a random hopeless romantic's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 02 Apr 2025 06:31:39 -0700 60 a random hopeless romantic's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Hard Times 15778981 Thomas Gradgrind is the guiding luminary of the Coketown school, stern proponent of the Philosophy of Fact, whose ill-conceived idealism blinds him to the essential humanity of those around him, with calamitous results. His daughter Louisa becomes trapped in a loveless marriage and falls prey to an idle seducer, and her brother Tom is ruined thanks to their father's pet theories. Meanwhile Sleary's circus offers a vision of escape and entertainment, a joyful contrast to the dreariness of life in Coketown. The hardship of the workers and the victimization of Stephen Blackpool are set against the exuberance of the circus people in Dickens's much-loved moral tale. Gradgrind is forced to reconsider his cherished system when he realizes that 'Facts alone' are not, after all, enough. (From the back cover)



Hard Times is Dickens's shortest novel, and arguably his greatest triumph. A useful appendix of the author's working notes, together with an enlightening introduction and full explanatory notes, will ensure that this edition becomes the obvious choice for anyone studying the novel. Paul Schlike is Lecturer in English at the University of Aberdeen.

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356 Charles Dickens 0141199563 a random hopeless romantic 3 classics, in-my-library 3.37 Hard Times
author: Charles Dickens
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.37
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/27
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
this book was produced in weekly instalments, which means that Dickens had to sit down each week and finish a chapter in order for it to be published in the newspaper by the end of the week. well� this is a book that preaches on the importance of imagination. do you see the irony there? Dickens� own imagination was suppressed by a deadline that was meant to be met, even if he had no inspiration to write. why? because he had bills to pay. the art of writing became a mechanical process for him, and this doesn’t fail to show in the novel itself.
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<![CDATA[The Hunger of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #2)]]> 57341045
Lik-Rifa, the dragon god of legend, has been freed from her eternal prison. Now she plots a new age of blood and conquest.

As Orka continues the hunt for her missing son, the Bloodsworn sweep south in a desperate race to save one of their own–and Varg takes the first steps on the path of vengeance.

Elvar has sworn to fulfil her blood oath and rescue a prisoner from the clutches of Lik-Rifa and her dragonborn followers, but first she must persuade the Battle-Grim to follow her. Yet even the might of the Bloodsworn and Battle-Grim cannot stand alone against a dragon god.

Their only hope lies within the mad writings of a chained god. A book of forbidden magic with the power to raise the wolf god Ulfrir from the dead…and bring about a battle that will shake the foundations of the earth.]]>
633 John Gwynne 0356514226 a random hopeless romantic 0 currently-reading 4.51 2022 The Hunger of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #2)
author: John Gwynne
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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<![CDATA[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]> 58862045
This is the story of a woman with no name. Young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, she lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like everything else, by her inheritance. Yet she longs to lose herself completely.

It's the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong? My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a savagely funny novel of a woman looking out from the abyss.

Meet ten of literature's most iconic heroines, jacketed in bold portraits by female photographers from around the world.]]>
289 Ottessa Moshfegh a random hopeless romantic 4 3.68 2018 My Year of Rest and Relaxation
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: in-my-library, literary-fiction
review:
the last line of this book punched me in the face
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<![CDATA[Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)]]> 127611580
And they can’t stand each other.

Indie singer-songwriter Lark is the sunshine and glitter that burns through every cloud and clings to every crevice that Lachlan Kane tries to hide inside. The surly older brother of her best friend’s soulmate, Lachlan thinks she’s just a privileged princess, but Lark has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows of her bright light. With her formidable family in a tailspin and her best friend’s happiness on the line, she’s willing to make a vow to the man she’s determined to hate, no matter how tempting the broody assassin might be.

As Lachlan and Lark navigate the dark world that binds them together, it becomesimpossible to discerntheirfake marriage from a real one. But it’s not just familiar dangers that haunt them.
There’s another phantom lurking on their doorstep.

And this one has come for blood.]]>
416 Brynne Weaver 0349441588 a random hopeless romantic 2 romance 3.98 2024 Leather & Lark (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #2)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/16
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: romance
review:
feel like the whole "asshat" personality that was pushed on lachlan was forced. even though it's easy to like these characters, they feel like caricatures. that ending was.. interesting lol.
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<![CDATA[Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)]]> 127616032 Discover the serial killer romance series everyone is talking about!From the no.1 New York Times bestselling author of the genre-breaking international TikTok sensation Butcher & Blackbird and Leather & Lark comes the final book in the Ruinous Love Trilogy - a friends-with-benefits dark romantic comedy.

Murder.

Mayhem.

And spice.

Doctor Fionn Kane is running from a broken heart, one he hopes to mend in small-town Nebraska, far away from his almost-fiance and his derailed surgical career. It's a simpler head down, hard work, and absolutely no romantic relationships. He wants none of the circus he left behind in Boston.

But then the real circus finds him.

Motorcycle performer Rose Evans has spent a decade on the road with the Silveria Circus, and it suits her just fine, especially when she has the urge to indulge in a little murder when she's not in the spotlight. But when a kill goes awry and she ends up with an injured leg, Rose finds herself stuck in Nebraska, at the home of the adorably nerdy town doctor.

The problem is, not every broken heart can be sewn back together.

. . . And the longer you stay in one place, the more likely your ghosts are to catch up.

***


Friends with benefits
Small town romance
Fish out of water
Forced proximity
Hurt/care
Touch her and die]]>
416 Brynne Weaver a random hopeless romantic 2 romance 4.10 2025 Scythe & Sparrow (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #3)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: romance
review:
i think as the series went on, each book lost more and more of the spark it had in the first book. i just couldn’t care less about their story. it was also way more corny. the books after butcher & blackbird just felt like cheap attempts at recreating that spark, with the writing getting worse and worse.
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<![CDATA[Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants]]> 52379389 As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings-asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass-offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

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390 Robin Wall Kimmerer 014199195X a random hopeless romantic 4 in-my-library, non-fiction 4.47 2013 Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves: in-my-library, non-fiction
review:
"Sometimes I wish I could photosynthesize so that just by being , just by shimmering at the meadow's edge or floating lazily on a pond, I could be doing the work of the world while standing silent in the sun."
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<![CDATA[The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1)]]> 52694527 Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga from bestselling author John Gwynne.

After the gods warred and drove themselves to extinction, the cataclysm of their fall shattered the land of Vigrið.

Now a new world is rising, where power-hungry jarls feud and monsters stalk the woods and mountains. A world where the bones of the dead gods still hold great power for those brave - or desperate - enough to seek them out.

Now, as whispers of war echo across the mountains and fjords, fate follows in the footsteps of three people: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman who has rejected privilege in pursuit of battle fame, and a thrall who seeks vengeance among the famed mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.

All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods . . .]]>
480 John Gwynne 0356514188 a random hopeless romantic 4 fantasy 4.19 2021 The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Saga, #1)
author: John Gwynne
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: fantasy
review:
[4.25] oh my god?? this was so good. it took me a while to get into but once i did, i was hooked i tell you. this was my first true epic fantasy i think and i NEED more. i'm so excited for the rest of the series.
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The Great Gatsby 36863722 'He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life.'

Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ... Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby - young, handsome, fabulously rich - always seems alone in the crowd, watching and waiting, though no one knows what for. Beneath the shimmering surface of his life he is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel.

The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.]]>
160 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0241341469 a random hopeless romantic 4 3.73 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: most-excited-for, classics, in-my-library
review:
my favourite thing about this novel was hands down the writing and the subtleties in it. it’s mainly a critique of the hypocrisy and unashamed selfishness of the time. you don’t have to care much for the characters to feel sort of haunted at the end, i think. worth a read.
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Blood Over Bright Haven 208430658 Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

An orphan since the age of four, Sciona has always had more to prove than her fellow students. For twenty years, she has devoted every waking moment to the study of magic, fueled by a mad desire to achieve the impossible: to be the first woman ever admitted to the High Magistry. When she finally claws her way up the ranks to become a highmage, however, she finds that her challenges have just begun. Her new colleagues will stop at nothing to let her know she is unwelcome, beginning with giving her a janitor instead of a qualified lab assistant.

What neither Sciona nor her peers realize is that her taciturn assistant was once more than a janitor; before he mopped floors for the mages, Thomil was a nomadic hunter from beyond Tiran’s magical barrier. Ten years have passed since he survived the perilous crossing that killed his family. But working for a highmage, he sees the opportunity to finally understand the forces that decimated his tribe, drove him from his homeland, and keep the Tiranish in power.

Through their fractious relationship, mage and outsider uncover an ancient secret that could change the course of magic forever—if it doesn’t get them killed first. Sciona has defined her life by the pursuit of truth, but how much is one truth worth with the fate of civilization in the balance?

A standalone dark academia brimming with mystery, tragedy, and the damning echoes of the past. For fans of Leigh Bardugo, V. E. Schwab, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)]]>
430 M.L. Wang 0593873351 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.40 2023 Blood Over Bright Haven
author: M.L. Wang
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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A Doll's House 37793

A Doll's House (1879), is a masterpiece of theatrical craft which, for the first time portrayed the tragic hypocrisy of Victorian middle class marriage on the stage. The play ushered in a new social era and "exploded like a bomb into contemporary life".

The Student Edition contains these exclusive features:

· A chronology of the playwright's life and work

· An introduction giving the background of the play

· Commentary on themes, characters. language and style

· Notes on individual words and phrases in the text

· Questions for further study

· Bibliography for further reading.

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122 Henrik Ibsen 1406914835 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.76 1879 A Doll's House
author: Henrik Ibsen
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1879
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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The Comedies 6922458
Terence's comedies have provided plots and characters for comic drama from classical times to the present; the outstanding comic playwright of his generation at Rome, he has influenced authors from Moliere and Wycherley to P. G. Wodehouse. Scheming slaves, parasites, prostitutes, pimps, and boastful soldiers populate his plays, which show love triumphing over obstacles of various kinds, and the problems that arise from ignorance, misunderstanding, and prejudice. Although they reflect contemporary tensions in Roman society, their insights into human nature and experience make them timeless in their appeal. Peter Brown's lively new translation does full justice to Terence's style and skill as a dramatist.]]>
338 Terence 0199556032 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.71 -160 The Comedies
author: Terence
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.71
book published: -160
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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The Secret History 70897
Truly deserving of the accolade Modern Classic, Donna Tartt's cult bestseller The Secret History is a remarkable achievement - both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.]]>
629 Donna Tartt 0140167773 a random hopeless romantic 0 4.25 1992 The Secret History
author: Donna Tartt
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, most-excited-for, in-my-library
review:

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Persuasion 11758566
This edition is part of the Penguin Classics Clothbound series designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith.]]>
250 Jane Austen 0141197692 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 4.24 1817 Persuasion
author: Jane Austen
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1817
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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North and South 14800526
North and South depicts a young woman discovering herself, in a nuanced portrayal of what divides people, and what brings them together.]]>
544 Elizabeth Gaskell 0141198923 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 4.23 1855 North and South
author: Elizabeth Gaskell
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1855
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Dracula 14800993 445 Bram Stoker 0141199334 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.78 1897 Dracula
author: Bram Stoker
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1897
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Mansfield Park 15990657 'We have all been more or less to blame ... every one of us, excepting Fanny'

Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation. Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.]]>
504 Jane Austen 0141199873 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.70 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1814
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Giovanni’s Room 152203650 160 James Baldwin a random hopeless romantic 0 4.40 1956 Giovanni’s Room
author: James Baldwin
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, most-excited-for, in-my-library
review:

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<![CDATA[Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl (Penguin Modern Classics)]]> 29675406 A startling history of the Chernobyl disaster by Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the Nobel prize in literature 2015

On 26 April 1986, at 1.23am, a series of explosions shook the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Flames lit up the sky and radiation escaped to contaminate the land and poison the people for years to come. While officials tried to hush up the accident, Svetlana Alexievich spent years collecting testimonies from survivors - clean-up workers, residents, firefighters, resettlers, widows, orphans - crafting their voices into a haunting oral history of fear, anger and uncertainty, but also dark humour and love. A chronicle of the past and a warning for our nuclear future, Chernobyl Prayer shows what it is like to bear witness, and remember in a world that wants you to forget.

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292 Svetlana Alexievich 0241270545 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 4.52 1997 Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl (Penguin Modern Classics)
author: Svetlana Alexievich
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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<![CDATA[The Cid / Cinna / The Theatrical Illusion]]> 213011 The Cid, Corneille's masterpiece set in medieval Spain, was the first great work of French classical drama; Cinna, written three years later in 1641, is a tense political drama; and The Theatrical Illusion, an earlier work, is reminiscent of Shakespeare's exuberant comedies.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]>
288 Pierre Corneille 0140443126 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.61 1641 The Cid / Cinna / The Theatrical Illusion
author: Pierre Corneille
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1641
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Anna Karenina 153
Anna Karenina seems to have everything - beauty, wealth, popularity and an adored son. But she feels that her life is empty until the moment she encounters the impetuous officer Count Vronsky. Their subsequent affair scandalizes society and family alike and soon brings jealously and bitterness in its wake. Contrasting with this tale of love and self-destruction is the vividly observed story of Levin, a man striving to find contentment and a meaning to his life - and also a self-portrait of Tolstoy himself.]]>
838 Leo Tolstoy 0140449175 a random hopeless romantic 0 4.21 1878 Anna Karenina
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1878
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, most-excited-for, in-my-library
review:

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Romeo and Juliet 625963 evolve throughout its richly varied history, both in the theatre and in film, television, opera, and ballet. The more familiar 1599 text is accompanied by a detailed explanatory commentary. The Introduction traces the Romeo and Juliet narrative from its origins in myth through its adaptation in the
novella, and shows how Shakespeare's transmutation of the story reflects contemporary concerns with love, death, adolescence, and patriarchism.]]>
450 William Shakespeare 0192814966 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.71 1597 Romeo and Juliet
author: William Shakespeare
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1597
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles 42438726 480 Thomas Hardy 1784874558 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 4.14 1891 Tess of the D'Urbervilles
author: Thomas Hardy
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1891
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Mrs Dalloway 793216 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

In this vivid portrait of one day in a woman's life, Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party she is to give that evening. As she readies her house she is flooded with memories and re-examines the choices she has made over the course of her life.]]>
198 Virginia Woolf a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.78 1925 Mrs Dalloway
author: Virginia Woolf
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Heart of Darkness 40681132 79 Joseph Conrad 9897786546 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.78 1899 Heart of Darkness
author: Joseph Conrad
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1899
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Oliver Twist 18254
The story of Oliver Twist - orphaned, and set upon by evil and adversity from his first breath - shocked readers when it was published. After running away from the workhouse and pompous beadle Mr Bumble, Oliver finds himself lured into a den of thieves peopled by vivid and memorable characters - the Artful Dodger, vicious burglar Bill Sikes, his dog Bull's Eye, and prostitute Nancy, all watched over by cunning master-thief Fagin. Combining elements of Gothic Romance, the Newgate Novel and popular melodrama, Dickens created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society, and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.

This Penguin Classics edition of Oliver Twist is the first critical edition to faithfully reproduce the text as its earliest readers would have encountered it from its serialisation in Bentley's Miscellany, and includes an introduction by Philip Horne, a glossary of Victorian thieves' slang, a chronology of Dickens's life, a map of contemporary London and all of George Cruikshank's original illustrations.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]>
608 Charles Dickens a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.88 1838 Oliver Twist
author: Charles Dickens
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1838
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Kim 490868 Kim is Rudyard Kipling's finest work. Now controversial, this novel is a memorably vivid evocation of the life and landscapes of India in the late nineteenth century. Kim himself is a resourceful lad who befriends a lama, an ageing priest; and both embark on a combined quest. Whereas Kim has an insatiable interest in the varied activities around him, the lama seeks redemtion from the 'Wheel of Life'. Kim becomes involved in the 'Great Game', undertaking espionage for the British rulers. This engrossing and moving novel, with its diversity of memorable character, offers many insights into political, religious and social tensions.]]> 269 Rudyard Kipling a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.44 1901 Kim
author: Rudyard Kipling
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1901
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Never Let Me Go 56252373
Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.]]>
282 Kazuo Ishiguro a random hopeless romantic 0 3.91 2005 Never Let Me Go
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, most-excited-for, in-my-library
review:

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<![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 12512617 MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOUR

"If we burn
you burn with us"



Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But she's still not safe. A revolution is unfolding, and everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans -- everyone except Katniss.

And yet she must play the most vital part in the final battle. Katniss must become their Mockingjay -- the symbol of rebellion -- no matter what the personal cost.



Cover image by Tim O'Brien]]>
458 Suzanne Collins 1407132105 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 4.05 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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<![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 12510082 MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOUR

Katniss Everdeen survived the hunger games. Now the Capitol wants revenge.


Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are still alive. Katniss should be relieved, but now there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol -- a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

As the nation watches Katniss and Peeta, the stakes are higher than ever. One false move and the consequences will be unimaginable.



Cover image by Tim O'Brien]]>
472 Suzanne Collins a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 4.38 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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<![CDATA[Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, #3)]]> 428263 "BELLA?"
Edward's soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again.
This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine - like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us.

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob - knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?

READERS CAPTIVATED BY Twilight AND New Moon will eagerly devour Eclipse, the much-anticipated third book in Stephenie Meyer's riveting vampire love saga.]]>
629 Stephenie Meyer 0316160202 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.73 2007 Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, #3)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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<![CDATA[New Moon (The Twilight Saga, #2)]]> 49041 There is an alternate cover edition for ISBN13 9780316160193 here.

I knew we were both in mortal danger. Still, in that instant, I felt well. Whole. I could feel my heart racing in my chest, the blood pulsing hot and fast through my veins again. My lungs filled deep with the sweet scent that came off his skin. It was like there had never been any hole in my chest. I was perfect - not healed, but as if there had never been a wound in the first place.

I FELT LIKE I WAS TRAPPED IN ONE OF THOSE TERRIFYING NIGHTMARES, the one where you have to run, run till your lungs burst, but you can't make your body move fast enough.... But this was no dream, and, unlike the nightmare, I wasn't running for my life; I was racing to save something infinitely more precious. My own life meant little to me today.

FOR BELLA SWAN THERE IS ONE THING more important than life itself: Edward Cullen. But being in love with a vampire is even more dangerous than Bella could ever have imagined. Edward has already rescued Bella from the clutches of one evil vampire, but now, as their daring relationship threatens all that is near and dear to them, they realize their troubles may be just beginning....

LEGIONS OF READERS ENTRANCED BY THE New York Times bestseller Twilight are hungry for the continuing story of star-crossed lovers Bell and Edward. In New Moon, Stephanie Meyer delivers another irresistible combination of romance and suspense with a supernatural spin. passionate, riveting, and full of surprising twists and turns, this vampire love saga is well on its way to literary immortality.]]>
563 Stephenie Meyer 0316160199 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.61 2006 New Moon (The Twilight Saga, #2)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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<![CDATA[Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1)]]> 41865
First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.]]>
498 Stephenie Meyer 0316015849 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.66 2005 Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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Lessons 60092581
Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.

Haunted by lost opportunities, Roland seeks solace through every possible means—music, literature, friends, sex, politics, and, finally, love cut tragically short, then love ultimately redeemed. His journey raises important questions for us all. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without causing damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past?

Epic, mesmerizing, and deeply humane, Lessons is a chronicle for our times—a powerful meditation on history and humanity through the prism of one man's lifetime.]]>
448 Ian McEwan 0593535200 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.89 2022 Lessons
author: Ian McEwan
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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All About Love: New Visions 218042 “The word “love� is most often defined as a noun, yet� we would all love better if we used it as a verb,� writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, the renowned scholar, cultural critic, and feminist skewers our view of love as romance. In its place she offers a proactive new ethic for a people and a society bereft with lovelessness.

As bell hooks uses her incisive mind and razor-sharp pen to explore the question “What is love?�, her answers strike at both the mind and heart. In thirteen concise chapters, hooks examines her own search for emotional connection and society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for the individuals and for a nation. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the �100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.� All About Love is a powerful affirmation of just how profoundly she can.

Librarian note: There is an alternate cover edition of this book here.]]>
238 bell hooks 0060959479 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read, in-my-library 3.89 1999 All About Love: New Visions
author: bell hooks
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, in-my-library
review:

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The Song of Achilles 58028296
Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,� is everything Patroclus is not—strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess—and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative connection gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper—despite the displeasure of Achilles� mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate.

Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.]]>
352 Madeline Miller 1408891387 a random hopeless romantic 0 4.23 2011 The Song of Achilles
author: Madeline Miller
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read, most-excited-for, in-my-library
review:

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<![CDATA[Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Tales of New York]]> 40209 "A powerful, severe, and harshly comic portrayal of Irish immigrant life in lower New York exactly a century ago."—Alfred Kazin.

Although fellow novelists William Dean Howells and Hamlin Garland immediately recognized genius in the twenty-one-year-old author of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, in 1893 most readers were unwilling to accept its unconventional theme and were uneasy with a style that was at once darkly naturalistic and vividly impressionistic. Today Maggie is esteemed as an American classic, the first of an impressive group of works in which Crane explored the underside of urban life, portraying the rise of the metropolis as it alters not just the human environment but human nature itself.

This volume includes "George's Mother" and eleven other tales and sketches of New York written between 1892 and 1896. Together in their dignified realism these tales confirm Crane's place as the first modern American writer.

]]>
272 Stephen Crane 0140437975 a random hopeless romantic 3 classics, in-my-library 3.64 1893 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Tales of New York
author: Stephen Crane
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1893
rating: 3
read at: 2020/09/20
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:

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Animal Farm 170448 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]>
141 George Orwell 0451526341 a random hopeless romantic 3 classics, in-my-library 4.07 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:

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Brave New World 5129 Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine� (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New Worldd likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune]]>
268 Aldous Huxley 0060929871 a random hopeless romantic 3 classics, in-my-library 3.99 1932 Brave New World
author: Aldous Huxley
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1932
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/26
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
the concept? brilliant. the execution? dull.
]]>
Jane Eyre 10210 Alternate editions can be found here and here.

A gothic masterpiece of tempestuous passions and dark secrets, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is edited with an introduction and notes by Stevie Davis in Penguin Classics.

Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.]]>
532 Charlotte Brontë 0142437204 a random hopeless romantic 4 classics, in-my-library 4.14 1847 Jane Eyre
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1847
rating: 4
read at: 2021/11/20
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
read this for a course and it's one of the few times i'm glad that we did because the discussion and analysis that the professor provided us with only pointed out more clues that prove the novel's brilliance.
]]>
<![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

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

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

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

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]>
213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 a random hopeless romantic 3 japanese-lit, in-my-library 3.66 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: japanese-lit, in-my-library
review:
[3.5] this did make me tear up. i think the overall sentiment is beautiful but the resolution to some stories was kind of.. questionable. also the writing style kind of put me off. the only way i can describe it is simplistic, but not in a nuanced way if that even makes sense. i did appreciate this book's optimistic lens. it took some really tragic stories and gave them a more heartwarming twist.
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A River Sutra 129136 304 Gita Mehta a random hopeless romantic 3 in-my-library very enchanting to read. 3.90 1993 A River Sutra
author: Gita Mehta
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/14
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: in-my-library
review:
very enchanting to read.
]]>
<![CDATA[Castle Rackrent (Hackett Classics)]]> 251290 87 Maria Edgeworth 087220877X a random hopeless romantic 2 classics, in-my-library okay? 3.19 1800 Castle Rackrent (Hackett Classics)
author: Maria Edgeworth
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.19
book published: 1800
rating: 2
read at: 2021/10/11
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
okay?
]]>
Life Lessons From Nietzsche 18632054
"Há uma estrada que ninguém pode percorrer, só você. Não pergunte aonde leva; vá em frente." Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche foi um dos maiores pensadores que a humanidade já teve, e suas obras influenciaram e seguem influenciando correntes intelectuais, políticas e artísticas as mais diversas. Ele ensina que se nos concentrarmos em aprender com o presente teremos condições de entender o porquê da nossa existência. Use a sua inquietação para driblar a preguiça e trabalhe focado para transformar-se na pessoa que você quer ser.

Organizados pela The School of Life, um centro de saber e bem-estar fundado em Londres por Alain de Botton, esses livros mostram como as vozes da sabedoria de outras épocas têm algo inspirador para cada um de nós.

"Há muito a se aprender com essas pequenas pérolas." The Observer]]>
120 John Armstrong 1447245601 a random hopeless romantic 1 unnecessary tbh 3.41 2013 Life Lessons From Nietzsche
author: John Armstrong
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2021/08/21
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: philosophy, non-fiction, in-my-library
review:
unnecessary tbh
]]>
Love 39908514 202 Toni Morrison a random hopeless romantic 4 in-my-library
this has a lot of disturbing shit in it that's portrayed in such a raw way that ur taken aback every time. it's not easy to deal with such delicate matters and i think morrison managed to portray them without making it seem like she included them just for the sake of disturbing the reader. something that didn't sit right with me, however, is how the "villain" of the story is sometimes excused for his actions because of his rough past. some actions (if u read it, u know what i'm referring to) are inexcusable. he was just a terrible person and that's the end of it.

i loved the prose and the way the story progressed. sometimes u can get lost and confused but i feel like it's because u just have to be very alert when reading this book.]]>
3.80 2003 Love
author: Toni Morrison
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/11
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: in-my-library
review:
my first morrison and certainly not my last.

this has a lot of disturbing shit in it that's portrayed in such a raw way that ur taken aback every time. it's not easy to deal with such delicate matters and i think morrison managed to portray them without making it seem like she included them just for the sake of disturbing the reader. something that didn't sit right with me, however, is how the "villain" of the story is sometimes excused for his actions because of his rough past. some actions (if u read it, u know what i'm referring to) are inexcusable. he was just a terrible person and that's the end of it.

i loved the prose and the way the story progressed. sometimes u can get lost and confused but i feel like it's because u just have to be very alert when reading this book.
]]>
Almond 52219386 This story is, in short, about a monster meeting another monster.

One of the monsters is me.

Yunjae was born with a brain condition called Alexithymia that makes it hard for him to feel emotions like fear or anger. He does not have friends—the two almond-shaped neurons located deep in his brain have seen to that—but his devoted mother and grandmother aren’t fazed by his condition. Their little home above his mother’s used bookstore is decorated with colorful post-it notes that remind him when to smile, when to say "thank you," and when to laugh. Yunjae grows up content, even happy, with his small family in this quiet, peaceful space.

Then on Christmas Eve—Yunjae’s sixteenth birthday—everything changes. A shocking act of random violence shatters his world, leaving him alone and on his own. Struggling to cope with his loss, Yunjae retreats into silent isolation, until troubled teenager Gon arrives at his school and begins to bully Yunjae.

Against all odds, tormentor and victim learn they have more in common than they realized. Gon is stumped by Yunjae’s impassive calm, while Yunjae thinks if he gets to know the hotheaded Gon, he might learn how to experience true feelings. Drawn by curiosity, the two strike up a surprising friendship. As Yunjae begins to open his life to new people—including a girl at school—something slowly changes inside him. And when Gon suddenly finds his life in danger, it is Yunjae who will step outside of every comfort zone he has created to perhaps become a most unlikely hero.

The Emissary meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime in this poignant and triumphant story about how love, friendship, and persistence can change a life forever.]]>
272 Sohn Won-Pyung 0062961373 a random hopeless romantic 4 4.16 2017 Almond
author: Sohn Won-Pyung
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: literary-fiction, in-my-library
review:
such a delicate story that teaches you stuff about yourself through a character's completely unique experiences.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays (Vintage Classics)]]> 27852858 Earnest, discover a biblical tragedy retold, Lady Windemere and her infamous fan, and Wilde's take on an ideal husband, in this selection of Wilde's most important plays.]]> 384 Oscar Wilde 1784871524 a random hopeless romantic 4
i wish i could be friends with wilde. he seems like he was fun to be around.

my favs would be Salome and An Ideal Husband]]>
4.08 1898 The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays (Vintage Classics)
author: Oscar Wilde
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1898
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/23
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, plays, in-my-library
review:
the social commentary, the dialogues, the wittiness, the drama.

i wish i could be friends with wilde. he seems like he was fun to be around.

my favs would be Salome and An Ideal Husband
]]>
<![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]>
374 Suzanne Collins a random hopeless romantic 4 in-my-library you can't outdo the doer. 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: in-my-library
review:
you can't outdo the doer.
]]>
Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) 33035581
William Gibson revolutionised science fiction in his 1984 debut Neuromancer. The writer who gave us the matrix and coined the term 'cyberspace' produced a first novel that won the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards, and lit the fuse on the Cyberpunk movement.

More than three decades later, Gibson's text is as stylish as ever, his noir narrative still glitters like chrome in the shadows and his depictions of the rise and abuse of corporate power look more prescient every day. Part thriller, part warning, Neuromancer is a timeless classic of modern SF and one of the 20th century's most potent and compelling visions of the future.]]>
297 William Gibson 1473217385 a random hopeless romantic 2 in-my-library 3.59 1984 Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)
author: William Gibson
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1984
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/14
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: in-my-library
review:
i haven’t felt dumber when reading a novel. barely anything was explained. it felt like the author didn’t give a single shit about the reader. “but.. but the cultural impact-� i do not care.
]]>
Silent Spring 27333
The book appeared in September 1962 and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement.]]>
378 Rachel Carson 0618249060 a random hopeless romantic 3 non-fiction, in-my-library "by acquiescing in an act that can cause such a suffering to a living creature, who among us is not diminished as a human being?" ]]> 4.04 1962 Silent Spring
author: Rachel Carson
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/14
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: non-fiction, in-my-library
review:
"by acquiescing in an act that can cause such a suffering to a living creature, who among us is not diminished as a human being?"
]]>
A Small Place 38918855 'If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see�'

So begins Jamaica Kincaid’s powerful portrait of the damaged paradise that was her childhood home.

The island of Antigua is a magical place of breathtaking beauty � with cloudless skies, dazzling blue waters, and majestic sunsets. But it is also a place of dramatic contrasts. What one doesn’t see when on holiday on this ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies is the sweeping corruption, the dilapidated schools and hospitals and homes, and the shameful legacy of its colonial past.

In A Small Place, Jamaica Kincaid candidly appraises where she grew up, and makes palpable the impact of European colonisation and tourism. The book is a missive to the traveller, whether American or European, who wants to escape the banality and corruption of some large place, Kincaid, eloquent and resolute, reminds us that the Antiguan people, formerly British subjects, are unable to escape the same drawbacks of their own tiny realm � that behind the benevolent Caribbean scenery are human lives, always complex and often fraught with injustice.]]>
81 Jamaica Kincaid 1911547097 a random hopeless romantic 4 non-fiction, in-my-library ]]> 4.17 1988 A Small Place
author: Jamaica Kincaid
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/28
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: non-fiction, in-my-library
review:
an essay filled with a lot of justified bitterness.

]]>
<![CDATA[The Cyberiad (Penguin Science Fiction)]]> 52692610 The Cyberiad, one of Lem's most beloved works, follows the exploits of the Trurl and Klapaucius, two ingenious 'constructors'. In their adventures through a strange medieval universe they encounter a machine capable of creating anything that starts with the letter 'N'; kings who oppress their people with parlour games; and PhD pirates who demand ransom in knowledge rather than gold. It is a world where UFOs land silently on lawns at dawn, and where even the stars can be re-arranged for advertising purposes.]]> 336 Stanisław Lem 0241467993 a random hopeless romantic 4 classics, in-my-library
i was still confused at times but the commentary on modern technology, about the essence of beings, about our superiority complex, was great. the irony with which the stories were laced was my favourite aspect.

the story about the machine that was able to write perfect poetry gave me an existential crisis tho. ]]>
4.02 1965 The Cyberiad (Penguin Science Fiction)
author: Stanisław Lem
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1965
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
me? enjoying a sci-fi book? maybe i'm not that dumb after all.

i was still confused at times but the commentary on modern technology, about the essence of beings, about our superiority complex, was great. the irony with which the stories were laced was my favourite aspect.

the story about the machine that was able to write perfect poetry gave me an existential crisis tho.
]]>
Book Lovers 58713391 One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming...

Nora is a cut-throat literary agent at the top of her game. Her whole life is books.

Charlie is an editor with a gift for creating bestsellers. And he's Nora's work nemesis.

Nora has been through enough break-ups to know she's the woman men date before they find their happy-ever-after. That's why Nora's sister has persuaded her to swap her desk in the city for a month's holiday in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina. It's a small town straight out of a romance novel, but instead of meeting sexy lumberjacks, handsome doctors or cute bartenders, Nora keeps bumping into...Charlie.

She's no heroine. He's no hero. So can they take a page out of an entirely different book?]]>
377 Emily Henry 0241995345 a random hopeless romantic 4 romance, in-my-library 4.05 2022 Book Lovers
author: Emily Henry
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/21
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: romance, in-my-library
review:
i saw someone say that Emily Henry’s dialogues go on for a bit too long and i could not disagree more. what makes her romances so good is the glaring chemistry between the characters which can only be showcased through full-fledged dialogues, and there are plenty of those. her character work could be improved in my opinion, but this doesn’t hinder the enjoyability of her books. this was full of cliches but it worked cause that was the whole point i think. also, people learn the words “insta-lust� and “insta-love� and never stop using them. this wasn’t insta-lust. guess what? it is possible to be attracted to someone after just two conversations with them! who would’ve thought.
]]>
A Room of One’s Own 18521 A Room of One's Own is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf. First published on the 24th of October, 1929, the essay was based on a series of lectures she delivered at Newnham College and Girton College, two women's colleges at Cambridge University in October 1928. While this extended essay in fact employs a fictional narrator and narrative to explore women both as writers and characters in fiction, the manuscript for the delivery of the series of lectures, titled Women and Fiction, and hence the essay, are considered nonfiction. The essay is seen as a feminist text, and is noted in its argument for both a literal and figural space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by patriarchy.]]> 112 Virginia Woolf a random hopeless romantic 3 4.22 1929 A Room of One’s Own
author: Virginia Woolf
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1929
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/28
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, non-fiction, in-my-library
review:
feel like if i didn't read this for uni i'd enjoy it much more
]]>
Astragal 21222632 208 Albertine Sarrazin 1846689414 a random hopeless romantic 3 in-my-library 3.50 Astragal
author: Albertine Sarrazin
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/10
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: in-my-library
review:
i found the prose a bit pretentious. some of the things that happen in here are also a bit ridiculous and the fact that they're not recognized as being ridiculous, adds to the... pomposity of it all, i guess. there were times, however, where i found myself enjoying the writing so. three stars.
]]>
Conversations with Friends 35285193 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780571333134.

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed and observant. A student in Dublin and an aspiring writer, at night she performs spoken word with her best friend Bobbi, who used to be her girlfriend. When they are interviewed and then befriended by Melissa, a well-known journalist who is married to Nick, an actor, they enter a world of beautiful houses, raucous dinner parties and holidays in Provence, beginning a complex ménage-à-quatre. But when Frances and Nick get unexpectedly closer, the sharply witty and emotion-averse Frances is forced to honestly confront her own vulnerabilities for the first time.]]>
323 Sally Rooney a random hopeless romantic 4
its main point of discussion i think is human relationships - how you don’t have to be in a monogamous relationship with someone to make them happy and, essentially, that you can love more than one person. i can’t really say that i agree or disagree with the sentiment - it’s certainly a very progressive way of thinking i suppose - but i liked how it explored that theme regardless of my opinion on it.

the characters� actions did frustrate me a lot - especially Nick’s. at times it felt like they themselves didn’t even know what they wanted? (i’ll mention a few minor spoilers here). for Nick specifically; to me, it felt like his whole life he thought of himself as a failure and the possibility of divorcing his wife (especially to be with someone else) would make him feel even worse about himself so the sentiment that he stayed with Melissa and still wanted to be with Frances because he loved both, felt kind of like an excuse? maybe what i just said dismisses Rooney’s whole argument but PERSONALLY, i think you can love multiple people but there’s always that one person you’re bound to gravitate to more than others - and that person for Nick was Frances. Melissa was just a safety net for him. or maybe i’m not “progressive� enough for this lol.

something else that kind of infuriated me was the sheer lack of normalcy in the conversations they had sometimes. don’t get me wrong, i love me some pretentious characters but FOR EXAMPLE: whenever they would hang out in groups, Rooney would add “and then we talked about this political issue� and never even mentioned them talking about something as normal as, idk, Melissa’s curtains being too blue for her living room aesthetic. this made it seem like all their conversations were centred around one political issue or another. obviously we all have those conversations with our friends (haha) but, in my opinion, this wasn’t done in a way that felt natural and it rather made the characters feel less real and more like vessels for Rooney’s thoughts (which you can argue isn’t a bad thing).

anyway. many many thoughts. i really liked this. even though it was really depressing.]]>
3.86 2017 Conversations with Friends
author: Sally Rooney
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: literary-fiction, in-my-library
review:
well, this book was certainly interesting.

its main point of discussion i think is human relationships - how you don’t have to be in a monogamous relationship with someone to make them happy and, essentially, that you can love more than one person. i can’t really say that i agree or disagree with the sentiment - it’s certainly a very progressive way of thinking i suppose - but i liked how it explored that theme regardless of my opinion on it.

the characters� actions did frustrate me a lot - especially Nick’s. at times it felt like they themselves didn’t even know what they wanted? (i’ll mention a few minor spoilers here). for Nick specifically; to me, it felt like his whole life he thought of himself as a failure and the possibility of divorcing his wife (especially to be with someone else) would make him feel even worse about himself so the sentiment that he stayed with Melissa and still wanted to be with Frances because he loved both, felt kind of like an excuse? maybe what i just said dismisses Rooney’s whole argument but PERSONALLY, i think you can love multiple people but there’s always that one person you’re bound to gravitate to more than others - and that person for Nick was Frances. Melissa was just a safety net for him. or maybe i’m not “progressive� enough for this lol.

something else that kind of infuriated me was the sheer lack of normalcy in the conversations they had sometimes. don’t get me wrong, i love me some pretentious characters but FOR EXAMPLE: whenever they would hang out in groups, Rooney would add “and then we talked about this political issue� and never even mentioned them talking about something as normal as, idk, Melissa’s curtains being too blue for her living room aesthetic. this made it seem like all their conversations were centred around one political issue or another. obviously we all have those conversations with our friends (haha) but, in my opinion, this wasn’t done in a way that felt natural and it rather made the characters feel less real and more like vessels for Rooney’s thoughts (which you can argue isn’t a bad thing).

anyway. many many thoughts. i really liked this. even though it was really depressing.
]]>
<![CDATA[The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories]]> 824279 The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories is a collection of stories that emerged from a profound spiritual crisis, during which Leo Tolstoy believed that he had encountered death itself. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Anthony Briggs, David McDuff and Ronald Wilks.

These seven compelling stories explore, in very different ways, Tolstoy's preoccupation with mortality. 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' is a devastating account of a man fighting his inevitable end, and asks the existential question: why must a good person be taken before his time? In 'Polikushka', a light-fingered drunk's chance to prove himself has tragic repercussions, while 'Three Deaths' depicts the last moments of an aristocrat, a peasant and a tree, and 'The Forged Coupon' shows a seemingly minor offence that leads inexorably to ever more horrific crimes. And in three tales about soldiers, 'After the Ball', 'The Wood-felling' and 'The Raid', Tolstoy portrays the brutality that all too often accompanies military life.

The translations by Anthony Briggs, David McDuff and Ronald Wilks capture Tolstoy's powerful, vivid prose. This edition also includes a new introduction by Anthony Briggs discussing Tolstoy's breakdown and the effect this had on his writing, as well as a chronology, further reading and notes.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born at Yasnaya Polyana, in central Russia. He led a life of wasteful idleness until 1851, when he travelled to the Caucasus and joined the army with his older brother, fighting in the Crimean war. After marrying Sofya Behrs in 1862, Tolstoy settled down, managing his estates and writing two of his best-known novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878). In 1884 Tolstoy experienced a spiritual crisis, becoming an extreme moralist, rejecting the state, the church and private property. His last novel, Resurrection (1900), was written to raise money for the Doukhobor sect of Christian spiritualists.

If you enjoyed The Death of Ivan Ilyich, you might like Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, also available in Penguin Classics.]]>
317 Leo Tolstoy 0140449612 a random hopeless romantic 3 classics, in-my-library the death of ivan ilyich.]]> 4.12 1886 The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1886
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/20
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
first book i read from him. was expecting more from mr. tolstoy himself but that's not to say it was bad. nevertheless, the stories offered great observations on a lot of social issues of the time. my fav was hands down the death of ivan ilyich.
]]>
The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.]]>
272 Oscar Wilde a random hopeless romantic 5 plain brilliance 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/28
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: favorites, classics, in-my-library
review:
plain brilliance
]]>
<![CDATA[The Handmaid's Tale (Handmaid's Tale, #1)]]> 50885244 'The Handmaid's Tale is both a superlative exercise in science fiction and a profoundly felt moral story'
- ANGELA CARTER

The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one option: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire � neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs.

Brilliantly conceived and executed, this powerful evocation of twenty-first-century America gives full rein to Margaret Atwood's devastating irony, wit and astute perception.]]>
320 Margaret Atwood 0099740915 a random hopeless romantic 4 classics, in-my-library 4.15 1985 The Handmaid's Tale (Handmaid's Tale, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
the fact that some people would read this book and find nothing wrong with this dystopian society, is terrifying.
]]>
Normal People 41086877 Librarian note: See an alternate cover edition here.

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

Normal People is a story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can’t.]]>
266 Sally Rooney a random hopeless romantic 4
i’ve seen countless people talk about this book online - some loved it, others hated it. from what i’ve gathered, those that hated it talked mostly about how “boring� or “pointless� it is, or about how much they hated the main characters. i won’t comment on the boring part because if you found a book like this boring, then character-driven stories are simply not for you and that’s the end of that.

now, about the characters. they’re obviously not created to be liked, i think this was obvious enough. but HATED? i’m sorry i simply don’t understand, your honour. what was there to despise? i can see how they can be disliked for their decisions but we learn so much about them and what makes them THEM that i find it baffling to see how this intricate yet simple portrayal of two damaged people can fly above so many people’s heads. if you hate them, you’re ignoring or not recognising the complexity behind them and their lives. the decisions they made were irritating, of course, but it was so fitting to their characters, it made so much sense, that i found myself not pissed at them but rather at the conditions that lead to them being the way they are.

i saw myself in both Marianne and Connell and maybe that’s why i feel so strongly for them and understand their characters at a deeper level. but, in general, i feel like this is such an accurate portrayal of young people these days - how we’re all affected by the state of the world and the people we choose to allow into our own world, without even realising it sometimes.

don’t get me started on the “this whole book is just a giant miscommunication trope�. NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE WATERED DOWN INTO TROPES. my god. this book is so much more than their inability to communicate their feelings. yes there are flaws (mainly how side characters were dealt with or how it tried to discuss some topics but it fell flat due to the execution), but the characters are not part of those flaws.

Normal People is stunning in its normalcy and in its ability to use simplistic writing that doesn’t fail to reveal the lack of simplicity in these characters.]]>
3.84 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/26
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: literary-fiction, in-my-library
review:
[4.5] this review is a bit aggressive but i feel strongly about these characters, so.

i’ve seen countless people talk about this book online - some loved it, others hated it. from what i’ve gathered, those that hated it talked mostly about how “boring� or “pointless� it is, or about how much they hated the main characters. i won’t comment on the boring part because if you found a book like this boring, then character-driven stories are simply not for you and that’s the end of that.

now, about the characters. they’re obviously not created to be liked, i think this was obvious enough. but HATED? i’m sorry i simply don’t understand, your honour. what was there to despise? i can see how they can be disliked for their decisions but we learn so much about them and what makes them THEM that i find it baffling to see how this intricate yet simple portrayal of two damaged people can fly above so many people’s heads. if you hate them, you’re ignoring or not recognising the complexity behind them and their lives. the decisions they made were irritating, of course, but it was so fitting to their characters, it made so much sense, that i found myself not pissed at them but rather at the conditions that lead to them being the way they are.

i saw myself in both Marianne and Connell and maybe that’s why i feel so strongly for them and understand their characters at a deeper level. but, in general, i feel like this is such an accurate portrayal of young people these days - how we’re all affected by the state of the world and the people we choose to allow into our own world, without even realising it sometimes.

don’t get me started on the “this whole book is just a giant miscommunication trope�. NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE WATERED DOWN INTO TROPES. my god. this book is so much more than their inability to communicate their feelings. yes there are flaws (mainly how side characters were dealt with or how it tried to discuss some topics but it fell flat due to the execution), but the characters are not part of those flaws.

Normal People is stunning in its normalcy and in its ability to use simplistic writing that doesn’t fail to reveal the lack of simplicity in these characters.
]]>
Pride and Prejudice 1885 Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268]]>
279 Jane Austen 1441341706 a random hopeless romantic 4 have to re-read at some point. ]]> 4.28 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1813
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/19
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, romance, in-my-library
review:
this was the first classic i picked up once i decided to start reading again. one of the best choices i've made. i just have to re-read at some point.
]]>
Tender is the Night 34649453 Tender is the Night is as sad as it is beautiful.]]> 352 F. Scott Fitzgerald 1784872849 a random hopeless romantic 2 classics, in-my-library
it had an intriguing start but as it went on, it fell more and more flat. i get the points it tried to give, but the execution was not my favourite. descriptions of this book characterise it as a “tragic� tale of a failed marriage and in extension the burden of loneliness. the only tragic thing about this is the lack of insightful passages.]]>
3.40 1934 Tender is the Night
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1934
rating: 2
read at: 2022/09/05
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
[2.75] were my expectations high or was this as underwhelming as it felt?

it had an intriguing start but as it went on, it fell more and more flat. i get the points it tried to give, but the execution was not my favourite. descriptions of this book characterise it as a “tragic� tale of a failed marriage and in extension the burden of loneliness. the only tragic thing about this is the lack of insightful passages.
]]>
Emma 6969 The newest edition is here. Another alternate cover can be found here.

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.]]>
474 Jane Austen 0141439580 a random hopeless romantic 4 4.05 1815 Emma
author: Jane Austen
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1815
rating: 4
read at: 2021/11/02
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, romance, in-my-library
review:
had to read this for a class, which was brilliant, however the professor spoiled things for me before i was done reading so i kinda hate him for ruining the experience. either way austen never disappoints.
]]>
Northanger Abbey 50398 Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.

The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.]]>
260 Jane Austen 1593082649 a random hopeless romantic 4 classics, in-my-library
why, oh why, could u not have written 100 more books?

i loved this from start to finish. austen perfectly depicted what it’s like to be a young girl with a crush, and to see that experience from the perspective of an 18th-19th century girl didn’t have many differences from the one i’ve had as a 21st century one (apart from the dresses and the balls and the walks and the constant need to be polite and proper).

this was a pleasant mix of everything; comedy, drama, suspense, and sprinkled with some gothic elements.

i felt very giddy reading about catherine and henry. he was sarcastic, playful, kind, and understanding towards catherine. the tenderness with which he treated his sister was just an added green flag. jane simply knew how to write attractive men. ]]>
3.85 1817 Northanger Abbey
author: Jane Austen
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1817
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/06
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
dear Jane Austen,

why, oh why, could u not have written 100 more books?

i loved this from start to finish. austen perfectly depicted what it’s like to be a young girl with a crush, and to see that experience from the perspective of an 18th-19th century girl didn’t have many differences from the one i’ve had as a 21st century one (apart from the dresses and the balls and the walks and the constant need to be polite and proper).

this was a pleasant mix of everything; comedy, drama, suspense, and sprinkled with some gothic elements.

i felt very giddy reading about catherine and henry. he was sarcastic, playful, kind, and understanding towards catherine. the tenderness with which he treated his sister was just an added green flag. jane simply knew how to write attractive men.
]]>
Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]>
296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 a random hopeless romantic 4 4.01 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/19
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: literary-fiction, japanese-lit, in-my-library
review:
three words: melancholic, depressing, boobs.
]]>
<![CDATA[This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen]]> 228244 180 Tadeusz Borowski 0140186247 a random hopeless romantic 4 classics, in-my-library 4.17 1946 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
author: Tadeusz Borowski
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1946
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/29
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, in-my-library
review:
each story was like a stinging, burning sensation in the throat as if you've just drank a full glass of vinegar and are close to throwing up because your insides are aflame. truly devastating and raw.
]]>
<![CDATA[Perfume: The Story of a Murderer]]> 343 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.]]>
263 Patrick Süskind a random hopeless romantic 4 4.05 1985 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
author: Patrick Süskind
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/26
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: classics, favorites, in-my-library
review:
i told my professor that this is one of my fav books and he seemed very concerned to say the least.
]]>
<![CDATA[Six Scorched Roses (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1.5)]]> 123027751
Lilith has been dying since the day she was born. But while she long ago came to terms with her own imminent death, the deaths of everyone she loves is an entirely different matter. As her town slowly withers in the clutches of a mysterious god-cursed illness, she takes matters into her own hands.

Desperate to find a cure, Lilith strikes a bargain with the only thing the gods hate even more than her village: a vampire, Vale. She offers him six roses in exchange for six vials of vampire blood–the one hope for her town’s salvation.

But when what begins as a simple transaction gradually becomes something more, Lilith is faced with a terrifying realization: It’s dangerous to wander into the clutches of a vampire� and in a place already suffering a god’s wrath, more dangerous still to fall in love with one.

Six Scorched Roses is a standalone fantasy romance novella set in the world of the Crowns of Nyaxia series, perfect for those who love dark, romantic tales with bite and fans of Sarah J. Maas or Jennifer L. Armentrout.]]>
187 Carissa Broadbent a random hopeless romantic 3 fantasy 4.25 2023 Six Scorched Roses (Crowns of Nyaxia, #1.5)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: fantasy
review:
this wasn’t bad or boring, however i think in order for me to fully enjoy something like this, i NEED build up, character development and more depth - not only in the characters but the story - which is what this lacked. the romance moved a bit fast for my liking.
]]>
<![CDATA[Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece]]> 34927445 With more information, more engagingly presented, than any similar work, this is the best single-volume account of ancient Greece in more than a generation. Waterfield gives a comprehensive narrative of seven hundred years of history, from the emergence of the Greeks around 750 BCE to the Roman conquest of the last of the Greco-Macedonian kingdoms in 30 BCE. Equal weight is given to all phases of Greek history-the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. But history is not just facts; it is also a matter of how we interpret the evidence. Without compromising the readability of the book, Waterfield incorporates the most recent scholarship by classical historians and archaeologists and asks his readers to think critically about Greek history. A brilliant, up-to-date account of ancient Greece, suitable for history buffs and university students alike, Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens presents a compelling and comprehensive story of this remarkable civilization's disunity, underlying cultural solidarity, and eventual political unification.
]]>
511 Robin Waterfield 019023430X a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.90 2018 Creators, Conquerors, and Citizens: A History of Ancient Greece
author: Robin Waterfield
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy]]> 42068288 398 Julian Baggini 1783782285 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.67 2018 How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy
author: Julian Baggini
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope]]> 61613477 The bestselling author of How to Live and At the Existentialist Café explores seven hundred years of writers, thinkers, scientists, and artists, all trying to understand what it means to be truly human

Humanism is an expansive tradition of thought that places shared humanity, cultural vibrancy, and moral responsibility at the center of our lives. The humanistic worldview--as clear-eyed and enlightening as it is kaleidoscopic and richly ambiguous--has inspired people for centuries to make their choices by principles of freethinking, intellectual inquiry, fellow feeling, and optimism.

In this sweeping new history, Sarah Bakewell, herself a lifelong humanist, illuminates the very personal, individual, and, well, human matter of humanism and takes readers on a grand intellectual adventure.

Voyaging from the literary enthusiasts of the fourteenth century to the secular campaigners of our own time, from Erasmus to Esperanto, from anatomists to agnostics, from Christine de Pizan to Bertrand Russell, and from Voltaire to Zora Neale Hurston, Bakewell brings together extraordinary humanists across history. She explores their immense variety: some sought to promote scientific and rationalist ideas, others put more emphasis on moral living, and still others were concerned with the cultural and literary studies known as "the humanities." Humanly Possible asks not only what brings all these aspects of humanism together but why it has such enduring power, despite opposition from fanatics, mystics, and tyrants.

A singular examination of this vital tradition as well as a dazzling contribution to its literature, this is an intoxicating, joyful celebration of the human spirit from one of our most beloved writers. And at a moment when we are all too conscious of the world's divisions, Humanly Possible--brimming with ideas, experiments in living, and respect for the deepest ethical values--serves as a recentering, a call to care for one another, and a reminder that we are all, together, only human.]]>
464 Sarah Bakewell 0735223378 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.95 2023 Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope
author: Sarah Bakewell
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves: to-read
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 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.76 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock]]> 30338791 One of T.S. Eliot’s earliest, and most significant works.

A great achievement of modernist literature, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock takes the form of the complex musings of the titular Prufrock as he considers life and his role in it. The poem draws heavily on allusion to classical works, including Dante’s [ Comedy' (1320)|6656] and Shakespeare’s [ (1601)|1589254].

[ Elliot|18540] was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Born in 1888 in St. Louis (MO, USA), he is considered one of the 20th century's major poets, and a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry."In ten years' time," wrote Edmund Wilson in [ Castle (1931)|350271], "Elliot has left upon English poetry a mark more unmistakable than that of any other poet writing in English." In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Price "for his work as a trail-blazing pioneer of modern poetry."]]>
67 T.S. Eliot 1551999218 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.30 1915 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
author: T.S. Eliot
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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Credence 49084724
And when they suddenly pass away, she knows she should be devastated. But has anything really changed? She’s always been alone, hasn’t she?

Jake Van der Berg, her father’s stepbrother and her only living relative, assumes guardianship of Tiernan who is still two months shy of eighteen. Sent to live with him and his two sons, Noah and Kaleb, in the mountains of Colorado, Tiernan soon learns that these men now have a say in what she chooses to care and not care about anymore. As the three of them take her under their wing, teach her to work and survive in the remote woods far away from the rest of the world, she slowly finds her place among them.

And as a part of them.

She also realizes that lines blur and rules become easy to break when no one else is watching.

One of them has her.

The other one wants her.

But he�

He’s going to keep her.

*Credence is a new adult standalone novel suitable for readers 18+.]]>
470 Penelope Douglas 1660089050 a random hopeless romantic 1
this was so bad in so so so many ways and the fact that the step-incest thing isn't the worst aspect of it speaks VOLUMES.]]>
3.58 2020 Credence
author: Penelope Douglas
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:
penelope, is this really what you want to be known for? writing books about step-uncles and step-cousins manipulating and SAing 17-year-olds and later portraying it as love?

this was so bad in so so so many ways and the fact that the step-incest thing isn't the worst aspect of it speaks VOLUMES.
]]>
<![CDATA[Good Morning, Midnight (Pocket Penguins)]]> 29607494 Saved, rescued, fished-up, half-drowned, out of the deep, dark river, dry clothes, hair shampooed and set...

Set in a 1930s Paris of shabby hotel rooms, seedy bars and drunken encounters, Jean Rhys's semi-autobiographical portrayal of a young woman's sexual encounters is a searingly honest exploration of loneliness and yearning.

Ten new titles in the colourful, small-format, portable new Pocket Penguins series]]>
176 Jean Rhys 0241261406 a random hopeless romantic 3 classics, literary-fiction
this is written in a stream of consciousness format and while it can be confusing, it is fascinating at the same time.

what keeps me from rating it higher is the ending. i feel like it implies that you can only heal your past wounds if someone else accepts them and presents their own to u, which is something i don't know how to feel about.]]>
3.68 1939 Good Morning, Midnight (Pocket Penguins)
author: Jean Rhys
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1939
rating: 3
read at: 2022/11/14
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: classics, literary-fiction
review:
loneliness, lost youth, depression.

this is written in a stream of consciousness format and while it can be confusing, it is fascinating at the same time.

what keeps me from rating it higher is the ending. i feel like it implies that you can only heal your past wounds if someone else accepts them and presents their own to u, which is something i don't know how to feel about.
]]>
Indelicacy 45892263 her. Perhaps another and more drastic solution is necessary?

Reminiscent of a lost Victorian classic in miniature, yet taking equal inspiration from such modern authors as Jean Rhys, Octavia Butler, Clarice Lispector, and Jean Genet, Amina Cain's Indelicacy is at once a ghost story without a ghost, a fable without a moral, and a down-to-earth investigation of the barriers faced by women in both life and literature. It is a novel about seeing, class, desire, anxiety, pleasure, friendship, and the battle to find one’s true calling.

"Indelicacy isn't merely a book, it's a world; a world I wanted to live in, forever . . . Arch, yet warm; aspiring and impervious; confiding and enigmatic; reposing and intrepid; Cain has conjured a protagonist who purged my mind and filled my heart." �Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Pond

A ghostly feminist fable, Amina Cain’s Indelicacy is the story of a woman navigating between gender and class roles to empower herself and fulfill her dreams.
]]>
176 Amina Cain 0374148376 a random hopeless romantic 4 literary-fiction "Death will come no matter how comfortable we are; it doesn't work in that way even if we feel it might. Today, for instance, I am far from it. But on other days: will it happen here, here, or here? I imagine it while crossing the street. On those days I am much too close."

i.. loved this book. that's all i have to say.]]>
3.58 2020 Indelicacy
author: Amina Cain
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/11/14
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: literary-fiction
review:
"Death will come no matter how comfortable we are; it doesn't work in that way even if we feel it might. Today, for instance, I am far from it. But on other days: will it happen here, here, or here? I imagine it while crossing the street. On those days I am much too close."

i.. loved this book. that's all i have to say.
]]>
Night Sky with Exit Wounds 31348271 Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a book of poetry unlike any other. Steeped in war and cultural upheaval and wielding a fresh new language, Vuong writes about the most profound subjects � love and loss, conflict, grief, memory and desire � and attends to them all with lines that feel newly-minted, graceful in their cadences, passionate and hungry in their tender, close attention: ‘…the chief of police/facedown in a pool of Coca-Cola./A palm-sized photo of his father soaking/beside his left ear.� This is an unusual, important book: both gentle and visceral, vulnerable and assured, and its blend of humanity and power make it one of the best first collections of poetry to come out of America in years.

‘These are poems of exquisite beauty, unashamed of romance, and undaunted by looking directly into the horrors of war, the silences of history. One of the most important debut collections for a generation.� Andrew McMillan]]>
80 Ocean Vuong 1911214519 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.11 2016 Night Sky with Exit Wounds
author: Ocean Vuong
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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Writers & Lovers 51813182 An extraordinary new novel of art, love and ambition from Lily King, the New York Times–bestselling author of Euphoria , which sold over 400,000 copies in North America.

Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.

Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, mouldy room at the side of a garage, where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching on to something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

Writers& Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis.Written with King’s trademark humour, heart and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

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334 Lily King 1443460397 a random hopeless romantic 4 literary-fiction 4.09 2020 Writers & Lovers
author: Lily King
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/01
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: literary-fiction
review:
so tender and emotional and witty and heartbreaking but also heartwarming. a story about loss, love, friendship, the struggles of surviving in today's world, and the tribulations of the art of writing. loved this so much.
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<![CDATA[De Profundis and Other Writings]]> 5304 252 Oscar Wilde 014043089X a random hopeless romantic 4 classics 4.23 De Profundis and Other Writings
author: Oscar Wilde
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: classics
review:
i selfishly think about what else he could've written if he wasn't imprisoned at least once a week.
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<![CDATA[Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)]]> 36336078 Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks' duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman's frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.]]>
248 André Aciman 1786495252 a random hopeless romantic 4 4.08 2007 Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)
author: André Aciman
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
shelves:
review:
my god the writing in this is absolutely stunning. truly captures what it's like to be wholly obsessed with someone.
]]>
The Call of Cthulhu 15730101 The Call of Cthulhu is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world.]]> 43 H.P. Lovecraft a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.97 1928 The Call of Cthulhu
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Shortest History of Greece]]> 59738184 The story of modern Greece, too, is a dramatic tale of triumph and catastrophe, from liberation and expansion through schism and home-grown dictatorship, Nazi occupation and civil war to today's nation -- battered by austerity, a transit camp for the casualties of the Middle East, at the front-line of climate change -- yet still proud of its values.
The Shortest History of Greece, James Heneage charts the odyssey of the Greeks through more than three millennia. As he does so, he uncovers a vital lesson -- one that may just help us fix our own democracies.]]>
256 James Heneage 1910400866 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.92 The Shortest History of Greece
author: James Heneage
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare]]> 25622782
The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, reissued with a new afterword for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? Stephen Greenblatt brings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world’s greatest playwright. 23 illustrations]]>
438 Stephen Greenblatt 0393352609 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.78 2004 Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
author: Stephen Greenblatt
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know]]> 43848929 Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers -- and why they often go wrong.

How did Fidel Castro fool the CIA for a generation? Why did Neville Chamberlain think he could trust Adolf Hitler? Why are campus sexual assaults on the rise? Do television sitcoms teach us something about the way we relate to each other that isn't true?

While tackling these questions, Malcolm Gladwell was not solely writing a book for the page. He was also producing for the ear. In the audiobook version of Talking to Strangers, you'll hear the voices of people he interviewed--scientists, criminologists, military psychologists. Court transcripts are brought to life with re-enactments. You actually hear the contentious arrest of Sandra Bland by the side of the road in Texas. As Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, and the suicide of Sylvia Plath, you hear directly from many of the players in these real-life tragedies. There's even a theme song - Janelle Monae's "Hell You Talmbout."

Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don't know. And because we don't know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.]]>
388 Malcolm Gladwell 0316478520 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.00 2019 Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men]]> 41104077
Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women�, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]>
448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.35 2019 Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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Bright Dead Things 24945396
A book of bravado and introspection, of 21st century feminist swagger and harrowing terror and loss, this fourth collection considers how we build our identities out of place and human contact—tracing in intimate detail the various ways the speaker’s sense of self both shifts and perseveres as she moves from New York City to rural Kentucky, loses a dear parent, ages past the capriciousness of youth, and falls in love. Limón has often been a poet who wears her heart on her sleeve, but in these extraordinary poems that heart becomes a “huge beating genius machine� striving to embrace and understand the fullness of the present moment. “I am beautiful. I am full of love. I am dying,� the poet writes. Building on the legacies of forebears such as Frank O’Hara, Sharon Olds, and Mark Doty, Limón’s work is consistently generous and accessible—though every observed moment feels complexly thought, felt, and lived.]]>
105 Ada Limon 1571314717 a random hopeless romantic 3 poetry 4.21 2015 Bright Dead Things
author: Ada Limon
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: poetry
review:
this poetry collection wasn't bad per se, but i wasn't very captivated. there were some lines and, like, four poems that i liked but for most of it i didn't feel much - which is basically the whole point of poetry. so. three stars? two and a half? idk.
]]>
<![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 822993 Librarian note: An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here.

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

As Warden of the North, Lord Eddard Stark counts it a curse when King Robert bestows on him the office of the Hand. His honour weighs him down at court where a true man does what he will, not what he must � and a dead enemy is a thing of beauty.

The old gods have no power in the south, Stark's family is split and there is treachery at court. Worse, the vengeance-mad heir of the deposed Dragon King has grown to maturity in exile in the Free Cities. He claims the Iron Throne.]]>
864 George R.R. Martin 000647988X a random hopeless romantic 3 fantasy 4.43 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/17
date added: 2024/07/17
shelves: fantasy
review:
[3.75] alas, since i watched the show first and remember season one very clearly, i can't say that i was excited to keep picking this back up. mainly read it to see what they changed in the show. safe to say, barely anything was different in terms of scenes. had an issue with the writing at times (could get repetitive). but overall, i'm glad to have this book under my belt now.
]]>
<![CDATA[Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)]]> 75513900 She is the very thing he’s spent his whole life hunting.
He is the very thing she’s spent her whole life pretending to be.

Only the extraordinary belong in the kingdom of Ilya—the exceptional, the empowered, the Elites.

The powers these Elites have possessed for decades were graciously gifted to them by the Plague, though not all were fortunate enough to both survive the sickness and reap the reward. Those born Ordinary are just that—ordinary. And when the king decreed that all Ordinaries be banished in order to preserve his Elite society, lacking an ability suddenly became a crime—making Paedyn Gray a felon by fate and a thief by necessity.

Surviving in the slums as an Ordinary is no simple task, and Paedyn knows this better than most. Having been trained by her father to be overly observant since she was a child, Paedyn poses as a Psychic in the crowded city, blending in with the Elites as best she can in order to stay alive and out of trouble. Easier said than done.

When Paeydn unsuspectingly saves one of Ilyas princes, she finds herself thrown into the Purging Trials. The brutal competition exists to showcase the Elites� powers—the very thing Paedyn lacks. If the Trials and the opponents within them don’t kill her, the prince she’s fighting feelings for certainly will if he discovers what she is—completely Ordinary.]]>
523 Lauren Roberts a random hopeless romantic 1 fantasy
if you love this book, i’m happy for you and i wish i could’ve loved it just as much. with that being said.. i rolled my eyes while reading this just as many times as the characters rolled their own (which was almost in every page. i’m not even exaggerating. i looked up on my ebook how many times the word “roll� appeared and there were 106 matches found).

listen, i know this is a debut novel and the author was like, what, 18 when she wrote this? but it was just so hyped that i HAD to see for myself because, yes, i’m also a sucker for the black haired “i’m-such-a-bad-person� archetype of mmc. you’d think i’d have learned my lesson after fourth wing.

i digress. i’m going to focus mostly on the writing since it’s something important for me in order to enjoy a book, plus everyone already knows how much this plot lacks originality so you don’t need me to tell you that. i haven’t read most of the really popular fantasies and even i knew how inauthentic each trope was. if you’re going to create a list of tropes from a handful of fantasies and make up a shitty stew from them without even having the decency to add some creativity and spice in it (not THAT kind of spice, but this lacked even that kind of spice cuz it's YA), why even write this?

but i digress again. the writing. i’m going to skim past the very obvious and irritating spelling mistakes and focus on the one thing that irritated me the most in this book which was the characters; the way they acted, talked, and were described. they did not behave like real people. the “banter� everyone is raving about was just so� unnatural, so forced and just not what it sets itself out to be.

i also looked up how many times the word “twitch� was mentioned (for each time their lips twitch into a smirk or a smile) and it was 31, which felt more like 331.
“I can’t keep the smile from twitching my lips�
“His lips twitch, allowing me to glimpse a dimple on his right cheek.�
“The corner of my mouth twitches with the ghost of a smile �
“The corner of his mouth twitches up.�

MY LEFT EYE IS TWITCHING FROM THE AMOUNT OF LIPS TWITCHING IN THIS BOOK.

anyway.

the writing was very juvenile and Tumblr-y which i didn't care much for because i expected it. i obviously didn’t go in expecting spectacular, Virginia Woolf type writing, but i at the very least expected to enjoy some romantacy angst and pining without rolling my eyes at the way these characters were written.

was gonna give this a 2 star because it's not completely unentertaining but the amount of blatant unoriginality and lack of creativity bothers me a bit too much.

that’s all, don’t hate me <3]]>
4.17 2023 Powerless (The Powerless Trilogy, #1)
author: Lauren Roberts
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/07
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: fantasy
review:
powerless? more like flavourless. [the crowd goes wild]

if you love this book, i’m happy for you and i wish i could’ve loved it just as much. with that being said.. i rolled my eyes while reading this just as many times as the characters rolled their own (which was almost in every page. i’m not even exaggerating. i looked up on my ebook how many times the word “roll� appeared and there were 106 matches found).

listen, i know this is a debut novel and the author was like, what, 18 when she wrote this? but it was just so hyped that i HAD to see for myself because, yes, i’m also a sucker for the black haired “i’m-such-a-bad-person� archetype of mmc. you’d think i’d have learned my lesson after fourth wing.

i digress. i’m going to focus mostly on the writing since it’s something important for me in order to enjoy a book, plus everyone already knows how much this plot lacks originality so you don’t need me to tell you that. i haven’t read most of the really popular fantasies and even i knew how inauthentic each trope was. if you’re going to create a list of tropes from a handful of fantasies and make up a shitty stew from them without even having the decency to add some creativity and spice in it (not THAT kind of spice, but this lacked even that kind of spice cuz it's YA), why even write this?

but i digress again. the writing. i’m going to skim past the very obvious and irritating spelling mistakes and focus on the one thing that irritated me the most in this book which was the characters; the way they acted, talked, and were described. they did not behave like real people. the “banter� everyone is raving about was just so� unnatural, so forced and just not what it sets itself out to be.

i also looked up how many times the word “twitch� was mentioned (for each time their lips twitch into a smirk or a smile) and it was 31, which felt more like 331.
“I can’t keep the smile from twitching my lips�
“His lips twitch, allowing me to glimpse a dimple on his right cheek.�
“The corner of my mouth twitches with the ghost of a smile �
“The corner of his mouth twitches up.�

MY LEFT EYE IS TWITCHING FROM THE AMOUNT OF LIPS TWITCHING IN THIS BOOK.

anyway.

the writing was very juvenile and Tumblr-y which i didn't care much for because i expected it. i obviously didn’t go in expecting spectacular, Virginia Woolf type writing, but i at the very least expected to enjoy some romantacy angst and pining without rolling my eyes at the way these characters were written.

was gonna give this a 2 star because it's not completely unentertaining but the amount of blatant unoriginality and lack of creativity bothers me a bit too much.

that’s all, don’t hate me <3
]]>
<![CDATA[Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language]]> 41716694
Amanda Montell, feminist linguist and staff features editor at online beauty and health magazine Byrdie.com, deconstructs language—from insults and cursing to grammar and pronunciation patterns—to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women form gaining equality. Ever wonder why so many people are annoyed when women use the word “like� as a filler? Or why certain gender neutral terms stick and others don’t? Or even how linguists have historically discussed women’s speech patterns? Wordslut is no stuffy academic study; Montell’s irresistible humor shines through, making linguistics not only approachable but both downright hilarious and profound.]]>
304 Amanda Montell 006286887X a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.26 2019 Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
author: Amanda Montell
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 196864520

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice—unlike anything you’ve read before—now available in all bookstores.


When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.


But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

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360 Brynne Weaver a random hopeless romantic 3 romance 4.00 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves: romance
review:
[3.5] this was so much fun dude. finished it in a day. i don't care if it's unrealistic, it's a romance about two serial killers falling in love like, come on. (take content warnings seriously).
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<![CDATA[The Prison Healer (The Prison Healer, #1)]]> 53968496
When the Rebel Queen is captured, Kiva is charged with keeping the terminally ill woman alive long enough for her to undergo the Trial by Ordeal: a series of elemental challenges against the torments of air, fire, water, and earth, assigned to only the most dangerous of criminals.

Then a coded message from Kiva’s family arrives, containing a single order: “Don’t let her die. We are coming.� Aware that the Trials will kill the sickly queen, Kiva risks her own life to volunteer in her place. If she succeeds, both she and the queen will be granted their freedom.

But no one has ever survived.

With an incurable plague sweeping Zalindov, a mysterious new inmate fighting for Kiva’s heart, and a prison rebellion brewing, Kiva can’t escape the terrible feeling that her trials have only just begun.

From bestselling author Lynette Noni comes a dark, thrilling YA fantasy perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, and Sabaa Tahir.]]>
416 Lynette Noni 0358434556 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.15 2021 The Prison Healer (The Prison Healer, #1)
author: Lynette Noni
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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Hour of the Star 17573223 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Cola and her philandering rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly and unloved. Yet telling her story is the narrator Rodrigo S.M., who tries to direct Macabéa's fate but comes to realize that, for all her outward misery, she is inwardly free. Slyly subverting ideas of poverty, identity, love, and the art of writing itself, Clarice Lispector's audacious last novel, arguably her best, is a haunting portrayal of innocence in a bad world.]]>
96 Clarice Lispector 0141392037 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.02 1977 Hour of the Star
author: Clarice Lispector
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Library of the Unwritten (Hell's Library, #1)]]> 41961994 In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories.

Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing—a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto.

But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell ... and Earth.]]>
384 A.J. Hackwith 1984806386 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.78 2019 The Library of the Unwritten (Hell's Library, #1)
author: A.J. Hackwith
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

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Tom Lake 63241104 In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America’s finest writers.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.]]>
309 Ann Patchett 006332752X a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.92 2023 Tom Lake
author: Ann Patchett
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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Complete Shorter Fiction 19398 288 Oscar Wilde 0192833766 a random hopeless romantic 4 classics i need more. 4.15 1894 Complete Shorter Fiction
author: Oscar Wilde
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1894
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/01
date added: 2024/06/01
shelves: classics
review:
i need more.
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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 a random hopeless romantic 4 romance 4.17 2023 The Seven Year Slip
author: Ashley Poston
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/30
date added: 2024/05/30
shelves: romance
review:
i contemplated giving this a 3.5 because i feel like the whole magical realism thing wasn’t as well thought out for it to fully make “sense� and i also feel like the author tried to do a dual timing thing but slightly different, which to me didn’t work that well. but the warm feeling it left in my stomach made me overlook that. i think this is everything one would expect from a rom-com.
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<![CDATA[The Complete World of Greek Mythology]]> 23520
"Contexts, Sources, Meanings" describes the main literary and artistic sources for Greek myths, and their contexts, such as ritual and theater.
"Myths of Origin" includes stories about the beginning of the cosmos, the origins of the gods, the first humans, and the founding of communities.
"The Olympians: Power, Honor, Sexuality" examines the activities of all the main divinities.
"Heroic exploits" concentrates on the adventures of Perseus, Jason, Herakles, and other heroes.
"Family sagas" explores the dramas and catastrophes that befall heroes and heroines.
"A Landscape of Myths" sets the stories within the context of the mountains, caves, seas, and rivers of Greece, Crete, Troy, and the Underworld.
"Greek Myths after the Greeks" describes the rich tradition of retelling, from the Romans, through the Renaissance, to the twenty-first century.
Complemented by lavish illustrations, genealogical tables, box features, and specially commissioned drawings, this will be an essential book for anyone interested in these classic tales and in the world of the ancient Greeks.]]>
256 Richard Buxton 0500251215 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.24 2004 The Complete World of Greek Mythology
author: Richard Buxton
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Balcony 667483 96 Jean Genet 0802150349 a random hopeless romantic 3 classics, plays 3.83 1956 The Balcony
author: Jean Genet
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1956
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/25
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves: classics, plays
review:
kind of confusing but it had so many layers.
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<![CDATA[Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind]]> 49098237
Drawing upon her years of research and a wealth of remarkable experience, the world-renowned forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black takes us on a journey of revelation. From skull to feet, via the face, spine, chest, arms, hands, pelvis and legs, she shows that each part of us has a tale to tell. What we eat, where we go, everything we do leaves a trace, a message that waits patiently for months, years, sometimes centuries, until a forensic anthropologist is called upon to decipher it.

Some of this information is easily understood, some holds its secrets tight and needs scientific cajoling to be released. But by carefully piecing together the evidence, the facts of a life can be rebuilt. Limb by limb, case by case � some criminal, some historical, some unaccountably bizarre � Sue Black reconstructs with intimate sensitivity and compassion the hidden stories in what we leave behind.]]>
368 Sue Black 0857526901 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 4.33 2020 Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind
author: Sue Black
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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When God Was a Woman 30858 265 Merlin Stone 0880295333 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.95 1976 When God Was a Woman
author: Merlin Stone
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller]]> 61089547
He'd intended to stay for a year before launching into some less dusty, better remunerated career. Unfortunately for him, the alluring smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap proved irresistible. Soon he was balancing teetering stacks of first editions, fending off nonagenarian widows with a ten-foot pole and trying not to upset the store's resident ghost (the late Mr Sotheran had unfinished business when he was hit by that tram).

For while Sotheran's might be a treasure trove of literary delights, it sings a siren song to eccentrics. There are not only colleagues whose tastes in rare items range from the inspired to the mildly dangerous, but also zealous collectors seeking knowledge, curios, or simply someone with whom to hold a four hour conversation about books bound in human skin.

By turns unhinged and earnestly dog-eared, Once Upon a Tome is the rather colourful story of life in one of the country's most ancient bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment.]]>
244 Oliver Darkshire 1324092076 a random hopeless romantic 0 to-read 3.93 2022 Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller
author: Oliver Darkshire
name: a random hopeless romantic
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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