Kim's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 23 Dec 2025 18:50:42 -0800 60 Kim's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg House of Leaves 893751
Now, for the first time, this astonishing novel is made available in book form, complete with the original colored words, vertical footnotes, and newly added second and third appendices.

The story remains unchanged, focusing on a young family that moves into a small home on Ash Tree Lane where they discover something is terribly their house is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green was prepared to face the consequences of that impossibility, until the day their two little children wandered off and their voices eerily began to return another story -- of creature darkness, of an ever-growing abyss behind a closet door, and of that unholy growl which soon enough would tear through their walls and consume all their dreams.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 736 Mark Z. Danielewski 0375410341 Kim 0 contemporary, holy-shit Photobucket


Photobucket ]]> 4.06 2000 House of Leaves
author: Mark Z. Danielewski
name: Kim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at: 2009/10/19
date added: 2025/12/23
shelves: contemporary, holy-shit
review:
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]]> <![CDATA[Binge: 60 stories to make your brain feel different]]> 57342764 The first new work of fiction since 2013 from one of Canada's most successful, idiosyncratic and world-defining writers, Douglas Coupland. He's called it Binge because it's impossible to read just one.

Imagine feeling 100% alive every moment of every minute of the day! Maybe that's how animals live. Or trees, even. I sometimes stare at the plastic bag tree visible from my apartment window and marvel that both it and I are equally alive and that there's no sliding scale of life. You're either alive, or you're not. Or you're dead or you're not.

Thirty years after Douglas Coupland broke the fiction mould and defined a generation with Generation X, he is back with Binge, 60 stories laced with his observational profundity about the way we live and his existential worry about how we should be living: the very things that have made him such an influential and bestselling writer. Not to mention that he can also be really funny.

Here the narrators vary from story to story as Doug catches what he calls the voice of the people, inspired by the way we write about ourselves and our experiences in online forums. The characters, of course, are Doug's own: crackpots, cranks and sweetie-pies, dad dancers and perpetrators of carbecues. People in the grip of unconscionable urges; lonely people; dying people; silly people. If you love Doug's fiction, this collection is like rain on the desert.
]]> 272 Douglas Coupland 1039000525 Kim 5 it-was-density, short-stories 3.94 2021 Binge: 60 stories to make your brain feel different
author: Douglas Coupland
name: Kim
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: it-was-density, short-stories
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Before You Know Kindness (Vintage Contemporaries)]]> 16046 Midwives, presents his most ambitious and multi-layered novel to date--examining wildly divisive issues in today’s America with his trademark emotional heft and spellbinding storytelling skill. On a balmy July night in New Hampshire a shot rings out in a garden, and a man falls to the ground, terribly wounded. The wounded man is Spencer McCullough, the shot that hit him was fired–accidentally?–by his adolescent daughter Charlotte. With this shattering moment of violence, Chris Bohjalian launches the best kind of literate page-turner: suspenseful, wryly funny, and humane.]]> 429 Chris Bohjalian 1400031656 Kim 3 contemporary 3.47 2004 Before You Know Kindness (Vintage Contemporaries)
author: Chris Bohjalian
name: Kim
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/01
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: contemporary
review:

]]> Naked Lunch 563798 Naked Lunch is the unnerving tale of a monumental descent into the hellish world of a narcotics addict as he travels from New York to Tangiers, then into Interzone, a nightmarish modern urban wasteland in which the forces of good and evil vie for control of the individual and all of humanity. By mixing the fantastic and the realistic with his own unmistakable vision and voice, Burroughs has created a unique masterpiece that is a classic of twentieth-century fiction.]]> 232 William S. Burroughs Kim 1 3.28 1959 Naked Lunch
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Kim
average rating: 3.28
book published: 1959
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:

]]> Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Kim 0 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Kim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Zazen 11563601
Reactions to the attacks are polarized. Police activity intensifies. Della’s revolutionary parents welcome the upheaval but are trapped within their own insular beliefs. Her activist restaurant co-workers, who would rather change their identities than the world around them, resume a shallow rebellion of hair-dye, sex parties, and self-absorption. As those bombs keep inching closer, thudding deep and real between the sounds of katydids fluttering in the still of the city night, and the destruction begins to excite her. What begins as terror threats called in to greasy bro-bars across the block boils over into a desperate plot, intoxicating and captivating Della and leaving her little chance for escape.

Zazen unfolds as a search for clarity soured by irresolution and catastrophe, yet made vital by the thin, wild veins of imagination run through each escalating moment, tensing and relaxing, unfurling and ensnaring. Vanessa Veselka renders Della and her world with beautiful, freighting, and phantasmagorically intelligent accuracy, crafting from their shattered constitutions a perversely perfect mirror for our own selves and state.]]> 274 Vanessa Veselka 1935869140 Kim 0 to-read 3.48 2011 Zazen
author: Vanessa Veselka
name: Kim
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Assassin and the Healer (Throne of Glass, #0.2)]]> 18333581 40 Sarah J. Maas Kim 3 4.20 2013 The Assassin and the Healer (Throne of Glass, #0.2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

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

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—Turned
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Kim 0 to-read 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Kim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Millennium Approaches (Angels in America, #1)]]> 92250
The play is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in America in the 1980s. Certain major and minor characters are supernatural beings (angels) or deceased persons (ghosts). The play contains multiple roles for several of the actors. Initially and primarily focusing on a gay couple in Manhattan, the play also has several other storylines, some of which occasionally intersect.]]> 119 Tony Kushner 1559360615 Kim 0 to-read 4.28 1993 Millennium Approaches (Angels in America, #1)
author: Tony Kushner
name: Kim
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wellness 209244097 A witty and poignant novel about marriage, middle age, tech-obsessed health culture and the bonds that keep people together

When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the '90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago's thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter cults disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook wars, and something called Love Potion Number Nine. For the first time Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize one another, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to painful childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other. ]]> 624 Nathan Hill 0593469836 Kim 0 to-read 4.00 2023 Wellness
author: Nathan Hill
name: Kim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Unfolding 171677542
The Big Guy loves his family, money and country. Undone by the results of the 2008 presidential election, he taps a group of like-minded men to reclaim their version of the American Dream. As they build a scheme to disturb and disrupt, the Big Guy also faces turbulence within his family. His wife, Charlotte, grieves a life not lived, while his 18-year-old daughter, Meghan, begins to realize that her favorite subject—history—is not exactly what her father taught her.

In a story that is as much about the dynamics within a family as it is about the desire for those in power to remain in power, Homes presciently unpacks a dangerous rift in American identity, prompting a reconsideration of the definition of truth, freedom and democracy—and exploring the explosive consequences of what happens when the same words mean such different things to people living together under one roof. From the writer who is always “razor sharp and furiously good” (Zadie Smith), a darkly comic political parable braided with a Bildungsroman that takes us inside the heart of a divided country.]]> 416 A.M. Homes 0735225370 Kim 0 to-read 3.30 2022 The Unfolding
author: A.M. Homes
name: Kim
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)]]> 31076583
Feyre, Rhysand, and their close-knit circle of friends are still busy rebuilding the Night Court and the vastly-changed world beyond. But Winter Solstice is finally near, and with it, a hard-earned reprieve. Yet even the festive atmosphere can't keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, she finds that those dearest to her have more wounds than she anticipated -- scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their Court.]]> 229 Sarah J. Maas 168119631X Kim 4 3.77 2018 A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2023/11/29
shelves:
review:

]]> The Handmaid's Tale 222326 A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time.

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules.

Like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid's Tale has endured not only as a literary landmark but as a warning of a possible future that is still chillingly relevant.

]]> 395 Margaret Atwood Kim 4 4.14 1985 The Handmaid's Tale
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Kim
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2013/05/24
date added: 2023/11/22
shelves: about-fucking-time, holy-shit, and-i-feel-fine
review:

]]> The Changeling 31147267
Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood, to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His quest, which begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma’s whereabouts, takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.

This captivating retelling of a classic fairy tale imaginatively explores parental obsession, spousal love, and the secrets that make strangers out of the people we love the most. It’s a thrilling and emotionally devastating journey through the gruesome legacies that threaten to devour us and the homely, messy magic that saves us, if we’re lucky.]]> 431 Victor LaValle 0812995945 Kim 0 to-read 3.74 2017 The Changeling
author: Victor LaValle
name: Kim
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)]]> 8130423 In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.]]> 361 Rick Riordan Kim 4 4.44 2008 The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Kim
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/10/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Circle 18659415 The Circle is the exhilarating new novel from Dave Eggers, best-selling author of A Hologram for the King,  a finalist for the National Book Award.
 
When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.]]> 515 Dave Eggers 0385351402 Kim 0 3.60 2013 The Circle
author: Dave Eggers
name: Kim
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/12
date added: 2023/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Wellness 65650229 A witty and poignant novel about marriage, middle age, tech-obsessed health culture and the bonds that keep people together

When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the '90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago's thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter cults disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook wars, and something called Love Potion Number Nine. For the first time Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize one another, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to painful childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other. ]]> 611 Nathan Hill 0593536118 Kim 0 to-read 3.95 2023 Wellness
author: Nathan Hill
name: Kim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories]]> 392745 304 Robert Louis Stevenson 0140431179 Kim 4 3.64 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Kim
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2014/03/01
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves: about-fucking-time, cultured, short-stories
review:

]]> The Candy House 58939642 From one of the most dazzling and iconic writers of our time and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity, privacy, and meaning in a world where our memories are no longer our own—featuring characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad.

It’s 2010. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. He’s forty, with four kids, and restless when he stumbles into a conversation with mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, Own Your Unconscious—that allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share every memory in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes. But not everyone.

In spellbinding linked narratives, Egan spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of styles—from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets. In the world of Egan’s spectacular imagination, there are “counters” who track and exploit desires and there are “eluders,” those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House.

Intellectually dazzling and extraordinarily moving, The Candy House is a bold, brilliant imagining of a world that is moments away. With a focus on social media, gaming, and alternate worlds, you can almost experience moving among dimensions in a role-playing game.​ Egan takes her “deeply intuitive forays into the darker aspects of our technology-driven, image-saturated culture” (Vogue) to stunning new heights and delivers a fierce and exhilarating testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for real connection, love, family, privacy and redemption.]]> 342 Jennifer Egan 1476716781 Kim 4 3.80 2022 The Candy House
author: Jennifer Egan
name: Kim
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/15
date added: 2023/08/15
shelves:
review:

]]> I'm Glad My Mom Died 60763786
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.]]> 290 Jennette McCurdy Kim 3 4.48 2022 I'm Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Kim
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/15
date added: 2023/08/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Time's Mouth 90564440
Ursa possesses a very special gift. She can travel through memory and revisit her past. After she flees her hometown for the counterculture glory of 1950’s California, the intoxicating potential of her unique ability eventually draws a group of women into her orbit and into a ramshackle Victorian mansion in the woods outside Santa Cruz. Yet Ursa’s powers come with a cost. Soon this cultish community of sisterhood takes an ominous turn, prompting her son, Ray, and his pregnant lover, Cherry, to flee their home for Los Angeles and reinvent themselves far from Ursa’s insidious influence. But escaping their past won’t be so easy. A series of mysterious events forces Cherry to abandon their baby, leaving Ray to raise Opal alone.

Now a teenager and still heartbroken over the abandonment of the mother she never knew, Opal must journey into her own past to reveal the generations of secrets that gave rise to the shimmering source of her family's painful legacy.

From the forests of Santa Cruz, to the 1980s glam of Melrose Avenue to a solitary mansion among the oil derricks off La Cienega Boulevard, and brimming with the double-edged capacity of memory to both heal and harm, Time’s Mouth is a poignant and evocative excavation of the bonds that bind families together.]]> 416 Edan Lepucki 1640095721 Kim 0 to-read 3.78 2023 Time's Mouth
author: Edan Lepucki
name: Kim
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Rabbit Hutch 122769174
“Gunty writes with a keen, sensitive eye about all manner of intimacies—the kind we build with other people, and the kind we cultivate around ourselves and our tenuous, private aspirations.”—Raven Leilani, best-selling, award-winning author of Luster

The automobile industry has abandoned Vacca Vale, Indiana, leaving its residents behind, too. In a run-down apartment building on the edge of town, commonly known as the Rabbit Hutch, lives one of these people, a young girl named Blandine Watkins, who The Rabbit Hutch centers around. Hauntingly beautiful and unnervingly bright, Blandine lives alongside three teenage boys, all recently aged out of the state foster-care system, all of them madly in love with Blandine. Plagued by the structures, people, and places that not only failed her but actively harmed her, Blandine pays no mind to their affection. All she wants is an escape, a true bodily escape like the mystics describe in the books she reads.

Set across one week and culminating in a shocking act of violence, The Rabbit Hutch chronicles a group of people looking for ways to live in a dying city, a town on the brink, desperate for rebirth. How far will its residents—especially Blandine—go to achieve it? Does one person’s gain always come at another’s expense? Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch is a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and community, entrapment and freedom. It announces a major new voice in American fiction, one bristling with intelligence and vulnerability.]]> 399 Tess Gunty 0593467876 Kim 0 to-read 3.50 2022 The Rabbit Hutch
author: Tess Gunty
name: Kim
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space]]> 190125135 An out-of-this-world new middle-grade graphic novel about a genius scientist and her evil nemesis—from New York Times bestselling author Laini Taylor and cartoonist Jim Di Bartolo

Don’t you hate it when your archenemy launches your latest invention into space, accidentally creating a robot army that falls into the clutches of an evil alien emperor? Well, that’s how Billie Blaster’s day is going!

The genius child of two famous scientists, Billie is an inventor extraordinaire and the star of the annual science fair, much to the disgust of her nemesis, Tiny Hector Glum. But now their rivalry has gone too far, and the fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance. Can Billie prevent an intergalactic war that’s kind of totally her fault? With her pet goat, Lucy, a giant robot head, and a toilet weasel from a distant planet, she might just stand a chance. Join them on their perilous adventure, in a spaceship without a bathroom.]]> 208 Laini Taylor 1419753843 Kim 0 to-read 3.65 2023 Billie Blaster and the Robot Army from Outer Space
author: Laini Taylor
name: Kim
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wild Things 6387925 288 Dave Eggers 1934781614 Kim 4 3.46 2009 The Wild Things
author: Dave Eggers
name: Kim
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves:
review:

]]> Open Throat 62039259 160 Henry Hoke 037460987X Kim 0 to-read 4.00 2023 Open Throat
author: Henry Hoke
name: Kim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Forever, Interrupted 61036987 “Have you ever heard of supernovas? They shine brighter than anything else in the sky and then fade out really quickly, a short burst of extraordinary energy. I like to think you and Ben were like that . . . in that short time, you had more passion than some people have in a lifetime.”

Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary. On a rainy New Year’s Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one. She isn’t expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross. Their chemistry is instant and electric. Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again. Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love. By May, they’ve eloped.

Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact. Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room. At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met—and who doesn’t even know Elsie exists.

Interweaving Elsie and Ben’s charmed romance with Elsie and Susan’s healing process, Forever, Interrupted will make you laugh, make you cry, and remind you that there’s more than one way to live happily ever after.]]> 353 Taylor Jenkins Reid Kim 3 3.72 2013 Forever, Interrupted
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Kim
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/11
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home]]> 61605476 Lorrie Moore's first novel since A Gate at the Stairs--a daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past, both by history and the human heart

From "one of the most acute and lasting writers of her generation" (Caryn James; The New York Times)--a ghost story set in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, an elegiac consideration of grief, devotion (filial and romantic), and the vanishing and persistence of all things--seen and unseen.

A teacher visiting his dying brother in the Bronx. A mysterious journal from the nineteenth century stolen from a boarding house. A therapy clown and an assassin, both presumed dead, but perhaps not dead at all . . .

With her distinctive, irresistible wordplay and singular wry humor and wisdom, Lorrie Moore has given us a magic box of longing and surprise as she writes about love and rebirth and the pull towards life. Bold, meditative, theatrical, this new novel is an inventive, poetic portrait of lovers and siblings as it questions the stories we have been told which may or may not be true. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home takes us through a trap door, into a windswept, imagined journey to the tragic-comic landscape that is, unmistakably, the world of Lorrie Moore.]]> 193 Lorrie Moore 0307594149 Kim 0 to-read 3.24 2023 I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
author: Lorrie Moore
name: Kim
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue]]> 51029834 This is an alternate cover edition of ASIN B084357H23.
----
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.

France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

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

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

In the vein of The Time Traveler's Wife and Life After Life, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is New York Times bestselling author V. E. Schwab's #1 New York Times Bestselling Author genre-defying tour de force.]]> 448 V.E. Schwab Kim 0 to-read 4.28 2020 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
author: V.E. Schwab
name: Kim
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/04/28
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]]> The Silent Patient 40396699 Promising to be the debut novel of the season The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive…

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

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

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....]]> 362 Alex Michaelides Kim 4 4.18 2019 The Silent Patient
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Kim
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/09
date added: 2023/03/09
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]]> Fairy Tale 60188762
Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes deep into the well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for their world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder.

Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the “Fair One.” And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.

A story as old as myth, and as startling and iconic as the rest of King’s work, Fairy Tale is about an ordinary guy forced into the hero’s role by circumstance, and it is both spectacularly suspenseful and satisfying.]]> 608 Stephen King Kim 0 currently-reading 4.37 2022 Fairy Tale
author: Stephen King
name: Kim
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/18
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]]> High-Rise 70256
Within the concealing walls of an elegant forty-storey tower block, the affluent tenants are hell-bent on an orgy of destruction. Cocktail parties degenerate into marauding attacks on ‘enemy’ floors and the once-luxurious amenities become an arena for riots and technological mayhem.

In this visionary tale of urban disillusionment society slips into a violent reverse as the isolated inhabitants of the high-rise, driven by primal urges, create a dystopian world ruled by the laws of the jungle.

This edition is part of a new commemorative series of Ballard’s works, featuring introductions from a number of his admirers (including Iain Sinclair, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman and Martin Amis) and brand-new cover designs.]]> 272 J.G. Ballard 0586044566 Kim 0 to-read 3.84 1975 High-Rise
author: J.G. Ballard
name: Kim
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1)]]> 44797223 Sarah J. Maas launches her brand-new CRESCENT CITY series with House of Earth and Blood: the story of half-Fae and half-human Bryce Quinlan as she seeks revenge in a contemporary fantasy world of magic, danger, and searing romance.

Half-Fae, half-human Bryce Quinlan loves her life. By day, she works for an antiquities dealer, selling barely legal magical artifacts, and by night, she parties with her friends, savoring every pleasure Lunathion—otherwise known as Crescent City—has to offer. But it all comes crumbling down when a ruthless murder shakes the very foundations of the city—and Bryce’s world.

Two years later, her job has become a dead end, and she now seeks only blissful oblivion in the city’s most notorious nightclubs. But when the murderer attacks again, Bryce finds herself dragged into the investigation and paired with an infamous Fallen angel whose own brutal past haunts his every step.

Hunt Athalar, personal assassin for the Archangels, wants nothing to do with Bryce Quinlan, despite being ordered to protect her. She stands for everything he once rebelled against and seems more interested in partying than solving the murder, no matter how close to home it might hit. But Hunt soon realizes there’s far more to Bryce than meets the eye—and that he’s going to have to find a way to work with her if they want to solve this case.

As Bryce and Hunt race to untangle the mystery, they have no way of knowing the threads they tug ripple through the underbelly of the city, across warring continents, and down to the darkest levels of Hel, where things that have been sleeping for millennia are beginning to stir…

With unforgettable characters and page-turning suspense, this richly inventive new fantasy series delves into the heartache of loss, the price of freedom—and the power of love.]]> 874 Sarah J. Maas Kim 4 4.58 2020 House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/08
date added: 2023/01/08
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]]> The Late Americans 62092265
In the shared and private spaces of Iowa City, a loose circle of lovers and friends encounter, confront, and provoke one another in a volatile year of self-discovery. At the group’s center are Ivan, a dancer turned aspiring banker who dabbles in amateur pornography; Fatima, whose independence and work ethic complicates her relationships with friends and a trusted mentor; and Noah, who “didn’t seek sex out so much as it came up to him like an anxious dog in need of affection.” These three are buffeted by a cast of poets, artists, landlords, meat-packing workers, and mathematicians who populate the cafes, classrooms, and food-service kitchens of Iowa City, sometimes to violent and electrifying consequence. Finally, as each prepares for an uncertain future, the group heads to a cabin to bid goodbye to their former lives—a moment of reckoning that leaves each of them irrevocably altered.]]> 303 Brandon Taylor 0593332334 Kim 0 to-read 3.32 2023 The Late Americans
author: Brandon Taylor
name: Kim
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/01
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]]> Looking for Jane 61273371 2017: When Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession, she is determined to find the intended recipient. Her search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto known only by its whispered code name: Jane.

1971: As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was sent to a home for “fallen” women where she was forced to give up her baby for adoption—a trauma she has never recovered from. Despite the constant threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to give other women the choice she never had.

1980: After discovering a shocking secret about her family, twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell begins to question everything she has ever known. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she feels like she has no one to turn to for help. Grappling with her decision, she locates “Jane” and finds a place of her own alongside Dr. Taylor within the network’s ranks, but she can never escape the lies that haunt her.]]> 400 Heather Marshall 1668013681 Kim 0 to-read 4.33 2022 Looking for Jane
author: Heather Marshall
name: Kim
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/01
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]]> Hidden Pictures 58724923 From Jason Rekulak, Edgar-nominated author of The Impossible Fortress, comes a wildly inventive spin on the classic horror story in Hidden Pictures, a supernatural thriller about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

Fresh out of rehab, Mallory Quinn takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.]]> 372 Jason Rekulak 1250819342 Kim 0 to-read 4.09 2022 Hidden Pictures
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Kim
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)]]> 43095688 In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

When the van door slammed on Offred's future at the end of The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood]]> 415 Margaret Atwood 0771009437 Kim 0 to-read 4.21 2019 The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Kim
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/01
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]]> Where I Was From 544026
In Where I Was From , Didion turns what John Leonard has called “her sonar ear, her radar eye” onto her own work, as well as that of such California writers as Frank Norris and Jack London and Henry George, to examine how the folly and recklessness in the very grain of the California settlement led to the California we know today–a state mortgaged first to the railroad, then to the aerospace industry, and overwhelmingly to the federal government, a dependent colony of those political and corporate owners who fly in for the annual encampment of the
Bohemian Club. Here is the one writer we always want to read on California showing us the startling contradictions in its–and in America’s–core values.

Joan Didion’s unerring sense of America and its spirit, her acute interpretation of its institutions and literature, and her incisive questioning of the stories it tells itself make this fiercely intelligent book a provocative and important tour de force from one of our greatest writers.]]> 226 Joan Didion 0679433325 Kim 0 to-read 3.78 2003 Where I Was From
author: Joan Didion
name: Kim
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/01
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]]> Slouching Towards Bethlehem 4073199 Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, forty years after its first publication, the essential portrait of America— particularly California—in the sixties. It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.]]> 238 Joan Didion 0374531382 Kim 0 to-read 4.21 1968 Slouching Towards Bethlehem
author: Joan Didion
name: Kim
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1968
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[A Fish Has No Word For Water: A punk homeless San Francisco memoir]]> 74981212
"A gripping account of survival and a condemnation of the conditions that marginalize and endanger the unsheltered." —KIRKUS

" Superb memoir of a punk’s life on the streets in 1980s San Francisco. Sharp dialogue, incisive observations, and polished prose." —BookLife/Publisher's Weekly

Her mother was a hacker-for-hire and drug dealer to Silicon Valley's elite; after everything went wrong she was homeless and alone on San Francisco streets at the age of thirteen. Fleeing her mother's life on the run from a double-crossed cartel and fresh out of witness protection, she joined Silicon Valley's children foraging food from San Francisco's trash cans and sleeping in abandoned cars -- while tech's earliest generations of workers partied, broke laws, and spat on homeless kids begging for spare change under the glow of tech's latest creations.

A Fish Has No Word For Water is a memoir about what it's really like for homeless kids, the strength of chosen family, and a hard love letter to San Francisco.

This memoir of survival unflinchingly shows Silicon Valley's children begging in the shadows of tech's shining towers, the surprising care circles formed by adults in San Francisco's LGBTQ community, and a city that is a mosaic of technologies and peoples that should not be together, but are. It upends stereotypes about children who survive abuse, young sex workers, LGBTQ youth, resilience in the face of immense grief and trauma, and how communities form to overcome some of the deadliest forms of discrimination. It reveals to readers that there was never a case for tech's shine in the first place.

Most of all, it is a story of tremendous resilience and how we can remake trauma into an invitation to be part of a larger world.]]> 392 Violet Blue Kim 0 to-read 4.49 A Fish Has No Word For Water: A punk homeless San Francisco memoir
author: Violet Blue
name: Kim
average rating: 4.49
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires]]> 44074800
One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.

Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.]]> 410 Grady Hendrix Kim 0 3.76 2020 The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Kim
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2022/12/15
date added: 2022/12/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)]]> 34778
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force --- a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.]]> 340 Anne Rice 0394498216 Kim 2 disheartening 3.99 1976 Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)
author: Anne Rice
name: Kim
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1976
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2022/11/24
shelves: disheartening
review:

]]> Maybe Someday (Maybe, #1) 24445517
Sydney is living in an idyllic bubble—she's a dedicated student with a steady job on the side. She lives with her best friend, has a great boyfriend, and the music coming from the balcony opposite hers is fast becoming the soundtrack to her life. But when Sydney finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her, the bubble bursts. The mysterious and attractive man behind the music, Ridge, gives Sydney hope that she can move on and they begin to write songs together. But moving on is harder than she expects, Sydney can only hope….

Maybe someday…

Colleen Hoover draws you in to this passionate tale of music, love and betrayal…]]> 385 Colleen Hoover Kim 0 4.06 2014 Maybe Someday (Maybe, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Kim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/20
date added: 2022/11/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius]]> 60621165 From the bestselling author of Just Like You, High Fidelity, and Fever Pitch, a short, warm, and entertaining book about art, creativity, and the unlikely similarities between Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and modern American rock star Prince

Every so often, a pairing comes along that seems completely unlikely—until it's not. Peanut butter and jelly, Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong Un, ducks and puppies, and now: Dickens and Prince.

Equipped with a fan's admiration and his trademark humor and wit, Nick Hornby invites us into his latest obsession: the cosmic link between two unlikely artists, geniuses in their own rights, spanning race, class, and centuries—each of whom electrified their different disciplines and whose legacy resounded far beyond their own time.

When Prince's 1987 record Sign o' the Times was rereleased in 2020, the iconic album now came with dozens of songs that weren't on the original— Prince was endlessly prolific, recording 102 songs in 1986 alone. In awe, Hornby began to wonder, Who else ever produced this much? Who else ever worked that way? He soon found his answer in Victorian novelist and social critic Charles Dickens, who died more than a hundred years before Prince began making music.

Examining the two artists' personal tragedies, social statuses, boundless productivity, and other parallels, both humorous and haunting, Hornby shows how these two unlikely men from different centuries "lit up the world." In the process, he creates a lively, stimulating rumination on the creativity, flamboyance, discipline, and soul it takes to produce great art.]]> 172 Nick Hornby 0593541820 Kim 0 to-read 3.64 2022 Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius
author: Nick Hornby
name: Kim
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/15
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]]> Rock Paper Scissors 57026221 Think you know the person you married? Think again…

Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife.

Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts – paper, cotton, pottery, tin – and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.

Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.

Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.]]> 304 Alice Feeney 1250266114 Kim 4 3.94 2021 Rock Paper Scissors
author: Alice Feeney
name: Kim
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/14
date added: 2022/11/14
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]]> You Should Have Known 17893439 You Should Have Known, a book in which she castigates women for not valuing their intuition and calls upon them to examine their first impressions of men for signs of serious trouble later on. But weeks before the book is published, a chasm opens in her own life: a violent death, a missing husband, and, in the place of a man Grace thought she knew, only a chain of terrible revelations. Left behind in the wake of a spreading and very public disaster and horrified by the ways in which she has failed to heed her own advice, Grace must dismantle one life and create another for her child and herself.]]> 439 Jean Hanff Korelitz 1455599492 Kim 0 to-read 3.38 2014 You Should Have Known
author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
name: Kim
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Where Are the Children Now? (Where Are the Children, #2)]]> 58438656 The legacy of the “Queen of Suspense” continues with the highly anticipated follow-up to Mary Higgins Clark’s iconic novel Where Are The Children?, featuring the children of Nancy Harmon, facing peril once again as adults.

Of the fifty-six bestsellers the “Queen of Suspense” Mary Higgins Clark published in her lifetime, Where Are the Children? was her biggest, selling millions of copies and forever transforming the genre of suspense fiction. In that story, a young California mother named Nancy Harmon was convicted of murdering her two children. Though released on a technicality, she was abandoned by her husband and became such a pariah in the media that she was forced to move across the country to Cape Cod, change her identity and appearance, and start a new life. Years later her two children from a second marriage, Mike and Melissa, would go missing, and Nancy yet again became the prime suspect—but this time, Nancy was able to confront the secrets buried in her past and rescue her kids from a dangerous predator.

Now, more than four decades since readers first met Nancy and her children, comes the thrilling sequel to the groundbreaking book that set the stage for future generations of psychological suspense novels. A lawyer turned successful podcaster, Melissa has recently married a man whose first wife died tragically, leaving him and their young daughter, Riley, behind. While Melissa and her brother, Mike, help their mom, Nancy, relocate from Cape Cod to the equally idyllic Hamptons, Melissa’s new stepdaughter goes missing. Drawing on the experience of their own abduction, Melissa and Mike race to find Riley to save her from the trauma they still struggle with—or worse.

Just like the original, Where Are the Children Now? keeps readers guessing and holding their breath until the very last page.]]> 275 Mary Higgins Clark 198218941X Kim 0 to-read 4.06 2023 Where Are the Children Now? (Where Are the Children, #2)
author: Mary Higgins Clark
name: Kim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/01
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]]> The Rabbit Hutch 59576076
The automobile industry has abandoned Vacca Vale, Indiana, leaving its residents behind, too. In a run-down apartment building on the edge of town, commonly known as the Rabbit Hutch, lives one of these people, a young girl named Blandine Watkins, who The Rabbit Hutch centers around. Hauntingly beautiful and unnervingly bright, Blandine lives alongside three teenage boys, all recently aged out of the state foster-care system, all of them madly in love with Blandine. Plagued by the structures, people, and places that not only failed her but actively harmed her, Blandine pays no mind to their affection. All she wants is an escape, a true bodily escape like the mystics describe in the books she reads.

Set across one week and culminating in a shocking act of violence, The Rabbit Hutch chronicles a group of people looking for ways to live in a dying city, a town on the brink, desperate for rebirth. How far will its residents—especially Blandine—go to achieve it? Does one person’s gain always come at another’s expense? Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch is a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and community, entrapment and freedom. It announces a major new voice in American fiction, one bristling with intelligence and vulnerability.]]> 399 Tess Gunty Kim 0 to-read 3.50 2022 The Rabbit Hutch
author: Tess Gunty
name: Kim
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/01
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]]> The Librarian of Burned Books 61190260 For fans of The Rose Code and The Paris Library, The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.


Berlin 1933. Following the success of her debut novel, American writer Althea James receives an invitation from Joseph Goebbels himself to participate in a culture exchange program in Germany. For a girl from a small town in Maine, 1933 Berlin seems to be sparklingly cosmopolitan, blossoming in the midst of a great change with the charismatic new chancellor at the helm. Then Althea meets a beautiful woman who promises to show her the real Berlin, and soon she's drawn into a group of resisters who make her question everything she knows about her hosts--and herself.

Paris 1936. She may have escaped Berlin for Paris, but Hannah Brecht discovers the City of Light is no refuge from the anti-Semitism and Nazi sympathizers she thought she left behind. Heartbroken and tormented by the role she played in the betrayal that destroyed her family, Hannah throws herself into her work at the German Library of Burned Books. Through the quiet power of books, she believes she can help counter the tide of fascism she sees rising across Europe and atone for her mistakes. But when a dear friend decides actions will speak louder than words, Hannah must decide what stories she is willing to live--or die--for.

New York 1944. Since her husband Edward was killed fighting the Nazis, Vivian Childs has been waging her own war: preventing a powerful senator's attempts to censor the Armed Service Editions, portable paperbacks that are shipped by the millions to soldiers overseas. Viv knows just how much they mean to the men through the letters she receives--including the last one she got from Edward. She also knows the only way to win this battle is to counter the senator's propaganda with a story of her own--at the heart of which lies the reclusive and mysterious woman tending the American Library of Nazi-Banned Books in Brooklyn.

As Viv unknowingly brings her censorship fight crashing into the secrets of the recent past, the fates of these three women will converge, changing all of them forever.

Inspired by the true story of the Council of Books in Wartime--the WWII organization founded by booksellers, publishers, librarians, and authors to use books as "weapons in the war of ideas"--The Librarian of Burned Books is an unforgettable historical novel, a haunting love story, and a testament to the beauty, power, and goodness of the written word.]]> 416 Brianna Labuskes 0063259257 Kim 0 to-read 3.85 2023 The Librarian of Burned Books
author: Brianna Labuskes
name: Kim
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> Nothing But Blackened Teeth 60653000
It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends brought back together to celebrate a wedding.

A night of food, drinks, and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested.

But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart.

And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.

Masterfully turning the classic haunted house story on its head, Nothing But Blackened Teeth is a sharp and devastating exploration of grief, the parasitic nature of relationships, and the consequences of our actions.]]> 125 Cassandra Khaw 1250879515 Kim 0 to-read 2.57 2021 Nothing But Blackened Teeth
author: Cassandra Khaw
name: Kim
average rating: 2.57
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> Alone With You in the Ether 61126612
Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.

For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.

To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.

For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?

From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone with You in the Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.]]> 288 Olivie Blake 1250888166 Kim 0 to-read 3.68 2020 Alone With You in the Ether
author: Olivie Blake
name: Kim
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 50794839 Ambition will fuel him.
Competition will drive him.
But power has its price.

It is the morning of the reaping that will kick off the tenth annual Hunger Games. In the Capitol, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is preparing for his one shot at glory as a mentor in the Games. The once-mighty house of Snow has fallen on hard times, its fate hanging on the slender chance that Coriolanus will be able to outcharm, outwit, and outmaneuver his fellow students to mentor the winning tribute.

The odds are against him. He’s been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined—every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute . . . and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 528 Suzanne Collins 1338635174 Kim 0 to-read 3.89 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Kim
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> Under the Whispering Door 53205888 Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.]]> 376 T.J. Klune 1250217342 Kim 5 4.08 2021 Under the Whispering Door
author: T.J. Klune
name: Kim
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/06
date added: 2022/09/06
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review:

]]> Token Black Girl 61049580
Danielle Prescod grew up Black in an elite and overwhelmingly white community, her identity made more invisible by the whitewashed movies, television, magazines, and books she and her classmates voraciously consumed. Danielle took her cue from the world around her and aspired to shrink her identity into that box, setting increasingly poisonous goals. She started painful and damaging chemical hair treatments in elementary school, began depriving herself of food when puberty hit, and tried to control her image through the most unimpeachable, impeccable fashion choices.

Those obsessions led her to relentlessly pursue a career in beauty and fashion—the eye of the racist and sexist beauty standard storm. Assimilating was hard, but she was practiced. And she was an asset. Their “Token Black Girl.” Toxic, sure. But Danielle was striving to achieve social cache and working her way up the ladder of coveted media jobs, and she looked great, right? So what if she had to endure executives’ questions like “What was it like to drive to school from the ghetto?” Or coworkers’ eager curiosity to know if her parents were on welfare. But after decades of burying her emotions, resentment, and true self, Danielle turned a critical eye inward and confronted the factors that motivated her self-destructive behaviors.

Sharp witted and bracingly candid, Token Black Girl unpacks the adverse effects of insidious white supremacy in the media—both unconscious and strategic—to tell a personal story about recovery from damaging concepts of perfection, celebrating identity, and demolishing social conditioning.]]> 251 Danielle Prescod 1542035171 Kim 0 to-read 3.90 2022 Token Black Girl
author: Danielle Prescod
name: Kim
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> Someone's Watching Me 60593299
Becky’s life is almost perfect. Growing up, she could never have imagined living in such a safe, beautiful home, with a boyfriend as loving and kind as Alex, and hopes for a little family of her own. But then stand-offish Max moves in next door, and things begin to fall apart.

First, someone starts trolling her social media. Then she finds her tyres slashed. By the time she discovers the dead bird, left waiting for her like a prize, she’s sure someone is after her. And having spied some strange goings-on beyond her kitchen window, she suspects that person is Max.

Frightened, Becky turns to Alex for help, but she’s surprised to find that he and Max have become firm friends—and that Alex is convinced it’s all in her mind. But when news of a missing young woman breaks, Becky knows she has to do something. She’s sure she’s seen this woman in Max’s home—hasn’t she?

With Alex concerned that she’s losing her grip on reality, does Becky dare keep digging, knowing her almost-perfect life could shatter into imperfect little pieces?]]> 249 Zoe Rosi 1542037190 Kim 0 to-read 3.75 2022 Someone's Watching Me
author: Zoe Rosi
name: Kim
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> Dreams of Delphine 61839213
Presden is a lone twin whose fearless sister, Delphine, perished in a horrific accident on the Louisiana bayou when they were eight. The tragic loss destroyed his family, forcing him to grieve in isolation.

Now grown and working as a hydrological engineer, Presden meets Merle, a Dutch woman with a deep affinity for the water—and for family. The two marry and repair to her homeland, where they find a house in a small fishing village alongside a dike that Presden has been hired to fortify. And there, Merle learns she is pregnant.

On discovering he’s to be a father, Presden is hurled into conflict with Merle, and into a series of dream encounters with Delphine that dare him to confront the guilt and shame of his loss, and to prepare for the unimaginable . . .]]> 135 Rich Shapero Kim 0 to-read 2.62 2022 Dreams of Delphine
author: Rich Shapero
name: Kim
average rating: 2.62
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All That Is Mine I Carry With Me]]> 61058004 A mother vanished. A father presumed guilty. There is no proof. There are no witnesses. For the children, there is only doubt. From the New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob. . . .

One afternoon in November 1975, ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find her house eerily quiet. Her mother is missing. Nothing else is out of place. There is no sign of struggle. Her mom's pocketbook remains in the front hall, in its usual spot.

So begins a mystery that will span a lifetime. What happened to Jane Larkin?

Investigators suspect Jane's husband. A criminal defense attorney, Dan Larkin would surely be an expert in outfoxing the police.

But no evidence is found linking him to a crime, and the case fades from the public's memory, a simmering, unresolved riddle. Jane's three children--Alex, Jeff, and Miranda--are left to be raised by the man who may have murdered their mother.

Two decades later, the remains of Jane Larkin are found. The investigation is awakened. The children, now grown, are forced to choose sides. With their father or against him? Guilty or innocent? And what happens if they are wrong?

A tale about family--family secrets and vengeance, but also family love--All That Is Mine I Carry With Me masterfully grapples with a primal question: When does loyalty reach its limit?]]> 320 William Landay 0345531841 Kim 0 to-read 3.74 2023 All That Is Mine I Carry With Me
author: William Landay
name: Kim
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unhiding of Elijah Campbell]]> 60413923  
SILVER NAUTILUS BOOK AWARD, General Fiction.
 
FOREWORD INDIE BOOK OF THE YEAR, Religious Fiction.

Elijah Campbell is on the verge of losing his writing career, his faith, and his marriage when a recurring childhood nightmare drives him back to his hometown, Bradford's Ferry. There, his encounters with loved ones both past and present shed light on the reason his wife left him―and the meaning of his nightmare. However, beyond the light he begins to glimpse something even more terrifying―a decision he must make...to continue hiding the secrets of his past or unhide the only thing that can save his himself.

In psychologist Kelly Flanagan's non-fiction works ( Loveable , True Companions ), he drew from clinical insight to explore the spiritual depths of identity and relationships. Now, in this debut novel, he weaves a page-turning and plot-twisting tale that brings new life to those insights, along with fresh revelations about personal growth, spiritual transformation, and the dynamics of interpersonal relationships.

This visit to Bradford's Ferry will linger long after the final page has been turned, and a guide for group discussion invites further conversation about the story's themes of healing, grace, faith, forgiveness, and freedom.]]> 320 Kelly Flanagan 1514002280 Kim 0 to-read 4.05 The Unhiding of Elijah Campbell
author: Kelly Flanagan
name: Kim
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> Glow in the F*cking Dark 61685973 The author of the runaway hit Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies shares honest and practical lessons for healing your past and owning your future so you can radiate strength, bravery, and joy when life gets dark.

For the past decade, Tara Schuster worked like hell to repair the emotional wounds inflicted during what she refers to as her neglected, mess-wreck disaster of a childhood. She brought radical self-care, healing rituals, and self-love into her life, and on most days, she was a grateful, happy, and stable adult. She even wrote a book about it!

But then she lost her job, the one on which she had staked her entire adult identity. Cue an out-of-body-panic-attack-doom-spiral and deep depression that brought her harshest childhood traumas to the surface. Isolated at home during a global pandemic, she experienced piercing loneliness and a lack of purpose like she had never known. Finally, after a particularly dangerous dissociative episode while driving down the highway, she realized that enough was enough; she needed to slow down and pull over, to stop the relentless hustling that had gotten her this far, and to recover her innermost self.

This book is a guide to healing your deepest soul wounds, getting off your "good enough" plateau, developing habits that will give you lasting courage and resolve, and creating the spectacular life that you actually want. Full of practical, free baby-steps we can take today, it's for people who are ready to liberate themselves from their emotional suffering, discover their purpose, and finally sit in the driver's seat of their experience. It's for anyone who is tired, hurting, and feeling like their essential brightness is gone. It's for people who are ready to glow in the f*cking dark.]]> 302 Tara Schuster 0593243099 Kim 0 to-read 3.90 Glow in the F*cking Dark
author: Tara Schuster
name: Kim
average rating: 3.90
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes]]> 398661 No one captured the teen portion of the eighties as poignantly as writer-director John Hughes. Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Some Kind of Wonderful are timeless tales of love, angst, longing, and self-discovery that illuminated and assuaged the anxieties of an entire generation.

Fondly nostalgic, filled with wit and surprising insights, don't you forget about me contains original essays from a skillfully chosen crop of novelists and essayists on the films' far-reaching effects on their own lives -- an irresistible read for anyone who came of age in the eighties (or just wishes they did).

Featuring new writing
Steve Almond * Julianna Baggott * Lisa Borders * Ryan Boudinot * T Cooper * Quinn Dalton * Emily Franklin * Lisa Gabriele * Tod Goldberg * Nina de Gramont * Tara Ison * Allison Lynn * John McNally * Dan Pope * Lewis Robinson * Ben Schrank * Elizabeth Searle * Mary Sullivan * Rebecca Wolff * Moon Unit Zappa]]> 224 Jaime Clarke 1416934448 Kim 0 to-read 3.51 2007 Don't You Forget About Me: Contemporary Writers on the Films of John Hughes
author: Jaime Clarke
name: Kim
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The God of Endings 60784372 480 Jacqueline Holland 1250856760 Kim 0 to-read 3.78 2023 The God of Endings
author: Jacqueline Holland
name: Kim
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Young Jane Young 43623441
Meet Rachel Grossman.
She’ll stop at nothing to protect her daughter, Aviva, even if it ends up costing her everything.

Meet Jane Young.
She’s disrupting a quiet life with her daughter, Ruby, to seek political office for the first time.

Meet Ruby Young.
She thinks her mom has a secret. She’s right.

Meet Embeth Levin.
She’s made a career of cleaning up her congressman husband’s messes.

Meet Aviva Grossman.
The Internet won’t let her or anyone else forget her past transgressions.

This is the story of five women . . .
. . . and the sex sexist scandal that binds them together.

From Gabrielle Zevin, the bestselling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, comes another story with unforgettable characters that is particularly suited to the times we live in now . . .]]> 304 Gabrielle Zevin Kim 3 4.05 2017 Young Jane Young
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Kim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/24
date added: 2022/08/24
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review:

]]> Let Me Tell You What I Mean 53308149
Here are six pieces written in 1968 from the "Points West" Saturday Evening Post column Joan Didion shared from 1964 to 1969 with her husband, John Gregory Dunne about: American newspapers; a session with Gamblers Anonymous; a visit to San Simeon; being rejected by Stanford; dropping in on Nancy Reagan, wife of the then-governor of California, while a TV crew filmed her at home; and an evening at the annual reunion of WWII veterans from the 101st Airborne Association at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas. Here too is a 1976 piece from the New York Times magazine on "Why I Write"; a piece about short stories from New West in 1978; and from The New Yorker, a piece on Hemingway from 1998, and on Martha Stewart from 2000. Each one is classic Didion: incisive, bemused, and stunningly prescient.]]> 149 Joan Didion 059331848X Kim 0 to-read 3.85 2021 Let Me Tell You What I Mean
author: Joan Didion
name: Kim
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Invisible Things 61256926 257 Mat Johnson 0593229266 Kim 0 currently-reading 3.73 2022 Invisible Things
author: Mat Johnson
name: Kim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Ugly Love 17788401
Never ask about the past.
Don’t expect a future.

They think they can handle it, but realize almost immediately they can’t handle it at all.

Hearts get infiltrated.
Promises get broken.
Rules get shattered.
Love gets ugly.]]> 330 Colleen Hoover Kim 3 it-was-density 3.97 2014 Ugly Love
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Kim
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/08/02
shelves: it-was-density
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)]]> 57312022 A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 393 T.J. Klune Kim 5 4.46 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Kim
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/25
date added: 2022/07/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)]]> 34948440
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.]]> 385 Holly Black Kim 4 3.99 2018 The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)
author: Holly Black
name: Kim
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/27
date added: 2022/05/27
shelves:
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]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 736 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Kim 0 to-read 4.24 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Kim
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #5)]]> 53138095 Sarah J. Maas's sexy, richly imagined series continues with the journey of Feyre's fiery sister, Nesta.

Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she's struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can't seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.

The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre's Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta's orbit. But her temper isn't the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.

Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.

Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance-and healing-in each other's arms.]]> 757 Sarah J. Maas 168119628X Kim 3 fantasy 4.43 2021 A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #5)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/22
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)]]> 27362503
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

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

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]> 386 Colleen Hoover 1668021048 Kim 3 4.10 2016 It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Kim
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/11
date added: 2022/05/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 50659466
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575559 Kim 4 fantasy, mmmxxi 4.20 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy, mmmxxi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)]]> 20613470 565 Sarah J. Maas 1619630656 Kim 0 fantasy, mmmxxi 4.47 2014 Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy, mmmxxi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)]]> 18006496
She has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight.

She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen’s triumphant return.

The fourth volume in the New York Times bestselling series continues Celaena’s epic journey and builds to a passionate, agonizing crescendo that might just shatter her world.]]> 648 Sarah J. Maas 1619636042 Kim 4 fantasy 4.57 2015 Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2)]]> 17167166 "A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.
It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend."

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.]]> 420 Sarah J. Maas 1619630621 Kim 4 fantasy 4.35 2013 Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)]]> 28260587 Kingdoms will collide.

The long path to the throne has only just begun for Aelin Galathynius as war looms on the horizon. Loyalties have been broken and bought, friends have been lost and gained, and those who possess magic find themselves at odds with those who don't.

With her heart sworn to the warrior-prince by her side, and her fealty pledged to the people she is determined to save, Aelin will delve into the depths of her power to protect those she loves. But as monsters emerge from the horrors of the past, and dark forces become poised to claim her world, the only chance for salvation will lie in a desperate quest that may mark the end of everything Aelin holds dear.

In this breathtaking fifth installment of the New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, Aelin will have to choose what—and who—to sacrifice if she's to keep the world of Erilea from breaking apart.]]> 689 Sarah J. Maas Kim 4 4.58 2016 Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)]]> 23766634
She has left the Night Court - and her High Lord - and is playing a deadly game of deceit. In the Spring Court, Tamlin is making deals with the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees, and Feyre is determined to uncover his plans. But to do so she must weave a web of lies, and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well.

As mighty armies grapple for power, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords - and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

BUT WHILE WAR RAGES, IT IS HER HEART THAT WILL FACE THE GREATEST BATTLE.

THE THRILLING THIRD BOOK IN #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING FANTASY SERIES FROM SARAH J. MAAS.]]> 705 Sarah J. Maas 1408857901 Kim 0 fantasy 4.41 2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)]]> 33590260
With Aelin captured, friends and allies are scattered to different fates. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever. As destinies weave together at last, all must fight if Erilea is to have any hope of salvation.

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas's New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an explosive conclusion as Aelin fights to save herself―and the promise of a better world.]]> 980 Sarah J. Maas 1619636107 Kim 5 fantasy 4.64 2018 Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass, #0.1-0.5)]]> 18243700 Contains all five novellas.

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.]]> 448 Sarah J. Maas Kim 3 4.30 2014 The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass, #0.1-0.5)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass, #6)]]> 31450852
After enduring unspeakable horrors as a child, Yrene Towers has no desire to help the young lord from Adarlan, let alone heal him. Yet she has sworn an oath to assist those in need—and will honor it. But Lord Westfall carries shadows from his own past, and Yrene soon comes to realize they could engulf them both.

In this sweeping parallel novel to the New York Times bestselling Empire of Storms, Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene will have to draw on every scrap of their resilience if they wish to save their friends. But while they become entangled in the political webs of the khaganate, deep in the shadows of mighty mountains where warriors soar on legendary ruks, long-awaited answers slumber. Answers that might offer their world a chance at survival—or doom them all . . .]]> 660 Sarah J. Maas 1681195771 Kim 4 4.25 2017 Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass, #6)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Assassin and the Pirate Lord (Throne of Glass, #0.1)]]> 13415554 Celaena Sardothien, feared assassin, has come for retribution. Celaena Sardothien has been sent by the Assassin's Guild to a remote island in a tropical sea in order to collect on a debt owed by the Lord of the Pirates. But when Celaena learns that the agreed payment is not in money, but in slaves, her mission suddenly changes-and she will risk everything to right the wrong she's been sent to bring about.]]> 70 Sarah J. Maas Kim 0 fantasy 4.19 2012 The Assassin and the Pirate Lord (Throne of Glass, #0.1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Assassin and the Desert (Throne of Glass, #0.3)]]> 13419891 103 Sarah J. Maas Kim 3 fantasy 4.38 2012 The Assassin and the Desert (Throne of Glass, #0.3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Assassin and the Empire (Throne of Glass, #0.5)]]> 13565676 One final mission could be the beginning...or the end. Celaena Sardothien is the assassin with a place to call her own, the love of handsome Sam, and, best of all, freedom. But Celaena won't be truly free until she is far away from her old master, Arobynn Hamel-so she and Sam decide to take a last daring assignment that will liberate them forever. And that's how Celaena learns that having everything means that everything can be taken away.]]> 94 Sarah J. Maas Kim 3 fantasy 4.39 2012 The Assassin and the Empire (Throne of Glass, #0.5)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Assassin and the Underworld (Throne of Glass, #0.4)]]> 13546173 102 Sarah J. Maas Kim 3 fantasy 4.32 2012 The Assassin and the Underworld (Throne of Glass, #0.4)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2022/05/05
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> November 9 25092686 Beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover returns with an unforgettable love story between a writer and his unexpected muse.

Fallon meets Ben, an aspiring novelist, the day before her scheduled cross-country move. Their untimely attraction leads them to spend Fallon’s last day in L.A. together, and her eventful life becomes the creative inspiration Ben has always sought for his novel. Over time and amidst the various relationships and tribulations of their own separate lives, they continue to meet on the same date every year. Until one day Fallon becomes unsure if Ben has been telling her the truth or fabricating a perfect reality for the sake of the ultimate plot twist.

Can Ben’s relationship with Fallon—and simultaneously his novel—be considered a love story if it ends in heartbreak?]]> 320 Colleen Hoover Kim 4 I. Don't. Care.

Ok, I do.. a little but I'll shamelessly review this. There's a hole in my chest and I can't read anything for at least a day to absorb this.]]> 4.39 2015 November 9
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Kim
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/03
date added: 2022/05/03
shelves:
review:
This is one of those snot cascading down the front of your face, hunch over and sob type of books. I. Loved. It. My 20-something yr old self loved it. I'm ashamed and I'm not. Is Coleen Hoover like Jodi Picoult or Nicholas Sparks? Just your run of the mill selfish fall into a story? Is the writing good? Am I just so absorbed with the characters like in a Rainbow Rowell book?
I. Don't. Care.

Ok, I do.. a little but I'll shamelessly review this. There's a hole in my chest and I can't read anything for at least a day to absorb this.
]]> <![CDATA[Generation Wonder: The New Age of Heroes]]> 60129830
Triumph. Tragedy. The empyreal. The infernal. Even the mundane, filtered through the fantastical. Superheroes are, appropriately enough, a sort of super-genre, encompassing all other story types.

This YA anthology features thirteen short stories that creatively turn superhero tropes on their head, while still paying homage to the genre that has found fans for more than eight decades. And there will be no mistake--superheroes don't have to just be generic handsome white dudes. Everyone in the world, no matter their race, sexual preference, pronouns, or level of ability, has dreamed of flying.

Contributors include six New York Times bestselling authors, seven multiple award winners, a founder of We Need Diverse Books, and at least one author with millions of books in print in the US alone. The collection is edited by New York Times bestselling author Barry Lyga. The full list of contributors includes: Barry Lyga, Paul Levitz, Sarah MacLean, Lamar Giles, Elizabeth Eulberg, Danielle Paige, Varian Johnson, Joseph Bruchac, Morgan Baden, Matthew Phillion, Anna-Marie McLemore, Sterling Gates, and Axie Oh.]]> 368 Barry Lyga 1419754467 Kim 0 to-read 3.58 Generation Wonder: The New Age of Heroes
author: Barry Lyga
name: Kim
average rating: 3.58
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Verity 59218704 Whose truth is the lie? Stay up all night reading the sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Too Late and It Ends With Us.

#1 New York Times Bestseller · USA Today Bestseller · Globe and Mail Bestseller · Publishers Weekly Bestseller 

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.
 
Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered.
 
Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.]]> 333 Colleen Hoover Kim 4 bitchyworms 4.36 2018 Verity
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Kim
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/29
date added: 2022/04/29
shelves: bitchyworms
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 57019034
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different people: one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.]]> 641 Sarah J. Maas Kim 4 4.72 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/31
date added: 2022/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)]]> 59007345 Meet Celaena Sardothien.
Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In the dark, filthy salt mines of Endovier, an eighteen-year-old girl is serving a life sentence. She is a trained assassin, the best of her kind, but she made a fatal mistake: she got caught.

Young Captain Westfall offers her a deal: her freedom in return for one huge sacrifice. Celaena must represent the prince in a to-the-death tournament—fighting the most gifted thieves and assassins in the land. Live or die, Celaena will be free. Win or lose, she is about to discover her true destiny. But will her assassin’s heart be melted?]]> 415 Sarah J. Maas Kim 3 4.26 2012 Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Kim
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2022/02/21
date added: 2022/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Awakening & Other Stories 856263 320 Kate Chopin 185326556X Kim 3 cultured, short-stories
The Awakening ~ A Review in Two Parts ~


Me, 20 years old, circa early ‘90s


Okay, so I just read The Awakening. What a novella before its time! You’ve got Edna Pontellier, manipulated into a stodgy marriage, her husband expecting her to conform to society’s rules and trappings. She now has 2 children and is feeling the pull of wanting to be her own person. An artist, a free thinker, not meant to stay at home and accept visitors. On a summer vacation in Grand Isle, she meets Robert Lebrun, a younger idealist, not as wealthy but still the type who will cater to her every whim. Who sees the person that she wants to be and doesn’t deny her that sense of self. Edna falls into the lull that women crave.. ‘lull’ isn’t the correct word. It’s almost opposite of what I want to say, I’d go more with the excitement of being feverishly desired by a handsome young man. It’s addicting, more than addicting, it’s dangerous. However, for some reason, Robert leaves for Mexico and Edna is left with her marriage and her position in society. She starts to act out and her clueless husband is concerned:

It sometimes entered Mr. Pontellier’s mind to wonder if his wife were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.

Okay, so she’s not entertaining guests, she must be crazy. Upon returning to New Orleans, she continues to find herself and after her children and husband leave for an indeterminate amount of time, she starts to find her independence. She moves out of the mansion and into a ‘pigeon house’ around the corner, she begins an affair with a local playboy and all the while she still yearns for Robert.

I won’t go into anymore of the plot, but to say that I can see how it would be considered a scandal when released back in 1899. Women didn’t follow their heart or their minds, they were objects upon marriage, losing all identity. Society dictates that she marry well and put up pretenses and she fights back! As Susan Powter would say, ‘Stop the Insanity!’ The Awakening shows that women are capable of being individuals and believing in everlasting love that breaks all conventions. Bring forth the Spice Girls and rock on.

Me, Now, somewhat older…

Edna Pontieller, what a narcissistic little hussy you are. Okay, look….It’s 1899… you’re married to a guy that adores you… Yeah, so he thinks that you might want to act like a woman of the times.. maybe he’s a little off on the whole suffrage movement (which has yet to happen, DUH) and maybe you’re feeling a bit stifled in your marriage, but it’s a GOOD marriage, you want for nothing, you don’t have to take care of your somewhat non-demonic children, you get to vacation for entire summers… when you’re down your husband plans to redecorate the house for you. It’s not like he’s ignoring you! So, what exactly is the problem? He’s not hot? Yeah. He’s not young? Okay. He doesn’t swoon over your little paintings? Whatever. Look, the short of it is, you weren’t forced into the marriage, as much as you thought you had to find a guy that would look good in society and take care of you. You could have said no. Now, what the hell are you doing? Prancing around race tracks with the 1899 equivalent of Ashton Kutcher? Waiting for this poor fool who realizes the restraints of society to come and just be your little cabana boy? Hell, if this were modern times, you’d be reading Twilight and hanging out at skate parks. Get over yourself.


/rant


Okay, so that was The Awakening and if I had to rate this based on that novella alone, I’d go with 2 stars. I suppose I’ve got the Sherwood Anderson syndrome here and maybe it’s my fault for not understanding 1899 like I should… I go on my gut feelings, sorry. I’m reading this now, I’m judging it now. I can appreciate the time it was written in, but I’m not going to go gaga over a story that I pretty much think of as a cop out.

But, that being um… said… I did enjoy the other 15 stories, well, most of them. Kate Chopin was a hoot. I think she had the wit and the not so subtle talent and voice to let her feelings be known. She was bitter, yo. I don’t blame her… Widowed at 32 with 6 kids? Hell yeah. And, here she has this talent and what does she get when she publishes her work to make sure she can support her family? Shock, disdain, crap. Sorry… they can all go to Hell. She had balls. My suggestion is to read some of the shorter stories… I enjoyed The Story of an Hour, A Point at Issue!, A Lady of Bayou St. John, Athénaïse… those are my favorites, but they’re all short enough to enjoy and to see what a talented, wry writer she was.
]]> 3.71 The Awakening & Other Stories
author: Kate Chopin
name: Kim
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2009/06/15
date added: 2022/04/01
shelves: cultured, short-stories
review:


The Awakening ~ A Review in Two Parts ~


Me, 20 years old, circa early ‘90s


Okay, so I just read The Awakening. What a novella before its time! You’ve got Edna Pontellier, manipulated into a stodgy marriage, her husband expecting her to conform to society’s rules and trappings. She now has 2 children and is feeling the pull of wanting to be her own person. An artist, a free thinker, not meant to stay at home and accept visitors. On a summer vacation in Grand Isle, she meets Robert Lebrun, a younger idealist, not as wealthy but still the type who will cater to her every whim. Who sees the person that she wants to be and doesn’t deny her that sense of self. Edna falls into the lull that women crave.. ‘lull’ isn’t the correct word. It’s almost opposite of what I want to say, I’d go more with the excitement of being feverishly desired by a handsome young man. It’s addicting, more than addicting, it’s dangerous. However, for some reason, Robert leaves for Mexico and Edna is left with her marriage and her position in society. She starts to act out and her clueless husband is concerned:

It sometimes entered Mr. Pontellier’s mind to wonder if his wife were not growing a little unbalanced mentally. He could see plainly that she was not herself. That is, he could not see that she was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world.

Okay, so she’s not entertaining guests, she must be crazy. Upon returning to New Orleans, she continues to find herself and after her children and husband leave for an indeterminate amount of time, she starts to find her independence. She moves out of the mansion and into a ‘pigeon house’ around the corner, she begins an affair with a local playboy and all the while she still yearns for Robert.

I won’t go into anymore of the plot, but to say that I can see how it would be considered a scandal when released back in 1899. Women didn’t follow their heart or their minds, they were objects upon marriage, losing all identity. Society dictates that she marry well and put up pretenses and she fights back! As Susan Powter would say, ‘Stop the Insanity!’ The Awakening shows that women are capable of being individuals and believing in everlasting love that breaks all conventions. Bring forth the Spice Girls and rock on.

Me, Now, somewhat older…

Edna Pontieller, what a narcissistic little hussy you are. Okay, look….It’s 1899… you’re married to a guy that adores you… Yeah, so he thinks that you might want to act like a woman of the times.. maybe he’s a little off on the whole suffrage movement (which has yet to happen, DUH) and maybe you’re feeling a bit stifled in your marriage, but it’s a GOOD marriage, you want for nothing, you don’t have to take care of your somewhat non-demonic children, you get to vacation for entire summers… when you’re down your husband plans to redecorate the house for you. It’s not like he’s ignoring you! So, what exactly is the problem? He’s not hot? Yeah. He’s not young? Okay. He doesn’t swoon over your little paintings? Whatever. Look, the short of it is, you weren’t forced into the marriage, as much as you thought you had to find a guy that would look good in society and take care of you. You could have said no. Now, what the hell are you doing? Prancing around race tracks with the 1899 equivalent of Ashton Kutcher? Waiting for this poor fool who realizes the restraints of society to come and just be your little cabana boy? Hell, if this were modern times, you’d be reading Twilight and hanging out at skate parks. Get over yourself.


/rant


Okay, so that was The Awakening and if I had to rate this based on that novella alone, I’d go with 2 stars. I suppose I’ve got the Sherwood Anderson syndrome here and maybe it’s my fault for not understanding 1899 like I should… I go on my gut feelings, sorry. I’m reading this now, I’m judging it now. I can appreciate the time it was written in, but I’m not going to go gaga over a story that I pretty much think of as a cop out.

But, that being um… said… I did enjoy the other 15 stories, well, most of them. Kate Chopin was a hoot. I think she had the wit and the not so subtle talent and voice to let her feelings be known. She was bitter, yo. I don’t blame her… Widowed at 32 with 6 kids? Hell yeah. And, here she has this talent and what does she get when she publishes her work to make sure she can support her family? Shock, disdain, crap. Sorry… they can all go to Hell. She had balls. My suggestion is to read some of the shorter stories… I enjoyed The Story of an Hour, A Point at Issue!, A Lady of Bayou St. John, Athénaïse… those are my favorites, but they’re all short enough to enjoy and to see what a talented, wry writer she was.

]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34331079
Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood—and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.

Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more...

Perfect for book clubs! Visit celesteng.com for discussion guides and more. ]]> 348 Celeste Ng Kim 4 4.23 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Kim
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/25
date added: 2022/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, #5)]]> 456916 The Shelters of Stone, Ayla meets the Zelandonii tribe of Jondalar, the Cro-Magnon hunk she rescued from Baby, her pet lion. Ayla is pregnant. How will Jondalar's mom react? Or his bitchy jilted fiancée? Ayla wows her future in-laws by striking fire from flint and taming a wild wolf. But most regard her Neanderthal adoptive Clan as subhuman "flatheads." Clan larynxes can't quite manage language, and Ayla must convince the Zelandonii that Clan sign language isn't just arm-flapping. Zelandonii and Clan are skirmishing, and those who interbreed are deemed "abominations." What would Jondalar's tribe think if they knew Ayla had to abandon her half-breed son in Clan country? The plot is slow to unfold, because Auel's first goal is to pack the tale with period Pleistocene detail, provocative speculation, and bits of romance, sex, tribal politics, soap opera, and homicidal wooly rhino-hunting adventure. It's an enveloping fact-based fantasy, a genre-crossing time trip to the Ice Age. --Tim Appelo]]> 754 Jean M. Auel 0609610597 Kim 2 3.73 2002 The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, #5)
author: Jean M. Auel
name: Kim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2007/12/03
date added: 2022/02/07
shelves: flights-of-debauchery, meh-at-you
review:

]]> How High We Go in the Dark 57850265
Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.]]> 293 Sequoia Nagamatsu 0063072645 Kim 0 to-read 3.80 2022 How High We Go in the Dark
author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
name: Kim
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Horrorstör 13129925
To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör is designed to retain its luster and natural appearance for a lifetime of use. Pleasingly proportioned with generous French flaps and a softcover binding, Horrorstör delivers the psychological terror you need in the elegant package you deserve.

Designed by Andie Reid, cover photography by Christine Ferrara.]]> 248 Grady Hendrix 1594745269 Kim 0 to-read 3.63 2014 Horrorstör
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Kim
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Imaginary Friend 43522576 Christopher is the new kid in town.
Christopher has an imaginary friend.

We can swallow our fear or let our fear swallow us.

Single mother Kate Reese is on the run. Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, she flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with her child. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It's as far off the beaten track as they can get. Just one highway in, one highway out.

At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six long days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a treehouse in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.

Twenty years ago, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower made readers everywhere feel infinite. Now, Chbosky has returned with an epic work of literary horror, years in the making, whose grand scale and rich emotion redefine the genre. Read it with the lights on.]]> 705 Stephen Chbosky 1538731339 Kim 0 to-read 3.52 2019 Imaginary Friend
author: Stephen Chbosky
name: Kim
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Landline 57055966 IF YOU GOT A SECOND CHANCE AT LOVE, WOULD YOU MAKE THE SAME CALL?

From No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Rainbow Rowell comes Landline: the story of two magical Christmases and one magical telephone. Now featuring an updated jacket cover perfect for the holidays!

Fifteen years ago, on Christmas Day, Georgie McCool’s boyfriend drove halfway across the country to propose to her.

This Christmas, he’s headed in the other direction.

Should Georgie follow him?

Should she call him and beg him to come back?

Something very strange happens every time she picks up the phone...]]> 320 Rainbow Rowell 1250828422 Kim 0 to-read 3.47 2014 Landline
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Kim
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin]]> 9938498
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the New Germany, she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Goring and the expectedly charming—yet wholly sinister—Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.]]> 448 Erik Larson 0307408841 Kim 0 currently-reading 3.88 2011 In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin
author: Erik Larson
name: Kim
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Monster Island 45445311 A schizophrenic time traveler.
A super-secret evil scheme.
A bunch of supernatural objects, a secret organization, an abandoned school, a band, and a lighthouse.

There's not much going on in the little, rainy town of Port Deposit, except for maybe a small plan to save the world. Okay, maybe it's more like a super-secret evil scheme, and maybe it's actually to destroy the world. But before that can happen, a series of events needs to occur, and a select group of Assorted Good Guys needs to come together to stop this scheme from being carried out by a schizophrenic time traveler whose name may or may not be fake.

And in a race against time, you probably don't want to be enemies with a time traveler.

Port Deposit might be quiet, but Sienna and her friends (along with her quiet brother and his friends) are pretty good at making things interesting. In search of an alleged set of so-called "special" objects to save the world, along with some little pieces of everyday life in this foggy riverside town, the list of things they meet along the way can only be predicted by a time traveler, and maybe by a really important book explaining all the weird stuff that keeps happening in Port Deposit.

It's ironic, and it's comedic, but most of all it's eclectic. From ghost stories to abandoned schools, and from clones to legendary street artists, at some point a nineties computer in a shed in the woods that holds the source code to the Universe won't seem all that crazy anymore. And it might just make you wonder how accurate your concept of "normal" really is.



(Oh, and uh, don't forget your sunglasses.)]]> 493 Eve Kim 0 to-read 0.0 Monster Island
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name: Kim
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]]> A Happy Death 19216303 A Happy Death, written when he was in his early twenties and retrieved from his private papers following his death in 1960, Albert Camus laid the foundation for The Stranger, focusing in both works on an Algerian clerk who kills a man in cold blood. But he also revealed himself to an extent that he never would in his later fiction. For if A Happy Death is the study of a rule-bound being shattering the fetters of his existence, it is also a remarkably candid portrait of its author as a young man.
As the novel follows the protagonist, Patrice Mersault, to his victim's house—and then, fleeing, in a journey that takes him through stages of exile, hedonism, privation, and death—it gives us a glimpse into the imagination of one of the great writers of the twentieth century. For here is the young Camus himself, in love with the sea and sun, enraptured by women yet disdainful of romantic love, and already formulating the philosophy of action and moral responsibility that would make him central to the thought of our time.

Translated from the French by Richard Howard]]> 210 Albert Camus 0307827844 Kim 0 to-read 3.81 1971 A Happy Death
author: Albert Camus
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average rating: 3.81
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]]> Constance (Constance, #1) 56326737 A breakthrough in human cloning becomes one woman’s waking nightmare in a mind-bending thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Gibson Vaughn series.

In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it’s terrifying.

After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness—stored for that inevitable transition—something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it’s eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she’s told, is dead. If that’s true, what does that make her?

The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who’s just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder—all over again.]]> 343 Matthew FitzSimmons 154201428X Kim 0 to-read 4.03 2021 Constance (Constance, #1)
author: Matthew FitzSimmons
name: Kim
average rating: 4.03
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]]> <![CDATA[Witchy Reservations (Mystic Inn #1)]]> 57233925 There's nothing practical about magic—which is why I ditched my wand years ago.

Thirteen years, to be exact.

The day I left Silverlake.

Except now, a family emergency has called me back home, and quite frankly, I'd rather be anywhere but here.

But when my aunt raises her wand to cure a friend and he ends up dead, it becomes abundantly clear I'm not leaving anytime soon.

Welcome to Silverlake, a place where nothing is EVER as it seems... and where a witch can find, and lose, a lot more than herself.]]> 208 Stephanie Damore Kim 0 to-read 4.04 2020 Witchy Reservations (Mystic Inn #1)
author: Stephanie Damore
name: Kim
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2020
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]]> Here I Am 31434269 Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

In the book of Genesis, when God calls out, "Abraham!" before ordering him to sacrifice his son, Isaac, Abraham responds, "Here I am." Later, when Isaac calls out, "My father!" before asking him why there is no animal to slaughter, Abraham responds, "Here I am."

How do we fulfill our conflicting duties as father, husband, and son; wife and mother; child and adult? Jew and American? How can we claim our own identities when our lives are linked so closely to others? These are the questions at the heart of Jonathan Safran Foer's first novel in eleven years - a work of extraordinary scope and heartbreaking intimacy.

Unfolding over four tumultuous weeks in present-day Washington, D.C., Here I Am is the story of a fracturing family in a moment of crisis. As Jacob and Julia Bloch and their three sons are forced to confront the distances between the lives they think they want and the lives they are living, a catastrophic earthquake sets in motion a quickly escalating conflict in the Middle East. At stake is the meaning of home - and the fundamental question of how much aliveness one can bear.

Showcasing the same high-energy inventiveness, hilarious irreverence, and emotional urgency that readers loved in his earlier work, Here I Am is Foer's most searching, hard-hitting, and grandly entertaining novel yet. It not only confirms Foer's stature as a dazzling literary talent but reveals a novelist who has fully come into his own as one of our most important writers.]]> 571 Jonathan Safran Foer 0241146186 Kim 5 3.64 2016 Here I Am
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: Kim
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2016
rating: 5
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