Jessica's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 18 Jun 2025 19:53:07 -0700 60 Jessica's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Girl in the Headlines 55479332 The headlines say she killed her family. The truth? She doesn't remember.

Andrea McNulty goes to sleep on her eighteenth birthday with a near-perfect life: she's a high school field hockey star, a doted-upon big sister, the beloved daughter of two happy parents. But when she wakes up in a motel room the next morning, unable to remember what happened the previous night and covered in blood, Andi is a fugitive.

According to the news, Andi's parents were brutally attacked in the middle of the night. Her father is dead, her mother is in a coma, her little brother Josh is missing--and Andi is the prime suspect. Terrified and on the run from the police, Andi teams up with Nate, the sympathetic boy working the motel's front desk, to find the real murderer. But while the police are getting further from the killer, the killer is getting closer to Andi--closer than she could ever have imagined.]]>
352 Hannah Jayne 1728225213 Jessica 4 3.45 2021 The Girl in the Headlines
author: Hannah Jayne
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/18
date added: 2025/06/18
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Strangers in Time 217182446 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Calamity of Souls comes David Baldacci’s newest novel, set in London in 1944, about a bereaved book shop owner and two teenagers scarred by the second world war, and the healing and hope they find in one another.

Fourteen-year-old Charlie Matters is up to no good, but for a very good reason. Without parents, peerage, or merit, ducking school but barred from actual work, he steals what he needs, living day-to-day until he’s old enough to enlist to fight the Germans. After barely surviving the Blitz, Charlie knows there’s no telling when a falling bomb might end his life.

Fifteen-year-old Molly Wakefield has just returned to a nearly unrecognizable London. One of millions of people to have been evacuated to the countryside via “Operation Pied Piper,” Molly has been away from her parents—from her home—for nearly five years. Her return, however, is not the homecoming she’d hoped for as she’s confronted by a devastating reality: both her parents are gone.

Without guardians and stability, Charlie and Molly find an unexpected ally and protector in Ignatius Oliver, and solace at his book shop, The Book Keep, where A book a day keeps the bombs away. Mourning the recent loss of his wife, Ignatius forms a kinship with both children, and in each other—over the course of the greatest armed conflict the world had ever seen—they rediscover the spirit of family each has lost.

But Charlie’s escapades in the city have not gone unnoticed, and someone’s been following Molly since she returned to London. And Ignatius is still reeling from a secret Imogen long kept from him while she was alive—something so shocking it resulted in her death, and his life being turned upside down.

As bombs continue to bear down on the city, Charlie, Molly, and Ignatius learn that while the perils of war rage on, their coming together and trusting one another may be the only way for them to survive.]]>
435 David Baldacci 1538742055 Jessica 3 4.02 2025 Strangers in Time
author: David Baldacci
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/04
date added: 2025/06/04
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Dracula 17245 You can find an alternative cover edition for this ISBN here and here.

When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival.

In Dracula, Bram Stoker created one of the great masterpieces of the horror genre, brilliantly evoking a nightmare world of vampires and vampire hunters and also illuminating the dark corners of Victorian sexuality and desire.

This Norton Critical Edition includes a rich selection of background and source materials in three areas: Contexts includes probable inspirations for Dracula in the earlier works of James Malcolm Rymer and Emily Gerard. Also included are a discussion of Stoker's working notes for the novel and "Dracula's Guest," the original opening chapter to Dracula. Reviews and Reactions reprints five early reviews of the novel. "Dramatic and Film Variations" focuses on theater and film adaptations of Dracula, two indications of the novel's unwavering appeal. David J. Skal, Gregory A. Waller, and Nina Auerbach offer their varied perspectives. Checklists of both dramatic and film adaptations are included.

Criticism collects seven theoretical interpretations of Dracula by Phyllis A. Roth, Carol A. Senf, Franco Moretti, Christopher Craft, Bram Dijkstra, Stephen D. Arata, and Talia Schaffer.

A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are included.]]>
488 Bram Stoker 0393970124 Jessica 5 4.03 1897 Dracula
author: Bram Stoker
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1897
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/24
date added: 2025/05/24
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It was very slow moving in places (Lucy's illness drags on forever) and surprisingly this is one time where the ending of the movie (the one with Gary Oldman) was much better than the book. The ending here was a bit anticlimactic. I have to say I loved it though. I loved the style in which it was written and I loved the story.
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<![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]>
387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Jessica 5 4.55 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/15
date added: 2025/05/15
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<![CDATA[Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger, #1)]]> 43448 Such wonderful children. Such a beautiful mother. Such a lovely house. Such endless terror! It wasn't that she didn't love her children. She did. But there was a fortune at stake—a fortune that would assure their later happiness if she could keep the children a secret from her dying father. So she and her mother hid her darlings away in an unused attic. Just for a little while. But the brutal days swelled into agonizing years. Now Cathy, Chris, and the twins wait in their cramped and helpless world, stirred by adult dreams, adult desires, served a meager sustenance by an angry, superstitious grandmother who knows that the Devil works in dark and devious ways. Sometimes he sends children to do his work—children who—one by one—must be destroyed.... 'Way upstairs there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent struggling to stay alive....']]> 389 V.C. Andrews 0743496310 Jessica 4 3.84 1979 Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger, #1)
author: V.C. Andrews
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/09
date added: 2025/05/08
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The Innocent (Will Robie, #1) 12849385 It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn't seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to kill. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and must escape from his own people.

Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn't an ordinary runaway -- her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can't walk away. He needs to help her.

Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he's convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents' deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.

Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl's life... and perhaps his own.

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422 David Baldacci 0446572993 Jessica 5 4.13 2012 The Innocent (Will Robie, #1)
author: David Baldacci
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/04
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review:

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<![CDATA[Chosen Ones (The Chosen Ones, #1)]]> 40944762
A decade ago near Chicago, five teenagers defeated the otherworldly enemy known as the Dark One, whose reign of terror brought widespread destruction and death. The seemingly un-extraordinary teens—Sloane, Matt, Ines, Albie, and Esther—had been brought together by a clandestine government agency because one of them was fated to be the “Chosen One,” prophesized to save the world. With the goal achieved, humankind celebrated the victors and began to mourn their lost loved ones.

Ten years later, though the champions remain celebrities, the world has moved forward and a whole, younger generation doesn’t seem to recall the days of endless fear. But Sloane remembers. It’s impossible for her to forget when the paparazzi haunt her every step just as the Dark One still haunts her dreams. Unlike everyone else, she hasn’t moved on; she’s adrift—no direction, no goals, no purpose. On the eve of the Ten Year Celebration of Peace, a new trauma hits the Chosen: the death of one of their own. And when they gather for the funeral at the enshrined site of their triumph, they discover to their horror that the Dark One’s reign never really ended.]]>
419 Veronica Roth Jessica 4 3.57 2020 Chosen Ones (The Chosen Ones, #1)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
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The Stand 60311454 Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting and eerily plausible as when it was first published.

Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read

A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world's population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge--Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them--and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

(This edition includes all of the new and restored material first published in The Stand The Complete And Uncut Edition.)]]>
1439 Stephen King 0307743683 Jessica 4 4.25 1978 The Stand
author: Stephen King
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at: 2015/04/23
date added: 2025/03/11
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The Box: Uncanny Stories 6376283
"Button, Button," Richard Matheson's chilling tale of greed and temptation, is now the basis of The Box, the new film from the director of Donnie Darko. In addition, this outstanding collection also contains many other unforgettable stories by Matheson, the award-winning author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come.

"The inventive plots and spare but convincing portraits of ordinary men and women caught up in forces beyond their control demonstrate why Stephen King has called Matheson his most significant influence."
--Publishers Weekly]]>
272 Richard Matheson 0765361434 Jessica 4 3.40 1970 The Box: Uncanny Stories
author: Richard Matheson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2014/08/07
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:
This is a book of short stories. Some are scary, some are funny, some are just downright confusing. But overall, a good read.
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The House of Footsteps 58505730 If you loved The Haunting of Hill House, welcome to Thistlecrook…

It’s 1923 and at Thistlecrook House, a forbidding home on the Scottish border, the roaring twenties seem not to have arrived. But Simon Christie has – a young man who can’t believe his luck when he gets a job cataloguing the infamous art collection of the Mordrake family. Yet from the moment he gets off the train at the deserted village station he can’t shift a headache and a sense that there’s more to the House and its gruesome selection of pictures.

Simon’s host is glad of his company, but he gets the feeling the house is not so welcoming. As his questions about the Mordrakes grow, he finds answers in surprising places. But someone is not pleased that old secrets are stirring.

As night falls each evening, and a growing sense of unease roils in the shifting shadows around him, Simon must decide what he can trust and ask if he can believe what he sees in the dusk or if his mind is poisoned by what has happened before in this place between lands, between light and dark.]]>
304 Mathew West 0008472939 Jessica 4 3.20 2022 The House of Footsteps
author: Mathew West
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
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Nancy Drew: #1-64 48811 #1: The Secret of the Old Clock
#2: The Hidden Staircase
#3: The Bungalow Mystery
#4: The Mystery at Lilac Inn
#5: The Secret of Shadow Ranch
#6: The Secret of Red Gate Farm
#7: The Clue in the Diary
#8: Nancy's Mysterious Letter
#9: The Sign of the Twisted Candles
#10: Password to Larkspur Lane
#11: The Clue of the Broken Locket
#12: The Message in the Hollow Oak
#13: The Mystery of the Ivory Charm
#14: The Whispering Statue
#15: The Haunted Bridge
#16: The Clue of the Tapping Heels
#17: Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk
#18: Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion
#19: The Quest of the Missing Map
#20: The Clue in the Jewel Box
#21: The Secret in the Old Attic
#22: The Clue in the Crumbling Wall
#23: Mystery of the Tolling Bell
#24: The Clue in the Old Album
#25: The Ghost of Blackwood Hall
#26: The Clue of the Leaning Chimney
#27: The Secret of the Wooden Lady
#28: The Clue of the Black Keys
#29: Mystery at the Ski Jump
#30: The Clue of the Velvet Mask
#31: The Ringmaster's Secret
#32: The Scarlet Slipper Mystery
#33: The Witch Tree Symbol
#34: The Hidden Window Mystery
#35: The Haunted Showboat
#36: The Secret of the Golden Pavilion
#37: The Clue in the Old Stagecoach
#38: The Mystery of the Fire Dragon
#39: The Clue of the Dancing Puppet
#40: The Moonstone Castle Mystery
#41: The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes
#42: The Phantom of Pine Hill
#43: The Mystery of the 99 Steps
#44: The Clue in the Crossword Cipher
#45: The Spider Sapphire Mystery
#46: The Invisible Intruder
#47: The Mysterious Mannequin
#48: The Crooked Banister
#49: The Secret of Mirror Bay
#50: The Double Jinx Mystery
#51: Mystery of the Glowing Eye
#52: The Secret of the Forgotten City
#53: The Sky Phantom
#54: The Strange Message in the Parchment
#55: Mystery of Crocodile Island
#56: The Thirteenth Pearl
#57: The Triple Hoax
#58: The Flying Saucer Mystery
#59: The Secret in the Old Lace
#60: The Greek Symbol Mystery
#61: The Swami's Ring
#62: The Kachina Doll Mystery
#63: The Twin Dilemma
#64: Captive Witness]]>
Carolyn Keene 0448445867 Jessica 4 4.24 2006 Nancy Drew: #1-64
author: Carolyn Keene
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/02
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<![CDATA[Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of 카지노싸이트]]> 485812 398 Carl Sagan 0345336895 Jessica 4 4.06 1979 Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of 카지노싸이트
author: Carl Sagan
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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The Tell-Tale Heart 899492 A man confronts himself and an unknown listener with his desire to murder an old man.

In this classic psychological thriller, the reader will find many more questions than answers. Even though this is one of Poe's shortest stories, nevertheless it has become one of his most highest regarded works. It is a profound and, at times, ambiguous investigation of the paranoia that may lie within the depths of one man's mind...]]>
31 Edgar Allan Poe 0871917726 Jessica 5 4.27 1843 The Tell-Tale Heart
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1843
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
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<![CDATA[Around the World in Eighty Days]]> 54479 252 Jules Verne 014044906X Jessica 5 3.95 1872 Around the World in Eighty Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1872
rating: 5
read at: 2017/12/14
date added: 2024/08/29
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Grimm's Fairy Tales 11093132 320 Jacob Grimm Jessica 5 4.15 1812 Grimm's Fairy Tales
author: Jacob Grimm
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1812
rating: 5
read at: 2015/03/02
date added: 2024/08/07
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Digital Fortress 5162373
Caught in an accelerating tempest of secrecy and lies, Susan Fletcher battles to save the agency she believes in. Betrayed on all sides, she finds herself fighting not only for her country but for her life, and in the end, for the life of the man she loves.

From the underground hallways of power to the skyscrapers of Tokyo to the towering cathedrals of Spain, a desperate race unfolds. It is a battle for survival--a crucial bid to destroy a creation of inconceivable genius...an impregnable code-writing formula that threatens to obliterate the post-cold war balance of power. Forever.]]>
525 Dan Brown 0312944926 Jessica 5 3.67 1998 Digital Fortress
author: Dan Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2014/04/23
date added: 2024/06/29
shelves:
review:
I enjoyed this book even more than Deception Point, which is saying a lot because I really loved that one. So many twists and turns here. Keeps you guessing right until the very last page. I read it in record time as well because I just couldn't put it down. Highly recommend!
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<![CDATA[When Good Ghosts Get the Blues (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery, #3)]]> 63135450
I don’t require poolside margaritas under a fancy cabana to have a good time. All I wanted was ten ghost-free days to enjoy sightseeing New Orleans with my boyfriend, to admire art galleries, listen to live music, and eat as many beignets as I can before my pants stop buttoning.

I might as well have asked Santa for a unicorn. Within thirty-six hours of setting foot in the Big Easy, an ancient ghost warns me of a murderous spirit lurking in the city, a strip-mall psychic tells me I look pregnant (I blame the beignets) and, oh, yeah, a dead body shows up on the set of my boyfriend’s TV show and he lands himself at the top of the suspect list.

If this karma, I must have been an ax murderer in a previous life.]]>
186 Danielle Garrett Jessica 5 4.17 When Good Ghosts Get the Blues (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery, #3)
author: Danielle Garrett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/20
date added: 2024/04/30
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<![CDATA[Ghosts Just Wanna Have Fun (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery #6)]]> 52947924
A reality dating show is filming next door to our rental digs, and besides the giggly pool parties and late night soirees, things are tolerable. At least, until a contestants goes belly - and fabulous ball gown - up in the pool. Suddenly, our vacation suddenly takes a backseat to a murder investigation.

Chaos is unleashed on the quiet community, complete with a pesky paparazzi, brawling bachelorettes, and a bitter ghost hell-bent on revenge. It's impossible to relax, and I'm plunged into the hunt for the killer before someone else gets hurt.

At least I'm getting a tan.]]>
167 Danielle Garrett Jessica 5 4.23 Ghosts Just Wanna Have Fun (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery #6)
author: Danielle Garrett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/30
date added: 2024/04/30
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<![CDATA[Diamonds Are a Ghost's Best Friend (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mysteries, #5)]]> 63135498
I’ve got a ring on my finger and a date circled on the calendar, let the wedding planning begin!

As luck would have it, the little wooded chapel I’ve got my heart set on, is plagued by the not-so-nice spirit of a former bride. She died on what was meant to be her wedding day and isn’t going to step aside to let anyone else take her place at the altar. She claims the chapel is cursed and points to her own murder as a sure sign, but I’m not convinced.

I’ll have to keep my new reaper powers in check and solve this case the old-fashioned way if Lucas and I have any shot at starting our happily ever after underneath the majestic pines.]]>
242 Danielle Garrett Jessica 5 4.21 2019 Diamonds Are a Ghost's Best Friend (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mysteries, #5)
author: Danielle Garrett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/27
date added: 2024/04/26
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Origin (Robert Langdon, #5) 32307358 Librarian's note: This is an alternate cover for B01LY7FD0D and 9780385542692.
Covers for this ASIN can be found:
here and here


Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement--the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever." The evening's host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon's first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough . . . one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence.

As the event begins, Langdon and several hundred guests find themselves captivated by an utterly original presentation, which Langdon realizes will be far more controversial than he ever imagined. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch's precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever. Reeling and facing an imminent threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao. With him is Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director who worked with Kirsch to stage the provocative event. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch's secret.

Navigating the dark corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade a tormented enemy whose all-knowing power seems to emanate from Spain's Royal Palace itself . . . and who will stop at nothing to silence Edmond Kirsch. On a trail marked by modern art and enigmatic symbols, Langdon and Vidal uncover clues that ultimately bring them face-to-face with Kirsch's shocking discovery . . . and the breathtaking truth that has long eluded us. Origin is stunningly inventive--Dan Brown's most brilliant and entertaining novel to date]]>
480 Dan Brown Jessica 5
Merged review:

I love Dan Brown. Great story teller and I always come away having learned something.

Merged review:

I love Dan Brown. Great story teller and I always come away having learned something.]]>
3.87 2017 Origin (Robert Langdon, #5)
author: Dan Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/02/15
date added: 2024/04/25
shelves:
review:
I love Dan Brown. Great story teller and I always come away having learned something.

Merged review:

I love Dan Brown. Great story teller and I always come away having learned something.

Merged review:

I love Dan Brown. Great story teller and I always come away having learned something.
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<![CDATA[Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)]]> 3565313
A devastating new weapon of destruction.
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy -- the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller, Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.]]>
736 Dan Brown 1416578749 Jessica 5 3.95 2000 Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)
author: Dan Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2014/05/12
date added: 2024/04/22
shelves:
review:
Another great book by Dan Brown! I liked it just a teeny bit more than the others I've read. I can see why the Robert Langdon books were made into movies. I can't wait to read The follow up.
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<![CDATA[Big Ghosts Don't Cry (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery #4)]]> 63135476
As it turns out, conjuring some magic and telling a ghost to ‘go towards the light’ isn’t quite good enough, and now the hysterical ghost is stuck in some kind of limbo land.

It’s up to me to solve her murder before the poor ghost goes insane—or, becomes demon food. Whichever happens first.

Reapers creepers.]]>
204 Danielle Garrett Jessica 5 4.25 2019 Big Ghosts Don't Cry (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery #4)
author: Danielle Garrett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/21
date added: 2024/04/21
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<![CDATA[Ghosts Gone Wild (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery, #2)]]> 63135413 240 Danielle Garrett Jessica 5 4.14 2019 Ghosts Gone Wild (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery, #2)
author: Danielle Garrett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/15
date added: 2024/04/15
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<![CDATA[The Ghost Hunter Next Door (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery, #1)]]> 63135392 The first rule of being a ghost whisperer: Don’t tell anyone.

Seriously. Don’t.

Sure, it might sound harmless. A fun party trick, even. I assure you, it’s not.

How do I know? Well, let’s just say that I’ve had a lot of experience with this sort of thing, and nine times out of ten, it turns into an all-consuming disaster.

Being plagued by needy ghosts twenty-four/seven is one thing; being harassed by a horde of curious — or worse, grieving — flesh-and-blood people is an entirely different circus. I mean really, who wants to hold an impromptu séance in the middle of the cereal aisle? Not me, and the manager of the grocery store probably isn’t too crazy about the idea, either.

So, that’s it. If you’re a ghost whisperer, just keep your mouth shut and act normal. Ghosts? What ghosts?

Now, if only I would start listening to my own advice …]]>
296 Danielle Garrett Jessica 5 4.01 2017 The Ghost Hunter Next Door (Beechwood Harbor Ghost Mystery, #1)
author: Danielle Garrett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/13
date added: 2024/04/12
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<![CDATA[Witchy Whiskers (Nine Lives Magic, #1)]]> 58528356 Have you ever wished your cat could talk to you? If so, allow my story to be your cautionary tale.
My life was going just fine by most standards. I ran a successful business in a tight-knit magical community, and lived just blocks from a beautiful lake and series of hiking trails.

Then Selene showed up.

According to some magical code I inherit my aunt’s ancient familiar; a grumpy ten-pound cat with a broken filter. She fancies herself something of a saber-toothed tiger, and claims to have wrestled the thread of her ninth life from the hands of the Fates themselves — although, I’m pretty sure that last part isn’t true.

Almost positive.

I’m still looking into the magical fine print, but in the meantime I’m stuck as the guardian to a cat with the personality of Sophia from the Golden Girls. Oh, and by another cruel twist of fate, my ex-husband just moved back into town. I thought I couldn’t take any more, but when a murder rocks my small community, I wind up entangled in the investigation thanks to a handsome stranger.

If only life came equipped with a rewind button.

**Witchy Whiskers is the first book in a brand new series by paranormal mystery author, Danielle Garrett. Grab your copy now and dive into a colorful world filled with magic, mystery, adventure, and a spark or two of romance.**]]>
290 Danielle Garrett Jessica 5 4.13 2021 Witchy Whiskers (Nine Lives Magic, #1)
author: Danielle Garrett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/09
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<![CDATA[Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)]]> 29227774 Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age.

The measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends.”—Virginia au Augustus

The Reaper is a legend, more myth than man: the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains.

But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of Mars: a husband, a father, a friend.

The worlds once needed the Reaper. But now they need Darrow. Because after the dark age will come a new age: of light, of victory, of hope.]]>
682 Pierce Brown 1473646804 Jessica 5 4.75 2023 Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/07
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<![CDATA[Dark Age (Red Rising Saga, #5)]]> 29226553
For a decade Darrow led a revolution against the corrupt color-coded Society. Now, outlawed by the very Republic he founded, he wages a rogue war on Mercury in hopes that he can still salvage the dream of Eo. But as he leaves death and destruction in his wake, is he still the hero who broke the chains? Or will another legend rise to take his place?

Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile, has returned to the Core. Determined to bring peace back to mankind at the edge of his sword, he must overcome or unite the treacherous Gold families of the Core and face down Darrow over the skies of war-torn Mercury.

But theirs are not the only fates hanging in the balance.

On Luna, Mustang, Sovereign of the Republic, campaigns to unite the Republic behind her husband. Beset by political and criminal enemies, can she outwit her opponents in time to save him?

Once a Red refugee, young Lyria now stands accused of treason, and her only hope is a desperate escape with unlikely new allies.

Abducted by a new threat to the Republic, Pax and Electra, the children of Darrow and Sevro, must trust in Ephraim, a thief, for their salvation—and Ephraim must look to them for his chance at redemption.

As alliances shift, break, and re-form—and power is seized, lost, and reclaimed—every player is at risk in a game of conquest that could turn the Rising into a new Dark Age.]]>
704 Pierce Brown 0425285952 Jessica 5 4.49 2019 Dark Age (Red Rising Saga, #5)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/17
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<![CDATA[Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)]]> 33257757 They call him father, liberator, warlord, Reaper. But he feels a boy as he falls toward the pale blue planet, his armor red, his army vast, his heart heavy. It is the tenth year of war and the thirty-second of his life.

A decade ago, Darrow was the hero of the revolution he believed would break the chains of the Society. But the Rising has shattered everything: Instead of peace and freedom, it has brought endless war. Now he must risk everything he has fought for on one last desperate mission. Darrow still believes he can save everyone, but can he save himself?

And throughout the worlds, other destinies entwine with Darrow’s to change his fate forever:

A young Red girl flees tragedy in her refugee camp and achieves for herself a new life she could never have imagined.

An ex-soldier broken by grief is forced to steal the most valuable thing in the galaxy—or pay with his life.

And Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile to the sovereign, wanders the stars with his mentor, Cassius, haunted by the loss of the world that Darrow transformed, and dreaming of what will rise from its ashes.

Red Rising was the story of the end of one universe, and Iron Gold is the story of the creation of a new one. Witness the beginning of a stunning new saga of tragedy and triumph from masterly New York Times bestselling author Pierce Brown.]]>
602 Pierce Brown 042528591X Jessica 5 4.19 2018 Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/16
date added: 2024/02/16
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<![CDATA[Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)]]> 18966806
Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.]]>
525 Pierce Brown 0345539842 Jessica 5 4.52 2016 Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/29
date added: 2024/01/29
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<![CDATA[Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)]]> 18966819
A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.]]>
466 Pierce Brown 0345539826 Jessica 5 4.48 2015 Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/17
date added: 2024/01/17
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<![CDATA[Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)]]> 15839976 "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.]]>
382 Pierce Brown 0345539788 Jessica 4 4.26 2014 Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/11
date added: 2024/01/11
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<![CDATA[Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, England, 1544]]> 338069 238 Kathryn Lasky 0590684841 Jessica 5 3.94 1999 Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, England, 1544
author: Kathryn Lasky
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2023/12/30
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Leave the World Behind 50358031
Amanda and Clay head to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But with a late-night knock on the door, the spell is broken. Ruth and G. H., an older couple who claim to own the home, have arrived there in a panic. These strangers say that a sudden power outage has swept the city, and - with nowhere else to turn - they have come to the country in search of shelter.

But with the TV and internet down, and no phone service, the facts are unknowable. Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple - and vice versa? What has happened back in New York? Is the holiday home, isolated from civilisation, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?]]>
241 Rumaan Alam 0062667637 Jessica 3 3.13 2020 Leave the World Behind
author: Rumaan Alam
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/28
date added: 2023/12/28
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The Sun Also Rises 3876 The Sun Also Rises (Fiesta) is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.]]> 189 Ernest Hemingway Jessica 3 3.81 1926 The Sun Also Rises
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1926
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/16
date added: 2023/12/16
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Wuthering Heights 6185 You can find the redesigned cover of this edition HERE.

At the centre of this novel is the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff - recounted with such emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire moors acquires the depth and simplicity of ancient tragedy.

This best-selling Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1847 first edition of the novel. For the Fourth Edition, the editor has collated the 1847 text with several modern editions and has corrected a number of variants, including accidentals. The text is accompanied by entirely new explanatory annotations.

New to the fourth Edition are twelve of Emily Bronte's letters regarding the publication of the 1847 edition of Wuthering Heights as well as the evolution of the 1850 edition, prose and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and poetry selections by the author, four reviews of the novel, and Edward Chitham's insightful and informative chronology of the creative process behind the beloved work.

Five major critical interpretations of Wuthering Heights are included, three of them new to the Fourth Edition. A Stuart Daley considers the importance of chronology in the novel. J. Hillis Miller examines Wuthering Heights's problems of genre and critical reputation. Sandra M. Gilbert assesses the role of Victorian Christianity plays in the novel, while Martha Nussbaum traces the novel's romanticism. Finally, Lin Haire-Sargeant scrutinizes the role of Heathcliff in film adaptations of Wuthering Heights.

A Chronology and updated Selected Bibliography are also included.]]>
464 Emily Brontë Jessica 3 3.89 1847 Wuthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1847
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/12
date added: 2023/12/12
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Frankenstein: The 1818 Text 35031085 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780143131847.

Mary Shelley's seminal novel of the scientist whose creation becomes a monster.

This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects of Shelley's original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by author and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson.]]>
260 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0143131842 Jessica 5 4.02 1818 Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1818
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/06
date added: 2023/12/06
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Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.” —Xaden Riorson

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

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

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

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

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]>
623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Jessica 5 4.33 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/30
date added: 2023/12/01
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<![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders.

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans; they incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet with every day that passes, the war outside grows deadlier; the kingdom's protective wards are failing; and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.]]>
517 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Jessica 5 4.55 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/13
date added: 2023/10/13
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Counting the Cost 167770288
Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn’t possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family’s way of life. She was the responsible, second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle’s nineteen kids; always with a baby on her hip and happy to wear the modest ankle-length dresses with throat-high necklines. She didn’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married.

But as Jill got older, married Derick, and they embarked on their own lives, the red flags became too obvious to ignore. For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members — they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets. Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.]]>
287 Jill Duggar Jessica 5 4.00 2023 Counting the Cost
author: Jill Duggar
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/27
date added: 2023/09/27
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<![CDATA[Memories of Tomorrow (Nameless: Season One, #6)]]> 52222570 What strange science made Nameless who he is? What catastrophes have been erased from his memories? In the stunning conclusion of this series, the dark past comes flooding back, and Nameless must decide how much he really wants to know.

In Indiana, a murderous psycho has kidnapped his own six-year-old stepson, Jamie, and secreted him away in a subterranean cave. It’s become their bunker. For Nameless, the case is breaking down his defenses, and it may force him to face his memories.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes Memories of Tomorrow, part of Nameless, a riveting collection of short stories about a vigilante nomad, stripped of his memories and commissioned to kill. Follow him in each story, which can be read or listened to in a single sitting.

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55 Dean Koontz 1542016266 Jessica 5 4.38 2019 Memories of Tomorrow (Nameless: Season One, #6)
author: Dean Koontz
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/23
date added: 2023/09/23
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<![CDATA[The Mercy of Snakes (Nameless: Season One, #5)]]> 52219355 A series of suspicious deaths in a retirement home draws Nameless into the confidence of a terrified former resident—and into the dark heart of a shocking conspiracy. In part five of the Nameless series, it’s time to hunt.

Oakshore Park is Michigan’s most exclusive assisted-living community. Presided over by two killer angels of mercy, it’s also the go-to facility in assisted dying. For a cut, they make impatient heirs happy. Nameless must concoct a scheme just as cunning. But righteous retribution stirs disquiet in the avenger as light starts to shine on the black hole of his past. Should he welcome it or keep running?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes The Mercy of Snakes, part of Nameless, a riveting collection of short stories about a vigilante nomad, stripped of his memories and commissioned to kill. Follow him in each story, which can be read or listened to in a single sitting.

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61 Dean Koontz 1542016258 Jessica 5 4.18 2019 The Mercy of Snakes (Nameless: Season One, #5)
author: Dean Koontz
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/20
date added: 2023/09/20
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<![CDATA[Red Rain (Nameless: Season One, #4)]]> 52220812 In a town where the corrupt are protected, a bereaved mother seeks retribution for an arsonist’s deadly crimes. Only Nameless can help ease the burden of her grief—and satisfy her rage—in part four of this thrilling series.

After a suspicious house fire, Regina Belmont lost her two children, was left disfigured, and was abandoned by her gutless husband. Brokenhearted and bullied into silence by corrupt officials, Regina’s only recourse for truth and justice is Nameless. There’s something about this case that’s breaking Nameless’s heart as well. But can he bear to remember why?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes Red Rain, part of Nameless, a riveting collection of short stories about a vigilante nomad, stripped of his memories and commissioned to kill. Follow him in each story, which can be read or listened to in a single sitting.

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50 Dean Koontz 154201624X Jessica 5 4.10 2019 Red Rain (Nameless: Season One, #4)
author: Dean Koontz
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/16
date added: 2023/09/16
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<![CDATA[The Praying Mantis Bride (Nameless: Season One, #3)]]> 52224267 A deadly black widow has eliminated three husbands and counting. But Nameless knows her one weakness. To bring truth and its consequences to her crimes, the vigilante must spin a web of his own in part three of the Nameless series.

Lucia—current last name, Rickenbah—has made a fortune by marrying rich men who tend to drop dead. But the superstitious blonde believes in more than money and murder. Nameless’s job is to scare a confession out of Lucia, and as the psychological warfare escalates, even he may be in for a shock.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes The Praying Mantis Bride, part of Nameless, a riveting collection of short stories about a vigilante nomad, stripped of his memories and commissioned to kill. Follow him in each story, which can be read or listened to in a single sitting.

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61 Dean Koontz 1542016231 Jessica 5 4.10 2019 The Praying Mantis Bride (Nameless: Season One, #3)
author: Dean Koontz
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/09
date added: 2023/09/11
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<![CDATA[Photographing the Dead (Nameless: Season One, #2)]]> 49884639 A self-styled artist is getting away with murder in Death Valley. If all goes well, so will Nameless. In part two of the Nameless series, the relentless avenger is haunted by nightmares of the past and visions of what’s to come.

Palmer Oxenwald’s hunting ground is the Mojave wasteland. His victims are random tourists and hikers. His trophies are cherished photographs of the damage he’s done. His greatest threat is Nameless. Two men with one thing in common: memories of the dead. For a psychopath like Palmer, they’re a clear rush in black and white. For Nameless, they’re visions of violence buried and erased. But for how long?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes Photographing the Dead, part of Nameless, a riveting collection of short stories about a vigilante nomad, stripped of his memories and commissioned to kill. Follow him in each story, which can be read or listened to in a single sitting.

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58 Dean Koontz 1542016223 Jessica 5 4.19 2019 Photographing the Dead (Nameless: Season One, #2)
author: Dean Koontz
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/11
date added: 2023/09/11
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<![CDATA[In the Heart of the Fire (Nameless: Season One, #1)]]> 49694471 A bloodthirsty sheriff is terrorizing a small Texas town where justice has been buried with his victims. Until Nameless arrives—a vigilante whose past is a mystery and whose future is written in blood.

Anyone who crosses Sheriff Russell Soakes is dead, missing, or warned. One of them is a single mother trying to protect her children but bracing herself for the worst. Nameless fears the outcome. He’s seen it in his visions. Now it’s time to teach the depraved Soakes a lesson in fear. But in turning predators into prey, will Nameless unearth a few secrets of his own?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz comes In the Heart of the Fire, part of Nameless, a riveting collection of short stories about a vigilante nomad, stripped of his memories and commissioned to kill. Follow him in each story, which can be read or listened to in a single sitting.

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62 Dean Koontz 1542016215 Jessica 5 4.19 2019 In the Heart of the Fire (Nameless: Season One, #1)
author: Dean Koontz
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/11
date added: 2023/09/11
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Dust (Silo, #3) 17855756 In a time when secrets and lies were the foundations of life, someone has discovered the truth. And they are going to tell.

Jules knows what her predecessors created. She knows they are the reason life has to be lived in this way.

And she won't stand for it.

But Jules no longer has supporters. And there is far more to fear than the toxic world beyond her walls.

A poison is growing from within Silo 18.

One that cannot be stopped.

Unless Silo 1 step in.]]>
458 Hugh Howey 1490904387 Jessica 5 4.19 2013 Dust (Silo, #3)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/04
date added: 2023/06/04
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Shift (Silo, #2) 17306293 579 Hugh Howey Jessica 5 4.12 2013 Shift (Silo, #2)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/28
date added: 2023/05/28
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Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1) 13453029
The first Wool story was released as a standalone short in July of 2011. Due to reviewer demand, the rest of the story was released over the next six months.

This is the story of mankind clawing for survival, of mankind on the edge. The world outside has grown unkind, the view of it limited, talk of it forbidden. But there are always those who hope, who dream. These are the dangerous people, the residents who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple. They are given the very thing they profess to want: They are allowed outside.

Alternate cover for B0071XO8RA]]>
509 Hugh Howey Jessica 5 4.22 2012 Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/18
date added: 2023/05/18
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<![CDATA[Critical Role: The Mighty Nein—The Nine Eyes of Lucien]]> 60706855 Delve into the mind of Critical Role’s most charming villain in this original novel that chronicles Lucien’s early life and his fateful meeting with the Mighty Nein.

Lucien has always been able to spin a bad situation to his advantage. From his childhood on the dangerous streets of Shadycreek Run to his years living off the grid and learning blood magic from the Claret Orders, the charismatic blood hunter will find a way to get the upper hand.

When Lucien is on a job in the frozen wastelands of Eiselcross with his fellow mercenaries, a rough-and-tumble crew called the Tombtakers, fate leads him to a mysterious journal in the ruins of an ancient city. The book speaks of the Somnovem, nine beings who can grant Lucien power beyond imagining—if he is able to find them and free them from captivity.

Intrigued by this opportunity, Lucien pores over the journal—but the more he reads, the stranger things become. The nine whisper to him in dreams and waking visions. Time slips away, along with Lucien’s grasp on reality. And tattoos of red eyes begin appearing on his skin. . . .

With the ability to reshape the world within his grasp, Lucien ignores all warning signs. He has always bent fortune to his will, and nothing—not even death—will stop him now.

Written by New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Roux, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein—The Nine Eyes of Lucien explores the meteoric rise and fall of one of Critical Role’s most notorious and tragic figures.]]>
320 Madeleine Roux 0593496736 Jessica 5 4.00 2022 Critical Role: The Mighty Nein—The Nine Eyes of Lucien
author: Madeleine Roux
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/13
date added: 2023/03/13
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The Liar (Eddie Flynn, #3) 34080217 IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE...

WHO IS DEADLIER ...
Leonard Howell's worst nightmare has come true: his daughter Caroline has been kidnapped. Not content with relying on the cops, Howell calls the only man he trusts to get her back.

... THE MAN WHO KNOWS THE TRUTH ...
Eddie Flynn knows what it's like to lose a daughter and vows to bring Caroline home safe. Once a con artist, now a hotshot criminal attorney, Flynn is no stranger to the shady New York underworld.

... OR THE ONE WHO BELIEVES A LIE?
However, as he steps back into his old life, Flynn realizes that the rules of game have changed — and that he is being played. But who is pulling the strings? And is anyone in this twisted case telling the truth...?]]>
337 Steve Cavanagh Jessica 5 4.32 2017 The Liar (Eddie Flynn, #3)
author: Steve Cavanagh
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/15
date added: 2023/02/15
shelves:
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Spare 62296528
For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.]]>
410 Prince Harry 0593593804 Jessica 5 3.78 2023 Spare
author: Prince Harry
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/30
date added: 2023/01/30
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<![CDATA[Courageous Discomfort: How to Have Important, Brave, Life-Changing Conversations about Race and Racism]]> 58739628 An empowering handbook on how to have candid conversations around race and become a better advocate, written by a Black woman and a white woman who ask and answer 20 common, uncomfortable-but-critical questions about racism.

Many people struggle to have honest conversations about race, even those who consider themselves allies or identify as anti-racist. For anyone who wants to have better, more productive discussions, COURAGEOUS DISCOMFORT is an empowering handbook that teaches you how to do just that.

In these pages, authors (and best friends), Shanterra McBride, who is Black, and Rosalind Wiseman, who is white, discuss their own friendship and tap into their decades of anti-racism work to answer the 20 uncomfortable-but-critical questions about race they get asked most often, including:

• Should I see color?
• I'm a good person—how can I be racist?
• What if I say something wrong?
• What kind of apology makes a difference?

These 20 questions-as-chapters invite you into the conversation without judgment and inspire thoughtful reflection and discussion. There will be moments when you will laugh or cringe at the ridiculous or awkward things you read. But the truth is, there is no perfect solution or script for every maybe-racist, sort-of-racist, or blatantly racist situation. And that's OK: making mistakes is just an opportunity to do better next time. But doing this work will empower us to have the relationships we really want to have, including the relationship we want to have with ourselves.

TIMELY BUT PERENNIAL TOPIC: Social justice is a longstanding, perennial issue but has entered the vanguard of national discourse in recent years. For anyone hungry for resources related to being an advocate for diversity and inclusion, COURAGEOUS DISCOMFORT provides an accessible, empowering playbook to follow as you confront and reckon with race-related issues and questions, now and moving forward.

ACCESSIBLE APPROACH: This beautifully designed book stands out from the more academic books in this category like WHITE FRAGILITY and HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST. With accessible writing, an organizing principle that invites you into the conversation, and a lovely package, COURAGEOUS DISCOMFORT is user-friendly and can even be given as an inoffensive, helpful gift to friends, relatives, and recent grads.

BLACK AUTHOR + WHITE AUTHOR: Written by a Black and white author pair who have both published books before, this handbook is authentic and credible, but also approachable. The authors' tone and the organization of the book make it feel as if you are part of their candid conversation on race, with someone asking all the uncomfortable, awkward questions that you have asked yourself, or your friends are too scared to ask of you. This Q&A format applies to readers, whether they identify as white or non-white, who have found themselves in similar conversations, unsure of how to handle them.

GREAT FOR BOOK CLUBS: Inspired by a webinar, featuring chapters-as-questions, this book is primed for book clubs. The organization lends itself perfectly to discussion—clubs can pose each question/chapter title, review the thought prompts, and share personal experiences for an enlightening, educational, and productive conversation.

Perfect for:

• People who want to have better, more productive conversations around race and racial issues
• White people who want to be better allies
• Anyone who is focused on social justice, particularly millennials and members of Gen Z
• People who read books like WHITE FRAGILITY, CASTE, and HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST]]>
256 Shanterra McBride 1797215264 Jessica 5 4.24 Courageous Discomfort: How to Have Important, Brave, Life-Changing Conversations about Race and Racism
author: Shanterra McBride
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/02
date added: 2022/11/02
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The Ice Dragon 34896 Adara could not remember the first time she had seen the ice dragon. It seemed that it had always been in her life, glimpsed from afar as she played in the frigid snow long after the other children had fled the cold. In her fourth year she touched it, and in her fifth year she rode upon its broad, chilled back for the first time. Then, in her seventh year, on a calm summer day, fiery dragons from the North swooped down upon the peaceful farm that was Adara's home. And only a winter child--and the ice dragon who loved her--could save her world from utter destruction.
The Ice Dragon marks the highly anticipated children's book debut of George R.R. Martin, the award-winning author of the New York Times best-selling series A Song of Ice and Fire and is set in the same world. Illustrated with lush, exquisitely detailed pencil drawings by acclaimed artist Yvonne Gilbert, The Ice Dragon is an unforgettable tale of courage, love, and sacrifice by one of the most honored fantasists of all time.]]>
112 George R.R. Martin 0765316315 Jessica 5 3.76 1980 The Ice Dragon
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/26
date added: 2022/10/25
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I'm Glad My Mom Died 59364173
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.]]>
320 Jennette McCurdy Jessica 5 4.45 2022 I'm Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/13
date added: 2022/08/13
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Every Summer After 58014893 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593438534.

They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser, ever since she made the biggest mistake of her life a decade ago, that has felt too true. Instead of glittering summers on the lakeshore of her childhood, she spends them in a stylish apartment in the city, going out with friends, and keeping everyone a safe distance from her heart.

Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she never thought she’d have to live without.

For six summers, through hazy afternoons on the water and warm summer nights working in his family’s restaurant and curling up together with books—medical textbooks for him and work-in-progress horror short stories for her—Percy and Sam had been inseparable. Eventually that friendship turned into something breathtakingly more, before it fell spectacularly apart.

When Percy returns to the lake for Sam’s mother’s funeral, their connection is as undeniable as it had always been. But until Percy can confront the decisions she made and the years she’s spent punishing herself for them, they’ll never know whether their love might be bigger than the biggest mistakes of their past.

Told over the course of six years and one weekend, Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic look at love and the people and choices that mark us forever.

Six summers to fall in love. One moment to fall apart. A weekend to get it right.]]>
320 Carley Fortune Jessica 5 4.17 2022 Every Summer After
author: Carley Fortune
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/25
date added: 2022/06/25
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<![CDATA[The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)]]> 222910 Alternate Cover Edition ISBN 0345296060 (ISBN13: 9780345296061)

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

Frodo and his Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in a battle in the Mines of Moria. And Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape, the rest of the company was attacked by Orcs. Now they continue the journey alone down the great River Anduin—alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.]]>
447 J.R.R. Tolkien Jessica 4 4.57 1954 The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at: 2021/12/27
date added: 2021/12/27
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<![CDATA[The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)]]> 34
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkeness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
--back cover]]>
398 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618346252 Jessica 4 abandoned 4.36 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at: 2021/12/08
date added: 2021/12/08
shelves: abandoned
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<![CDATA[Fire & Blood (A Targaryen History, #1)]]> 39943621
Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.

What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.

With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire and Blood is the ultimate game of thrones, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.]]>
706 George R.R. Martin 152479628X Jessica 5 4.03 2018 Fire & Blood (A Targaryen History, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/11/22
date added: 2021/11/21
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<![CDATA[The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite]]> 43671669
It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal – that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding – reigns supreme.  Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream.
 
But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracy’s successes.
 
This is the radical argument that Daniel Markovits prosecutes with rare force. Markovits is well placed to expose the sham of meritocracy. Having spent his life at elite universities, he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within. Markovits also knows that, if we understand that meritocratic inequality produces near-universal harm, we can cure it. When The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people.]]>
448 Daniel Markovits 0735221995 Jessica 5 3.83 2019 The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite
author: Daniel Markovits
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/10/24
date added: 2021/10/24
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Bird by Bird 12543 A newer edition of this title can be found here.

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said. 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started,' with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this book is for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eyes open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

]]>
238 Anne Lamott Jessica 2 4.24 1994 Bird by Bird
author: Anne Lamott
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1994
rating: 2
read at: 2021/06/11
date added: 2021/06/11
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<![CDATA[The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, #2)]]> 43814 481 Anne Rice 0345476883 Jessica 5 4.10 1985 The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, #2)
author: Anne Rice
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/04
date added: 2021/02/04
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<![CDATA[Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)]]> 43763
Tuyệt vọng khi chứng kiến người em trai hết mực thương yêu tự kết liễu cuộc đời và gánh chịu sự nghi ngờ của người thân, Louis tưởng chừng sắp bước theo đoạn đường của em trai khi đột ngột, ma cà rồng Lestat tấn công ngay trước cửa nhà, và, tất cả chỉ mới chỉ bắt đầu…

Buộc phải trở thành ma cà rồng khát máu trong khi vẫn khát khao giữ tính người, bị mắc kẹt trong cuộc đời bất tử bất đắc dĩ và vô vọng tìm kiếm một lối thoát cho bản thân, tưởng như số phận u tối của Louis đã mở sang trang với sự xuất hiện của Claudia, cô bé ma cà rồng. Nhưng, lại một lần nữa, hóa ra, tất cả chỉ mới bắt đầu…

Mê hoặc, bất ngờ và không kém phần rùng rợn, Phỏng vấn ma cà rồng là câu chuyện về những hiểm nguy và trốn chạy, về tình yêu và mất mát, tàn nhẫn và bi thương.

Phát hành lần đầu năm 1976, Phỏng vấn Ma cà rồng đã bán được hơn tám triệu bản trên toàn thế giới và từng được chuyển thể thành bộ phim cùng tên với sự tham gia của các ngôi sao lừng danh Brad Pritt, Tom Cruise và Kirsten Dunst.]]>
346 Anne Rice 0345476875 Jessica 5 4.04 1976 Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)
author: Anne Rice
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/24
date added: 2021/01/24
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Hallowe'en Party (Hercule Poirot, #41)]]> 16307
That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the 'evil presence.' But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double-murderer!]]>
336 Agatha Christie 0007120680 Jessica 4 3.56 1969 Hallowe'en Party (Hercule Poirot, #41)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1969
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/25
date added: 2020/10/25
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<![CDATA[Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)]]> 131359
Who is also on board? Christie's great detective Hercule Poirot is on holiday. He recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.’ Despite the exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…]]>
352 Agatha Christie Jessica 5 4.13 1937 Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1937
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/24
date added: 2020/10/24
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Solutions and Other Problems 51323365
Solutions and Other Problems includes humorous stories from Allie Brosh’s childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life.

This full-color, beautifully illustrated edition features all-new material with more than 1,600 pieces of art.]]>
519 Allie Brosh 1982156945 Jessica 5 Brilliant! Worth the wait. 4.21 2020 Solutions and Other Problems
author: Allie Brosh
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/06
date added: 2020/10/06
shelves:
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Brilliant! Worth the wait.
]]>
The Institute 43798285
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King's gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good versus evil in a world where the good guys don't always win.
--front flap]]>
561 Stephen King Jessica 5 4.17 2019 The Institute
author: Stephen King
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/04/08
date added: 2020/04/07
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The Long Walk 9014 370 Richard Bachman 0451196716 Jessica 5 4.10 1978 The Long Walk
author: Richard Bachman
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1978
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/08
date added: 2020/03/07
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The Dead Zone 11573 The Dead Zone.

Johnny Smith, the small-town schoolteacher who spun the wheel of fortune and won a four-and-a-half-year trip into The Dead Zone.

John Smith, who awakened from an interminable coma with an accursed power—the power to see the future and the terrible fate awaiting mankind in The Dead Zone.

~]]>
402 Stephen King 0451155750 Jessica 5 3.96 1979 The Dead Zone
author: Stephen King
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/02
date added: 2020/03/02
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The Regulators 10596 512 Richard Bachman Jessica 4 3.74 1996 The Regulators
author: Richard Bachman
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/27
date added: 2020/02/27
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch]]> 12067
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons – well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel – would quite like the Rapture not to happen.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…]]>
491 Terry Pratchett Jessica 5 4.27 1990 Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/11
date added: 2020/02/11
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<![CDATA[Voice Lessons: How a Couple of Ninja Turtles, Pinky, and an Animaniac Saved My Life]]> 44150317 210 Rob Paulsen 1632281228 Jessica 5 4.70 Voice Lessons: How a Couple of Ninja Turtles, Pinky, and an Animaniac Saved My Life
author: Rob Paulsen
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.70
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/29
date added: 2019/12/29
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<![CDATA[Lady of the Lake (The Witcher, #5)]]> 31933977 The Witcher returns in this action-packed sequel to The Tower of Swallows, in the New York Times bestselling series that inspired The Witcher video games.

After walking through the portal in the Tower of Swallows while narrowly escaping death, Ciri finds herself in a completely different world... an Elven world. She is trapped with no way out. Time does not seem to exist and there are no obvious borders or portals to cross back into her home world.

But this is Ciri, the child of prophecy, and she will not be defeated. She knows she must escape to finally rejoin the Witcher, Geralt, and his companions - and also to try to conquer her worst nightmare. Leo Bonhart, the man who chased, wounded and tortured Ciri, is still on her trail. And the world is still at war.
Witcher novels
Blood of Elves
The Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire

The Tower of Swallows
Lady of the Lake

Witcher collectionsThe Last WishSword of Destiny

The Malady and Other Stories: An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only)

Translated from original Polish by David French]]>
531 Andrzej Sapkowski Jessica 5 3.99 1999 Lady of the Lake (The Witcher, #5)
author: Andrzej Sapkowski
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/14
date added: 2019/12/14
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<![CDATA[The Tower of the Swallow (The Witcher, #4)]]> 18247597
There is only one place left to run. The tower of the swallow is waiting...]]>
448 Andrzej Sapkowski 1473211565 Jessica 5 4.17 1997 The Tower of the Swallow (The Witcher, #4)
author: Andrzej Sapkowski
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/13
date added: 2019/11/13
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Baptism of Fire (The Witcher, #3)]]> 18656031 The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher

The Wizards Guild has been shattered by a coup and, in the uproar, Geralt was seriously injured. The Witcher is supposed to be a guardian of the innocent, a protector of those in need, a defender against powerful and dangerous monsters that prey on men in dark times.

But now that dark times have fallen upon the world, Geralt is helpless until he has recovered from his injuries.

While war rages across all of the lands, the future of magic is under threat and those sorcerers who survive are determined to protect it. It's an impossible situation in which to find one girl - Ciri, the heiress to the throne of Cintra, has vanished - until a rumor places her in the Niflgaard court, preparing to marry the Emperor.

Injured or not, Geralt has a rescue mission on his hands.

The Witcher returns in this action-packed sequel to The Time of Contempt.]]>
400 Andrzej Sapkowski 0316219185 Jessica 5 4.21 1996 Baptism of Fire (The Witcher, #3)
author: Andrzej Sapkowski
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/17
date added: 2019/10/17
shelves:
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Everything is Figureoutable 43706482
The problem isn't you. It's not that you're not hardworking, intelligent or deserving, but that you haven't yet installed the one key belief that will change everything: Everything is figureoutable.

Whether you want to leave a dead-end job, heal a relationship, grow a business, master your money, or just find two free hours in your day, Everything is Figureoutable will train your brain to think more positively and help you break down any dream into manageable steps.

Inside you'll learn:

- How to deal with criticism and imposter syndrome
- Why it's crucial that you strive for progress not perfection
- How to bounce back from failure
- How to overcome a lack of time and money

You'll also hear triumphant stories of everyday people using the everything is figureoutable philosophy to transform their life. Everything is figureoutable is more than just a fun phrase to say. It's a practical, actionable discipline. And it's about to make you unstoppable!]]>
304 Marie Forleo 0241341035 Jessica 0 3.94 2019 Everything is Figureoutable
author: Marie Forleo
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2019/09/12
date added: 2019/09/14
shelves:
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<![CDATA[The Time of Contempt (The Witcher, #2)]]> 14781491 The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher
Geralt is a witcher: guardian of the innocent; protector of those in need; a defender, in dark times, against some of the most frightening creatures of myth and legend. His task, now, is to protect Ciri. A child of prophecy, she will have the power to change the world for good or for ill -- but only if she lives to use it.

A coup threatens the Wizard's Guild.
War breaks out across the lands.
A serious injury leaves Geralt fighting for his life...
... and Ciri, in whose hands the world's fate rests, has vanished...

The Witcher returns in this sequel to Blood of Elves.


The Witcher series
The Last Wish
The Sword of Destiny
Blood of Elves
The Time of Contempt
Baptism of Fire

The Malady and Other Stories: An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only)]]>
331 Andrzej Sapkowski 0316219134 Jessica 5 4.10 1995 The Time of Contempt (The Witcher, #2)
author: Andrzej Sapkowski
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/05
date added: 2019/09/04
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<![CDATA[Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1)]]> 6043781 The New York Times bestselling series that inspired the international hit video game: The Witcher.
For over a century, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves have lived together in relative peace. But times have changed, the uneasy peace is over, and now the races are fighting once again. The only good elf, it seems, is a dead elf.

Geralt of Rivia, the cunning assassin known as The Witcher, has been waiting for the birth of a prophesied child. This child has the power to change the world - for good, or for evil.

As the threat of war hangs over the land and the child is hunted for her extraordinary powers, it will become Geralt's responsibility to protect them all - and the Witcher never accepts defeat.

The Witcher returns in this sequel to The Last Wish, as the inhabitants of his world become embroiled in a state of total war.]]>
398 Andrzej Sapkowski Jessica 5 4.05 1994 Blood of Elves (The Witcher, #1)
author: Andrzej Sapkowski
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/27
date added: 2019/08/26
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<![CDATA[A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)]]> 10572
It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

Here is the second volume in George R.R. Martin magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R.R. Martin stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.]]>
1009 George R.R. Martin 0553381695 Jessica 4 4.42 1998 A Clash of Kings  (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/20
date added: 2019/08/12
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Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body 26074156 New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.”

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.]]>
306 Roxane Gay 0062362593 Jessica 5 4.17 2017 Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
author: Roxane Gay
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/09/26
date added: 2018/12/23
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<![CDATA[Out of Egypt (Christ the Lord, #1)]]> 333713 LIKE NEW. EXCELLENT CONDITION.
HARDCOVER. DUST JACKET.
A FICTION STORY & QUALIFIES AS AN ACT OF FAITH.
CHECK OUR STORE FRONT FOR GREAT BOOKS FOR EVERYONE.
FAST SERVICE.
24-A]]>
322 Anne Rice 0375412018 Jessica 5 3.53 2005 Out of Egypt (Christ the Lord, #1)
author: Anne Rice
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2015/05/12
date added: 2018/12/21
shelves:
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Even as an atheist I enjoyed this book. Take everything you know about Christianity out of the equation and it's simply a story about a young boy who can perform miracles and has no idea why. Definitely a five star read.
]]>
<![CDATA[Gone With The Ghost (Murder by Design #1)]]> 35006520
Ryan claims he didn’t commit suicide, but was murdered, and he needs Bailey to help him find his killer so he can earn his ticket out of purgatory. Ryan’s counting on a stairway to heaven, as opposed to wings, since that might be a little unmanly for a cop, even a dead one.

An expert in home design, with her own staging business, Bailey can tell you where to place a couch to improve flow and comfort, but solving a crime? Not her area of expertise. But with help from Ryan’s former partner, Marner, she is unraveling the mystery of what happened to Ryan that day… and unwittingly putting herself in grave danger.]]>
220 Erin McCarthy Jessica 4 3.48 2017 Gone With The Ghost (Murder by Design #1)
author: Erin McCarthy
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/03/28
date added: 2018/03/27
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<![CDATA[Dragon of Ash & Stars: The Autobiography of a Night Dragon (The Dragons of Solunas #1)]]> 31279046 365 H. Leighton Dickson Jessica 5 Unique and wonderful! 4.34 2016 Dragon of Ash & Stars: The Autobiography of a Night Dragon (The Dragons of Solunas #1)
author: H. Leighton Dickson
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2018/03/18
date added: 2018/03/18
shelves:
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Unique and wonderful!
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<![CDATA[Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose]]> 35633343 The Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

From President-Elect Joe Biden, Promise Me Dad is his deeply moving memoir about the year that would forever change both a family and a country.

“Biden splices a heartbreaking story with an election story and a foreign affairs story. And in so doing, he offers something for everyone, no matter which strand draws you in.”—The New York Times Book Review

In November 2014, thirteen members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past forty years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before. Joe and Jill Biden’s eldest son, Beau, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor fifteen months earlier, and his survival was uncertain. “Promise me, Dad,” Beau had told his father. “Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be all right.” Joe Biden gave him his word.

Promise Me Dad chronicles the year that followed, which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Biden’s extraordinary life and career. As vice president, Biden traveled more than a hundred thousand miles that year, across the world, dealing with crises in Ukraine, Central America, and Iraq. When a call came from New York, or Capitol Hill, or Kyiv, or Baghdad—“Joe, I need your help”—he responded. For twelve months, while Beau fought for and then lost his life, the vice president balanced the twin imperatives of living up to his responsibilities to his country and his responsibilities to his family. And never far away was the insistent and urgent question of whether he should seek the presidency in 2016.

The year brought real triumph and accomplishment, and wrenching pain. But even in the worst times, Biden was able to lean on the strength of his long, deep bonds with his family, on his faith, and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office, Barack Obama.

Writing with poignancy and immediacy, Joe Biden allows readers to feel the urgency of each moment, to experience the days when he felt unable to move forward as well as the days when he felt like he could not afford to stop.

This is a book written not just by the president, but by a father, grandfather, friend, and husband. Promise Me Dad is a story of how family and friendships sustain us and how hope, purpose, and action can guide us through the pain of personal loss into the light of a new future.]]>
260 Joe Biden 1250171679 Jessica 5 4.11 2017 Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose
author: Joe Biden
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2018/03/03
date added: 2018/03/02
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Seven Pets for Seven Witches 36248213 The pets in these cozy paranormal short stories are stirring up nothing but fun—and maybe a dash of trouble—for the witches in their lives. Visit these seven magical worlds in new stories created exclusively for the anthology written
M.Z. Andrews, Morgana Best, Molly Milligan, Amy Boyles, Annabel Chase, H.Y. Hanna, and Gina LaManna.]]>
292 Annabel Chase 1537845985 Jessica 3 4.03 2018 Seven Pets for Seven Witches
author: Annabel Chase
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2018/02/28
date added: 2018/02/27
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Bad Feminist 18813642 Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink—all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I’m not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once live-tweeted the September issue.

In these funny and insightful essays, Roxane Gay takes us through the journey of her evolution as a woman of color while also taking readers on a ride through culture of the last few years and commenting on the state of feminism today. The portrait that emerges is not only one of an incredibly insightful woman continually growing to understand herself and our society, but also one of our culture.

Bad Feminist is a sharp, funny, and spot-on look at the ways in which the culture we consume becomes who we are, and an inspiring call-to-arms of all the ways we still need to do better.

Feel me, see me, hear me, reach me --
Peculiar benefits --
Typical first year professor --
To scratch, claw or grope clumsily or frantically --
How to be friends with another woman --
Girls, girls, girls --
I once was Miss America --
Garish, glorious spectacles --
Not here to make friends --
How we all lose --
Reaching for catharsis : getting fat right (or wrong) and Diana Spechler's Skinny --
The smooth surfaces of idyll --
The careless language of sexual violence --
What we hunger for --
The illusion of safety/the safety of illusion --
The spectacle of broken men --
A tale of three coming out stories --
Beyond the measure of men --
Some jokes are funnier than others --
Dear young ladies who love Chris Brown --
So much they would let him beat them --
Blurred lines, indeed --
The trouble with Prince Charming, or, He who trespassed against us --
The solace of preparing fried foods and other quaint remembrances from 1960s Mississippi : thoughts on The help --
Surviving Django --
Beyond the struggle narrative --
The morality of Tyler Perry --
The last day of a young black man --
When less is more --
The politics of respectability --
When Twitter does what journalism cannot --
The alienable rights of women --
Holding out for a hero --
A tale of two profiles --
The racism we all carry --
Tragedy, call, compassion, response --
Bad feminist : take one --
Bad feminist : take two]]>
320 Roxane Gay 0062282719 Jessica 4 3.93 2014 Bad Feminist
author: Roxane Gay
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2018/02/22
date added: 2018/02/21
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The Vines 22780816
After heiress and current owner Caitlin Chaisson is witness to her husband’s stunning betrayal at her birthday party, she tries to take her own life in the mansion’s cherished gazebo. Instead, the blood she spills awakens dark forces in the ground below. Chaos ensues and by morning her husband has vanished without a trace and his mistress has gone mad.

Nova, daughter to Spring House’s groundskeeper, has always suspected that something malevolent haunts the old place, and in the aftermath of the birthday party she enlists Caitlin’s estranged best friend, Blake, to help her get to the bottom of it. The pair soon realizes that the vengeance enacted by this sinister and otherworldly force comes at a terrible price.]]>
217 Christopher Rice 1477826637 Jessica 3 3.27 2014 The Vines
author: Christopher Rice
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2018/02/19
date added: 2018/02/19
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<![CDATA[Miss Frost Ices the Imp (Jayne Frost, #2)]]> 31804157 Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year.

Jayne Frost is a lot of things. Winter elf, Jack Frost’s daughter, Santa Claus’s niece, heir to the Winter Throne and now… private investigator. Sort of.

When she buys a sealed box at an estate sale and cat-related circumstances cause that box to be opened, life in Nocturne Falls starts to go haywire. Jayne has no choice but to figure out what she unleashed and how to recapture it.

But Jayne suspects the woman behind the box is hiding something. Something that could cause a town resident serious trouble. Or worse, to lose their life.

With the help of her two favorite guys, a sexy vampire and a hot summer elf, and a few new friends, Jayne tackles what feels like an impossible mission. And winds up almost iced herself.]]>
190 Kristen Painter Jessica 4 4.04 2016 Miss Frost Ices the Imp (Jayne Frost, #2)
author: Kristen Painter
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2018/02/08
date added: 2018/02/08
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<![CDATA[Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case (Jayne Frost, #1)]]> 29438610 324 Kristen Painter 1941695175 Jessica 4 4.02 2016 Miss Frost Solves a Cold Case (Jayne Frost, #1)
author: Kristen Painter
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2018/02/02
date added: 2018/02/01
shelves:
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<![CDATA[The Comfort Food Diaries: My Quest for the Perfect Dish to Mend a Broken Heart]]> 23492783 New Yorker editor Emily Nunn chronicles her journey to heal old wounds and find comfort in the face of loss through travel, home-cooked food, and the company of friends and family.

One life-changing night, still reeling from her beloved brother's sudden death a few weeks earlier, Emily Nunn was dumped by her handsome architect fiance and evicted from the apartment they shared, losing in the same moment all sense of family, home, and financial security. After a few glasses of wine, heartbroken and lost, Emily, an avid cook and professional food writer, poured her heart out on Facebook. The next morning she woke up with a terrible hangover and a feeling she'd made a terrible mistake, only to discover she had more friends than she knew, many of whom invited her to come visit and cook with them while she put her life back together. Thus began the Comfort Food Tour.
Searching for a way forward, Emily travels the country, cooking and staying with relatives and friends, among them renowned chefs Mark Bittman and Ina Garten. She also travels back to revisit scenes from her dysfunctional Southern upbringing, dominated by her dramatic, unpredictable mother and her silent, disengaged father. Her wonderfully idiosyncratic aunts and uncles and cousins come to life in these pages, all part of the rich Southern story in which past and present are indistinguishable, food is a source of connection and identity, and a good story is often preferred to a not-so-pleasant truth. But truth, pleasant or not, is what Emily Nunn craves, and with it comes an acceptance of the losses she has endured, and a sense of hope for the future.
In the salty snap of a single Virginia ham biscuit, in the sour tang of Grandmother's Lemon Cake, Nunn experiences the healing power of comfort food, and offers up dozens of recipes for the wonderful meals that saved her life. With the biting humor of David Sedaris and the emotional honesty of Cheryl Strayed, Nunn delivers a moving account of her descent into darkness and her gradual, hard-won return to the living.]]>
320 Emily Nunn 1451674201 Jessica 4 3.42 2017 The Comfort Food Diaries: My Quest for the Perfect Dish to Mend a Broken Heart
author: Emily Nunn
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2018/02/01
date added: 2018/01/31
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Twenty-Six 1496355 Like This,
A Finalist For The Giller Prize

Leo McKay Jr.’s bestselling novel is set in a small Nova Scotia town, where a family is changed forever after a devastating mining accident claims the lives of twenty-six men. As the story shifts back and forth in time and between characters, we meet the men and women of the Burrows family: brothers Ziv and Arvel, drawn to the mine for different reasons; their father, a former union organizer; Ziv’s ex-girlfriend, now living in Japan; and Arvel’s wife, who hopes for a better life for herself in the city. In the aftermath of the explosion, and as the investigation into its causes unfolds, the members of the Burrows family are forced to confront each other – and themselves – bringing the novel to its moving and redemptive conclusion. Written in spare, hard-hitting prose, and inspired in part by the Westray mining disaster, Twenty-Six is a novel of universal human struggle and understanding that evokes in all its drama and pathos a community transformed by tragedy.]]>
400 Leo McKay Jr 0771054750 Jessica 4 3.71 2003 Twenty-Six
author: Leo McKay Jr
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/30
date added: 2018/01/29
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Obsessed: America's Food Addiction - And My Own]]> 17692931 256 Mika Brzezinski 1602861765 Jessica 1 3.18 2013 Obsessed: America's Food Addiction - And My Own
author: Mika Brzezinski
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2018/01/16
date added: 2018/01/15
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House]]> 36595101 Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

Since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, the country―and the world―has witnessed a stormy, outrageous, and absolutely mesmerizing presidential term that reflects the volatility and fierceness of the man elected Commander-in-Chief.

This riveting and explosive account of Trump’s administration provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office, including:
-- What President Trump’s staff really thinks of him
-- What inspired Trump to claim he was wire-tapped by President Obama
-- Why FBI director James Comey was really fired
-- Why chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner couldn’t be in the same room
-- Who is really directing the Trump administration’s strategy in the wake of Bannon’s firing
-- What the secret to communicating with Trump is
-- What the Trump administration has in common with the movie The Producers

Never before in history has a presidency so divided the American people. Brilliantly reported and astoundingly fresh, Fire and Fury shows us how and why Donald Trump has become the king of discord and disunion.]]>
322 Michael Wolff 1250158060 Jessica 5 Incredible! 3.36 2018 Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House
author: Michael Wolff
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/13
date added: 2018/01/12
shelves:
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Incredible!
]]>
<![CDATA[Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike, #3)]]> 25735012 Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible – and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them…

Career of Evil is the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.]]>
512 Robert Galbraith 0316349933 Jessica 4 4.18 2015 Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike, #3)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2018/01/13
date added: 2018/01/12
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<![CDATA[The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks]]> 6493208
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia — a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo — to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family — past and present — is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.]]>
370 Rebecca Skloot 1400052173 Jessica 5 4.12 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
author: Rebecca Skloot
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2018/01/07
date added: 2018/01/07
shelves:
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What an incredible book. A story everyone should be aware of.
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 51496 139 Robert Louis Stevenson 0451528956 Jessica 4 3.84 1886 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1886
rating: 4
read at: 2017/12/09
date added: 2017/12/09
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A Christmas Carol 5326
Introduction and Afterword by Joe Wheeler
To bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner appears, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it's too late.

Part of the Focus on the Family Great Stories collection, this abridged edition features an in-depth introduction and discussion questions by Joe Wheeler to provide greater understanding for today's reader. "A Christmas Carol" captures the heart of the holidays like no other novel.]]>
184 Charles Dickens 1561797464 Jessica 5 4.06 1843 A Christmas Carol
author: Charles Dickens
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1843
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/25
date added: 2017/12/06
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<![CDATA[The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike, #2)]]> 18214414 Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before...]]>
464 Robert Galbraith 0316206873 Jessica 5 4.02 2014 The Silkworm (Cormoran Strike, #2)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2017/12/06
date added: 2017/12/06
shelves:
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<![CDATA[Strange Weather: Four Short Novels]]> 34066621
Snapshot is the disturbing story of a Silicon Valley adolescent who finds himself threatened by “The Phoenician,” a tattooed thug who possesses a Polaroid Instant Camera that erases memories, snap by snap.

A young man takes to the skies to experience his first parachute jump. . . and winds up a castaway on an impossibly solid cloud, a Prospero’s island of roiling vapor that seems animated by a mind of its own in Aloft.

On a seemingly ordinary day in Boulder, Colorado, the clouds open up in a downpour of nails—splinters of bright crystal that shred the skin of anyone not safely under cover. Rain explores this escalating apocalyptic event, as the deluge of nails spreads out across the country and around the world.

In Loaded, a mall security guard in a coastal Florida town courageously stops a mass shooting and becomes a hero to the modern gun rights movement. But under the glare of the spotlights, his story begins to unravel, taking his sanity with it. When an out-of-control summer blaze approaches the town, he will reach for the gun again and embark on one last day of reckoning.]]>
432 Joe Hill 0062663119 Jessica 5 3.83 2017 Strange Weather: Four Short Novels
author: Joe Hill
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/11/27
date added: 2017/11/27
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Born to Run 29072594 Born to Run

In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl’s halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it. That’s how this extraordinary autobiography began.

Over the past seven years, Bruce Springsteen has privately devoted himself to writing the story of his life, bringing to these pages the same honesty, humor, and originality found in his songs.

He describes growing up Catholic in Freehold, New Jersey, amid the poetry, danger, and darkness that fueled his imagination, leading up to the moment he refers to as “The Big Bang”: seeing Elvis Presley’s debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. He vividly recounts his relentless drive to become a musician, his early days as a bar band king in Asbury Park, and the rise of the E Street Band. With disarming candor, he also tells for the first time the story of the personal struggles that inspired his best work, and shows us why the song “Born to Run” reveals more than we previously realized.

Born to Run will be revelatory for anyone who has ever enjoyed Bruce Springsteen, but this book is much more than a legendary rock star’s memoir. This is a book for workers and dreamers, parents and children, lovers and loners, artists, freaks, or anyone who has ever wanted to be baptized in the holy river of rock and roll.

Rarely has a performer told his own story with such force and sweep. Like many of his songs (“Thunder Road,” “Badlands,” “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “The River,” “Born in the U.S.A.,” “The Rising,” and “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” to name just a few), Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography is written with the lyricism of a singular songwriter and the wisdom of a man who has thought deeply about his experiences.]]>
528 Bruce Springsteen 1501141511 Jessica 4 4.16 2016 Born to Run
author: Bruce Springsteen
name: Jessica
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2017/11/25
date added: 2017/11/25
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)]]> 16160797 456 Robert Galbraith 0316206849 Jessica 5 3.88 2013 The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Jessica
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2017/11/18
date added: 2017/11/17
shelves:
review:

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