Addison's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 22 Jun 2025 17:16:27 -0700 60 Addison's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg FKA USA 41150464 Reed King’s amazingly audacious novel is something of a cross between L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, Douglas Adams’s A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Ernie Cline’s Ready Player One.

In Reed King’s wildly imaginative and possibly prescient debut, the United States has dissolved in the wake of environmental disasters and the catastrophic policies of its final president.

It is 2085, and Truckee Wallace, a factory worker in Crunchtown 407 (formerly Little Rock, Arkansas, before the secessions), has no grand ambitions besides maybe, possibly, losing his virginity someday.

But when Truckee is thrust unexpectedly into the spotlight he is tapped by the President for a sensitive political mission: to deliver a talking goat across the continent. The fate of the world depends upon it.

The problem is—Truckee’s not sure it’s worth it.

Joined on the road by an android who wants to be human and a former convict lobotomized in Texas, Truckee will navigate an environmentally depleted and lawless continent with devastating—and hilarious—parallels to our own, dodging body pickers and Elvis-worshippers and logo girls, body subbers, and VR addicts.

Elvis-willing, he may even lose his virginity.

FKA USA is the epic novel we’ve all been waiting for about the American end of times, with its unavoidable sense of being on the wrong end of the roller coaster ride. It is a masterwork of ambition, humor, and satire with the power to make us cry, despair, and laugh out loud all at once. It is a tour de force unlike anything else you will read this year.]]>
480 Reed King 1250108896 Addison 0 currently-reading 3.31 2019 FKA USA
author: Reed King
name: Addison
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/22
shelves: currently-reading
review:

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Ring Shout 50687822 In America, demons wear white hoods.

In 1915, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. They plan to bring Hell to Earth. But even Ku Kluxes can die.

Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up.

Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?]]>
172 P. Djèlí Clark 1250767016 Addison 4 4.10 2020 Ring Shout
author: P. Djèlí Clark
name: Addison
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/22
date added: 2025/06/22
shelves:
review:
Loved the writing style for sure in this. The way the author puts the pain, anger, suffering, and loss into comparison with monsters was so unique but also just the perfect way to express the pain of black Americans during the klan era. It’s so impressive to me how impactful and creative this book is while being less than 200 pages.
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Rouge 157184735 From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep?

For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror—and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.

Snow White meets Eyes Wide Shut in this surreal descent into the dark side of beauty, envy, grief, and the complicated love between mothers and daughters. With black humor and seductive horror, Rouge explores the cult-like nature of the beauty industry—as well as the danger of internalizing its pitiless gaze. Brimming with California sunshine and blood-red rose petals, Rouge holds up a warped mirror to our relationship with mortality, our collective fixation with the surface, and the wondrous, deep longing that might lie beneath.]]>
383 Mona Awad Addison 5 Love a weird freaky lit fic 3.54 2023 Rouge
author: Mona Awad
name: Addison
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/06/20
date added: 2025/06/20
shelves:
review:
Love a weird freaky lit fic
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<![CDATA[Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind]]> 219838010 One of the hottest stand-ups working today, Nate Bargatze brings his everyman comedy to the page in this hilarious collection of personal stories, opinions, and confessions.

Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and “my brain got, like, dented or something.� Before this accident, he dreamed of being “an electric engineer, or a brain doctor, or maybe a math person who does like, math things for a living.� Afterwards, a voice in his head told him, “It’s okay. You’re dumb now. All you got is standup.�* But the “math things� industry’s loss is our gain because Nate went on to become one of today’s top-grossing comedians who breaks both attendance and streaming records.
Ěý
In his highly-anticipated first book, Nate talks about life as a non-genius. From stories about his first car (named Old Blue, a clunky Mazda with a tennis ball for a stick shift), life as a Southerner (Northerners constantly ask him things like, do you believe in dinosaurs?), and his first apartment where a rat chewed a hole right through the wall to how his wife keeps him in line and so much more. He also reflects on such topics as Vandy football and the origins of sushi (how can a Philadelphia roll be from old-time Japan?).
Ěý
Nate’s book is full of heart and it will make readers laugh out loud and nod in recognition, but it probably won’t make them think too much.
Ěý
Ěý
*Nate’s family disputes this entire story]]>
240 Nate Bargatze 1538768461 Addison 0 to-read 3.87 2025 Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind
author: Nate Bargatze
name: Addison
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/06/20
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My Husband 63017297 In this suspenseful and darkly funny debut novel, a sophisticated French woman spends her life obsessing over her perfect husband--but can their marriage survive her passionate love?

At forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she's never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated. After all, would a truly infatuated man ever let go of his wife's hand when they're sitting on the couch together?

Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless. She watches him attentively, charting every mistake and punishing him accordingly to help him improve. And she tests him--setting traps to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met.

Until one day she realizes she may have gone too far . . .

The winner of France's First Novel Prize in 2021, My Husband builds on the premise of hits like Gone Girl and Fates and Furies--how well can you really know your spouse?--and adds the tension and creepy obsession of You. The result is an irresistible read--compelling, tense, and engaging, infused with sly subversive humor, and told in an utterly original voice that makes it unforgettable.

Translated from the French by Emma Ramadan]]>
272 Maud Ventura 0063274825 Addison 3 ]]> 3.67 2021 My Husband
author: Maud Ventura
name: Addison
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/18
date added: 2025/06/18
shelves:
review:
Didn’t love but didn’t hate. These characters are weird asf. Also the epilogue felt unnecessary and kinda threw off the entire book!

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Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]>
319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Addison 4 3.69 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Addison
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/18
date added: 2025/06/18
shelves:
review:
I’m definitely becoming a huge RF Kuang fan!
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<![CDATA[Under the Lights and in the Dark: Untold Stories of Women's Soccer]]> 33114524 futebol feminino for Santos FC, Brazil. The team hitchhiked to practice, shared their field with a horse and wore hand-me-downs from the men's team.

If this was Brazil, the mecca of futebol, what did the women's game look like in other countries?

Under the Lights and in the Dark takes us inside the world of women's soccer, following players across the globe, from Portland Thorns star Allie Long, who trains in an underground men's league in New York City; to Fara Williams, who hid her homelessness from her teammates while playing for the English national team. Oxenham takes us to Voronezh, Russia, where players battle more than just snowy pitches in pursuing their dream of playing pro, and to a refugee camp in Denmark, where Nadia Nadim, now a Danish international star, honed her skills after her family fled from the Taliban.

Whether you're a newcomer to the sport or a die-hard fan, this is an inspiring book about stars' beginnings and adventures, struggles and hardship, and, above all, the time-honored romance of the game.]]>
272 Gwendolyn Oxenham 1785781537 Addison 0 to-read 4.51 2017 Under the Lights and in the Dark: Untold Stories of Women's Soccer
author: Gwendolyn Oxenham
name: Addison
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/06/18
shelves: to-read
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The Road 6288
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]>
241 Cormac McCarthy 0307265439 Addison 4 3.99 2006 The Road
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Addison
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/17
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves:
review:
So bleak. I think the individualism of surviving in the post-apocalyptic era is a very realistic take on what life would actually be like during this time. No purpose to keep yourself going but the fear of death pushing you to stay alive. I may have shed a tear or two which is so uncommon for me.
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Babel 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]>
544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Addison 0 to-read 4.16 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Addison
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/06/17
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Drowning Faith (The Poppy War, #2.5)]]> 55927316
It is recommended to be read after the first 5 chapters of The Burning God (Book #3).]]>
15 R.F. Kuang Addison 0 4.52 2020 The Drowning Faith (The Poppy War, #2.5)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Addison
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2025/06/17
date added: 2025/06/17
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<![CDATA[The Burning God (The Poppy War, #3)]]> 45857086 The exciting end to The Poppy War trilogy, R. F. Kuang’s acclaimed, award-winning epic fantasy that combines the history of twentieth-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating, enthralling effect.

After saving her nation of Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress Su Daji in a brutal civil war, Fang Runin was betrayed by allies and left for dead.Ěý

Despite her losses, Rin hasn’t given up on those for whom she has sacrificed so much—the people of the southern provinces and especially Tikany, the village that is her home. Returning to her roots, Rin meets difficult challenges—and unexpected opportunities. While her new allies in the Southern Coalition leadership are sly and untrustworthy, Rin quickly realizes that the real power in Nikan lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess of salvation.Ěý

Backed by the masses and her Southern Army, Rin will use every weapon to defeat the Dragon Republic, the colonizing Hesperians, and all who threaten the shamanic arts and their practitioners. As her power and influence grows, though, will she be strong enough to resist the Phoenix’s intoxicating voice urging her to burn the world and everything in it?Ěý]]>
622 R.F. Kuang 0008339147 Addison 4 4.29 2020 The Burning God (The Poppy War, #3)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Addison
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/06/17
date added: 2025/06/17
shelves:
review:

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<![CDATA[Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World]]> 215366529 We live in a digital world. In the 30 years since we've been online, we've created connections, crossed boundaries and discovered new worlds. We have done things generations before us could never have imagined.

But at what cost?

Growing up as a Gen Z, Adele spent endless hours as a teenager on social media, shaping her view of herself and the world. As a freelance journalist, she has used her social media platforms and digital technology to develop a career in an unfamiliar and competitive industry, benefitting from the opportunities that these spaces can offer. But after losing her sister to online harms, she realised that our current digital world is failing us.

We are an anxious and discontent generation. Our lived realities and our online vulnerabilities are inextricably linked, and this means big business for social media tycoons who want us to stay scrolling at any cost. As Big Tech barons make their billions, capitalising on our emotions, instincts, insecurities and desires, everyday people are losing out.

From workers being fired by algorithms, to online forums dedicated to revenge porn and encouraging suicide, to censorship of marginalised voices and the turbulent impacts of AI, Logging Off reveals that our digital world is currently fuelling crises that only empathy, agency and humanity can resolve. This book is a call for a radical reclamation of our digital world, for a more humane future that empowers us all.]]>
288 Adele Zeynep Walton 1398722952 Addison 0 to-read 4.47 Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World
author: Adele Zeynep Walton
name: Addison
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/06/16
shelves: to-read
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Women Don't Owe You Pretty 52252715 WOMEN DON'T OWE YOU PRETTY will tell you to...
love sex, hate sexism,
protect your goddamn energy,
life is short, dump them,
And that you owe men nothing, least of all pretty.

Florence's debut book will explore all progressive corners of the feminist conversation; from insecurity projection and refusing to find comfort in other women's flaws, to deciding whether to date or dump them, all the way through to unpacking the male gaze and how it shapes our identity.

WOMEN DON'T OWE YOU PRETTY is an accessible leap into feminism, for people at all stages of their journey who are seeking to reshape and transform the way they view themselves. In a world that tells women we're either not enough or too much, it's time we stop directing our anger and insecurities onto ourselves, and start fighting back to re-shape the toxic structures of our patriarchal society.

Florence's book will help you to tackle and challenge the limiting narrative you have been bombarded with your whole life, and determine feminism on your own terms. After all, you are the love of your own life.

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193 Florence Given 1788402278 Addison 2 Yeah this was really bad 3.71 2020 Women Don't Owe You Pretty
author: Florence Given
name: Addison
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/05/21
date added: 2025/05/21
shelves:
review:
Yeah this was really bad
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<![CDATA[Midnight Sun (The Twilight Saga, #5)]]> 53287484 When Edward Cullen and Bella Swan met in Twilight, an iconic love story was born. But until now, fans have heard only Bella’s side of the story. At last, readers can experience Edward’s version in the long-awaited companion novel, Midnight Sun.

This unforgettable tale as told through Edward’s eyes takes on a new and decidedly dark twist. Meeting beautiful, mysterious Bella is both the most intriguing and unnerving event he has experienced in his long life as a vampire. As we learn more fascinating details about Edward’s past and the complexity of his inner thoughts, we understand why this is the defining struggle of his life. How can he let himself fall in love with Bella when he knows that he is endangering her life?

In Midnight Sun, Stephenie Meyer transports us back to a world that has captivated millions of readers and, drawing on the classic myth of Hades and Persephone, brings us an epic novel about the profound pleasures and devastating consequences of immortal love.]]>
662 Stephenie Meyer 031670704X Addison 3 3.72 2020 Midnight Sun (The Twilight Saga, #5)
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Addison
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/14
date added: 2025/05/14
shelves:
review:
Wow so crazy how I actually didn’t care and Edward just literally never shut up
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<![CDATA[Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1)]]> 345627 Only a true best friend can protect you from your immortal enemies...

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires—the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

After two years of freedom, Rose and Lissa are caught and dragged back to St. Vladimir's Academy, a school for vampire royalty and their guardians-to-be, hidden in the deep forests of Montana. But inside the iron gates, life is even more fraught with danger... and the Strigoi are always close by.

Rose and Lissa must navigate their dangerous world, confront the temptations of forbidden love, and never once let their guard down, lest the evil undead make Lissa one of them forever...]]>
332 Richelle Mead 159514174X Addison 3 4.12 2007 Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1)
author: Richelle Mead
name: Addison
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/07
date added: 2025/05/07
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Beach Read 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]>
400 Emily Henry 1984806734 Addison 4 3.98 2020 Beach Read
author: Emily Henry
name: Addison
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/06
date added: 2025/05/06
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<![CDATA[Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
-ĚýMake time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
-ĚýOvercome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- Design your environment to make success easier;
- Get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]>
319 James Clear Addison 5 4.33 2018 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
author: James Clear
name: Addison
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/04
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves:
review:

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Animal 55711559 Honestly, sometimes I think it’s the only recourse. Killing men in times like these.

Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruel acts of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child—that has haunted her every waking moment—while forging the power to finally strike back.

Here is the electrifying debut novel from Lisa Taddeo, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Three Women, which was named to more than thirty best-of-the-year lists and hailed as “a dazzling achievement� (Los Angeles Times) and “a heartbreaking, gripping, astonishing masterpiece� (Esquire). Animal is a depiction of female rage at its rawest, and a visceral exploration of the fallout from a male-dominated society. With writing that scorches and mesmerizes, Taddeo illustrates one woman’s exhilarating transformation from prey into predator.]]>
336 Lisa Taddeo 1982122129 Addison 0 to-read 3.71 2021 Animal
author: Lisa Taddeo
name: Addison
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: to-read
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A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.ĚýYet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]>
720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Addison 3 4.27 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Addison
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2025/05/01
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves:
review:
Jude St. Francis you didn’t deserve that!
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<![CDATA[The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward]]> 215700930 In a rare window into some of her life’s pivotal moments, Melinda French Gates draws from previously untold stories to offer a new perspective on encountering transitions.

Transitions are moments in which we step out of our familiar surroundings and into a new landscape―a space that, for many people, is shadowed by confusion, fear, and indecision. The Next Day accompanies readers as they cross that space, offering guidance on how to make the most of the time between an ending and a new beginning and how to move forward into the next day when the ground beneath you is shifting.

In this book, Melinda will reflect, for the first time in print, on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.

Each one of us, no matter who we are or where we are in life, is headed toward transitions of our own. With her signature warmth and grace, Melinda candidly shares stories of times when she was in need of wisdom and shines a path through the open space stretching out before us all.]]>
176 Melinda French Gates 1250378656 Addison 0 to-read 3.84 The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward
author: Melinda French Gates
name: Addison
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]>
387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Addison 5 Haymitch you deserved better 4.55 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Addison
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
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Haymitch you deserved better
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Deep Cuts 214269394 Look, the song whispered to me, that day in my living room. Life can be so big.

It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overanalyzing the song, indulging what she knows to be her most annoying habit. But something is different tonight. The guy beside her at the bar, fellow student Joe Morrow, is a songwriter. And he could listen to Percy talk all night.

Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?

Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.]]>
277 Holly Brickley 0593799089 Addison 0 to-read 3.68 2025 Deep Cuts
author: Holly Brickley
name: Addison
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/15
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<![CDATA[Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson]]> 6900
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.]]>
210 Mitch Albom Addison 5 “Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.�
“Love each other or die.�
“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”]]>
4.19 1997 Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
author: Mitch Albom
name: Addison
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
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“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.�
“Love each other or die.�
“Death ends a life, not a relationship.�
]]>
<![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]>
389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 Addison 4 4.39 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Addison
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
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<![CDATA[Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve]]> 195791316 256 Drew Afualo 0374614059 Addison 4 4.32 2024 Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve
author: Drew Afualo
name: Addison
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/30
date added: 2025/03/30
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I fear she read these men to filth. Also the chapter on motherhood spoke to my soul.
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<![CDATA[One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)]]> 58340706
Elspeth Spindle needs more than luck to stay safe in the eerie, mist-locked kingdom of Blunder—she needs a monster. She calls him the Nightmare, an ancient, mercurial spirit trapped in her head. He protects her. He keeps her secrets.

But nothing comes for free, especially magic.

When Elspeth meets a mysterious highwayman on the forest road, her life takes a drastic turn. Thrust into a world of shadow and deception, she joins a dangerous quest to cure Blunder from the dark magic infecting it. And the highwayman? He just so happens to be the King’s nephew, Captain of the most dangerous men in Blunder…and guilty of high treason.

Together they must gather twelve Providence Cards—the keys to the cure. But as the stakes heighten and their undeniable attraction intensifies, Elspeth is forced to face her darkest secret yet: the Nightmare is slowly taking over her mind. And she might not be able to stop him.]]>
399 Rachel Gillig 0316312487 Addison 3 4.25 2022 One Dark Window (The Shepherd King, #1)
author: Rachel Gillig
name: Addison
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/16
date added: 2025/03/25
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Prodigy (Legend, #2) 16287469 522 Marie Lu 1410455122 Addison 5 This series is so good omg 4.13 2013 Prodigy (Legend, #2)
author: Marie Lu
name: Addison
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/23
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This series is so good omg
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Girl in Pieces 29236380
Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge.]]>
416 Kathleen Glasgow 1101934719 Addison 4 3.94 2016 Girl in Pieces
author: Kathleen Glasgow
name: Addison
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/03/19
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Legend (Legend, #1) 29863662 Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition for ASIN B0052RDJAO.

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors.

Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles.

Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect.
Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.]]>
318 Marie Lu Addison 4 This is very tea 4.12 2011 Legend (Legend, #1)
author: Marie Lu
name: Addison
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
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This is very tea
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Home Is Where the Bodies Are 194020321
While going through their parents' belongings, the siblings stumble upon a collection of home videos and decide to revisit those happier memories. However, the nostalgia is cut short when one of the VHS tapes reveals a night back in 1999 that none of them have any recollection of. On screen, their father appears covered in blood. What follows is a dead body and a pact between their parents to get rid of it, before the video abruptly ends.

Beth, Nicole, and Michael must now decide whether to leave the past in the past or uncover the dark secret their mother took to her grave.]]>
256 Jeneva Rose Addison 0 to-read 3.77 2024 Home Is Where the Bodies Are
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Addison
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/15
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One Day 6280118
So where will they be on this one day next year? And the year after that?

And every year that follows?
--back cover]]>
435 David Nicholls 0340896965 Addison 2 3.86 2009 One Day
author: David Nicholls
name: Addison
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
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I thought I would eat this up, however, it was actually so bad! Dex might be the most unlikable main character I have ever read in a book. He’s rude and so unappreciative of Emma. It’s a no from me❤️
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<![CDATA[Anatomy: A Love Story (The Anatomy Duology, #1)]]> 57917042 Edinburgh, 1817. Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.

Jack Currer is a resurrection man who’s just trying to survive in a city where it’s too easy to die.

When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist’s Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham’s lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might be more helpful than she first thought. Because Hazel has made a deal with Dr. Beecham: if she can pass the medical examination on her own, the university will allow her to enroll. Without official lessons, though, Hazel will need more than just her books � she’ll need bodies to study, corpses to dissect.

Lucky that she’s made the acquaintance of someone who digs them up for a living, then.

But Jack has his own problems: strange men have been seen skulking around cemeteries, his friends are disappearing off the streets. Hazel and Jack work together to uncover the secrets buried not just in unmarked graves, but in the very heart of Edinburgh society.

A gothic tale full of mystery and romance about a willful female surgeon, a resurrection man who sells bodies for a living, and the buried secrets they must uncover together.]]>
338 Dana Schwartz Addison 3 3.81 2022 Anatomy: A Love Story (The Anatomy Duology, #1)
author: Dana Schwartz
name: Addison
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
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Demon Copperhead 60194162 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063251922.

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]>
560 Barbara Kingsolver Addison 4 nyt-100 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Addison
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: nyt-100
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<![CDATA[The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)]]> 41212753
With no other options, Rin joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who has a plan to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new Republic. Rin throws herself into his war. After all, making war is all she knows how to do.

But the Empress is a more powerful foe than she appears, and the Dragon Warlord’s motivations are not as democratic as they seem. The more Rin learns, the more she fears her love for Nikan will drive her away from every ally and lead her to rely more and more on the Phoenix’s deadly power. Because there is nothing she won’t sacrifice for her country and her vengeance

The sequel to R.F. Kuang’s acclaimed debut THE POPPY WAR, THE DRAGON REPUBLIC combines the history of 20th-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating effect.]]>
654 R.F. Kuang 0062662635 Addison 5 4.34 2019 The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Addison
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
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Raising Hare: A Memoir 214269337 A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman’s unlikely friendship with a wild hare.

Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it and slept in your house for hours on end and gave birth to leverets in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality.

In February 2021, Dalton stumbles upon a newborn hare—a leveret—that had been chased by a dog. Fearing for its life, she brings it home, only to discover how impossible it is to rear a wild hare, most of whom perish in captivity from either shock or starvation. Through trial and error, she learns to feed and care for the leveret with every intention of returning it to the wilderness. Instead, it becomes her constant companion, wandering the fields and woods at night and returning to Dalton’s house by day. Though Dalton feared that the hare would be preyed upon by foxes, stoats, feral cats, raptors, and even people, she never tried to restrict it to the house. Each time the hare leaves, Chloe knows she may never see it again. Yet she also understands that to confine it would be its own kind of death.

Raising Hare chronicles their journey together, while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature, and folklore. We witness first-hand the joy at this extraordinary relationship between human and animal, which serves as a reminder that the best things, and most beautiful experiences, arise when we least expect them.]]>
285 Chloe Dalton 0593701844 Addison 0 to-read 4.40 2025 Raising Hare: A Memoir
author: Chloe Dalton
name: Addison
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/04
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<![CDATA[Men Who Hate Women: From incels to pickup artists, the truth about extreme misogyny and how it affects us all]]> 56569915 301 Laura Bates 1728236258 Addison 5 4.29 2020 Men Who Hate Women: From incels to pickup artists, the truth about extreme misogyny and how it affects us all
author: Laura Bates
name: Addison
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/02/28
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Small Things Like These 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]>
128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Addison 4 4.13 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: Addison
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
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<![CDATA[Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)]]> 33257757 They call him father, liberator, warlord, Reaper. But he feels a boy as he falls toward the pale blue planet, his armor red, his army vast, his heart heavy. It is the tenth year of war and the thirty-second of his life.

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

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

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

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

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

Red Rising was the story of the end of one universe, and Iron Gold is the story of the creation of a new one. Witness the beginning of a stunning new saga of tragedy and triumph from masterly New York Times bestselling author Pierce Brown.]]>
602 Pierce Brown 042528591X Addison 4 Loving the multiple povs 4.19 2018 Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Addison
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
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Loving the multiple povs
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Hungerstone 212342605 HungerstoneĚýis a thrillingly seductive sapphic romance for fans of S.T. Gibson’sĚýA Dowry of BloodĚýand Emilia Hart’sĚýWeyward.

For what do you hunger, Lenore?

Lenore is the wife of steel magnate Henry, but ten years into their marriage, the relationship has soured and no child has arrived to fill the distance growing between them. Henry's ambitions take them out of London and to the imposing Nethershaw manor in the countryside, where Henry aims to host a hunt with society’s finest. Lenore keeps a terrible secret from the last time her husband hunted, and though they never speak of it, it haunts their marriage to this day.

The preparations for the event take a turn when a carriage accident near their remote home brings the mysterious Carmilla into Lenore's life. Carmilla who is weak and pale during the day but vibrant at night; Carmilla who stirs up a hunger deep within Lenore. Soon girls from local villages begin to fall sick before being consumed by a bloody hunger.

Torn between regaining her husband's affection and Carmilla's ever-growing presence, Lenore begins to unravel her past and in doing so, uncovers a darkness in her household that will place her at terrible risk . . .

Set against the violent wilderness of the moors and the uncontrolled appetite of the industrial revolution,ĚýHungerstoneĚýis a compulsive feminist reworking ofĚýCarmilla, the book that inspiredĚýDracula: a captivating story of appetite and desire.]]>
336 Kat Dunn 1638932166 Addison 0 to-read 3.97 2025 Hungerstone
author: Kat Dunn
name: Addison
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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My Dark Vanessa 44890081
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]>
373 Kate Elizabeth Russell 006294150X Addison 4 4.09 2020 My Dark Vanessa
author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: Addison
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
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Piglet 127282554 An elegant, razor-sharp debut about women's ambitions and appetites—and the truth about having it all

Outside of a childhood nickname she can’t shake, Piglet’s rather pleased with how her life’s turned out. An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, she’s got lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit, whose rarefied family she actually, most of the time, likes, despite their upper-class eccentricities. One of the many, many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking.

But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly…hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work, and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. Torn between a life she’s always wanted and the ravenousness that comes with not getting what she knows she deserves, Piglet is, by the day of her wedding, undone, but also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.

A stylish, uncommonly clever novel about the things we want and the things we think we want, Piglet is both an examination of women’s often complicated relationship with food and a celebration of the messes life sometimes makes for us.]]>
320 Lottie Hazell 125028984X Addison 3 3.39 2024 Piglet
author: Lottie Hazell
name: Addison
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
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<![CDATA[The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

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

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

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]>
394 T.J. Klune Addison 0 to-read 4.36 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Addison
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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<![CDATA[Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism]]> 55338982
What makes “cults� so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.� But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,� revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish� everywhere.]]>
309 Amanda Montell 0062993151 Addison 0 3.82 2021 Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
author: Amanda Montell
name: Addison
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
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This felt all over the place & I truly don’t know what to rate it. Didn’t hate it, didn’t love it.
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<![CDATA[Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)]]> 18966806
Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.]]>
525 Pierce Brown 0345539842 Addison 4 Roller coaster 4.52 2016 Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Addison
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
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Roller coaster
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Red God (Red Rising Saga, #7) 61657799 Pierce Brown Addison 0 to-read 4.53 2026 Red God (Red Rising Saga, #7)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Addison
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2026
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/23
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Bright Young Women 101124639
The survivors, including key witness Pamela Schumacher, will be forever changed by this night. They have all become victims. But they tell their perspectives here, they remain masters of their stories. And they hunt the perpetrator on their own - against resistance from the justice system and the police; against public opinion, which idolizes the serial killer.]]>
384 Jessica Knoll 1501153226 Addison 3 3.99 2023 Bright Young Women
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Addison
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/22
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The Women 127305853 Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie� McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over- whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm’s way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]>
471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Addison 4 4.58 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Addison
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
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Atheists Who Kneel and Pray 35671052 327 Tarryn Fisher Addison 0 to-read 4.42 2017 Atheists Who Kneel and Pray
author: Tarryn Fisher
name: Addison
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)]]> 35068705
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.

For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.]]>
545 R.F. Kuang 0062662597 Addison 4 4.15 2018 The Poppy War (The Poppy War, #1)
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Addison
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 4
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The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

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

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

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]>
384 Alison Espach Addison 0 to-read 4.09 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Addison
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
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<![CDATA[The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom]]> 214151420 From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing.

Shari Franke’s childhood was a constant battle for survival. Her mother, Ruby Franke, enforced a severe moral code while maintaining a façade of a picture-perfect family for their wildly popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which documented the day-to-day life of raising six children for a staggering 2.5 million subscribers. But a darker truth lurked beneath the surface—Ruby’s wholesome online persona masked a more tyrannical parenting style than anyone could have imagined.

As the family’s YouTube notoriety grew, so too did Ruby’s delusions of righteousness. Fueled by the sadistic influence of relationship coach Jodi Hildebrandt, together they implemented an inhumane and merciless disciplinary regime.

Ruby and Jodi were arrested in Utah in 2023 on multiple charges of aggravated child abuse. On that fateful day, Shari shared a photo online of a police car outside their home. Her caption had one word: “Finally.�

For the first time, Shari will reveal the disturbing truth behind 8 Passengers and her family’s devastating involvement with Jodi Hildebrandt’s cultish life coaching program, “ConneXions.� No stone is left unturned as Shari exposes the perils of influencer culture and shares for the first time her battle for truth and survival in the face of her mother’s cruelty.]]>
320 Shari Franke 1668065398 Addison 0 to-read 4.39 2025 The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom
author: Shari Franke
name: Addison
average rating: 4.39
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Great Big Beautiful Life 218559595 Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of a woman with more than a couple of plot twists up her sleeve in this dazzling and sweeping new novel from Emily Henry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it’s becoming abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a mystery, tragedy, or love ballad…depending on who’s telling it.]]>
432 Emily Henry Addison 0 to-read 4.01 2025 Great Big Beautiful Life
author: Emily Henry
name: Addison
average rating: 4.01
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<![CDATA[Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)]]> 37442 Alternative cover edition of ISBN 9780060987107

When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

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406 Gregory Maguire Addison 0 currently-reading 3.52 1995 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)
author: Gregory Maguire
name: Addison
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[His Own Where (Contemporary Classics)]]> 7600203 Romeo and Juliet that sings and sways.”�Walter Mosley

"There must be bridges if we are to reach our young. His Own Where promises to be one."�New York Times Book Review (1971)

Nominated for a National Book Award in 1971, His Own Where is the story of Buddy, a fifteen-year-old boy whose world is spinning out of control. He meets Angela, whose angry parents accuse her of being "wild." When life falls apart for Buddy and his father, and when Angela is attacked at home, they take action to create their own way of staying alive in Brooklyn. In the process, the two find refuge in one another and learn that love is real and necessary. His Own Where was one of The New York Times' Most Outstanding Books and was on the American Library Association's list of Best Books in 1971.

June Jordan was a poet, essayist, journalist, dramatist, activist, and educator known for challenging oppression through her inspirational words and actions. She was the founder of Poetry for the People at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught for many years. The author of over twenty books, her poetry is collected in Directed by Desire; her selected essays in Some of Us Did Not Die.Ěý

Sapphire is the author of American Dreams, Black Wings & Blind Angels, and Push, which has been made into a motion picture called Precious.


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112 June Jordan 1558616586 Addison 0 4.22 1971 His Own Where (Contemporary Classics)
author: June Jordan
name: Addison
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1971
rating: 0
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Poor Things 72355 Poor Things is a postmodern revision of Frankenstein that replaces the traditional monster with Bella Baxter - a beautiful young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realized when he finds the drowned body of Bella, but his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for Baxter's creation.

The hilarious tale of love and scandal that ensues would be "the whole story" in the hands of a lesser author (which in fact it is, for this account is actually written by Dr. McCandless). For Gray, though, this is only half the story, after which Bella (a.k.a. Victoria McCandless) has her own say in the matter. Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, Poor Things is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking duel between the desires of men and the independence of women, from one of Scotland's most accomplished authors.]]>
318 Alasdair Gray 0747562288 Addison 0 to-read 3.92 1992 Poor Things
author: Alasdair Gray
name: Addison
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1992
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The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all: Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats� from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a “bridge�: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as �1847� or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,� “Spotify,� and “the collapse of the British Empire.� But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks: What does it mean to defy history, when history is living in your house? Kaliane Bradley’s answer is a blazing, unforgettable testament to what we owe each other in a changing world.]]>
339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Addison 4 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Addison
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)]]> 37781 Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.]]> 215 Chinua Achebe Addison 0 3.73 1958 Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)
author: Chinua Achebe
name: Addison
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1958
rating: 0
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Another read for my humanities class!
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<![CDATA[Original Sins: An extraordinary memoir of faith, family, shame and addiction]]> 57892385 An extraordinarily brave memoir about faith, family, shame and addiction - an Observer, New Statesman and Sunday Times Book of the Year'Brilliant... lively, engaging and extremely well written - scrupulously, painfully honest... sharply funny' PANDORA SYKES, SUBSTACKMatt Rowland Hill grew up the son of a minister in an evangelical Christian church. It was a childhood fraught with bitter family conflict and the fear of damnation. After a devastating loss of faith in his late teens, Matt began his search for salvation elsewhere, eventually becoming addicted to crack and heroin - an ordeal that stretched over a decade and culminated in a period of hopeless darkness.Recklessly honest, and as funny as it is grave, Original Sins is an extraordinary memoir of faith, family, shame and addiction. It's about looking for answers to life's big questions in all the wrong places, how hope can arrive in the most unexpected forms, and how the stories we tell might help us survive.'Remarkable, funny, arrestingly well-written... Brings to mind Edward St Aubyn's Patrick Melrose novels, but is also entirely, exhilaratingly its own thing' The Times'Electric... Artfully structured with novelistic verve... Hill is a blazing talent' Observer'A beautifully controlled tale of a life spiralling out of control... One of the best books I've read this year' Sunday TimesLONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION AND SHORTLISTED FOR THE SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE AND WALES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD]]> 302 Matt Rowland Hill 1473579317 Addison 0 to-read 4.18 2022 Original Sins: An extraordinary memoir of faith, family, shame and addiction
author: Matt Rowland Hill
name: Addison
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2022
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<![CDATA[Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man]]> 54114950
Mary Trump spent much of her childhood in her grandparents� large, imposing house in the heart of Queens, where Donald and his four siblings grew up. She describes a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse. She explains how specific events and general family patterns created the damaged man who currently occupies the Oval Office, including the strange and harmful relationship between Fred Trump and his two oldest sons, Fred Jr. and Donald.

A first-hand witness to countless holiday meals and family interactions, Mary brings an incisive wit and unexpected humor to sometimes grim, often confounding family events. She recounts in unsparing detail everything from her uncle Donald’s place in the family spotlight and Ivana’s penchant for re-gifting to her grandmother’s frequent injuries and illnesses and the appalling way Donald, Fred Trump’s favorite son, dismissed and derided him when he began to succumb to Alzheimer’s.

Numerous pundits, armchair psychologists, and journalists have sought to parse Donald J. Trump’s lethal flaws. Mary L. Trump has the education, insight, and intimate familiarity needed to reveal what makes Donald, and the rest of her clan, tick. She alone can recount this fascinating, unnerving saga, not just because of her insider’s perspective but also because she is the only Trump willing to tell the truth about one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.]]>
236 Mary L. Trump 1982141484 Addison 0 to-read 3.87 2020 Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
author: Mary L. Trump
name: Addison
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
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Death Valley 91239751
Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.]]>
240 Melissa Broder 1668024845 Addison 0 to-read 3.46 2023 Death Valley
author: Melissa Broder
name: Addison
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2023
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Milk Fed 54304105 The Pisces and So Sad Today.

Rachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control, by way of obsessive food rituals, while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting—until her therapist encourages her to take a ninety-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting.

Early in the detox, Rachel meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam—by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family—and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.

Pairing superlative emotional insight with unabashed vivid fantasy, Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we as humans can compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is a tender and riotously funny meditation on love, certitude, and the question of what we are all being fed, from one of our major writers on the psyche—both sacred and profane.]]>
304 Melissa Broder 1982142499 Addison 0 to-read 3.56 2021 Milk Fed
author: Melissa Broder
name: Addison
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2021
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Sex and Rage 32332902
Sex and Rage delights in its sensuous, dreamlike narrative and spontaneous embrace of fate, work, and of certain meetings and chances. Jacaranda moves beyond the tango of sex and rage into the open challenge of a defined and more fulfilling expressive life. Sex and Rage further solidifies Eve Babitz's place as a singularly important voice in Los Angeles literature―haunting, alluring, and alive.]]>
256 Eve Babitz 1619029359 Addison 0 to-read 3.56 1979 Sex and Rage
author: Eve Babitz
name: Addison
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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The Idiot 30962053 A portrait of the artist as a young woman. A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself.

The year is 1995, and email is new. Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard. She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary. Selin may have barely spoken to Ivan, but with each email they exchange, the act of writing seems to take on new and increasingly mysterious meanings.

At the end of the school year, Ivan goes to Budapest for the summer, and Selin heads to the Hungarian countryside, to teach English in a program run by one of Ivan's friends. On the way, she spends two weeks visiting Paris with Svetlana. Selin's summer in Europe does not resonate with anything she has previously heard about the typical experiences of American college students, or indeed of any other kinds of people. For Selin, this is a journey further inside herself: a coming to grips with the ineffable and exhilarating confusion of first love, and with the growing consciousness that she is doomed to become a writer.]]>
423 Elif Batuman 1594205612 Addison 0 to-read 3.67 2017 The Idiot
author: Elif Batuman
name: Addison
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
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<![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 35036409 My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante Addison 0 to-read 4.08 2011 My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Addison
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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Perfect Little Monsters 193544854 A Children's Book Council 2025 Young Adult, Teacher, and Librarian Favorites Awards Winner

Someone has murdered the queen bee of Sierton High School. All the dead girl’s friends are suspects. And each one has a reason for wanting her dead.

Ella Moore was the most popular girl in school…and also the most hated. When she’s murdered at her own party, there are too many suspects to count--and too many people who think she deserved it. The police’s prime suspect is the new girl, Dawn Foster. She was the last to hand Ella a drink on the night Ella died. Plus, all of Ella’s friends with a motive for wanting her dead are more than willing to implicate Dawn.

But Dawn refuses to go down without a fight. She’s determined to clear her name. As she delves deeper into the past, she discovers that Ella and her friends had enemies, and someone is out for revenge. She must uncover the truth before the police arrest the wrong suspect and before the next person dies.]]>
336 Cindy R.X. He 1728293391 Addison 3 3.66 2024 Perfect Little Monsters
author: Cindy R.X. He
name: Addison
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 3
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Sociopath 176443093
Patric Gagne realized she made others uncomfortable before she started kindergarten. Something about her caused people to react in a way she didn’t understand. She suspected it was because she didn’t feel things the way other kids did. Emotions like fear, guilt, and empathy eluded her. For the most part, she felt nothing. And she didn’t like the way that “nothing� felt.

She did her best to pretend she was like everyone else, but the constant pressure to conform to a society she knew rejected anyone like her was unbearable. So Patric stole. She lied. She was occasionally violent. She became an expert lock-picker and home-invader. All with the goal of replacing the nothingness with...something.

In college, Patric finally confirmed what she’d long suspected. She was a sociopath. But even though it was the very first personality disorder identified—well over 200 years ago—sociopathy had been neglected by mental health professionals for decades. She was told there was no treatment, no hope for a normal life. She found herself haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, madmen and evil villains who are considered monsters. Her future looked grim.

But when Patric reconnects with an old flame, she gets a glimpse of a future beyond her diagnosis. If she’s capable of love, it must mean that she isn’t a monster. With the help of her sweetheart (and some curious characters she meets along the way) she embarks on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

This is the inspiring story of her journey to change her fate and how she managed to build a life full of love and hope.]]>
368 Patric Gagne 166800318X Addison 0 to-read 3.73 2024 Sociopath
author: Patric Gagne
name: Addison
average rating: 3.73
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Good Material 96177629
Now he is. . .

Without a home

Waiting for his stand-up career to take off

Wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking

Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story�

In this sharply funny and exquisitely relatable story of romantic disaster and friendship, Dolly Alderton offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.]]>
345 Dolly Alderton 0241523672 Addison 0 to-read 3.84 2023 Good Material
author: Dolly Alderton
name: Addison
average rating: 3.84
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Swimming in the Dark 49977811 Set in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of communism,Ěýa tender and passionate story of first love between two young men who eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide—a stunningly poetic and heartrending literary debut for fans of Andre Aciman, Garth Greenwell, and Alan Hollinghurst.

When university student Ludwik meets Janusz at a summer agricultural camp, he is fascinated yet wary of this handsome, carefree stranger. But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks camping in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’sĚýGiovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful natural world removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.

Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly-coveted position in the ministry. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.

Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart,ĚýSwimming in the DarkĚýis a potent blend of romance, post-war politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski has crafted an indelible and thought-provoking literary debut that explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.]]>
191 Tomasz Jedrowski 006289000X Addison 0 to-read 4.25 2020 Swimming in the Dark
author: Tomasz Jedrowski
name: Addison
average rating: 4.25
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<![CDATA[Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)]]> 18966819
A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.]]>
466 Pierce Brown 0345539826 Addison 4 I’m loving this series 4.48 2015 Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Addison
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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I’m loving this series
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March: Book One (March, #1) 17346698
Book One spans John Lewis' youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.

Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1950s comic book Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations.

(Back flap)]]>
128 John Lewis 1603093001 Addison 0 4.34 2013 March: Book One (March, #1)
author: John Lewis
name: Addison
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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Had to read this for my humanities class
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<![CDATA[Why Am I Like This?: My Brain Isn't Broken (and Neither Is Yours)]]> 210959987 Why do I feel so overwhelmed? Is everyone else achieving more than me? Why did I say that embarrassing thing? What can I do to actually make a difference? Am I the only one who feels this way?

In the face of an uncertain future, technological co-dependence and increasing social disconnection, we are battling unprecedented levels of stress, loneliness, burnout and insecurity.

Gemma Styles captures the voice of her generation, giving words to those feelings Gen Z has been trying to explain for years. Featuring the insight of experts and the latest research, Gemma shows that by being curious and compassionate, we can start to feel more hopeful, connected and at peace with ourselves.

From how we communicate, to our ambitions and self-image, Gemma paints a picture of mental health in the digital age, including her own journey and ADHD diagnosis to highlight the ways in which women’s mental health in particular is often overlooked or trivialized.

Thought-provoking and heartening, this book is for anyone who feels overwhelmed, less than or that they don't belong.

Why Am I Like This? is a warm hug, insightful analysis and spirited call to action all in one.]]>
324 Gemma Styles 1529912377 Addison 0 to-read 3.88 Why Am I Like This?: My Brain Isn't Broken (and Neither Is Yours)
author: Gemma Styles
name: Addison
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
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Lady Macbeth 202102084 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ava Reid comes a reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare’s most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her.

The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.Ěý

The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.ĚýĚý

The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.Ěý

But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.Ěý

She does not know this yet. But she will.]]>
295 Ava Reid 0593722566 Addison 0 to-read 3.46 2024 Lady Macbeth
author: Ava Reid
name: Addison
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/10
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)]]> 29227774 Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age.

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

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

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

The worlds once needed the Reaper. But now they need Darrow. Because after the dark age will come a new age: of light, of victory, of hope.]]>
682 Pierce Brown 1473646804 Addison 0 to-read 4.75 2023 Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Addison
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/10
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<![CDATA[Dark Age (Red Rising Saga, #5)]]> 29226553
For a decade Darrow led a revolution against the corrupt color-coded Society. Now, outlawed by the very Republic he founded, he wages a rogue war on Mercury in hopes that he can still salvage the dream of Eo. But as he leaves death and destruction in his wake, is he still the hero who broke the chains? Or will another legend rise to take his place?

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

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

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

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

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

As alliances shift, break, and re-form—and power is seized, lost, and reclaimed—every player is at risk in a game of conquest that could turn the Rising into a new Dark Age.]]>
704 Pierce Brown 0425285952 Addison 0 to-read 4.49 2019 Dark Age (Red Rising Saga, #5)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Addison
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/10
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Blue Sisters 195430687 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

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

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]>
352 Coco Mellors 0593723767 Addison 0 to-read 3.92 2024 Blue Sisters
author: Coco Mellors
name: Addison
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/09
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<![CDATA[Beautiful World, Where Are You]]> 75555793 *The Sunday Times and Global number one bestseller*
*Winner of Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards*
*A Book of the Year in The Times, the Guardian, the Irish Times and the Financial Times*

Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he'd like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.

Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young - but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they worry about sex and friendship and the times they live in. Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?]]>
337 Sally Rooney 0571365442 Addison 4 3.49 2021 Beautiful World, Where Are You
author: Sally Rooney
name: Addison
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/09
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves:
review:
I am the number one Sally Rooney stan
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<![CDATA[The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness]]> 171681821
A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.� —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood� began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood� in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood� has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems� that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]>
400 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Addison 0 to-read 4.34 2024 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Addison
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/08
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Five Survive 61313902 Eight hours.
Six friends.
One sniper . . .

Eighteen year old Red and her friends are on a road trip in an RV, heading to the beach for Spring Break. It’s a long drive but spirits are high. Until the RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere. There’s no mobile phone reception and nobody around to help. And as the wheels are shot out, one by one, the friends realise that this is no accident. There’s a sniper out there in the dark watching them and he knows exactly who they are. One of the group has a secret that the sniper is willing to kill for.

A game of cat-and-mouse plays out as the group desperately tries to get help and to work out which member of the group is the target. Buried secrets are forced to light in the cramped, claustrophobic setting of the RV, and tensions within the group will reach deadly levels. Not everyone will survive the night.]]>
391 Holly Jackson 0755504402 Addison 4 4.09 2022 Five Survive
author: Holly Jackson
name: Addison
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
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review:
I think I like this one more than the other Holly Jackson book I read
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Flip City 144078488 364 Linda Burrows 1644283492 Addison 0 to-read 4.78 Flip City
author: Linda Burrows
name: Addison
average rating: 4.78
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The House Across the Lake 58909880
One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.]]>
369 Riley Sager Addison 5 3.57 2022 The House Across the Lake
author: Riley Sager
name: Addison
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves:
review:
I’m so shook. This man is a genius!
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Bunny (Bunny, #1) 53285047 We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn't we?

Samantha Heather Mackey couldn't be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England's Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort--a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other Bunny, and seem to move and speak as one.

But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled Smut Salon, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus Workshop where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library]]>
305 Mona Awad 0525559752 Addison 3 3.43 2019 Bunny (Bunny, #1)
author: Mona Awad
name: Addison
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:
I can’t decide if it’s 3.5/4 so???? Also really bizarre but in the best way possible.
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Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]>
454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Addison 0 to-read 3.84 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Addison
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/04
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<![CDATA[The Reappearance of Rachel Price]]> 182484360
Lights. Camera. Lies.

18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And � could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.]]>
438 Holly Jackson 0593374207 Addison 4 4.09 2024 The Reappearance of Rachel Price
author: Holly Jackson
name: Addison
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/03
date added: 2024/09/03
shelves:
review:
I understand the Holly Jackson hype!
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Pachinko 34051011
Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters—strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis—survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.]]>
496 Min Jin Lee Addison 4 4.35 2017 Pachinko
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Addison
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
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The Girls 26893819 355 Emma Cline 081299860X Addison 3 3.48 2016 The Girls
author: Emma Cline
name: Addison
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
Ignore that I’ve been MIA� I moved to college
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Conversations with Friends 32187419 A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple.

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind--and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa's orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil--and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expect. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances's intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.

Written with gem-like precision and probing intelligence, Conversations With Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth."]]>
304 Sally Rooney 0451499077 Addison 4 3.74 2017 Conversations with Friends
author: Sally Rooney
name: Addison
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/07
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<![CDATA[The Resurrection (The Originals, #3)]]> 23280198 Family is power. The Original Vampire family swore it to each other a thousand years ago. They pledged to remain together always and forever. But even when you're immortal, promises are hard to keep.

Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson had won it all, only to lose it again by 1788. Control of New Orleans is split between the vampires and the werewolves, much to Klaus's displeasure. In a dangerous attempt to reclaim his home, Klaus decides to build a vampire army to take out the werewolves once and for all. If he can't have love, then he'll settle for power. Elijah lets his brother take the reins as he turns his attentions to a beautiful and mysterious woman. But Rebekah has had enough of her brothers' love of bloodshed and begins a journey to find her first home and the key to her family's immortality. As the battle rages on, the siblings must come together and fight for what they believe in family.]]>
320 Julie Plec 0373788916 Addison 0 to-read 4.10 The Resurrection (The Originals, #3)
author: Julie Plec
name: Addison
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/06
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Detransition, Baby 48890225 A whipsmart debut about three women—transgender and cisgender—whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex.

Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.

Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?

This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.]]>
337 Torrey Peters 0593133374 Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 3.94 2021 Detransition, Baby
author: Torrey Peters
name: Addison
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
review:

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<![CDATA[The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis]]> 6670287 Salon) and “one of the quiet giants . . . of American fiction� (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Now, for the first time, Davis’s short stories will be collected in one volume, from the groundbreaking Break It Down (1986) to the 2007 National Book Award nominee Varieties of Disturbance.

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis is an event in American letters.]]>
733 Lydia Davis 0374270600 Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 4.25 2009 The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
author: Lydia Davis
name: Addison
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
review:

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The Return 28007895
When he was twelve, Matar and his family went into political exile. Eight years later Matar's father, a former diplomat and military man turned brave political dissident, was kidnapped from the streets of Cairo by the Libyan government and is believed to have been held in the regime's most notorious prison. ĚýNow, the prisons are empty and little hope remains that Jaballa Matar will be found alive. Yet, as the author writes, hope is "persistent and cunning".ĚýĚýĚýĚý

This book is a profoundly moving family memoir, a brilliant and affecting portrait of a country and a people on the cusp of immense change, and a disturbing and timeless depiction of the monstrous nature of absolute power.]]>
256 Hisham Matar 034580774X Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 4.15 2016 The Return
author: Hisham Matar
name: Addison
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
review:

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<![CDATA[The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)]]> 23168277
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.]]>
371 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0802123457 Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 4.00 2015 The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)
author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Addison
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
review:

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<![CDATA[The Human Stain (The American Trilogy, #3)]]> 11734
Coleman Silk has a secret, one which has been kept for fifty years from his wife, his four children, his colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman. It is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. And to understand also how Silk's astonishing private history is, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, "magnificently" interwoven with "the larger public history of modern America."]]>
361 Philip Roth Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 3.89 2000 The Human Stain (The American Trilogy, #3)
author: Philip Roth
name: Addison
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
review:

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The Days of Abandonment 77810 The Days of Abandonment shocked and captivated its Italian public when first published. It is the gripping story of a woman's descent into devastating emptiness after being abandoned by her husband with two young children to care for. When she finds herself literally trapped within the four walls of their high-rise apartment, she is forced to confront her ghosts, the potential loss of her own identity, and the possibility that life may never return to normal.]]> 188 Elena Ferrante 1933372001 Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 3.92 2002 The Days of Abandonment
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Addison
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
review:

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

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

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]>
333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Addison
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
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On Beauty 3679 On Beauty is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture wars-on both sides of the Atlantic-serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith's reputation as a major literary talent.]]> 445 Zadie Smith 0143037749 Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 3.79 2005 On Beauty
author: Zadie Smith
name: Addison
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
review:

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<![CDATA[Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)]]> 13507212 9780805090031)

Though he battled for years to marry her, Henry VIII has become disenchanted with the audacious Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son, and her sharp intelligence and strong will have alienated his old friends and the noble families of England.

When the discarded Katherine, Henry's first wife, dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice, setting in motion a dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason.

At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over a few terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally himself with his enemies. What price will he pay for Annie's head?]]>
412 Hilary Mantel Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 4.26 2012 Bring Up the Bodies (Thomas Cromwell, #2)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Addison
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read, nyt-100
review:

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<![CDATA[Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals]]> 45894050 A breathtaking exploration of the lives of young black women in the early twentieth century.

In Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman examines the revolution of black intimate life that unfolded in Philadelphia and New York at the beginning of the twentieth century. Free love, common-law and transient marriages, serial partners, cohabitation outside of wedlock, queer relations, and single motherhood were among the sweeping changes that altered the character of everyday life and challenged traditional Victorian beliefs about courtship, love, and marriage. Hartman narrates the story of this radical social transformation against the grain of the prevailing century-old argument about the crisis of the black family.

In wrestling with the question of what a free life is, many young black women created forms of intimacy and kinship that were indifferent to the dictates of respectability and outside the bounds of law. They cleaved to and cast off lovers, exchanged sex to subsist, and revised the meaning of marriage. Longing and desire fueled their experiments in how to live. They refused to labor like slaves or to accept degrading conditions of work.

Beautifully written and deeply researched, Wayward Lives recreates the experience of young urban black women who desired an existence qualitatively different than the one that had been scripted for them—domestic service, second-class citizenship, and respectable poverty—and whose intimate revolution was apprehended as crime and pathology. For the first time, young black women are credited with shaping a cultural movement that transformed the urban landscape. Through a melding of history and literary imagination, Wayward Lives recovers their radical aspirations and insurgent desires.]]>
441 Saidiya Hartman 0393357627 Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 4.43 2019 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals
author: Saidiya Hartman
name: Addison
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2019
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date added: 2024/08/04
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Men We Reaped: A Memoir 17286683 '...And then we heard the rain falling, and that was the drops of blood falling; and when we came to get the crops, it was dead men that we reaped.' Harriet Tubman

In five years, Jesmyn Ward lost five men in her life, to drugs, accidents, suicide, and the bad luck that can follow people who live in poverty, particularly black men. Dealing with these losses, one after another, made Jesmyn ask the question: why? And as she began to write about the experience of living through all the dying, she realized the truth--and it took her breath away. Her brother and her friends all died because of who they were and where they were from, because they lived with a history of racism and economic struggle that fostered drug addiction and the dissolution of family and relationships. Jesmyn says the answer was so obvious she felt stupid for not seeing it. But it nagged at her until she knew she had to write about her community, to write their stories and her own.

Jesmyn grew up in poverty in rural Mississippi. She writes powerfully about the pressures this brings, on the men who can do no right and the women who stand in for family in a society where the men are often absent. She bravely tells her story, revisiting the agonizing losses of her only brother and her friends. As the sole member of her family to leave home and pursue high education, she writes about this parallel American universe with the objectivity distance provides and the intimacy of utter familiarity.]]>
256 Jesmyn Ward 160819521X Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 4.28 2013 Men We Reaped: A Memoir
author: Jesmyn Ward
name: Addison
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2013
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Bel Canto 5826 318 Ann Patchett Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 3.93 2001 Bel Canto
author: Ann Patchett
name: Addison
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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How to be Both 20439328
How to be both is a novel all about art’s versatility. Borrowing from painting’s fresco technique to make an original literary double-take, it’s a fast-moving genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions. There’s a Renaissance artist of the 1460s. There’s the child of a child of the 1960s. Two tales of love and injustice twist into a singular yarn where time gets timeless, structural gets playful, knowing gets mysterious, fictional gets real—and all life’s givens get given a second chance.

A NOTE TO THE READER:
Who says stories reach everybody in the same order?
This novel can be read in two ways and this book provides you with both.
In half of all printed editions of the novel the narrative EYES comes before CAMERA.
In the other half of printed editions the narrative CAMERA precedes EYES.
The narratives are exactly the same in both versions, just in a different order.

The books are intentionally printed in two different ways, so that readers can randomly have different experiences reading the same text. So, depending on which edition you happen to receive, the book will be: EYES, CAMERA, or CAMERA, EYES. Enjoy the adventure.]]>
376 Ali Smith Addison 0 to-read, nyt-100 3.65 2014 How to be Both
author: Ali Smith
name: Addison
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/04
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