Emily's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:59:06 -0700 60 Emily's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Final Girl Support Group 55829194 In horror movies, the final girls are the ones left standing when the credits roll. They made it through the worst night of their lives…but what happens after?

Like his bestselling novel The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, Grady Hendrix’s latest is a fast-paced, frightening, and wickedly humorous thriller. From chain saws to summer camp slayers, The Final Girl Support Group pays tribute to and slyly subverts our most popular horror films—movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream.

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.]]>
352 Grady Hendrix 059320123X Emily 0 3.49 2021 The Final Girl Support Group
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Emily
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2025/06/16
date added: 2025/07/01
shelves:
review:
DNF I didn’t learn English for this
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Wild Dark Shore 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.

Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.

But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.]]>
298 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Emily 0 4.19 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Emily
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/06/24
date added: 2025/06/24
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Stillhouse Lake (Stillhouse Lake, #1)]]> 33128934 An Amazon Charts and USA Today bestseller.

Gina Royal is the definition of average—a shy Midwestern housewife with a happy marriage and two adorable children. But when a car accident reveals her husband’s secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor—the ultimate warrior mom.

With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband’s crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.

But just when she’s starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake—and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed—or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is she’s learned how to fight evil. And she’ll never stop.

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301 Rachel Caine 1477821554 Emily 0 4.12 2017 Stillhouse Lake (Stillhouse Lake, #1)
author: Rachel Caine
name: Emily
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2025/06/22
date added: 2025/06/24
shelves:
review:

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Come Closer 55526995 Strange noises in the apartment.
Impulsive behaviour.
Intense dreams.
It wasn't like everything went wrong all at once.
Shoplifting.
Fighting.
Blackouts.
There must be a reasonable explanation for all this.]]>
165 Sara Gran 0571355552 Emily 0 3.71 2003 Come Closer
author: Sara Gran
name: Emily
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2025/06/19
date added: 2025/06/19
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Oleander Sword (The Burning Kingdoms, #2)]]> 53446712 "Alluring, action-packed, and gut-wrenching," (Publishers Weekly, starred review), The Oleander Sword continues Tasha Suri's acclaimed Burning Kingdoms trilogy,in which a powerful priestess and a vengeful princess will change the fate of an empire. **

The prophecy of the nameless god—the words that declared Malini the rightful empress of Parijatdvipa—has proven a blessing and curse. She is determined to claim the throne that fate offered her. But even with the strength of the rage in her heart and the army of loyal men by her side, deposing her brother is going to be a brutal and bloody fight.

The power of the deathless waters flows through Priya’s blood. Thrice born priestess, Elder of Ahiranya, Priya’s dream is to see her country rid of the rot that plagues both Parijatdvipa's poisonous rule, and the blooming sickness that is slowly spreading through all living things. But she doesn’t yet understand the truth of the magic she carries.

Their chosen paths once pulled them apart. But Malini and Priya's souls remain as entwined as their destinies. And they soon realize that coming together is the only way to save their kingdom from those who would rather see it burn—even if it will cost them.

Praise for the Burning Kingdoms

"Will undoubtedly reshape the landscape of epic fantasy for years to come."Booklist (starred review)

"Lush and stunning…this sapphic fantasy will rip your heart out."BuzzFeed News

"Raises the bar for what epic fantasy should be." —Chloe Gong, author of These Violent Delights

"This cutthroat and sapphic novel will grip you until the very end."Vulture (Best of the Year)

"It left me breathless." —Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter

"I loved it." —Alix E. Harrow, Hugo award-winning author of The Once and Future Witches

"Suri's incandescent feminist masterpiece hits like a steel fist inside a velvet glove." —Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun]]>
513 Tasha Suri 0316538531 Emily 0 4.34 2022 The Oleander Sword (The Burning Kingdoms, #2)
author: Tasha Suri
name: Emily
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2025/06/08
date added: 2025/06/18
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South]]> 40887375 A bold and searing investigation into the role of white women in the American slave economy

Bridging women’s history, the history of the South, and African American history, this book makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave-owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South’s slave market. Because women typically inherited more slaves than land, enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave-owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave-owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America.]]>
320 Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers 0300218664 Emily 0 currently-reading 4.29 2019 They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South
author: Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
name: Emily
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/18
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147 Ambition will fuel him.

Competition will drive him.

But power has its price.

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

The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]>
541 Suzanne Collins Emily 0 2020-releases 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Emily
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2025/06/15
date added: 2025/06/18
shelves: 2020-releases
review:

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When God Was a Woman 778248
In the beginning, God was a woman...

How did the shift from matriarchy to patriarchy come about? In fascinating detail, Merlin Stone tells us the story of the Goddess who reigned supreme in the Near and Middle East. Under her reign, societal roles differed markedly from those in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures: women bought and sold property, traded in the marketplace, and inherited title and land from their mothers. Documenting the wholesale rewriting of myth and religious dogmas, Merlin Stone describes an ancient conspiracy in which the Goddess was reimagined as a wanton, depraved figure, a characterization confirmed and perpetuated by one of modern culture's best-known legends—that of the fall of Adam and Eve. Insightful and thought-provoking, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the origin of current gender roles and in rediscovering women's power.]]>
302 Merlin Stone Emily 0 4.02 1976 When God Was a Woman
author: Merlin Stone
name: Emily
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at: 2025/06/18
date added: 2025/06/18
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Light of All That Falls (The Licanius Trilogy, #3)]]> 36111098
The Boundary is whole once again, but it may be too late.

Banes now stalk Andarra, while in Ilin Illan, the political machinations of a generation come to a head as Wirr's newfound ability forces his family's old enemies into action.

Imprisoned and alone in a strange land, Davian is pitted against the remaining Venerate as they work tirelessly to undo Asha's sacrifice - even as he struggles with what he has learned about the friend he chose to set free.

And Caeden, now facing the consequences of his centuries-old plan, must finally confront its reality - heartbroken at how it began, and devastated by how it must end.]]>
864 James Islington Emily 0 4.39 2019 The Light of All That Falls (The Licanius Trilogy, #3)
author: James Islington
name: Emily
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2025/05/31
date added: 2025/06/03
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Among the Burning Flowers (The Roots of Chaos, #0.5)]]> 222376983 With the awakening of fire-breathing dragons, Among the Burning Flowers sees the first sparks of danger that threaten to consume the world in The Priory of the Orange Tree.

Take your first steps into the epic.
Yscalin, land of sunshine and lavender, will soon be ablaze.

It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind.

Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world.

A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries.

And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall . . .

A story of human resilience in the face of dire circumstances, Among the Burning Flowers leads readers through the gripping and tragic circumstances that pave the way for the opening of the million-copy bestseller The Priory of The Orange Tree.

Richly illustrated with magical artwork by Rovina Cai (@rovinacai).
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288 Samantha Shannon 1639736018 Emily 0 to-read, 2025-releases
Update: I got the ARC!]]>
4.38 2025 Among the Burning Flowers (The Roots of Chaos, #0.5)
author: Samantha Shannon
name: Emily
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/24
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:
I need this!

Update: I got the ARC!
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<![CDATA[An Echo of Things to Come (The Licanius Trilogy, #2)]]> 32498052
The second book in a glorious new fantasy trilogy by the next major force in commercial epic fantasy.

In the wake of the devastating attack on Ilin Illan, an amnesty has been declared for all Augurs - finally allowing them to emerge from hiding and openly oppose the dark forces massing against Andarra. However as Davian and his new allies hurry north toward the ever-weakening Boundary, fresh horrors along their path suggest that their reprieve may have come far too late.
In the capital, Wirr is forced to contend with assassins and an increasingly hostile Administration as he controversially assumes the mantle of Northwarden, uncovering a mystery that draws into question everything commonly believed about the rebellion his father led twenty years ago. Meanwhile, Asha begins a secret investigation into the disappearance of the Shadows, determined to discover not only where they went but the origin of the Vessels that created them - and, ultimately, a cure.
And with time against him as he races to fulfill the treacherous bargain with the Lyth, Caeden continues to wrestle with the impossibly heavy burdens of his past. Yet as more and more of his memories return, he begins to realise that the motivations of the two sides in this ancient war may not be as clear-cut as they first seemed...
The Licanius TrilogyThe Shadow of What Was LostAn Echo of Things to Come]]>
752 James Islington 0316274119 Emily 0 4.20 2017 An Echo of Things to Come (The Licanius Trilogy, #2)
author: James Islington
name: Emily
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2025/05/20
date added: 2025/05/20
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[School of Shards (Vita Nostra, #3)]]> 219278616 The haunting final chapter of the modern classic Vita Nostra trilogy. The Dyachenkos’ magical dark academia novel brings the story of Sasha to a revelatory climax as she learns to take control of her powers and reshape the world...or destroy it forever. Beautifully translated from Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey.

The Institute of Special Technologies teaches students just one the magic that allows them to become parts of speech, and in doing so, transforming into a specific piece of grammar (a verb, or an adjective, or an article) so they will be able to shape the world around them. As the new provost, though, Sasha is facing an enormous the students in the world she just created, her “world without fear,” are unable to master the curriculum. Whether it’s the magic or the natural order of things, what they need to learn and become—Speech—is the basis of the material world.

And if she can’t teach it, Sasha knows that matter will soon cease to exist.

To protect the world, Sasha must collect fragments of her former reality. Only three people carry these fragments within her younger brother, Valya, and the Grigoriev twins, Arthur and Pashka, the sons of her former lover, Yaroslav Grigoriev. Sasha must lure these three to the Institute and make them learn—and understand—at any cost.

But she knows how difficult the path is, even more so from the other side of the teacher’s desk. Forced to act ever more ruthlessly, Sasha also notices the faster the world around the Institute changes. It is a vicious circle.

And one she must break.

To do so, she will have to shape reality again, one in which communication doesn’t break down and Speech once again needs to evolve and grow and flourish.

Sasha has already given up so much in pursuit of this dream—often her nightmare—and she might be asked to make one more sacrifice so that the world and Speech might live on.]]>
384 Marina Dyachenko 0063225484 Emily 0 2025-releases, arc 4.00 2025 School of Shards (Vita Nostra, #3)
author: Marina Dyachenko
name: Emily
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/05/16
date added: 2025/05/17
shelves: 2025-releases, arc
review:

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I Cheerfully Refuse 198276006 I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician setting sail on Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. An endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, he seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. After encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, he eventually lands to find an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, a crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. As his guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his wake.]]> 336 Leif Enger 0802162932 Emily 0 audiobooks, to-read 3.95 2024 I Cheerfully Refuse
author: Leif Enger
name: Emily
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/14
shelves: audiobooks, to-read
review:

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There Are Rivers in the Sky 202468422 From the Booker Prize finalist author of The Island of Missing Trees, an enchanting new tale about three characters living along two rivers, all under the shadow of one of the greatest epic poems of all time.

In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. From its ruins, however, emerged a poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, that would infuse the existence of two rivers and bind together three lives.

In 1840 London, Arthur is born beside the stinking, sewage-filled River Thames. With an abusive, alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother, Arthur’s only chance of escaping destitution is his brilliant memory. When his gift earns him a spot as an apprentice at a leading publisher, Arthur’s world opens up far beyond the slums, and one book in particular catches his interest: Nineveh and Its Remains.

In 2014 Turkey, Narin, a ten-year-old Yazidi girl, is diagnosed with a rare disorder that will soon cause her to go deaf. Before that happens, her grandmother is determined to baptize her in a sacred Iraqi temple. But with the rising presence of ISIS and the destruction of the family’s ancestral lands along the Tigris, Narin is running out of time.

In 2018 London, the newly divorced Zaleekah, a hydrologist, moves into a houseboat on the Thames to escape her husband. Orphaned and raised by her wealthy uncle, Zaleekah had made the decision to take her own life in one month, until a curious book about her homeland changes everything.

A dazzling feat of storytelling, There Are Rivers in the Sky entwines these outsiders with a single drop of water, a drop which remanifests across the centuries. Both a source of life and harbinger of death, rivers—the Tigris and the Thames—transcend history, transcend fate: “Water remembers. It is humans who forget.”]]>
464 Elif Shafak 0593801717 Emily 0 4.37 2024 There Are Rivers in the Sky
author: Elif Shafak
name: Emily
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/05/12
date added: 2025/05/14
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes, #2)]]> 222376572 Return to the cozy fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller, Fern.

Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!

If only things were so simple…

It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.

A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior surviving on inertia, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.

As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when there isn’t a job to get in the way.]]>
336 Travis Baldree 1250334888 Emily 0 to-read, 2025-releases, arc 4.31 2025 Brigands & Breadknives (Legends & Lattes, #2)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Emily
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases, arc
review:
How did I not know about this??
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Martyr! 219270274 A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others.]]>
352 Kaveh Akbar 0593685776 Emily 0 4.36 2024 Martyr!
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Emily
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil]]> 214567026 London, 1837.
Boston, 2019.

Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots.

One grows high, and one grows deep, and one grows wild.

And all of them grow teeth.]]>
544 V.E. Schwab Emily 3 2025-releases, arc 4.19 2025 Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
author: V.E. Schwab
name: Emily
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/24
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: 2025-releases, arc
review:

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A Short Stay in Hell 13456414
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.]]>
104 Steven L. Peck 098374842X Emily 4 4.16 2011 A Short Stay in Hell
author: Steven L. Peck
name: Emily
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/30
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves:
review:

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Great Big Beautiful Life 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years--or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.

One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has a whole month to win the legendary woman over.

Two: She’s ready for this job and the chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication

Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room.

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]>
432 Emily Henry Emily 2 4.00 2025 Great Big Beautiful Life
author: Emily Henry
name: Emily
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/20
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: 2025-releases, audiobooks, arc
review:

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<![CDATA[Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)]]> 23278767 342 Anne Rice Emily 3 3.70 1976 Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)
author: Anne Rice
name: Emily
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3)]]> 20538936
Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work. Their children are taught that David Pilcher, the town’s creator, is god. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed.

But Ethan has discovered the astonishing secret of what lies beyond the electrified fence that surrounds Wayward Pines and protects it from the terrifying world beyond. It is a secret that has the entire population completely under the control of a madman and his army of followers, a secret that is about to come storming through the fence to wipe out this last, fragile remnant of humanity.

Blake Crouch’s electrifying conclusion to the Wayward Pines Series—now a Major Television Event Series debuting Summer 2014 on FOX—will have you glued to the page right down to the very last word.]]>
285 Blake Crouch 1477822585 Emily 4 mystery-thriller-horror
The ending was much better than expected! I do think 3 books was a bit of stretch but I would recommend the series anyway!]]>
4.13 2014 The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3)
author: Blake Crouch
name: Emily
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2017/12/02
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: mystery-thriller-horror
review:
I can't review this without making a parallel with the TV Show. This book took 2 months to arrive and I had to finish the show... Which is nowhere near as good as the books.

The ending was much better than expected! I do think 3 books was a bit of stretch but I would recommend the series anyway!
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Equal Rites (Discworld, #3) 8700453 They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son.

Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check that the baby in question was a son.

Everybody knows that there's no such thing as a female wizard. But now it's gone and happened, there's nothing much anyone can do about it.

Let the battle of the sexes begin...]]>
277 Terry Pratchett Emily 4 audiobooks 4.27 1987 Equal Rites (Discworld, #3)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Emily
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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<![CDATA[Mort (Discworld, #4; Death, #1)]]> 386372
Death is the Grim Reaper of the Discworld, a black-robed skeleton with a scythe who ushers souls into the next world. He is also fond of cats and endlessly baffled by humanity. Soon Death is yearning to experience what humanity really has to offer, but to do that, he'll need to hire some help.

It's an offer Mort can't refuse. As Death's apprentice he'll have free board, use of the company horse—and being dead isn't compulsory. It's a dream job—until Mort falls in love with Death's daughter, Ysabell, and discovers that your boss can be a killer on your love life…]]>
243 Terry Pratchett 0061020680 Emily 3 4.24 1987 Mort (Discworld, #4; Death, #1)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Emily
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me, #1)]]> 216437557 disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong…

. . . unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date—possibly the best in living history—Samantha is forced to admit the truth, that her family is in crisis and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be.

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]>
416 Abby Jimenez 0349442827 Emily 4 4.02 2025 Say You'll Remember Me (Say You'll Remember Me, #1)
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Emily
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: 2025-releases, audiobooks, arc
review:

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<![CDATA[The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)]]> 16248113 The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.

This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil.

But when the two girls are swept into the Endless Woods, they find their fortunes reversed—Sophie’s dumped in the School for Evil to take Uglification, Death Curses, and Henchmen Training, while Agatha finds herself in the School For Good, thrust amongst handsome princes and fair maidens for classes in Princess Etiquette and Animal Communication.. But what if the mistake is actually the first clue to discovering who Sophie and Agatha really are…?

The School for Good & Evil is an epic journey into a dazzling new world, where the only way out of a fairy tale is to live through one.]]>
488 Soman Chainani 0062104896 Emily 2 4.00 2013 The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)
author: Soman Chainani
name: Emily
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves:
review:

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They Never Learn 124948406 From the author of the “raw, ingenious, and utterly fearless” (Wendy Walker, USA TODAY bestselling author) Temper comes a dynamic psychological thriller about two women who give bad men exactly what they deserve.

Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder.

Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself—but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything’s going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.

Meanwhile, Gorman student Carly Schiller is just trying to survive her freshman year. Finally free of her emotionally abusive father, all Carly wants is to focus on her studies and fade into the background. Her new roommate has other ideas. Allison Hadley is cool and confident—everything Carly wishes she could be—and the two girls quickly form an intense friendship. So when Allison is sexually assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay...and turning her fantasies about revenge into a reality.

Featuring Layne Fargo’s trademark “propulsive writing style” (Kirkus Reviews) and “sinister, of the moment” (Chicago Review of Books) suspense, They Never Learn is a feminist serial killer story perfect for fans of Killing Eve and Chelsea Cain.]]>
349 Layne Fargo Emily 4 3.85 2020 They Never Learn
author: Layne Fargo
name: Emily
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
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The Night We Lost Him 207299448
Though the authorities rule Liam's death accidental, Nora and her estranged brother, Sam, believe otherwise. As they form an uneasy alliance to unpack the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

With Laura Dave’s “signature blend of pulse-pounding suspense” (PEOPLE) and “trademark emotional heft” (The New York Post), The Night We Lost Him is a “propulsive” (Oprah Daily) must-read, with a heartbreaking final twist you’ll never see coming.]]>
298 Laura Dave 1668002930 Emily 2 audiobooks 3.55 2024 The Night We Lost Him
author: Laura Dave
name: Emily
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: audiobooks
review:
Second chances aren't overrated.
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The Devils (The Devils, #1) 212276037 Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters, and the mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.]]>
565 Joe Abercrombie Emily 0 4.30 2025 The Devils (The Devils, #1)
author: Joe Abercrombie
name: Emily
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: 2025-releases, arc, currently-reading
review:

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

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]>
387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Emily 4 2025-releases 4.55 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Emily
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: 2025-releases
review:
Teenage me would be so jealous right now.
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<![CDATA[A Pirate's Life for Tea (Tomes & Tea, #2)]]> 75646557
While searching for stolen dragon eggs, newly engaged couple Kianthe and Reyna find themselves smack-dab in the middle of a swashbuckling love story.

On one side is Serina, a failed farmer turned river pirate. Her booty? Wheat, grains, and the occasional jar of imported tea leaves. It's quite the embarrassment to Diarn Arlon, the powerful lord of the Nacean River, and he'll conscript anyone to bring her to justice. Especially Kianthe, the elemental mage who just crashed his party, and her somewhat-scary fiancée.

Begrudgingly, the couple joins forces with Bobbie, one of Arlon's constables--who happens to be Serina's childhood friend. Bobbie is determined to capture the pirate before anyone else, but it would be a lot easier if Serina didn't absolutely loathe her now.

As Kianthe and Reyna watch this relation-shipwreck from afar, it quickly becomes apparent that these disaster lesbians need all the help they can get. Luckily, matchmaking is Reyna's favorite past time. The dragon eggs may have to wait.]]>
444 Rebecca Thorne Emily 3 arc, audiobooks "To the people who gave me one-star reviews because the first book "had lesbians." I doubled the lesbians in this one. Just for you."

This is how you get me to read all of your books. ]]>
4.12 2023 A Pirate's Life for Tea (Tomes & Tea, #2)
author: Rebecca Thorne
name: Emily
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: arc, audiobooks
review:
"To the people who gave me one-star reviews because the first book "had lesbians." I doubled the lesbians in this one. Just for you."

This is how you get me to read all of your books.
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<![CDATA[How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease]]> 25663961 New York Times Bestseller

"This book may help those who are susceptible to illnesses that can be prevented."—His Holiness the Dalai Lama

"Absolutely the best book I've read on nutrition and diet" –Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones Solution

From the physician behind the wildly popular NutritionFacts website, How Not to Die reveals the groundbreaking scientific evidence behind the only diet that can prevent and reverse many of the causes of disease-related death.

The vast majority of premature deaths can be prevented through simple changes in diet and lifestyle. In How Not to Die, Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-renowned nutrition expert, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts, examines the fifteen top causes of premature death in America-heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson's, high blood pressure, and more-and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches, freeing us to live healthier lives.

The simple truth is that most doctors are good at treating acute illnesses but bad at preventing chronic disease. The fifteen leading causes of death claim the lives of 1.6 million Americans annually. This doesn't have to be the case. By following Dr. Greger's advice, all of it backed up by strong scientific evidence, you will learn which foods to eat and which lifestyle changes to make to live longer.

History of prostate cancer in your family? Put down that glass of milk and add flaxseed to your diet whenever you can. Have high blood pressure? Hibiscus tea can work better than a leading hypertensive drug-and without the side effects. Fighting off liver disease? Drinking coffee can reduce liver inflammation. Battling breast cancer? Consuming soy is associated with prolonged survival. Worried about heart disease (the number 1 killer in the United States)? Switch to a whole-food, plant-based diet, which has been repeatedly shown not just to prevent the disease but often stop it in its tracks.

In addition to showing what to eat to help treat the top fifteen causes of death, How Not to Die includes Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen -a checklist of the twelve foods we should consume every day. Full of practical, actionable advice and surprising, cutting edge nutritional science, these doctor's orders are just what we need to live longer, healthier lives.]]>
576 Michael Greger 1250066115 Emily 0 audiobooks 4.41 2015 How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease
author: Michael Greger
name: Emily
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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<![CDATA[How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files #2)]]> 216970503 Kristen Perrin is back with the second novel in her Castle Knoll series. Annie Adams is caught in a new web of murder that spans decades, returning us to the idyllic English village that holds layers of secrets.

Present Annie Adams is just settling into life in Castle Knoll when local fortune teller Peony Lane crosses her path and shares a cryptic message. When Peony Lane is found dead only hours later inside the locked Gravesdown Estate, Annie quickly realizes that someone is out to make her look guilty while silencing Peony at the same time. Annie has no choice but to delve into the dark secrets of Castle Knoll in order to find out just what Peony Lane was trying to warn her about, before the new life she’s just begun to build comes crashing down around her.

1967: A year has passed since her friend Emily disappeared, and teenage Frances Adams finds herself caught between two men. Ford Gravesdown is one of the only remaining members of a family known for its wealth and dubious uses of power. Archie Foyle is a local who can’t hold down a job and lives above the village pub. But when Frances teams up with Archie to investigate the car crash that claimed the lives of Ford's family, it quickly becomes clear that this was no accident—hints of cover-ups, lies, and betrayals abound. The question is, just how far does the blackness creep through the heart of Castle Knoll? When Frances uncovers secrets kept by both Ford and Archie, she starts to What exactly has she gotten herself into?]]>
316 Kristen Perrin 0593474066 Emily 3 2025-releases 3.82 2025 How to Seal Your Own Fate (Castle Knoll Files #2)
author: Kristen Perrin
name: Emily
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: 2025-releases
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<![CDATA[Breath of the Dragon: the legendary and epic new fantasy set in a martial arts dynasty (Guardian of the Scroll)]]> 217059104
But Jun's father strictly forbids him from participating. He believes there is no future in Jun honing his skills as a warrior, especially considering Jun is not breathmarked, born with a patch of dragon scales and blessed with special abilities like his twin. Determined to be the next Guardian, Jun stows away in the wagon of Chang and his daughter, Ren, performers on their way to the capital where the tournament will take place.

As Jun competes, he quickly realizes he may be fighting for not just a better life, but the fate of the country itself and the very survival of everyone he cares about.]]>
345 Shannon Lee 1399723464 Emily 0 to-read 4.27 2025 Breath of the Dragon: the legendary and epic new fantasy set in a martial arts dynasty (Guardian of the Scroll)
author: Shannon Lee
name: Emily
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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When The Body Says No 39899252 Can a person literally die of loneliness? Is there a connection between the ability to express emotions and Alzheimer’s disease? Is there such a thing as a ‘cancer personality’?

Drawing on deep scientific research and Dr Gabor Maté’s acclaimed clinical work, When the Body Says No provides the answers to critical questions about the mind-body link – and the role that stress and our emotional makeup play in an array of common diseases.

When the Body Says No:

- Explores the role of the mind-body link in conditions and diseases such as arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome and multiple sclerosis.
- Shares dozens of enlightening case studies and stories, including those of people such as Lou Gehrig (ALS), Betty Ford (breast cancer), Ronald Reagan (Alzheimer’s), Gilda Radner (ovarian cancer) and Lance Armstrong (testicular cancer)
- Reveals ‘The Seven A’s of Healing’: principles in healing and the prevention of illness from hidden stress]]>
306 Gabor Maté 178504222X Emily 0 audiobooks, to-read 4.17 2003 When The Body Says No
author: Gabor Maté
name: Emily
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: audiobooks, to-read
review:

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The Lost Metal (Mistborn, #7) 23947089 Return to #1 New York Times bestseller Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn world of Scadrial as its second era, which began with The Alloy of Law, comes to its earth-shattering conclusion in The Lost Metal.

For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set—with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders—since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner, Wayne, find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between the capital, Elendel, and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate—whose corruption Wax and his wife, Steris, have sought to expose—and Bilming is even more entangled.

After Wax discovers a new type of explosive that can unleash unprecedented destruction and realizes that the Set must already have it, an immortal kandra serving Scadrial's god, Harmony, reveals that Bilming has fallen under the influence of another god: Trell, worshipped by the Set. And Trell isn't the only factor at play from the larger Cosmere—Marasi is recruited by offworlders with strange abilities who claim their goal is to protect Scadrial . . . at any cost.

Wax must choose whether to set aside his rocky relationship with God and once again become the Sword that Harmony has groomed him to be. If no one steps forward to be the hero Scadrial needs, the planet and its millions of people will come to a sudden and calamitous ruin.]]>
507 Brandon Sanderson 0765391198 Emily 3 2022-releases, audiobooks 4.46 2022 The Lost Metal (Mistborn, #7)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Emily
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: 2022-releases, audiobooks
review:

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The Seven Year Slip 62926938 An overworked book publicist with a perfectly planned future hits a snag when she falls in love with her temporary roommate…only to discover he lives seven years in the past, in this witty and wise new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics.

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.]]>
336 Ashley Poston Emily 4 4.17 2023 The Seven Year Slip
author: Ashley Poston
name: Emily
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves:
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Swordheart (Swordheart, #1) 218624103 448 T. Kingfisher 1250400228 Emily 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.04 2018 Swordheart (Swordheart, #1)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Emily
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

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The Spear Cuts Through Water 55868456 Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this new epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.
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525 Simon Jimenez 0593156595 Emily 0 to-read, dnf 4.16 2022 The Spear Cuts Through Water
author: Simon Jimenez
name: Emily
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read, dnf
review:

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<![CDATA[Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1)]]> 211004175
A mind is a terrible thing to erase...

Welcome to the HMS Fairweather, Her Majesty's most luxurious interstellar passenger liner! Room and board are included, new bodies are graciously provided upon request, and should you desire a rest between lifetimes, your mind shall be most carefully preserved in glass in the Library, shielded from every danger.

Near the topmost deck of an interstellar generation ship, Dorothy Gentleman wakes up in a body that isn't hers—just as someone else is found murdered. As one of the ship's detectives, Dorothy usually delights in unraveling the schemes on board the Fairweather, but when she finds that someone is not only killing bodies but purposefully deleting minds from the Library, she realizes something even more sinister is afoot.

Dorothy suspects her misfortune is partly the fault of her feckless nephew Ruthie who, despite his brilliance as a programmer, leaves chaos in his cheerful wake. Or perhaps the sultry yarn store proprietor—and ex-girlfriend of the body Dorothy is currently inhabiting—knows more than she's letting on. Whatever it is, Dorothy intends to solve this case. Because someone has done the impossible and found a way to make murder on the Fairweather a very permanent state indeed. A mastermind may be at work—and if so, they've had three hundred years to perfect their schemes...]]>
103 Olivia Waite 1250342244 Emily 3 2025-releases, arc 3.57 2025 Murder by Memory (Dorothy Gentleman, #1)
author: Olivia Waite
name: Emily
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: 2025-releases, arc
review:

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<![CDATA[Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop]]> 133938826 should feel successful—but all she feels is drained. Haunted by an abandoned dream, she takes a leap of faith and leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a quiet residential neighborhood outside the city and opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

The transition isn’t easy. For months, all Yeongju can do is cry. But as the long hours in the shop stretch on, she begins to reflect on what makes a good bookseller and a meaningful store. She throws herself into reading voraciously, hosting author events, and crafting her own philosophy on bookselling. Gradually, Yeongju finds her footing in her new surroundings.

Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that bind them, Yeongju begins to write a new chapter in her life. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop evolves into a warm, welcoming haven for lost souls—a place to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start over.]]>
307 Hwang Bo-Reum Emily 0 audiobooks, to-read, dnf 3.92 2022 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
author: Hwang Bo-Reum
name: Emily
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: audiobooks, to-read, dnf
review:

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<![CDATA[The Glass Sentence (The Mapmakers Trilogy, #1)]]> 18668056  
Boston, 1891. Sophia Tims comes from a family of explorers and cartologers who, for generations, have been traveling and mapping the New World—a world changed by the Great Disruption of 1799, when all the continents were flung into different time periods.  Eight years ago, her parents left her with her uncle Shadrack, the foremost cartologer in Boston, and went on an urgent mission. They never returned. Life with her brilliant, absent-minded, adored uncle has taught Sophia to take care of herself.

Then Shadrack is kidnapped. And Sophia, who has rarely been outside of Boston, is the only one who can search for him. Together with Theo, a refugee from the West, she travels over rough terrain and uncharted ocean, encounters pirates and traders, and relies on a combination of Shadrack’s maps, common sense, and her own slantwise powers of observation. But even as Sophia and Theo try to save Shadrack’s life, they are in danger of losing their own.

The Glass Sentence plunges readers into a time and place they will not want to leave, and introduces them to a heroine and hero they will take to their hearts. It is a remarkable debut.]]>
493 S.E. Grove 0670785024 Emily 3 3.82 2014 The Glass Sentence (The Mapmakers Trilogy, #1)
author: S.E. Grove
name: Emily
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves:
review:

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The Message 217009901
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates's attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me illuminates the past, bracingly confronts the present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.]]>
229 Ta-Nehisi Coates 1405971800 Emily 0 audiobooks 4.65 2024 The Message
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Emily
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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Bury Your Gays 195790870 From Chuck Tingle, author of the USA Today bestselling Camp Damascus, comes a new heart-pounding story about what it takes to succeed in a world that wants you dead.

Misha is a jaded scriptwriter who has been working in Hollywood for years, and has just been nominated for his first Oscar. But when he's pressured by his producers to kill off a gay character in the upcoming season finale―"for the algorithm"―Misha discovers that it's not that simple.

As he is haunted by his past, and past mistakes, Misha must risk everything to find a way to do what's right―before it's too late.]]>
295 Chuck Tingle 1250874653 Emily 3 audiobooks 4.11 2024 Bury Your Gays
author: Chuck Tingle
name: Emily
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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Blue Sisters 195430687 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]>
352 Coco Mellors 0593723767 Emily 3 3.92 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Emily
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

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Listen for the Lie 127279000 What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn't matter?

Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all and, if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. But after Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer.

It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life. But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast Listen for the Lie and its too-good looking host, Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one who did it.

The truth is out there, if we just listen.]]>
352 Amy Tintera 1250880319 Emily 4 audiobooks 4.06 2024 Listen for the Lie
author: Amy Tintera
name: Emily
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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Katabasis 210223811 Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.]]>
400 R.F. Kuang Emily 0 to-read, 2025-releases Is it August yet? 3.94 2025 Katabasis
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Emily
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:
Is it August yet?
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<![CDATA[Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture, #3)]]> 62315578 The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us the third and final novel in an extraordinary space opera trilogy about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.


Lords of Uncreation is the final high-octane installment in Adrian Tchaikovsky's Final Architecture space opera trilogy.


The Final Architecture
Shards of Earth
Eyes of the Void
Lords of Uncreation 
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608 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1668628104 Emily 0 2023-releases, to-read 4.21 2023 Lords of Uncreation (The Final Architecture, #3)
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Emily
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: 2023-releases, to-read
review:

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When the Moon Hits Your Eye 211004190
It's a whole new moooooon.

One day soon, suddenly and without explanation, the moon as we know it is replaced with an orb of cheese with the exact same mass. Through the length of an entire lunar cycle, from new moon to a spectacular and possibly final solar eclipse, we follow multiple characters -- schoolkids and scientists, billionaires and workers, preachers and politicians -- as they confront the strange new world they live in, and the absurd, impossible moon that now hangs above all their lives.]]>
326 John Scalzi 0765389096 Emily 3 2025-releases, arc 3.79 2025 When the Moon Hits Your Eye
author: John Scalzi
name: Emily
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: 2025-releases, arc
review:

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<![CDATA[A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)]]> 213618143 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]>
465 Robert Jackson Bennett 0593723821 Emily 4 2025-releases, arc 4.50 2025 A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Emily
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: 2025-releases, arc
review:

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<![CDATA[All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today]]> 158649729 The fascinating history of women’s health as it’s never been told before.

For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The history of women’s healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless—a narrative instead written from the perspective of men who styled themselves as authorities on the female of the species, yet uninformed by women’s own voices, thoughts, fears, pain and experiences. The result is a cultural and societal legacy that continues to shape the (mis)treatment and care of women.

While the modern age has seen significant advancements in the medical field, the notion that female bodies are flawed inversions of the male ideal lingers on—as do the pervasive societal stigmas and lingering ignorance that shape women’s health and relationships with their own bodies.

Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Dr. Elizabeth Comen peels back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies—how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today’s medical thought, and the many oversights that still remain unaddressed. With a physician’s knowledge and empathy, Dr. Comen follows the road map of the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, as well as her own experience treating thousands of women.

Empowering women to better understand ourselves and advocate for care that prioritizes healthy and joyful lives—for us and generations to come—All in Her Head is written with humor, wisdom, and deep scientific and cultural insight. Eye-opening, sometimes enraging, yet always captivating, this shared memoir of women’s medical history is an essential contribution to a holistic understanding and much-needed reclaiming of women’s history and bodies.]]>
368 Elizabeth Comen 0063293013 Emily 0 audiobooks 4.35 2024 All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today
author: Elizabeth Comen
name: Emily
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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Witchcraft for Wayward Girls 207611566 There’s power in a book…

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

In Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, the author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (NPR).]]>
482 Grady Hendrix 0593548981 Emily 4 2025-releases 3.97 2025 Witchcraft for Wayward Girls
author: Grady Hendrix
name: Emily
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: 2025-releases
review:

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<![CDATA[A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2)]]> 213075405 Elias and Laia are running for their lives.

After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.

Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars' survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.

But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus's will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape...and kill them both.]]>
460 Sabaa Tahir 110199889X Emily 4 Will be reading book 3 soon! 4.17 2016 A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes, #2)
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Emily
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves:
review:
Will be reading book 3 soon!
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<![CDATA[Assassin of Reality (Vita Nostra, #2)]]> 61331501 The eagerly anticipated sequel to the highly acclaimed Vita Nostra takes readers to the next stage in Sasha Samokhina’s journey in a richly imagined world of dark academia in which grammar is magic—and not all magic is good.

In Vita Nostra, Sasha Samokhina, a third-year student at the Institute of Special Technologies, was in the middle of taking the final exam that would transform her into a part of the Great Speech. After defying her teachers’ expectations, Sasha emerges from the exam as Password, a unique and powerful part of speech. Accomplished and ready to embrace her new role, she soon learns her powers threaten the old world, and despite her hard work, Sasha is set to fail.

However, Farit Kozhennikov, Sasha’s dark mentor, finds a way to bring her out of the oblivion and back to the Institute for his own selfish purposes. Subsequently, Sasha must correct her mistakes before she is allowed to graduate and is forced to do what few are asked and even less achieve: to succeed and reverberate—becoming a part of the Great Speech and being one of the special few who dictate reality. If she fails, she faces a fate far worse than death: the choice is hers.

Years have passed around the Institute—and the numerous realities that have spread from Sasha’s first failure—but it is only her fourth year of learning what role she will play in shaping the world. Her teachers despise and fear her, her classmates distrust her, and a growing love—for a young pilot with no affiliation to the school—is fraught because a relationship means leverage, and Farit won’t hesitate to use it against her.

Planes crash all the time. Which means Sasha needs to rewrite the world so that can’t happen...or fail for good.]]>
256 Marina Dyachenko 0063225441 Emily 4 2023-releases I can't wait to read the third one!]]> 3.71 2021 Assassin of Reality (Vita Nostra, #2)
author: Marina Dyachenko
name: Emily
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: 2023-releases
review:
(4.25) This is such a strange but unique series.
I can't wait to read the third one!
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<![CDATA[Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery]]> 60784416 Set in Colonial New England, Slewfoot is a tale of magic and mystery, of triumph and terror as only dark fantasist Brom can tell it.

Connecticut, 1666: An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector.

The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil.

To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help.

Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan – one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake.

This terrifying tale of bewitchery features more than two dozen of Brom’s haunting full-color paintings and brilliant endpapers, fully immersing readers in this wild and unforgiving world.]]>
305 Brom 1250621992 Emily 5 favorites This made me happy... 4.37 2021 Slewfoot: A Tale of Bewitchery
author: Brom
name: Emily
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/11
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: favorites
review:
This made me happy...
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We Used to Live Here 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?]]>
308 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Emily 5 favorites
I wasn't totally sold at first but the second half won me over very easily.]]>
3.64 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Emily
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/09
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: favorites
review:
This was right up my alley!

I wasn't totally sold at first but the second half won me over very easily.
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Defiant (Skyward, #4) 43606308 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes the final book in an epic series about a girl who will travel beyond the stars to save the world she loves from destruction.

Spensa has made it out of the Nowhere, but what she saw in the space between the stars has changed her forever. She came face to face with the Delvers, and finally got answers to the questions she’s had about her own strange Cytonic gifts.

The Superiority didn’t stop in its fight for galactic dominance while she was gone, though. Spensa’s team, Skyward Flight, was able to hold Winzik off, and even collect allies to help with the cause, but it’s only a matter of time until humanity–and the rest of the galaxy–falls.

Defeating them will require all the knowledge Spensa gathered while in the Nowhere. But being Cytonic is more complicated than she ever could have imagined. Now, Spensa must ask herself: How far is she willing to go for victory, if it means losing herself–and her friends–in the process.

The final book in the Skyward series will free humanity, or see it fall forever.]]>
420 Brandon Sanderson 0593309715 Emily 0 2023-releases, dnf, to-read 4.28 2023 Defiant (Skyward, #4)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Emily
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: 2023-releases, dnf, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food]]> 74843806 THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER ‧ LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION ‧ The bestselling and eye-opening investigation into the science, economics, history and impact of ultra-processed food.

With a new Afterword by the author.

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR ‧ The Economist The Times ‧ The New YorkerSmithsonian Daily MailThe GuardianFinancial Times ‧ and more!

It's not you, it's the food.

How much of our daily caloric intake comes from ingesting substances that, technically speaking, do not meet traditional definitions of “food”? Chances are, if you’re eating something that came wrapped in plastic and contains a funky ingredient you don’t have in your kitchen, it's most likely—almost definitely—ultra-processed food, or UPF. More than the principal obstacle to “eating right,” UPF has been linked to metabolic disease, depression, inflammation, anxiety, and cancer, while the production, distribution, and disposal of UPF and related products globally is known to cause devastating environmental damage. At the same time, UPF represents the dominant, nigh-unavoidable food culture for millions upon millions of eaters.

Medical doctor and broadcaster Chris van Tulleken has spent his career trying to reframe the conversation around eating right, balancing the hard (and sometimes shocking) facts about what we're putting into our bodies with empathy for the natural desire to keep eating what we like, have time for, and can afford. As he argues in this book, we are all participants in an experiment we didn't consent to, one to determine how to get us to buy as much ultra-processed food as possible. It’s not as simple as stumbling across the right diet trend, finding time to meal plan, or avoiding over-indulging in sugar, fat, or carbs or any other culprit. Nor is it a matter of individual will. It’s about learning to live in “the third age of eating”—defined by the overwhelming abundance of ultra-processed eating options—and arming yourself with the simple and not-so-simple facts that will help you make the choices that are right for you.]]>
399 Chris van Tulleken 1039004962 Emily 4 audiobooks 4.34 2023 Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food
author: Chris van Tulleken
name: Emily
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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<![CDATA[The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels]]> 61157639
Now, true crime author Amanda Bailey is looking to revive her career by writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen; finding them will be the scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and also on the baby’s trail.

As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realize that the truth about the Angels is much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined, and in pursuit of the story they risk becoming part of it.]]>
416 Janice Hallett 1800810407 Emily 3 3.90 2023 The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels
author: Janice Hallett
name: Emily
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:

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The Island of Missing Trees 59808427 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he’s searching for lost love.

Years later, a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited - her only connection to her family’s troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world.

A moving, beautifully written and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak’s best work yet.]]>
368 Elif Shafak 1635579791 Emily 4 4.08 2021 The Island of Missing Trees
author: Elif Shafak
name: Emily
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[What You Are Looking For Is in the Library]]> 91274427 For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader's life.

What are you looking for?

This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.

Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazine editor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.

With heartwarming charm and wisdom, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a paean to the magic of libraries, friendship and community, perfect for anyone who has ever found themselves at an impasse in their life and in need of a little inspiration.]]>
304 Michiko Aoyama 1335005625 Emily 0 audiobooks, dnf, to-read 4.06 2020 What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
author: Michiko Aoyama
name: Emily
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: audiobooks, dnf, to-read
review:

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Isles of the Emberdark 210300489 Brandon Sanderson Emily 0 2025-releases, to-read 4.66 2025 Isles of the Emberdark
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Emily
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: 2025-releases, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)]]> 139391940 A spicy small-town romance and TikTok phenomenon, perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and Stephanie Archer.

When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes…

The Pumpkin Spice Café is a cozy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls, with a grumpy x sunshine dynamic, a small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

‧ grumpy x sunshine
‧ small town
‧ found family
‧ spicy]]>
373 Laurie Gilmore 0008610665 Emily 2 audiobooks I don't get it.

(2.5) I don't get why people loved it and frankly, I don't even get why people hated it.
It's a very mediocre Hallmark-esque kinda book but with some spice.
Forgettable.]]>
3.36 2023 The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Emily
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves: audiobooks
review:
I don't get it.

(2.5) I don't get why people loved it and frankly, I don't even get why people hated it.
It's a very mediocre Hallmark-esque kinda book but with some spice.
Forgettable.
]]>
<![CDATA[Breath of the Dragon: (Breathmarked, 1)]]> 221164527 The first novel in a sweeping YA fantasy duology based on characters and teachings created by Bruce Lee!

Sixteen-year-old Jun dreams of proving his worth as a warrior in the elite Guardian’s Tournament, held every six years to entrust the magical Scroll of Earth to a new protector. Eager to prove his skills, Jun hopes that a win will restore his father’s honor—righting a horrible mistake that caused their banishment from his home, mother, and twin brother.

But Jun’s father strictly forbids him from participating. There is no future in honing his skills as a warrior, especially considering Jun is not breathmarked, born with a patch of dragon scales and blessed with special abilities like his twin. Determined to be the next Guardian, Jun stows away in the wagon of Chang and his daughter, Ren, performers on their way to the capital where the tournament will take place.

As Jun competes, he quickly realizes he may be fighting for not just a better life, but the fate of the country itself.]]>
352 Shannon Lee 1250391148 Emily 0 to-read 4.57 2025 Breath of the Dragon: (Breathmarked, 1)
author: Shannon Lee
name: Emily
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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A Sorceress Comes to Call 195790847 A dark retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Goose Girl, rife with secrets, murder, and forbidden magic

Cordelia knows her mother is unusual. Their house doesn’t have any doors between rooms, and her mother doesn't allow Cordelia to have a single friend—unless you count Falada, her mother's beautiful white horse. The only time Cordelia feels truly free is on her daily rides with him. But more than simple eccentricity sets her mother apart. Other mothers don’t force their daughters to be silent and motionless for hours, sometimes days, on end. Other mothers aren’t sorcerers.

After a suspicious death in their small town, Cordelia’s mother insists they leave in the middle of the night, riding away on Falada’s sturdy back, leaving behind all Cordelia has ever known. They arrive at the remote country manor of a wealthy older man, the Squire, and his unwed sister, Hester. Cordelia’s mother intends to lure the Squire into marriage, and Cordelia knows this can only be bad news for the bumbling gentleman and his kind, intelligent sister.

Hester sees the way Cordelia shrinks away from her mother, how the young girl sits eerily still at dinner every night. Hester knows that to save her brother from bewitchment and to rescue the terrified Cordelia, she will have to face down a wicked witch of the worst kind.]]>
321 T. Kingfisher 1250244072 Emily 3 4.05 2024 A Sorceress Comes to Call
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Emily
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Yumi and the Nightmare Painter]]> 60531416 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin.

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?]]>
480 Brandon Sanderson 1938570375 Emily 3 audiobooks 4.45 2023 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Emily
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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<![CDATA[The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality]]> 176443264 Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.

Utilizing the linguistic insights of her “witty and brilliant” first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet.

“Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external Think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.

In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “Halo effect” cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the “Sunk Cost Fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.]]>
259 Amanda Montell 1668007975 Emily 2 audiobooks Do we now just write books and slap whatever title we feel like at the end?

This book had very little to do with what you'd expect. Mostly a memoir and honestly... not offense but who are you? I don't read memoirs unless they're on a topic I really care about or someone I'm interested in.

This collection of essays was all over the place and barely related to the topic.
This book feels like clickbait and a money grab.

Skip it.

Review: ]]>
3.44 2024 The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality
author: Amanda Montell
name: Emily
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: audiobooks
review:
Do we now just write books and slap whatever title we feel like at the end?

This book had very little to do with what you'd expect. Mostly a memoir and honestly... not offense but who are you? I don't read memoirs unless they're on a topic I really care about or someone I'm interested in.

This collection of essays was all over the place and barely related to the topic.
This book feels like clickbait and a money grab.

Skip it.

Review:
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<![CDATA[It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)]]> 195790756 An inclusive and essential guide to reproductive health—including period problems, pelvic pain, menopause, fertility, sexual health, vaginal and urinary conditions, and overall wellbeing―from leading expert Dr. Karen Tang

Reproductive healthcare, from abortion to gender-affirming care, is under siege. The onus continues to fall on patients to find and advocate for the care they need. Dr. Karen Tang is on a mission to transform how women engage with their bodies and their healthcare.

Did you know that one in three women experiences menstrual abnormalities or pelvic issues, yet these conditions are overwhelmingly misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or dismissed? The root causes for these issues, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, fibroids, ovarian cysts, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and pelvic-floor muscle dysfunction, don’t receive the stream of funding for research and new treatments that other conditions do, despite the potential to affect up to half the population.

It’s Not Hysteria is a comprehensive guide to common conditions and potential treatment options, with practical tools such as symptom prompts and sample questions to ask one's provider. In the face of uncertainty and misinformation, It’s Not Hysteria is destined to become a new classic that educates and empowers.]]>
384 Karen Tang 1250894158 Emily 0 audiobooks 4.18 2024 It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)
author: Karen Tang
name: Emily
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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<![CDATA[What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier, #2)]]> 127306440
Retired soldier Alex Easton returns in a horrifying new adventure.

After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine, and sunshine, but instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia.

In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns, but when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home. . . or in their dreams.]]>
151 T. Kingfisher 1250830850 Emily 3 3.78 2024 What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier, #2)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Emily
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves:
review:

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Daughter of Mine 176443330 The new thrilling novel from Megan Miranda, the instant New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls, The Last to Vanish, and The Only Survivors.

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.]]>
368 Megan Miranda Emily 3 2024-releases 3.88 2024 Daughter of Mine
author: Megan Miranda
name: Emily
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/12/24
shelves: 2024-releases
review:

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The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]>
384 Alison Espach Emily 5
Loved the humor/banter and I enjoyed the deeper discussions sprinkled in between.

I would like to remind white people to stop embarrassing us and start washing themselves properly. (the FMC mentions twice that she doesn’t wash her back… pls)

It made it to my best books of 2024: ]]>
4.09 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Emily
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/23
shelves:
review:
An unexpected favorite!

Loved the humor/banter and I enjoyed the deeper discussions sprinkled in between.

I would like to remind white people to stop embarrassing us and start washing themselves properly. (the FMC mentions twice that she doesn’t wash her back… pls)

It made it to my best books of 2024:
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The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]>
490 Liz Moore Emily 4
This is my third book by the author and I seem to be enjoying her work a bit more every time.

It's definitely a "journey over ending" kind of book and mostly drama and not so much a mystery but I would totally recommend it!]]>
4.14 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Emily
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/16
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
Pleasantly surprised!

This is my third book by the author and I seem to be enjoying her work a bit more every time.

It's definitely a "journey over ending" kind of book and mostly drama and not so much a mystery but I would totally recommend it!
]]>
<![CDATA[An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)]]> 213075476 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN-13: 9781595148049.

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.]]>
480 Sabaa Tahir 1595148043 Emily 5
This was fun and I can't wait to try the next one!

(Made it to my most surprising books of 2024: )]]>
4.18 2015 An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1)
author: Sabaa Tahir
name: Emily
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
I've mostly stopped really YA books as I usually have the same complaints about them over and over again... but sometimes they take me by surprise.

This was fun and I can't wait to try the next one!

(Made it to my most surprising books of 2024: )
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The Bell Jar 828038 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780571081783

We follow Esther Greenwood's personal life from her summer job in New York with Ladies' Day magazine, back through her days at New England's largest school for women, and forward through her attempted suicide, her bad treatment at one asylum and her good treatment at another, to her final re-entry into the world like a used tyre: "patched, retreaded, and approved for the road" ... Esther Greenwood's account of her year in the bell jar is as clear and readable as it is witty and disturbing.

'The Bell Jar' is Plath's only novel and was originally published under a pseudonym in 1963.]]>
234 Sylvia Plath Emily 1
There are 2 good quotes but so much racism, fatphobia and I apparently DNFed it before the homophobia started. I don't get the hype at all.

It made it to my worst books of 2024: ]]>
4.09 1963 The Bell Jar
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Emily
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1963
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
I hated almost everything about this book.

There are 2 good quotes but so much racism, fatphobia and I apparently DNFed it before the homophobia started. I don't get the hype at all.

It made it to my worst books of 2024:
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<![CDATA[The Painted Man (Demon Cycle, #1)]]> 4685971
The stunning debut fantasy novel from author Peter V. Brett. The Painted Man, book one of the Demon trilogy, is a captivating and thrilling fantasy adventure, pulling the reader into a world of demons, darkness and heroes. Voted one of the top ten fantasy novels of 2008 by amazon uk.]]>
544 Peter V. Brett 0007276141 Emily 2
(MILD SPOILERS)
Let see, 2 mothers dying to start the male characters’ stories. 3 girls doing their best to prevent the MC to become a hero by wanting to get married and having his babies. One FMC getting raped as her first time so said hero can sweep in and save them (after of course!) and they having sex two days later (she tells him she loves him too!). Let's not forget the incest to show us how dark this world is... *eye roll*

You can create a world where demons come out of the ground at night but you can't imagine anything else for the female characters than misogyny?

Worst books of 2024: ]]>
4.23 2008 The Painted Man (Demon Cycle, #1)
author: Peter V. Brett
name: Emily
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves:
review:
I'm tired of this kind of fantasy written by male authors. The sad part is that there's definitely potential with the storyline but it needed to be aggressively edited.

(MILD SPOILERS)
Let see, 2 mothers dying to start the male characters’ stories. 3 girls doing their best to prevent the MC to become a hero by wanting to get married and having his babies. One FMC getting raped as her first time so said hero can sweep in and save them (after of course!) and they having sex two days later (she tells him she loves him too!). Let's not forget the incest to show us how dark this world is... *eye roll*

You can create a world where demons come out of the ground at night but you can't imagine anything else for the female characters than misogyny?

Worst books of 2024:
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Annie Bot 156023123
She’s learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie’s artificial intelligence makes her seem more like a real woman, but the more human Annie becomes, the less perfectly she behaves. As Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder whether Doug truly desires what he says he does. In such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?]]>
231 Sierra Greer 0063312697 Emily 1 audiobooks _____________________________________________
Time for the actual review:

While I'm sure the author meant for this book to be a social commentary, in my opinion it's so surface level, it might as well not be there.

Sure the story is from the POV the sex robot but after being told the ending would make things worth it I expected something to happen. [spoilers removed].

If you're going to expose me to a bunch of abuse, your social commentary is going to have to be more than a friend mocking his friend for buying a robot-slave-that-he-loves-to-torture.

This book simply made me feel uncomfortable. Not in a good way.]]>
3.81 2024 Annie Bot
author: Sierra Greer
name: Emily
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: audiobooks
review:
Maybe some books deserve to be burned.
_____________________________________________
Time for the actual review:

While I'm sure the author meant for this book to be a social commentary, in my opinion it's so surface level, it might as well not be there.

Sure the story is from the POV the sex robot but after being told the ending would make things worth it I expected something to happen. [spoilers removed].

If you're going to expose me to a bunch of abuse, your social commentary is going to have to be more than a friend mocking his friend for buying a robot-slave-that-he-loves-to-torture.

This book simply made me feel uncomfortable. Not in a good way.
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<![CDATA[Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome]]> 48806799 The instant New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher's Weekly bestseller

A bold new plant-based plan that challenges popular keto and paleo diets, from an award-winning gastroenterologist.

The benefits of restrictive diets like paleo and keto have been touted for more than a decade, but as renowned gastroenterologist Dr. Will Bulsiewicz, or "Dr. B," illuminates in this groundbreaking book, the explosion of studies on the microbiome makes it abundantly clear that elimination diets are in fact hazardous to our health. What studies clearly now show--and what Dr. B preaches with his patients--is that gut health is the key to boosting our metabolism, balancing our hormones, and taming the inflammation that causes a host of diseases. And the scientifically proven way to fuel our guts is with dietary fiber from an abundant variety of colorful plants.

Forget about the fiber your grandmother used to take--the cutting-edge science on fiber is incredibly exciting. As Dr. B explains, fiber energizes our gut microbes to create powerhouse postbiotics called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that are essential to our health. SCFAs are scientifically proven to promote weight loss, repair leaky gut, strengthen the microbiome, optimize the immune system, reduce food sensitivities, lower cholesterol, reverse type 2 diabetes, improve brain function, and even prevent cancer. Restrictive fad diets starve the gut of the critical fiber we need, weaken the microbes, and make our system vulnerable.

As a former junk-food junkie, Dr. B knows firsthand the power of fiber to dramatically transform our health. The good news is that our guts can be trained. Fiber-rich, real foods--with fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds, nuts, and legumes--start working quickly and maintain your long-term health, promote weight loss, and allow you to thrive and feel great from the inside out.

With a 28-day jumpstart program with menus and more than 65 recipes, along with essential advice on food sensitivities, Fiber Fueled offers the blueprint to start turbocharging your gut for lifelong health today.]]>
400 Will Bulsiewicz 059308456X Emily 0 audiobooks 4.01 2020 Fiber Fueled: The Plant-Based Gut Health Program for Losing Weight, Restoring Your Health, andOptimizing Your Microbiome
author: Will Bulsiewicz
name: Emily
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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Mexican Gothic 52873094
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]>
304 Silvia Moreno-Garcia Emily 3 audiobooks, 2020-releases It started good and I really wanted to love it but I lost interest before the end and the ending didn't change my mind.]]> 3.76 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Emily
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/22
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: audiobooks, 2020-releases
review:
I never got around to reviewing this book because I was disappointed.
It started good and I really wanted to love it but I lost interest before the end and the ending didn't change my mind.
]]>
<![CDATA[What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Soldier, #3)]]> 222376665 The next novella in the New York Times bestselling Sworn Soldier series, featuring Alex Easton investigating the dark, mysterious depths of a coal mine in America

Alex Easton does not want to visit America.

They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted.

But when their old friend Dr. Denton summons them to help find his lost cousin—who went missing in that very mine—well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do...]]>
192 T. Kingfisher 1250354927 Emily 0 to-read, 2025-releases 4.67 2025 What Stalks the Deep (Sworn Soldier, #3)
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Emily
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

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When the World Tips Over 203819256 An explosive new novel brimming with love, secrets, and enchantment

The Fall siblings live in hot Northern California wine country, where the sun pours out of the sky, and the devil winds blow so hard they whip the sense right out of your head.

Years ago, the Fall kids’ father mysteriously disappeared, cracking the family into pieces. Now Dizzy Fall, age twelve, bakes cakes, sees spirits, and wishes she were a heroine of a romance novel. Miles Fall, seventeen, brainiac, athlete, and dog-whisperer, is a raving beauty, but also lost, and desperate to meet the kind of guy he dreams of. And Wynton Fall, nineteen, who raises the temperature of a room just by entering it, is a virtuoso violinist set on a crash course for fame . . . or self-destruction.

Then an enigmatic rainbow-haired girl shows up, tipping the Falls’ world over. She might be an angel. Or a saint. Or an ordinary girl. Somehow, she is vital to each of them. But before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the Falls more broken than ever. And more desperate to be whole.

With road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories within love stories within love stories, and sorrows and joys passed from generation to generation, this is the intricate, luminous tale of a family’s complicated past and present. And only in telling their stories can they hope to rewrite their futures.]]>
528 Jandy Nelson 0698195043 Emily 4 audiobooks, 2024-releases 4.26 2024 When the World Tips Over
author: Jandy Nelson
name: Emily
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves: audiobooks, 2024-releases
review:

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James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]>
303 Percival Everett 0385550367 Emily 4 4.44 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Emily
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves:
review:

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Motherthing 60097451 A darkly funny domestic horror novel about a woman who must take drastic measures to save her husband and herself from the vengeful ghost of her mother-in-law.

When Ralph and Abby Lamb move in with Ralph’s mother, Laura, Abby hopes it’s just what she and her mother-in-law need to finally connect. After a traumatic childhood, Abby is desperate for a mother figure, especially now that she and Ralph are trying to become parents themselves. Abby just has so much love to give—to Ralph, to Laura, and to Mrs. Bondy, her favorite resident at the long-term care home where she works. But Laura isn’t interested in bonding with her daughter-in-law. She’s venomous and cruel, especially to Abby, and life with her is hellish.

When Laura takes her own life, her ghost haunts Abby and Ralph in very different ways: Ralph is plunged into depression, and Abby is terrorized by a force intent on destroying everything she loves. To make matters worse, Mrs. Bondy’s daughter is threatening to move Mrs. Bondy from the home, leaving Abby totally alone. With everything on the line, Abby comes up with a chilling plan that will allow her to keep Mrs. Bondy, rescue Ralph from his tortured mind, and break Laura's hold on the family for good. All it requires is a little ingenuity, a lot of determination, and a unique recipe for chicken à la king…]]>
288 Ainslie Hogarth 0593467027 Emily 3 3.63 2022 Motherthing
author: Ainslie Hogarth
name: Emily
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

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Incidents Around the House 199757490 A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,” from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box
 
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”  
 
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay. 
 
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling.  
 
But Other Mommy needs an answer. 
 
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.]]>
367 Josh Malerman 0593723120 Emily 2 audiobooks
(You can hear it here: )

Had to remove a star for that. Sadly this will be my last book by the author.
After Malorie and this, I'm done.
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3.59 2024 Incidents Around the House
author: Josh Malerman
name: Emily
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/12/02
shelves: audiobooks
review:
Average horror book, horrifyingly bad audiobook

(You can hear it here: )

Had to remove a star for that. Sadly this will be my last book by the author.
After Malorie and this, I'm done.

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<![CDATA[Untitled (Shadow of the Leviathan, #3)]]> 102615935 Robert Jackson Bennett Emily 0 to-read 4.67 Untitled (Shadow of the Leviathan, #3)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Emily
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection]]> 28595941
Now for the first time anywhere, stories representing each of these planets, and their fully realized and distinct magic systems, have been collected in a single spectacular volume. Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection brings together tales spanning the known limits of Sanderson's universe--including the never-before-published Edgedancer, a thrilling new novella of the Stormlight Archive--along with charts, illustrations, notes...and secrets.

The Cosmere Collection encompasses six worlds in all, explored across nine astonishing works of short fiction: Sel ("The Hope of Elantris" and The Emperor's Soul); Scadrial ("The Eleventh Metal," "Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania, Episodes Twenty-eight Through Thirty," and Mistborn: Secret History); Taldain ("White Sand"); Threnody (“Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell”); First of the Sun (“Sixth of the Dusk”); and Roshar (Edgedancer).

These exciting tales will catapult you onto an unprecedented journey across a cosmos only Brandon Sanderson could have envisioned. Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection is an indispensible volume no Sanderson fan can do without.]]>
672 Brandon Sanderson 0765391163 Emily 4 4.45 2016 Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Emily
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Marble Hall Murders (Susan Ryeland, #3)]]> 216850869
She is freelancing for Causton Books, where she is asked to work on a ‘continuation’ novel , Pünd’s Last Case, by a young author, Eliot Crace. Eliot Crace is the grandson of one of the most well known children’s authors ever, Marian Crace. Think Enid Blyton, then double her sales. Marian Crace died some 15 years previously and Eliot is sure she was poisoned.

Rather doubtfully, Susan starts to read the opening chapters, finding to her relief that Pünd’s Last Case is actually pretty good. Set in the South of France, it revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont who, though mortally ill, is poisoned – perhaps by a member of her own family. But why? And who did it?

It soon becomes clear to Susan that the clues to who was responsible for the death of Eliot’s grandmother, Marian Crace, are hidden from view in this Atticus Pünd mystery.

Eliot’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic as his alcohol and gambling addictions increase. But when he is killed in a hit and run accident, Susan realises that she is suspected of his murder.

Three mysterious deaths and a group of people with multiple motives for Susan realises that if she doesn’t solve the mystery in Pünd’s Last Case, her death may well be next …]]>
579 Anthony Horowitz 1804943010 Emily 0 2025-releases, to-read 4.45 2025 Marble Hall Murders  (Susan Ryeland, #3)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Emily
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: 2025-releases, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Lady Susan / The Watsons / Sanditon]]> 208729 Together, these three works - one novel unpublished in her lifetime and two unfinished fragments - reveal Jane Austen's development as a great artist.

Lady Susan, with its wicked, beautiful, intelligent and energetic heroine, is a sparkling melodrama which takes its tone from the outspoken and robust eighteen century. Written later, and probably abandoned after her father's death, The Watsons is a tantalizing and highly delightful story whose vitality and optimism centre on the marital prospects of the Watson sisters in a small provincial town. Sanditon, Jane Austen's last fiction, is set in a seaside town and its themes concern the new speculative consumer society and foreshadow the great social upheavals of the Industrial Revolution.

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211 Jane Austen Emily 3 3.76 1817 Lady Susan / The Watsons / Sanditon
author: Jane Austen
name: Emily
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1817
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/23
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves:
review:

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The Dollmakers 199793668
In the country called One, dollmakers are vital members of the community. An artisan’s doll is the height of society’s accomplishments, while a guard’s doll is the only thing standing between the people of One and the vicious, cobbled monstrosities that will tear apart any structure—living or dead, inanimate or otherwise—to add to their horde.

Apprentice Shean of Pearl is a brilliant dollmaker. With her clever dolls, she intends to outsmart and destroy the Shod, once and for all—a destiny she’s worked her whole life toward accomplishing. But when the time comes for her dolls to be licensed, she’s told her work is too beautiful and delicate to fight. A statement that wounds and infuriates her; the Shod killed everyone she loved. How could her fate be anything but fighting them?

In an attempt to help her see a new path for herself, Shean’s mentor sends her on a journey to the remote village called Web, urging her to glean some wisdom from Ikiisa, a reclusive and well-respected guard dollmaker. But Shean has another if she can convince the village of Web of her talents, the Licensor Guild will have to reconsider and grant her a guard’s license. And what better way to convince them than challenging Ikiisa and instating herself as the official dollmaker of Web? Once she’s done that, proving her dolls’ worth in the fight against the Shod will be simple. As simple, that is, as calling the Shod to Web...]]>
388 Lynn Buchanan 0063308266 Emily 4 (4.25) Do me a favor and buy this book so the publisher will pay the author to write another one. ]]> 3.80 2024 The Dollmakers
author: Lynn Buchanan
name: Emily
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/21
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves:
review:
(4.25) Do me a favor and buy this book so the publisher will pay the author to write another one.
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Here One Moment 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.”

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]>
512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Emily 3 audiobooks 3.97 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Emily
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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The Lost Daughter 59684725 The Lost Daughter is Elena Ferrante's most compelling and perceptive meditation on womanhood and motherhood yet. Leda, a middle-aged divorce, is alone for the first time in years when her daughters leave home to live with their father. Her initial, unexpected sense of liberty turns to ferocious introspection following a seemingly trivial occurrence. Ferrante's language is as finely tuned and intense as ever, and she treats her theme with a fierce, candid tenacity.]]> 140 Elena Ferrante 1787704181 Emily 0 currently-reading 3.73 2006 The Lost Daughter
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Emily
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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The Last Contract of Isako 123161631 Get ready to be blown away by this searing standalone space opera where corporate samurai fight beneath merciless stars, and death is always a mere breath away.

Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend has to come to an end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow-to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her legacy. But when a competitor offers her a final mission, it's one she can't refuse. Soon, she's thrust deep into a world of corporate espionage, duty-bound duels, and shadowy secrets. What she uncovers will change humanity's existence in the stars forever.

The Last Contract of Isako is the space opera you didn't know you needed: corporate samurai... in space. This is the first adult science fiction novel from the award-winning author of Jade City.]]>
416 Fonda Lee 0356526712 Emily 0 to-read, 2025-releases 5.00 2026 The Last Contract of Isako
author: Fonda Lee
name: Emily
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: to-read, 2025-releases
review:

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The Color Purple 52892857 Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

“Reading The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.” —Tayari Jones

The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.” —Kiese Laymon
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287 Alice Walker 0143135694 Emily 3 audiobooks 4.40 1982 The Color Purple
author: Alice Walker
name: Emily
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: audiobooks
review:

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<![CDATA[I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom]]> 203578812 A standalone darkly humorous thriller set in modern America's age of anxiety, by New York Times bestselling author Jason Pargin.

Outside Los Angeles, a driver pulls up to find a young woman sitting on a large black box. She offers him $200,000 cash to transport her and that box across the country, to Washington, DC.

But there are rules:

He cannot look inside the box.
He cannot ask questions.
He cannot tell anyone.
They must leave immediately.
He must leave all trackable devices behind.

As these eccentric misfits hit the road, rumors spread on social media that the box is part of a carefully orchestrated terror attack intended to plunge the USA into civil war.

The truth promises to be even stranger, and may change how you see the world.]]>
400 Jason Pargin 125028595X Emily 0 to-read 3.95 2024 I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
author: Jason Pargin
name: Emily
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1)]]> 25733990
Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved - the object's origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand's code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What's clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history's most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?]]>
320 Sylvain Neuvel 1101886692 Emily 0 3.82 2016 Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1)
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: Emily
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2017/02/03
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 26073150
Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world torn apart.]]>
624 Sarah J. Maas 1619634465 Emily 0 4.59 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Emily
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2017/06/14
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)]]> 22718798
The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can’t abide. Like having to marry someone she’s never met to secure a political alliance.

Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia escapes to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.

This is an Alternate Cover Edition of ISBN-13 9781250063151.]]>
490 Mary E. Pearson Emily 0 3.92 2014 The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)
author: Mary E. Pearson
name: Emily
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2017/02/10
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)]]> 18490681
On the morning of her wedding, Lia flees to a distant village. She settles into a new life, hopeful when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deception abounds, and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—even as she finds herself falling in love.

The Kiss of Deception 
is the first audiobook in Mary E. Pearson's Remnant Chronicles]]>
489 Mary E. Pearson 0805099239 Emily 0 3.98 2014 The Kiss of Deception (The Remnant Chronicles, #1)
author: Mary E. Pearson
name: Emily
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:

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Starter Villain 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]>
264 John Scalzi 0765389223 Emily 4 4.09 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Emily
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 60556912
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out… and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…]]>
329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Emily 1 Shockingly badly written.

(Even my cat thought it was shit: )

The dialogues were so cringy, I thought they were happening in the head of the main character.
I don't get the hype at all.
I gave it 2 star just because it was readable.]]>
4.31 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Emily
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2024/05/05
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:
Shockingly badly written.

(Even my cat thought it was shit: )

The dialogues were so cringy, I thought they were happening in the head of the main character.
I don't get the hype at all.
I gave it 2 star just because it was readable.
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