. The book takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'.

Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion.]]> 208 Aldous Huxley sam 0 to-read 3.91 1956 The Doors of Perception
author: Aldous Huxley
name: sam
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beautiful And Damned 29996717
Beautiful and Damned is as haunting and as captivating as the stories it tells, it is proof that Robert M. Drake is one of the most visionary writers working today.]]> 322 Robert M. Drake 0986262773 sam 0 to-read 3.72 Beautiful And Damned
author: Robert M. Drake
name: sam
average rating: 3.72
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Oh She Glows Every Day: Quick and Simply Satisfying Plant-Based Recipes]]> 28186250
In this highly anticipated new cookbook, Angela shares wildly delicious recipes that are perfect for busy lifestyles, promising to make plant-based eating convenient every day of the week—including holidays and special occasions! Filled with more than 100 family-friendly recipes everyone will love, like Oh Em Gee Veggie Burgers, Fusilli Lentil-Mushroom Bolognese, Apple Pie Overnight Oats, Mocha Empower Glo Bars, and the Ultimate Flourless Brownies, Oh She Glows Every Day also includes easy-to-make homemade staples; useful information on essential pantry ingredients; tips on making recipes kid-, allergy-, and freezer-friendly; and so much more.]]> 352 Angela Liddon 0143196510 sam 0 to-read 4.19 2013 Oh She Glows Every Day: Quick and Simply Satisfying Plant-Based Recipes
author: Angela Liddon
name: sam
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Tale for the Time Being 18079728 Hi! My name is Nao, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you.

On a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, a Hello Kitty lunchbox washes up on the beach. Tucked inside is the diary of a sixteen-year-old Japanese girl named Nao Yasutani. Ruth--a writer who finds the lunchbox--suspects that it is debris from Japan's 2011 tsunami. Once she beings to read the diary, Ruth quickly finds herself drawn into the mystery of Nao's fate. Meanwhile in Tokyo, Nao, uprooted from her home in the U.S., bullied at school, and watching her parents spiral deeper into disaster, has decided to end her life. But first, she wants to recount the story of her great-grandmother, a 104-year-old Zen Buddhist nun, in the pages of her secret diary...]]> 422 Ruth Ozeki 0143124870 sam 0 currently-reading 4.16 2013 A Tale for the Time Being
author: Ruth Ozeki
name: sam
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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

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

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

Dazzlingly rendered in English by Ringwald in her first-ever translation, Besson’s powerfully moving coming-of-age story captures the eroticism and tenderness of first love—and the heartbreaking passage of time.]]> 149 Philippe Besson 1501197878 sam 4 4.25 2017 Lie With Me
author: Philippe Besson
name: sam
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Human Sacrifices 75599182 An undocumented woman answers a job posting only to find herself held hostage, a group of outcasts obsess over boys drowned while surfing, and an unhappy couple finds themselves trapped in a terrifying maze. With scalpel-like precision, Ampuero considers the price paid by those on the margins so that the elite might lounge comfortably, considering themselves safe in their homes.
Simultaneously terrifying and exquisite, Human Sacrifices is "tropical gothic" at its finest--decay and oppression underlie our humid and hostile world, where working-class women and children are consistently the weakest links in a capitalist economy. Against this backdrop of corrosion and rot, these twelves stories contemplate the nature of exploitation and abuse, illuminating the realities of those society consumes for its own pitiless ends.]]> 144 María Fernanda Ampuero sam 4 3.83 2021 Human Sacrifices
author: María Fernanda Ampuero
name: sam
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/29
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[PTSD Radio 1 (Vol. 1-2) (Ptsd Radio Omnibus, 1)]]> 60543010
Like Junji Ito's Uzumaki, PTSD Radio takes something everyday and weaves it into a series of chilling, cryptic, twisted, repellant, and alluring manga stories that become more than what they first seem.

The hit digital series finally comes to print in three 400-page compilations!

An unseen hand tugs at your braid. You find an old box with only a tangled mess of dark hair inside. You open a door in your home only to witness a river of curls slinking away, an ominous lump at its heart.

Ogushi preys on the unprepared. Before it's too late, tune into PTSD Radio.

These episodes and more await in this acclaimed horror series, coming to print after a successful digital run in double-length omnibus editions featuring sickeningly-textured covers. From the gleefully-twisted mind that created Fuan no Tane, PTSD Radio is a necessity for fans of the masters of manga scares such as Junji Ito, Kazuo Umezz, Shintaro Kago, and Suehiro Maruo.]]> 320 Masaaki Nakayama 164651632X sam 0 to-read 3.97 PTSD Radio 1 (Vol. 1-2) (Ptsd Radio Omnibus, 1)
author: Masaaki Nakayama
name: sam
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> They're Going to Love You 59721793 A magnetic tale of betrayal, art, and ambition, set in the world of professional ballet, New York City during the AIDS crisis, and present-day Los Angeles

Carlisle Martin dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer just like her mother, Isabel, a former Balanchine ballerina. Since they live in Ohio, she only gets to see her father Robert for a few precious weeks a year when she visits Greenwich Village, where he lives in an enchanting apartment on Bank Street with his partner, James.

Brilliant but troubled, James gives Carlisle an education in all that he holds dear in life--literature, music, and most of all, dance. Seduced by the heady pull of mentorship and the sophistication of their lives, Carlisle's aspiration to become a dancer herself blooms, born of her desire to be asked to stay at Bank Street, to be included in Robert and James' world even as AIDS brings devastation to their community. Instead, a passionate love affair creates a rift between them, with devastating consequences that reverberate for decades to come.

Nineteen years later, Carlisle receives a phone call which unravels the fateful events of her life, causing her to see with new eyes how her younger self has informed the woman she's become. They're Going to Love You is a gripping and gorgeously written novel of heartbreaking intensity. With psychological precision and a masterfully revealed secret at its heart, it asks what it takes to be an artist in America, and the price of forgiveness, of ambition, and of love.]]> 288 Meg Howrey 038554877X sam 0 to-read 4.07 2022 They're Going to Love You
author: Meg Howrey
name: sam
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Europe Underdeveloped Africa]]> 40630 The decisiveness of the short period of colonialism and its negative consequences for Africa spring mainly from the fact that Africa lost power. Power is the ultimate determinant in human society, being basic to the relations within any group and between groups. It implies the ability to defend one's interests and if necessary to impose one’s will by any means available. In relations between peoples, the question of power determines maneuverability in bargaining, the extent to which a people survive as a physical and cultural entity. When one society finds itself forced to relinquish power entirely to another society, that in itself is a form of underdevelopment.
Before a bomb ended his life in the summer of 1980, Walter Rodney had created a powerful legacy. This pivotal work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, had already brought a new perspective to the question of underdevelopment in Africa. his Marxist analysis went far beyond the heretofore accepted approach in the study of Third World underdevelopment. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is an excellent introductory study for the student who wishes to better understand the dynamics of Africa’s contemporary relations with the West.]]> 312 Walter Rodney 0882580965 sam 0 to-read 4.43 1971 How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
author: Walter Rodney
name: sam
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bad Infinity: Selected Writings]]> 99602623
Compiled here for the first time, the selected writings of Aria Dean (b. 1993, Los Angeles) mount a trenchant critique of representational systems. A visual artist and filmmaker, Dean has also emerged as one of the leading critical voices of her generation through a body of writing that maps the forces of aesthetic theory, image regimes, and visibility onto questions of race and power. Dean’s work across media has long been defined by what she calls a “fixation on the subject and its borders,� and the texts collected here filter that inquiry through digital networks, art history, and Black radical thought. Equally at home discussing artists who embrace difficulty—from Robert Morris to David Hammons, Lorna Simpson, and Ulysses Jenkins—and conceptual frameworks such as Afropessimism, Dean often contends with how theoretical positions brush against the grain of lived how the Structuralism handed down from the academy, for instance, can be commingled with critiques of structural racism, or how Georges Bataille’s notion of base matter transforms through an encounter with Blackness.

Dean’s thinking embraces a definition of “Black art that luxuriates in its outside-the-world-ness,� as she writes in this volume, which works to elucidate “Blackness’s proclivity for making and unmaking its own rules as it produces objects� of cultural necessity. Originally published in November —of which Dean is a founding editor—as well as in Texte zur Kunst , e-flux journal , and in exhibition contexts, the essays compiled in Bad Infinity were written over a six-year span that charts our rapidly evolving forms of subjectivity and sociality.]]> 200 Aria Dean 3956796470 sam 0 to-read 4.31 Bad Infinity: Selected Writings
author: Aria Dean
name: sam
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction]]> 61757014 Saving Our Own Lives, an anthology of essays from long-time organizer Shira Hassan, fills this gap by telling the stories of how sex workers, people of color, queer folks, and trans, gender non-conforming, and two-spirit people are building systems of change and support outside the societal frameworks of oppression and exploitation. This is a collective story of Bad Date sheets passed between sex workers in Portland, leading to the identification of a serial killer. It is the story of clean syringes, “liberated� from empathetic doctors offices and passed between punks in squats in the East Village by women of color, and the early AIDS activists who made sure that everyone knew how to use them. It is the story of transwomen of color, street-based sex workers, who created shared housing to ensure that young people had safe places to sleep. It is the story of Black Panthers creating a free breakfast program to feed a revolution and the Young Lords taking over Lincoln Park Hospital in the Bronx to demand and ultimately create community-accessible drug treatment programs.

At a political moment when Liberatory Harm Reduction and mutual aid are more important than ever, this book serves as an inspiration and a catalyst for radical transformation of our world.]]> 300 Shira Hassan 1642598623 sam 0 to-read 4.52 2022 Saving Our Own Lives: A Liberatory Practice of Harm Reduction
author: Shira Hassan
name: sam
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)]]> 59463840
“Identity politics� is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media, both online and off. But the compulsively referenced phrase bears little resemblance to the concept as first introduced by the radical Black feminist Combahee River Collective. While the Collective articulated a political viewpoint grounded in their own position as Black lesbians with the explicit aim of building solidarity across lines of difference, identity politics is now frequently weaponized as a means of closing ranks around ever-narrower conceptions of group interests.

But the trouble, OlúfẹÌmi O. Táíwò deftly argues, is not with identity politics itself. Through a substantive engagement with the global Black radical tradition and a critical understanding of racial capitalism, Táíwò identifies the process by which a radical concept can be stripped of its political substance and liberatory potential by becoming the victim of elite capture—deployed by political, social, and economic elites in the service of their own interests.

Táíwò’s crucial intervention both elucidates this complex process and helps us move beyond a binary of “classâ€� vs. “race.â€� By rejecting elitist identity politics in favor of a constructive politics of radical solidarity, he advances the possibility of organizing across our differences in the urgent struggle for a better world.]]> 157 OlúfẹÌmi O. Táíwò 1642596884 sam 0 to-read 4.00 2022 Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else)
author: OlúfẹÌmi O. Táíwò
name: sam
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All This Could Be Different 59576064
But before long, trouble arrives. Painful secrets rear their heads; jobs go off the rails; evictions loom. Sneha struggles to be truly close and open with anybody, even as her friendships deepen, even as she throws herself headlong into a dizzying romance with Marina. It's then that Tig begins to draw up a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all.]]> 320 Sarah Thankam Mathews 0593489128 sam 0 to-read 3.82 2022 All This Could Be Different
author: Sarah Thankam Mathews
name: sam
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Homebodies 62558851 Urgent, propulsive, and strikingly insightful, Homebodies is a thrilling debut novel about a young Black writer whose world is turned upside down when she loses her coveted job in media and pens a searing manifesto about racism in the industry.

Mickey Hayward dreams of writing stories that matter. She has a flashy media job that makes her feel successful and a devoted girlfriend who takes care of her when she comes home exhausted and demoralized. It’s not all A-list parties and steamy romance, but Mickey’s on her way, and it’s far from the messy life she left behind in Maryland. Despite being overlooked and mistreated at work, it seems like she might finally get the chance to prove herself—until she finds out she’s being replaced.

Distraught and enraged, Mickey fires back with a detailed letter outlining the racism and sexism she’s endured as a Black woman in media, certain it will change the world for the better. But when her letter is met with overwhelming silence, Mickey is sent into a tailspin of self-doubt. Forced to reckon with just how fragile her life is—including the uncertainty of her relationship—she flees to the last place she ever dreamed she would run to, her hometown, desperate for a break from her troubles.

Back home, Mickey is seduced by the simplicity of her old life—and the flirtation of a former flame—but her life in New York refuses to be forgotten. When a media scandal catapults Mickey’s forgotten letter into the public zeitgeist, suddenly everyone wants to hear what Mickey has to say. It’s what she’s always wanted—isn’t it? Intimate, witty, and deeply sexy, Homebodies is a testament to those trying to be heard and loved in a world that refuses to make space, and introduces a standout new writer.]]> 320 Tembe Denton-Hurst 0063274280 sam 0 to-read 3.28 2023 Homebodies
author: Tembe Denton-Hurst
name: sam
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Only for the Week 152387598 You are cordially invited to the wedding of Amerie Cross and Arnold Hightower.

And now a toast from the maid of honor, Janelle Cross!

Hi everyone, thank you for being here.

Some of you may know me as the sister of the bride.

Some of you may know me as the ex-girlfriend of the groom.

But I'm willing to bet none of you know me as the woman secretly sleeping with the best man.

I am.

I know, I'm just as surprised as you.

It was only supposed to be for the week; but every kiss, adventure, and stolen moment with Rome Martin feels like it could last forever.

Oh well. What happens in Tulum stays in Tulum.

Right?]]> 244 Natasha Bishop sam 0 to-read 4.36 2023 Only for the Week
author: Natasha Bishop
name: sam
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Women of Brewster Place 765811 In her heralded first novel, Gloria Naylor weaves together the stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, a bleak inner-city sanctuary, creating a powerful, moving portrait of the strengths, struggles, and hopes of black women in America. Vulnerable and resilient, openhanded and open-hearted, these women forge their lives in a place that in turn threatens and protects—a common prison and a shared home. Naylor renders both loving and painful human experiences with simple eloquence and uncommon intuition. Her remarkable sense of community and history makes The Women of Brewster Place a contemporary classic—and a touching and unforgettable read.

]]> 192 Gloria Naylor sam 0 to-read 4.20 1982 The Women of Brewster Place
author: Gloria Naylor
name: sam
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Neighbor Favor (The Greene Sisters, #1)]]> 61111295 In this heart-fluttering romance by Kristina Forest, a shy bookworm enlists her charming neighbor to help her score a date, not knowing he's the obscure author she's been corresponding with.

Shy, bookish, and admittedly awkward, Lily Greene has always felt inadequate compared to the rest of her accomplished family, who strive for Black excellence. She dreams of becoming an editor of children's books but has been frustratingly stuck in the nonfiction division for years without a promotion in sight. Lily finds escapism in her correspondences with her favorite fantasy author, and what begins as two lonely people connecting over e-mail turns into a tentative friendship and possibly something else Lily won't let herself entertain--until he ghosts her.

Months later, still crushed but determined to take charge of her life, Lily seeks a date to her sister's wedding. And the perfect person to help her is Nick Brown, her charming, attractive new neighbor, whom she feels drawn to for unexplainable reasons. Little does she know that Nick is an author--her favorite fantasy author.

Nick, who has his reasons for using a pen name and for pushing people away, soon realizes that the beautiful, quiet woman from down the hall is the same Lily he fell in love with over e-mail months ago. Unwilling to complicate things even more between them, he agrees to set her up with someone else, though this simple favor between two neighbors is anything but--not when he can't get her off his mind.]]> 403 Kristina Forest 0593546431 sam 0 to-read 3.80 2023 The Neighbor Favor (The Greene Sisters, #1)
author: Kristina Forest
name: sam
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Dead Are Gods: A Memoir 63927483 From an exciting new literary voice: a memoir that explores grief, Blackness, and recovery after the death of a dear friend.

After an unexpected phone call on an early morning in 2018, writer and model Eirinie Carson learned of her best friend Larissa’s death. In the wake of her shock, Eirinie attempts to make sense of the events leading up to Larissa’s death and uncovers startling secrets about her life in the process.

THE DEAD ARE GODS is Eirinie’s striking, intimate, and profoundly moving depiction of life after a sudden loss. Amid navigating moments of intense grief, Eirinie is overwhelmed by her love for Larissa. She finds power in pulling moments of joy from the depths of her emotion. Eirinie’s portrayal of what love feels like after death bursts from the page alongside a timely, honest, and personal exploration of Black love and Black life.

Perhaps, Eirinie proposes, “The only way out is through.â€]]> 240 Eirinie Carson 1685890458 sam 0 to-read 4.21 2023 The Dead Are Gods: A Memoir
author: Eirinie Carson
name: sam
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Liars' Club 14241 The Liars� Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger’s—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at age twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. This unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as “funny, lively, and un-put-downable� (USA Today) today as it ever was.]]> 352 Mary Karr 0143035746 sam 0 to-read 3.94 1995 The Liars' Club
author: Mary Karr
name: sam
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bluets 6798263 Suppose I were to begin by saying that I had fallen in love with a color...

A lyrical, philosophical, and often explicit exploration of personal suffering and the limitations of vision and love, as refracted through the color blue. With Bluets, Maggie Nelson has entered the pantheon of brilliant lyric essayists.]]> 112 Maggie Nelson 1933517409 sam 0 to-read 4.09 2009 Bluets
author: Maggie Nelson
name: sam
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Whale Fall 195888522 A stunning debut from an award-winning writer, about loss, isolation, folklore, and the joy and dissonance of finding oneself by exploring life outside one’s community

In 1938, a dead whale washes up on the shores of remote Welsh island. For Manod, who has spent her whole life on the island, it feels like both a portent of doom and a symbol of what may lie beyond the island's shores. A young woman living with her father and her sister (to whom she has reluctantly but devotedly become a mother following the death of their own mother years prior), Manod can't shake her welling desire to explore life beyond the beautiful yet blisteringly harsh islands that her hardscrabble family has called home for generations.

The arrival of two English ethnographers who hope to study the island culture, then, feels like a boon to her—both a glimpse of life outside her community and a means of escape. The longer the ethnographers stay, the more she feels herself pulled towards them, reckoning with a sensual awakening inside herself, despite her misgivings that her community is being misconstrued and exoticized.

With shimmering prose tempered by sharp wit, Whale Fall tells the story of what happens when one person's ambitions threaten the fabric of a community, and what can happen when they are realized. O'Connor paints a portrait of a community and a woman on the precipice, forced to confront an outside world that seems to be closing in on them.]]> 224 Elizabeth O'Connor 0593700910 sam 0 to-read 3.80 2024 Whale Fall
author: Elizabeth O'Connor
name: sam
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Hole 51283868 ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý
One day, while running an errand for her mother-in-law, she comes across a strange creature, follows it to the embankment of a river, and ends up falling into a hole—a hole that seems to have been made specifically for her. This is the first in a series of bizarre experiences that drive Asa deeper into the mysteries of this rural landscape filled with eccentric characters and unidentifiable creatures, leading her to question her role in this world, and eventually, her sanity.]]> 92 Hiroko Oyamada 0811228878 sam 0 to-read 3.47 2013 The Hole
author: Hiroko Oyamada
name: sam
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Orbital 123136728
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.

The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?]]> 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 sam 0 to-read 3.55 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: sam
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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

Now a Major Motion Picture

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

Through both the distance and closeness of these young lovers, Alejandro Zambra brilliantly explores the relationship between art, love, and life. Bonsai is accessible yet profound—as one critic in Chile’s Capital newspaper put it, “Brief as a sigh and forceful as a blow.�
]]> 83 Alejandro Zambra 193363362X sam 0 to-read 3.71 2006 Bonsai
author: Alejandro Zambra
name: sam
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Masks 547334 141 Fumiko Enchi 0394722183 sam 0 to-read 3.70 1958 Masks
author: Fumiko Enchi
name: sam
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> La bastarda 32496013 117 Trifonia Melibea Obono 8494601806 sam 0 to-read 3.54 2016 La bastarda
author: Trifonia Melibea Obono
name: sam
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> You Dreamed of Empires 127938747 From a visionary Mexican author, a hallucinatory, revelatory, colonial revenge story that reimagines the fall of Tenochtitlan.

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan � today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.

Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma � who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods � the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.

You Dreamed of Empires brings to life Tenochtitlan at its height, and reimagines its destiny. The incomparably original Alvaro Enrigue sets afire the moment of conquest and turns it into a moment of revolution, a restitutive, fantastical counter-attack, in a novel so electric and so unique that it feels like a dream.]]> 220 Ãlvaro Enrigue 059354479X sam 0 to-read 3.75 2022 You Dreamed of Empires
author: Ãlvaro Enrigue
name: sam
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Eating Women, Telling Tales 8064511 113 Bulbul Sharma 8189013785 sam 0 to-read 3.25 2012 Eating Women, Telling Tales
author: Bulbul Sharma
name: sam
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Rattlebone 599902 224 Maxine Clair 0140248250 sam 0 to-read 3.85 1994 Rattlebone
author: Maxine Clair
name: sam
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Confrontations 133939077 A bold, unsettling, surprisingly tender debut novel for readers of Nightcrawling and fans of I May Destroy You.

Salomé Atabong is the sixteen-year-old daughter of a Cameroonian father and a Dutch mother, living in the Netherlands. She arrives at a juvenile detention center to start a six-month sentence for a violent crime, which she did commit but does not regret. Expected to visit with a racist psychologist and perform her apologies, Salomé refuses to atone. But even if Salomé could get home, it would be no refuge: her father has recently been diagnosed with liver cancer, and her elder sister Miriam’s main preoccupation is to get out of the village as soon as possible.

After months in the prison system, she realizes she must come to terms with her anger, sorrow, and guilt, as well as the crime she has committed and the real reason behind her rage.

Raw, unsentimental, but lyrically written, Confrontations captures the paradoxical demands society makes on Black women, the way communities, schools, and the prison system perpetuate racism, and the cost of Black female defiance.]]> 192 Simone Atangana Bekono 1639730915 sam 0 to-read 3.47 2020 Confrontations
author: Simone Atangana Bekono
name: sam
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Women with Big Eyes (English and Spanish Edition)]]> 989798
Each story in this "remarkable collection" ( Kirkus Reviews ) reveals a different woman, yet all are linked by a single the strength of desire. Vibrant, sly, wise, earthy, and full of life, these are stories that mesmerize.]]> Ãngeles Mastretta 1594480400 sam 0 to-read 3.88 1985 Women with Big Eyes (English and Spanish Edition)
author: Ãngeles Mastretta
name: sam
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science]]> 58460667 An Indigenous environmental scientist breaks down why western conservationism isn’t working–and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors.

Despite the undeniable fact that Indigenous communities are among the most affected by climate devastation, Indigenous science is nowhere to be found in mainstream environmental policy or discourse. And while holistic land, water, and forest management practices born from millennia of Indigenous knowledge systems have much to teach all of us, Indigenous science has long been ignored, otherized, or perceived as “softâ€â€“the product of a systematic, centuries-long campaign of racism, colonialism, extractive capitalism, and delegitimization.

Here, Jessica Hernandez–Maya Ch’orti� and Zapotec environmental scientist and founder of environmental agency Piña Soul–introduces and contextualizes Indigenous environmental knowledge and proposes a vision of land stewardship that heals rather than displaces, that generates rather than destroys. She breaks down the failures of western-defined conservatism and shares alternatives, citing the restoration work of urban Indigenous people in Seattle; her family’s fight against ecoterrorism in Latin America; and holistic land management approaches of Indigenous groups across the continent.

Through case studies, historical overviews, and stories that center the voices and lived experiences of Indigenous Latin American women and land protectors, Hernandez makes the case that if we’re to recover the health of our planet–for everyone–we need to stop the eco-colonialism ravaging Indigenous lands and restore our relationship with Earth to one of harmony and respect.]]> 256 Jessica Hernandez 1623176050 sam 0 to-read 3.79 2022 Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science
author: Jessica Hernandez
name: sam
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants]]> 17465709 Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings are we capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learning to give our own gifts in return.]]> 408 Robin Wall Kimmerer 1571313354 sam 0 to-read 4.52 2013 Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
name: sam
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition]]> 11289729 Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme—but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.
Ìý
This book is about how the money system will have to change—and is already changing—to embody this transition. A broadly integrated synthesis of theory, policy, and practice, Sacred Economics explores avant-garde concepts of the New Economics, including negative-interest currencies, local currencies, resource-based economics, gift economies, and the restoration of the commons. Author Charles Eisenstein also considers the personal dimensions of this transition, speaking to those concerned with "right livelihood" and how to live according to their ideals in a world seemingly ruled by money. Tapping into a rich lineage of conventional and unconventional economic thought, Sacred Economics presents a vision that is original yet commonsense, radical yet gentle, and increasingly relevant as the crises of our civilization deepen.

Sacred Economics official website:

About the Imprint:
EVOLVER EDITIONS promotes a new counterculture that recognizes humanity's visionary potential and takes tangible, pragmatic steps to realize it. EVOLVER EDITIONS explores the dynamics of personal, collective, and global change from a wide range of perspectives. EVOLVER EDITIONS is an imprint of North Atlantic Books and is produced in collaboration with Evolver, LLC.]]> 469 Charles Eisenstein 1583943978 sam 0 to-read 4.21 2011 Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition
author: Charles Eisenstein
name: sam
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When God Was a Woman 30858 265 Merlin Stone 0880295333 sam 0 to-read 3.95 1976 When God Was a Woman
author: Merlin Stone
name: sam
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Who Cooked the Last Supper: The Women's History of the World]]> 56354
Starting with women in pre-history the author looks beyond the myth of ‘Man the Hunter� to reveal women’s central role in the survival and evolution of the human race. She follows their progress from the days when God was a woman through to the triumphs of the Amazons and Assyrian war queens: she looks at the rise of organised religion and the growing oppression of women: she charts the long slow struggle for women’s rights culminating in the twentieth century women’s movements: and finally she presents a vision of women breaking free.

This brilliant and absorbing book turns the spotlight on the hidden side of history to present a fascinating new view of the world, overturning our preconceptions to restore women to their rightful place at the centre of the worldwide story of revolution, empire, war and peace.

Spiced with tales of individual women who have shaped history, celebrating the work and lives of the unsung female millions, distinguished by a wealth of research, The Women’s History of the World redefines the concept of historical reality.]]> 352 Rosalind Miles 0609806955 sam 0 to-read 3.82 1989 Who Cooked the Last Supper: The Women's History of the World
author: Rosalind Miles
name: sam
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico]]> 51033992 A crucial, clear-eyed accounting of Puerto Rico's 122 years as a colony of the US.

Since its acquisition by the US in 1898, Puerto Rico has served as a testing ground for the most aggressive and exploitative US economic, political, and social policies. The devastation that ensued finally grew impossible to ignore in 2017, in the wake of Hurricane María, as the physical destruction compounded the infrastructure collapse and trauma inflicted by the debt crisis. In Fantasy Island, Ed Morales traces how, over the years, Puerto Rico has served as a colonial satellite, a Cold War Caribbean showcase, a dumping ground for US manufactured goods, and a corporate tax shelter. He also shows how it has become a blank canvas for mercenary experiments in disaster capitalism on the frontlines of climate change, hamstrung by internal political corruption and the US federal government's prioritization of outside financial interests.

Taking readers from San Juan to New York City and back to his family's home in the Luquillo Mountains, Morales shows us the machinations of financial and political interests in both the US and Puerto Rico, and the resistance efforts of Puerto Rican artists and activists. Through it all, he emphasizes that the only way to stop Puerto Rico from being bled is to let Puerto Ricans take control of their own destiny, going beyond the statehood-commonwealth-independence debate to complete decolonization.
]]> 312 Ed Morales 1568588984 sam 0 to-read 3.83 Fantasy Island: Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico
author: Ed Morales
name: sam
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The House of Rust 56269267 The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girl’s fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father

The House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholar’s cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa, the father of all sharks, she rescues her own father, and hopes that life will return to normal. But at home, things only grow stranger.

Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s debut is a magical realist coming-of-age tale told through the lens of the Swahili and diasporic Hadrami culture in Mombasa, Kenya. Richly descriptive and written with an imaginative hand and sharp eye for unusual detail, The House of Rust is a memorable novel by a thrilling new voice.]]> 272 Khadija Abdalla Bajaber 1644450682 sam 0 to-read 3.58 2021 The House of Rust
author: Khadija Abdalla Bajaber
name: sam
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Suttree 394469 471 Cormac McCarthy 0679736328 sam 0 to-read 4.20 1979 Suttree
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: sam
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1979
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hocus Pocus 9589 322 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0425161293 sam 0 to-read 3.83 1990 Hocus Pocus
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: sam
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Metamorphosis of You 201779926 129 Susanne Zazzera 8230362130 sam 0 to-read 3.97 The Metamorphosis of You
author: Susanne Zazzera
name: sam
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Bell 11230 296 Iris Murdoch 0141186690 sam 0 to-read 3.92 1958 The Bell
author: Iris Murdoch
name: sam
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Invention of Morel 94486 The Invention of Morel a masterpiece of plotting, comparable to The Turn of The Screw and Journey to the Center of the Earth. Set on a mysterious island, Bioy’s novella is a story of suspense and exploration, as well as a wonderfully unlikely romance, in which every detail is at once crystal clear and deeply mysterious.

Inspired by Bioy Casares’s fascination with the movie star Louise Brooks, The Invention of Morel has gone on to live a secret life of its own. Greatly admired by Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, and Octavio Paz, the novella helped to usher in Latin American fiction’s now famous postwar boom. As the model for Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Last Year at Marienbad, it also changed the history of film.]]> 103 Adolfo Bioy Casares 1590170571 sam 0 to-read 4.03 1940 The Invention of Morel
author: Adolfo Bioy Casares
name: sam
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1940
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Passing 57640287 Nella Larsen's fascinating exploration of race and identity--the inspiration for the upcoming Netflix film directed by Rebecca Hall, starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

This Signet Classics edition of Passing includes an Introduction by Brit Bennett, the bestselling author of The Vanishing Half.

Irene Redfield is a Black woman living an affluent, comfortable life with her husband and children in the thriving neighborhood of Harlem in the 1920s. When she reconnects with her childhood friend Clare Kendry, who is similarly light-skinned, Irene discovers that Clare has been passing for a white woman after severing ties to her past--even hiding the truth from her racist husband.

Clare finds herself drawn to Irene's sense of ease and security with her Black identity and longs for the community (and, increasingly, the woman) she lost. Irene is both riveted and repulsed by Clare and her dangerous secret, as Clare begins to insert herself--and her deception--into every part of Irene's stable existence. First published in 1929, Larsen's brilliant examination of the various ways in which we all seek to "pass," is as timely as ever.]]> 141 Nella Larsen 0593437845 sam 0 to-read 3.91 1929 Passing
author: Nella Larsen
name: sam
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Ex-Wife 2142191
It's 1924, and Peter and Patricia have what looks to be a very modern marriage. Both drink. Both smoke. Both work, Patricia as a head copywriter at a major department store. When it comes to sex with other people, both believe in “the honesty policy.� Until they don‘t. Or, at least, until Peter doesn‘t—and a shell-shocked, lovesick Patricia finds herself starting out all over again, but this time around as a different kind of single the ex-wife.

An instant bestseller when it was published anonymously in 1929, Ex-Wife captures the speakeasies, night clubs, and parties that defined Jazz Age New York—alongside the morning-after aspirin and calisthenics, the lunch-hour visits to the gym, the girl-talk, and the freedoms and anguish of solitude. It also casts a cool eye on the bedrooms and the doctor’s offices where, despite rising hemlines, the men still call the shots. The result is a unique view of what its author Ursula Parrott called “the era of the one-night stand�: an era very much like our own.]]> 224 Ursula Parrott 0452262240 sam 0 to-read 4.16 1929 Ex-Wife
author: Ursula Parrott
name: sam
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pnin 30593 Pnin features his funniest and most heart-rending character. Professor Timofey Pnin is a haplessly disoriented Russian émigré precariously employed on an American college campus in the 1950's. Pnin struggles to maintain his dignity through a series of comic and sad misunderstandings, all the while falling victim both to subtle academic conspiracies and to the manipulations of a deliberately unreliable narrator.

Initially an almost grotesquely comic figure, Pnin gradually grows in stature by contrast with those who laugh at him. Whether taking the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he has not mastered or throwing a faculty party during which he learns he is losing his job, the gently preposterous hero of this enchanting novel evokes the reader’s deepest protective instinct.

Serialized in The New Yorker and published in book form in 1957, Pnin brought Nabokov both his first National Book Award nomination and hitherto unprecedented popularity.]]> 184 Vladimir Nabokov 1400041988 sam 0 to-read 3.89 1957 Pnin
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: sam
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Angel 647121
After reading The Lady Irania, publishers Brace and Gilchrist are certain the novel will be a success, in spite of - and perhaps because of - its overblown style. But they are curious as to who could have written such a book: 'Some old lady, romanticising behind lace-curtains' . . . 'Angelica Deverell is too good a name to be true . . . she might be an old man. It would be an amusing variation. You are expecting to meet Mary Anne Evans and in Walks George Eliot twirling his moustache.' So nothing can prepare them for the pale young woman who sits before them, with not a seed of irony or a grain of humour in her soul.]]> 252 Elizabeth Taylor sam 0 to-read 3.86 1957 Angel
author: Elizabeth Taylor
name: sam
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes]]> 8445186 160 Henry Van Dyke 0140027416 sam 0 to-read 4.12 1966 Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes
author: Henry Van Dyke
name: sam
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The End of the Affair 29641 "A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses a moment of experience from which to look ahead..."

"This is a record of hate far more than of love," writes Maurice Bendrix in the opening passages of The End of the Affair, and it is a strange hate indeed that compels him to set down the retrospective account of his adulterous affair with Sarah Miles.

Now, a year after Sarah's death, Bendrix seeks to exorcise the persistence of his passion by retracing its course from obsessive love to love-hate. At first, he believes he hates Sarah and her husband, Henry. Yet as he delves deeper into his emotional outlook, Bendrix's hatred shifts to the God he feels has broken his life, but whose existence at last comes to recognize.]]> 160 Graham Greene sam 0 to-read 3.91 1951 The End of the Affair
author: Graham Greene
name: sam
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1951
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Devil in the Flesh 967909 The Devil in the Flesh is set in Paris during the last year of the First World War. The narrator, a boy of sixteen, tells of his love affair with Martha Lacombe, a young woman whose soldier husband is away at the Front. With an accuracy of insight that is almost ruthless, he describes his conflicting emotions—the pride of an adolescent on the verge of manhood and the pain of a child thrust too fast into maturity.

The liaison soon becomes a scandal, and their friends, horrified and incredulous, refuse to accept what is happening—even when the affair reaches its tragic climax.]]> 127 Raymond Radiguet 0714534021 sam 0 to-read 3.77 1923 The Devil in the Flesh
author: Raymond Radiguet
name: sam
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1923
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Everything You Ever Wanted 42086151
Sometimes you don't get out of bed at all.

Then you hear about Life on Nyx, a programme that allows 100 lucky winners the chance to escape it all, move to another planet and establish a new way of life. One with meaning and purpose. One without Instagram and online dating. There's one caveat: if you go, you can never come back.

But you aren't worried about that.

After all, what on Earth could there possibly be to miss? ]]> 272 Luiza Sauma 0241363551 sam 0 to-read 3.59 2019 Everything You Ever Wanted
author: Luiza Sauma
name: sam
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> People in the Room 40679931 A young woman in Buenos Aires spies three women in the house opposite her family’s home. Intrigued, she begins to watch them. She imagines them as accomplices to an unknown crime, as troubled spinsters contemplating suicide, or as players in an affair with dark and mysterious consequences.

Lange’s imaginative excesses and almost hallucinatory images make this uncanny exploration of desire, domestic space, voyeurism and female isolation a twentieth-century masterpiece. Too long viewed as Borges’s muse, Lange is today recognised in the Spanish-speaking world as a great writer and is here translated into English for the first time, to be read alongside Virginia Woolf, Clarice Lispector and Marguerite Duras.

]]> 176 Norah Lange 1911508237 sam 0 to-read 3.42 1950 People in the Room
author: Norah Lange
name: sam
average rating: 3.42
book published: 1950
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Adorable 56468901
Adorable is a haunting, transmundane portrait of a young family told in four parts, in Copenhagen and London. The love between B and Q is tender but worn. When their daughter Æ is born, the everyday lights up in a new way. In its second part, the dead are animated in B’s brain. When B’s father dies, the news is delivered to her by phone and an essayistic, collagist meditation on death and transmission ensues. And then, it’s finally Friday. B and Q descend below the living room floor and wander through a cracked and skittish underworld.

In Ida Marie Hede’s porous world, which is our world too, grime, bacteria, and even death are intimately bound up with health and renewal. Fusing the commonplace and the profound, the material and the spiritual, the elegiac and the conceptual, Adorable powerfully insists that it is impossible to tell where death and life begin or end.]]> 146 Ida Marie Hede sam 0 to-read 3.32 2017 Adorable
author: Ida Marie Hede
name: sam
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bear 187044 here and here.

Lou, a shy and secretive young librarian is called to a remote Canadian island to inventory the estate of the recently deceased Colonel Cary. In a cabin on the island, she discovers the colonel had a secret as well. A bear is chained inside. Fascinated, Lou brings the bear into the house and slowly gains the animal’s trust. She sinks her fingers into the bear’s fur—and soon realizes her darkest desire is for this large, powerful animal to be her lover.

But there’s more to the story than the price to be paid for forbidden passion. This novel by award-winning author Marian Engel works within the logic of a fever dream as the young woman comes to an even greater, and unexpected, understanding of herself.

Bear was first published in 1976 and won the Canadian Governor General’s Award for English-language fiction. The novel has retained its power to shock, disturb, and move readers today.]]> 128 Marian Engel 0879236671 sam 0 to-read 3.37 1976 Bear
author: Marian Engel
name: sam
average rating: 3.37
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Candy 112715 Candy is a romp of a story about the impossibly sweet Candy Christian, a wide-eyed, luscious, all-American girl. Candy –� a satire of Voltaire’s Candide –� chronicles her adventures with mystics, sexual analysts, and everyone she meets when she sets out to experience the world.]]> 224 Terry Southern 0802134297 sam 0 to-read 3.16 1958 Candy
author: Terry Southern
name: sam
average rating: 3.16
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Invisibility: A Manifesto 51274617 54 Audrey Szasz 1734316012 sam 0 to-read 4.41 2020 Invisibility: A Manifesto
author: Audrey Szasz
name: sam
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Good Happy Girl 185767237 A poignant, surprising, and immersive read about a young professional woman pursuing an emotionally intense relationship with a married lesbian couple.

Helen, a jittery attorney with a self-destructive streak, is secretly reeling from a disturbing crime of neglect that her parents recently committed. Historically happy to compartmentalizeâ€� distracting herself by hooking up with lesbian couples, doting on her grandmother, and flirting with a young administrative assistant—Helen finally meets her match with Catherine and Katrina, a married couple who startle and intrigue her with their ever-increasing sexual and emotional intensity.Ìý

Perceptive and attentive, Catherine and Katrina prod at Helen’s life, revealing a childhood tragedy she’s been repressing. When her father begs her yet again for help getting parole, she realizes that she has a bargaining chip to get answers to her past.

In her exploration of queer domesticity, effects of incarceration on family, and intergenerational poverty, Marissa Higgins offers empathy to characters who don’t often receive it, with unsettling results.]]> 256 Marissa Higgins 1646221974 sam 0 to-read 2.91 2024 A Good Happy Girl
author: Marissa Higgins
name: sam
average rating: 2.91
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girl Like a Bomb 41074912 272 Autumn Christian 1944866191 sam 0 to-read 3.82 2019 Girl Like a Bomb
author: Autumn Christian
name: sam
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bonding 60001227 -B.R. Yeager, author of Negative Space

"And once finished, I felt like my tongue had been misplaced, guts heavy and expanded ... gums numb with a tongue that'd been put elsewhere, my mouth clean around a pipe weaving up through pitch and shadow ... and well past ready, primed for delight, waiting but knowing I had already been filled to skin; crying shit, hearing piss, fingernails seeping bile, pores dribbling blood, soles slopping off and out to meet a drain mid-floor ..."
-Christopher Norris, author of Hunchback '88]]> 140 Maggie Siebert 1954899068 sam 0 to-read 3.99 2021 Bonding
author: Maggie Siebert
name: sam
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Earth Angel 75719826 In her electric debut, Madeline Cash synthesizes the godlessness of a digital age into a glimmering, sublime, life-affirming collage of stories.

Earth Angel is a book like no other, the paperback that swallowed the smartphone. An Isis recruit, an adolescent beauty queen, and a childless millennial walk into a bar. A Biblical plague rains down head lice, aerial drone strikes, gender non-conforming frogs. An app throws a slumber party for a friendless office worker. Texans in the winter, the Taliban in Springtime, Teslas with ℮☥ bumper stickers, Frozen 5 in Arabic, architectural consistency laws in Laurel Canyon, the longest recorded nosebleed in history.

An unhinged jet stream that is ultramodern and poignantly timeless, capturing the angst of the post-millennial generation.]]> 130 Madeline Cash 1955904693 sam 0 to-read 3.97 2023 Earth Angel
author: Madeline Cash
name: sam
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Death 6218239
The narrator of Lisa Tuttle’s uncanny novella is a recent widow, a writer adrift. Not only has she lost her husband, but her muse seems to have deserted her altogether. Her agent summons her to Edinburgh to discuss her next book. What will she tell him? At once the answer comes to she will write the biography of Helen Ralston, best known, if at all, as the subject of W.E. Logan’s much-reproduced painting Circe , and the inspiration for his classic children’s book.

But Ralston was a novelist and artist in her own right, though her writing is no longer in print and her most storied painting too shocking, too powerful—malevolent even—to be shown in public. Over the months that follow, Ralston proves a reluctantly cooperative subject, even as her biographer uncovers eerie resonances between the older woman’s life and her own. Whose biography is she writing, really?]]> 93 Lisa Tuttle 1902880900 sam 0 to-read 3.88 2004 My Death
author: Lisa Tuttle
name: sam
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fetishist 145624511 In this hilariously savage, poignant novel by acclaimed author Katherine Min, a grieving daughter’s revenge on the man who caused her mother’s death sets off a series of unexpected reckonings.

On a cold, gloomy night, twenty-three-year-old Kyoko stands in the rain with a knife in her hoodie’s pocket. Her target is Daniel, who seduced Kyoko’s mother then callously dropped her, leading to her death. But tonight, there will be repercussions. Following the unsuspecting Daniel home, Kyoko manages to get a rash kidnapping plot off the ground . . . and then nothing goes as planned.

The Fetishist is the story of three people—Kyoko, a Japanese American punk-rock singer full of rage and grief; Daniel, a philandering violinist forced to confront the wreckage of his past; and Alma, the love of Daniel’s life, a Korean American cello prodigy long adored for her beauty, passion, and talent, but who spends her final days examining if she was ever, truly, loved.

An exuberant, provocative story that confronts race, complicity, visibility, and ideals of femininity, The Fetishist was written before the celebrated author’s untimely death in 2019. Startlingly prescient, as wise and powerful as it is utterly delightful, this novel cements Katherine Min’s legacy as a writer with a singular voice for our times.]]> 304 Katherine Min 0593713656 sam 0 to-read 3.66 2024 The Fetishist
author: Katherine Min
name: sam
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys]]> 19246471
Viv Albertine is one of a handful of original punks who changed music, and the discourse around it, forever. Her memoir tells the story of how, through sheer will, talent, and fearlessness, she forced herself into a male-dominated industry, became part of a movement that changed music, and inspired a generation of female rockers.

After forming The Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious in 1976, Albertine joined The Slits and made musical history in one of the first generations of punk bands. The Slits would go on to serve as an inspiration to future rockers, including Kurt Cobain, Carrie Brownstein, and the Riot Grrrl movement in the 1990s. This is the story of what it was like to be a girl at the height of punk: the sex, the drugs, the guys, the tours, and being part of a brilliant pioneering group of women making musical history. Albertine recounts helping define punk fashion, struggling to find her place among the boys, and her romance with Mick Jones, including her pregnancy and subsequent abortion. She also gives a candid account of what happened post-punk, beyond the break-up of The Slits in 1982, including a career in film, surviving cancer, and making music again, twenty-five years later.

A truly remarkable memoir told in Viv’s frank, irreverent, and distinctive voice, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys. is a raw, thrilling story of life on the frontier.]]> 421 Viv Albertine 0571297757 sam 0 to-read 4.29 2014 Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys
author: Viv Albertine
name: sam
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Square of Sevens 101146072
Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red’s care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique.

Raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendor of Bath, Red’s fortune-telling delights in high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?

The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholomew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red’s quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads to grave danger.

Laura Shepherd-Robinson, has written a dazzling and Dickensian story of mystery and intrigue, with audacious twists and turns.]]> 528 Laura Shepherd-Robinson 1668031124 sam 0 to-read 4.07 2023 The Square of Sevens
author: Laura Shepherd-Robinson
name: sam
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope 208874858 This is the Spin-off to The Fabric of Our Souls; it must be read first to follow the characters in this story.

“Death is not the end of us.�

Follow the emotional and heartwarming story of two mentally unwell ghosts who’ve lost their way.

Lanston.

It’s been five years since I died and I’m still here. Still haunting this world. I’ve all but given up hope of passing on the other side when I’m dragged to a spring performance with Yelina and Jericho. It’s there that I see the most beautiful phantom I’ve ever witnessed dancing on the stage. Only after meeting her do I realize how similar we are. But darkness chases her, keeping her distant from me. But how far am I willing to go to find peace?

Ophelia.

I’ve evaded other phantoms for years. To keep them safe and away from the shadows that haunt me. But for some reason, I can’t stay away from him. He invites me to join him at Harlow Sanctum, where he asks me to join him in completing our bucket list. He wants to pass on. But I have a dark past that keeps me from wanting to follow him into the dark.]]> 289 K.M. Moronova sam 0 to-read 4.29 A Ballad of Phantoms and Hope
author: K.M. Moronova
name: sam
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fabric of Our Souls 202322798
So when I wake up at the hospital with my brother weeping over me, I know my life is about to change. What I didn’t expect was to get a nurse with cruel eyes and a morbid sense of humor that surpasses my own.

I’m even more surprised when I arrive at Harlow Sanctum and realize that my brother selected an unorthodox rehabilitation center that rooms people based on their treatment plan. And my roommate is none other than the man with cruel eyes I met the day prior.

I crave death—he craves life.

Can two people like us cure each other?Please check the CW on my website before]]> 362 K.M. Moronova sam 0 to-read 4.02 2023 The Fabric of Our Souls
author: K.M. Moronova
name: sam
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Lonely Castle in the Mirror 54633167
Delving into their emotional lives with sympathy and a generous warmth, Lonely Castle in the Mirror shows the unexpected rewards of reaching out to others. Exploring vivid human stories with a twisty and puzzle-like plot, this heart-warming novel is full of joy and hope for anyone touched by sadness and vulnerability.]]> 355 Mizuki Tsujimura 0857527274 sam 0 to-read 4.25 2017 Lonely Castle in the Mirror
author: Mizuki Tsujimura
name: sam
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Your Utopia 173403968 By the internationally acclaimed author of Cursed Bunny, in another thrilling translation from the Korean by Anton Hur, Your Utopia is full of tales of loss and discovery, idealism and dystopia, death and immortality. These stories are suffused with Chung's inimitable wry humour and surprisingly tender moments, too � often between unexpected subjects.

In ‘The Center for Immortality Research�, a low-level employee runs herself ragged planning a fancy gala for donors, only to be blamed for a crime she witnessed during the event, under the noses of the mysterious celebrity benefactors hoping to live forever. But she can’t be fired � no one can. In ‘One More Kiss, Dear�, a tender, one-sided love blooms in the AI-elevator of an apartment complex; as in, the elevator develops a profound affection for one of the residents. In ‘Seeds�, we see the final frontier of capitalism’s destruction of the planet and the GMO companies who rule the agricultural industry in this bleak future, but nature has ways of creeping back to life.

If you haven’t yet experienced the fruits of this singular imagination, Your Utopia is waiting.]]> 256 Bora Chung 1643756214 sam 0 to-read 3.64 2021 Your Utopia
author: Bora Chung
name: sam
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Unbearable Lightness of Being]]> 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 sam 0 to-read 4.12 1984 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
author: Milan Kundera
name: sam
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Flowers of Buffoonery 61340205 The Flowers of Buffoonery opens in a seaside sanitarium where Yozo Oba � the narrator of No Longer Human � is convalescing after a failed suicide attempt. Friends and family visit him, and nurses and police drift in and out of his room. Against this dispiriting backdrop, Yozo and his visitors try to maintain a lighthearted, even clownish atmosphere: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, vying for attention, cracking jokes, and trying to make each other laugh. Dazai is known for delving into the darkest corners of human consciousness, but in The Flowers of Buffoonery he pokes fun at these same emotions: the follies and hardships of youth, of love, and of self-hatred and depression. A glimpse into the lives of a group of outsiders in prewar Japan, The Flowers of Buffoonery is a fresh and darkly humorous addition to Osamu Dazai’s masterful and intoxicating oeuvre.]]> 96 Osamu Dazai 0811234541 sam 0 to-read 3.83 1935 The Flowers of Buffoonery
author: Osamu Dazai
name: sam
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1935
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Envy 54576
Producer and sponger, insider and outcast, master and man fight back and forth in the pages of Olesha's anarchic comedy. It is a contest of wills in which nothing is sure except the incorrigible human heart.

Marian Schwartz's new English translation of Envy brilliantly captures the energy of Olesha's masterpiece.

A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS ORIGINAL]]> 152 Yury Olesha 1590170865 sam 0 to-read 3.73 1927 Envy
author: Yury Olesha
name: sam
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Olivia 679464
“Although not strictly autobiographical, Olivia draws on the author’s experiences at finishing schools run by the charismatic Mlle. Marie Souvestre, whose influence lived on through former students like Natalie Barney and Eleanor Roosevelt. Olivia was dedicated to the memory of Strachey’s friend Virginia Woolf and published to acclaim in 1949. Colette wrote the screenplay for the 1951 film adaptation of the novel. In 1999, Olivia was included on the Publishing Triangle’s widely publicized list of the 100 Best Gay and Lesbian Novels of the 20th Century.

“Dorothy Strachey (1865-1960) was the sister of the novelist Lytton Strachey and a prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group…�.Olivia, originally published under a pseudonym, is her only novel.� -- Amazon.com]]> 135 Dorothy Strachey 1573442429 sam 0 to-read 3.82 1949 Olivia
author: Dorothy Strachey
name: sam
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Nun 18216
This new translation includes Diderot's all-important prefatory material, which he placed, disconcertingly, at the end of the novel, and which turns what otherwise seems like an exercise in realism into what is now regarded as a masterpiece of proto-modernist fiction.]]> 240 Denis Diderot 0192804308 sam 0 to-read 3.75 1796 The Nun
author: Denis Diderot
name: sam
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1796
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> With My Dog Eyes 18209522
With My Dog-Eyes is an account of an unraveling—of sanity, of language . . . After experiencing a vision of what he calls “a clear-cut unhoped-for,� college professor Amós Keres struggles to reconcile himself with his life as a father, a husband, and a member of the university with its “meetings, asskissers, pointless rivalries, gratuitous resentments, jealous talk, megalomanias.�

A stunning book by a master of the avant-garde.]]> 92 Hilda Hilst 1612193455 sam 0 to-read 3.69 1986 With My Dog Eyes
author: Hilda Hilst
name: sam
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bonjour tristesse 61672
La villa est magnifique, l'été brûlant, la Méditerranée toute proche. Cécile a dix-sept ans. Elle ne connaît de l'amour que des baisers, des rendez-vous, des lassitudes. Pas pour longtemps. Son père, veuf, est un adepte joyeux des liaisons passagères et sans importance. Ils s'amusent, ils n'ont besoin de personne, ils sont heureux. La visite d'une femme de cœur, intelligente et calme, vient troubler ce délicieux désordre. Comment écarter la menace ? Dans la pinède embrasée, un jeu cruel se prépare.
C'était l'été 1954. On entendait pour la première fois la voix sèche et rapide d'un « charmant petit monstre » qui allait faire scandale. la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle commençait. Elle serait à l'image de cette adolescente déchirée entre le remords et le culte du plaisir.

Set against the translucent beauty of France in summer, Bonjour Tristesse is a bittersweet tale narrated by Cecile, a seventeen-year-old girl on the brink of womanhood, whose meddling in her father's love life leads to tragic consequences.

Endearing, self-absorbed, seventeen-year-old Cécile is the very essence of untroubled amorality. Freed from the stifling constraints of boarding school, she joins her father—a handsome, still-young widower with a wandering eye—for a carefree, two-month summer vacation in a beautiful villa outside of Paris with his latest mistress. Cécile cherishes the free-spirited moments she and her father share, while plotting her own sexual adventures with a "tall and almost beautiful" law student. But the arrival of her late mother's best friend intrudes upon a young girl's pleasures. And when a relationship begins to develop between the adults, Cécile and her lover set in motion a plan to keep them apart...with tragic, unexpected consequences.

The internationally beloved story of a precocious teenager's attempts to understand and control the world around her, Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse is a beautifully composed, wonderfully ambiguous celebration of sexual liberation, at once sympathetic and powerfully unsparing.]]> 154 Françoise Sagan 2266127748 sam 0 to-read 3.76 1954 Bonjour tristesse
author: Françoise Sagan
name: sam
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1954
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> First Love: A Gothic Tale 15004 86 Joyce Carol Oates 088001508X sam 0 to-read 3.23 1996 First Love: A Gothic Tale
author: Joyce Carol Oates
name: sam
average rating: 3.23
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Queens' Ball 213085873
The Queen’s Ball is a heedless novel of transformation of bodies and tenses, a novel of enormity and loss which is, in the end, about writing a novel. Copi is a feckless romantic-his theme is the persistence of love in the phantasmagoria. His tender psychos hurtle through increasingly outré adventures that seem to expand and contract like accordions. Here is crime à la française. Here is a great queen’s verbal aggression, radiant detail, and joyous destructive energy. —Robert Glück

The Queens� Ball is probably Copi’s masterpiece... By 1978, Copi was already an aesthetic: The Queens� Ball was the magnet, the inverted whirlpool that brought that aesthetic to the surface. —César Aira]]> 212 Copi sam 0 to-read 4.14 1977 The Queens' Ball
author: Copi
name: sam
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran]]> 150373 Women Without Men in her native Iran, Shahrnush Parsipur was arrested and jailed for her frank and defiant portrayal of women’s sexuality. Now banned in Iran, this small masterpiece was eventually translated into several languages and introduces U.S. readers to the work of a brilliant Persian writer. With a tone that is stark, and bold, Women Without Men creates an evocative allegory of life for contemporary Iranian women. In the interwoven destinies of five women, simple situations such as walking down a road or leaving the house become, in the tumult of post-WWII Iran, horrific and defiant as women escape the narrow confines of family and society only to face daunting new challenges.

Now in political exile, Shahrnush Parsipur lives in the Bay Area. She is the author of several short story collections including Touba and the Meaning of Night.]]> 192 Shahrnush Parsipur 1558614524 sam 0 to-read 3.83 1973 Women Without Men: A Novel of Modern Iran
author: Shahrnush Parsipur
name: sam
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Love 35210752 A mother and son move to a village in northern Norway, each ensconced in their own world. Their distance has fatal consequences.

Love is the story of Vibeke and Jon, a mother and son who have just moved to a small place in the north of Norway. It's the day before Jon's birthday, and a travelling carnival has come to the village. Jon goes out to sell lottery tickets for his sports club, and Vibeke is going to the library. From here on we follow the two individuals on their separate journeys through a cold winter's night - while a sense of uneasiness grows. Love illustrates how language builds its own reality, and thus how mother and son can live in completely separate worlds. This distance is found not only between human beings, but also within each individual. This novel shows how such distance may have fatal consequences.]]> 125 Hanne Ørstavik 0914671944 sam 0 to-read 3.77 1997 Love
author: Hanne Ørstavik
name: sam
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> As the Andes Disappeared 123223092
Once in Canada, Caroline accompanies her parents as they clean banks at night; she experiences racist micro aggressions at school, discovers Québécois popular culture, and explores her love of reading and writing in French. Slowly, the Andean peaks disappear from her drawings. As her family increases their wealth and status―moving to a better apartment every six months in Montreal’s working-class east-end neighbourhood and then a house in the suburbs―the fracture between her parents� identity and her own grows. When Caroline realizes an apartment she’s partying in is one her mother cleans, the division between her parents� life and her own becomes explicitly clear.

This expansive coming-of-age autobiographical novel probes the plurality of identity, elucidating the interwoven complexities of immigrating to a new country. As the Andes Disappeared tenderly reflects the journey of millions and is a beautiful ode to family commitment and the importance of home―however layered that may be.]]> 205 Caroline Dawson 177166861X sam 0 to-read 3.96 As the Andes Disappeared
author: Caroline Dawson
name: sam
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Schoolgirl 12483882 Schoolgirl gained notoriety for its ironic and inventive use of language. Now it illuminates the prevalent social structures of a lost time, as well as the struggle of the individual against "them" -- a theme that occupied Dazai's life both personally and professionally. This new translation preserves the playful language of the original and offers the reader a new window into the mind of one of the greatest Japanese authors of the 20th century.]]> 103 Osamu Dazai 1935548085 sam 0 to-read 4.02 1939 Schoolgirl
author: Osamu Dazai
name: sam
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>