en-US Thu, 24 Apr 2025 12:04:27 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 38212119 The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home.

This fresh, authoritative translation captures the beauty of this ancient poem as well as the drama of its narrative. Its characters are unforgettable, none more so than the "complicated" hero himself, a man of many disguises, many tricks, and many moods, who emerges in this version as a more fully rounded human being than ever before.

Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, Emily Wilson's Odyssey sings with a voice that echoes Homer's music; matching the number of lines in the Greek original, the poem sails along at Homer's swift, smooth pace.

A fascinating, informative introduction explores the Bronze Age milieu that produced the epic, the poem's major themes, the controversies about its origins, and the unparalleled scope of its impact and influence. Maps drawn especially for this volume, a pronunciation glossary, and extensive notes and summaries of each book make this is an Odyssey that will be treasured by a new generation of readers.]]> 582 Homer 0393356256 Bella 0 4.26 -700
author: Homer
name: Bella
average rating: 4.26
book published: -700
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: currently-reading, classics, i-am-looking-respectfully
review:

]]> 40400269
Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, Maurice engineers the perfect opportunity: a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. He quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful – but desperately lonely – older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel.

Once Maurice has had a taste of literary fame, he knows he can stop at nothing in pursuit of that high. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall. . . .

Sweeping across the late twentieth century, A Ladder to the Sky is a fascinating portrait of a relentlessly immoral man, a tour de force of storytelling, and the next great novel from an acclaimed literary virtuoso.]]> 362 John Boyne 1984823019 Bella 0 currently-reading, gifted 4.18 2018
author: John Boyne
name: Bella
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: currently-reading, gifted
review:

]]> 18515951 Alternate cover for ISBN 1400078776.

From Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro comes a devastating novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss.

As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules—and teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life, and for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them so special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric, Never Let Me Go is another classic by the author of The Remains of the Day.

Alternate cover edition for ISBN 9781400078776.]]> 288 Kazuo Ishiguro Bella 3 gifted, buddy-read 3.93 2005
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Bella
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: gifted, buddy-read
review:

]]> 61399263 240 Misaki Ichijo 1975348338 Bella 0 to-read 4.11 2020
author: Misaki Ichijo
name: Bella
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58988124
Trans sailor Darragh Thorn has made a comfortable life for himself among people who love and accept him. Ten years after his exile from home, though, his sister asks him to reconcile with their ailing father. Determined to resolve his feelings rather than just survive them, Darragh sets off on a quest to find the one person who can heal a half-dead man: the mysterious enchanter who once gave him the magic he needed to become his true self. But so far as anyone knows, no one but Darragh has seen the enchanter for a century, and the fairy tales that survive about em give more cause for fear than hope. In lush and evocative prose, and populated with magical trees and a wise fox, The Story of the Hundred Promises is a big-hearted fantasy suffused with queer optimism.]]> 400 Neil Cochrane 1942436513 Bella 0 to-read 4.13 2022
author: Neil Cochrane
name: Bella
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 216867498
But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes, and when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires, and make her own bid for freedom.

With this gothic coming-of-age tale, novelist Lucy Rose explores how women swallow their anger, desire, and animal instincts—and wrings the relationship between mother and daughter until blood drips from it.]]> 336 Lucy Rose 1399619713 Bella 0 to-read 3.91 2025
author: Lucy Rose
name: Bella
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 219300660 From the author of the bestselling literary sensations Convenience Store Woman and Earthlings comes a surprising and highly imaginative story set in a version of Japan where sex between married couples has vanished and all children are born by artificial insemination.

Sayaka Murata has proven herself to be one of the most exciting chroniclers of the strangeness of society, x-raying our contemporary world to bizarre and troubling effect. Her depictions of a happily unmarried retail worker in Convenience Store Woman and a young woman convinced she is an alien in Earthlings have endeared her to millions of readers worldwide. Vanishing World takes Murata’s universe to a bold new level, imagining an alternative Japan where attitudes to sex and procreation are wildly different to our own.

As a girl, Amane realizes with horror that her parents “copulated” in order to bring her into the world, rather than using artificial insemination, which became the norm in the mid-twentieth century. Amane strives to get away from what she considers an indoctrination in this strange “system” by her mother, but her infatuations with both anime characters and real people have a sexual force that is undeniable. As an adult in an appropriately sexless marriage—sex between married couples is now considered as taboo as incest—Amane and her husband Saku decide to go and live in a mysterious new town called Experiment City or Paradise-Eden, where all children are raised communally, and every person is considered a Mother to all children. Men are beginning to become pregnant using artificial wombs that sit outside of their bodies like balloons, and children are nameless, called only “Kodomo-chan.” Is this the new world that will purify Amane of her strangeness once and for all?]]> 240 Sayaka Murata 0802164668 Bella 0 to-read 3.51 2015
author: Sayaka Murata
name: Bella
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 48978562 192 Koyoharu Gotouge 1974711145 Bella 0 4.52 2019
author: Koyoharu Gotouge
name: Bella
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2022/03/26
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: manga, i-am-looking-respectfully, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 75715117 Selected as an Evening Standard 'one to watch in 2023'

It's the early 1990s, and in the Irish village of Crossmore, Lucy feels out of place. Despite her fierce friendships, she's always felt this way, and the conventional path of marriage and motherhood doesn't appeal to her at all. Not even with handsome and doting Martin, her closest childhood friend.

Lucy begins to make sense of herself during a long hot summer, when a spark with her school friend Susannah escalates to an all-consuming infatuation, and, very quickly, to a desperate and devastating love.

Fearful of rejection from her small and conservative community, Lucy begins living a double life, hiding the most honest parts of herself in stolen moments with Susannah.

But with the end of school and the opportunity to leave Crossmore looming, Lucy must choose between two places, two people and two futures, each as terrifying as the other. But only one can offer her real happiness.

Sunburn is an astute and tender portrayal of first love, adolescent anxiety and the realities of growing up in a small town where tradition holds people tightly in its grasp.]]> 288 Chloe Michelle Howarth 0857308416 Bella 0 to-read 4.33 2023
author: Chloe Michelle Howarth
name: Bella
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 208430658 Magic has made the city of Tiran an industrial utopia, but magic has a cost—and the collectors have come calling.

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

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

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

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

(Content warnings for gore, sexual assault, and suicidal ideation)]]> 430 M.L. Wang 0593873351 Bella 4 patreon-buddy-read 4.40 2023
author: M.L. Wang
name: Bella
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/19
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: patreon-buddy-read
review:

]]> 229128329 I do not care what they think of me. I can’t. It only matters that I play.

Jeremy Knox is no stranger to damage control, but his last season on an Exy court is off to a disastrous start. The relentless crusade against his newest teammate threatens the haven he and his friends have worked so hard to build. He promised Jean a fun senior year, but tragedy and ugly truths make every step forward an uphill fight.

Jean Moreau promised the USC Trojans a championship trophy, and he intends to deliver. Granted, it would be significantly easier if they’d slide off their high horses and throw a few elbows on the court. Their steadfast refusal to do things his way is nearly as aggravating as their unwanted affection, but maybe they’re not the ones that need to change.

With so many ready to drag him down, how can he learn to fly?]]> 487 Nora Sakavic Bella 5 4.5 stars]]> 4.65 2025
author: Nora Sakavic
name: Bella
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:
actual rating: 4.5 stars
]]> 176443872
Asa and Denji are going on a date to the aquarium! Asa just wants to seduce Denji to turn him into a weapon, but Denji might have other ideas. Will they ruin the date with their extreme social awkwardness, or will a surprise attack by a devil be the culprit?]]> 192 Tatsuki Fujimoto 1974743586 Bella 4 4.21 2023
author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
name: Bella
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/08
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves: gifted, read-in-1-sitting, manga
review:

]]> 36538793
In Taisho-era Japan, Tanjiro Kamado is a kindhearted boy who makes a living selling charcoal. But his peaceful life is shattered when a demon slaughters his entire family. His little sister Nezuko is the only survivor, but she has been transformed into a demon herself! Tanjiro sets out on a dangerous journey to find a way to return his sister to normal and destroy the demon who ruined his life.

Learning to slay?demons won’t be easy, and Tanjiro barely knows where to start. The surprise appearance of another boy named Giyu, who seems to know what’s going on, might provide some answers…but only if Tanjiro can stop Giyu from killing his sister first!]]> 192 Koyoharu Gotouge 1974700526 Bella 5 4.39 2016
author: Koyoharu Gotouge
name: Bella
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/08
date added: 2025/04/04
shelves: gifted, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 212808280 640 Makoto Yukimura 1646519833 Bella 5 4.68
author: Makoto Yukimura
name: Bella
average rating: 4.68
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: gifted, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 60724235 I'M PAINFULLY AWARE I'M MORE HERO THAN HEROINE

Yoi Takiguchi's long legs, deep voice, and handsome face are the perfect recipe for an attractive guy—until people realize she is, in fact, a girl. Dubbed a "prince" by her peers since childhood, Yoi has all but given up on being seen as anything else. That is, until she bumps into Ichimura-sempai, the school's other prince (who's a he) and gets a taste of what it feels like to be seen for her true self. The story of the two high school princes starts here!]]> 196 Mika Yamamori 1646514947 Bella 4 4.18 2020
author: Mika Yamamori
name: Bella
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: gifted, manga, i-am-looking-respectfully, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 199460236 A debut novel about love, family, queerness, and losing your mind in the modern world marks the arrival of a truly original, haunting voice in fiction who will make you laugh, cry, and scream, all in the same breath.

In the midst of god sending her signs through Instagram and Spotify telling her to break up with her girlfriend, twenty-seven-year-old Norma meets a new therapist for one she really needs to write again. With only one story left to finish her collection, Norma is desperate for an should she leave her girlfriend in order to finish her manuscript?

When her new therapist diagnoses her with depersonalization/derealization disorder, Norma insists she doesn't have it’s just Oblivion, the thing that started happening to her when she was two and a half. Haunted by SSRI side effects, her girlfriend’s kindness, her father’s incessant calls, and a world that becomes less hazily fictional by the day, Norma has never felt crazier. And whenever she attempts to write The Last Story, Norma is faced with the reality and unrealities of her past, the society she lives in, and everything that she’s ever believed about life, writing, and love. Against the backdrop of climate change, racial injustice, Google ads, and the metaverse, Norma begins sharing other stories, hoping that they'll help her connect the dissociative dots once and for all. Maybe it's crazy not to be crazy in a place like this. And in the midst of it all is Norma's girlfriend, who may well be an answer in Norma's search for meaning.

Told alternately through Norma's barely fictional fiction and through her crackling stream of consciousness, Please Stop Trying To Leave Me is an honest, comedic, horrifying, and heart-wrenching story about existing in today’s world, challenging all we’ve been taught about the distance between fiction and reality, sanity and insanity, mental illness and healing.]]> 416 Alana Saab 0593686780 Bella 0 to-read 3.99 2024
author: Alana Saab
name: Bella
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 62919712
Fushiguro and Reggie have nearly crushed each other to death. Reggie makes a move to break the stalemate?and bring?their battle to its climax! Meanwhile, Okkotsu disrupts the four-way standoff between jujutsu fighters in the Sendai colony, leading to a fierce battle involving reincarnated sorcerers and a special grade cursed spirit!]]> 192 Gege Akutami 1974738744 Bella 4 4.28 2022
author: Gege Akutami
name: Bella
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/06
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: manga, read-in-1-sitting, i-am-looking-respectfully
review:

]]> 58438411
Sukuna is on a murderous rampage. Meanwhile, invaluabe Jujutsu Sorcerers have been taken down, and even Kugisaki falls into Mahito’s trap! Feeling the burden of his sins, Itadori finds it hard to keep going, but he rushes off to help Kugisaki anyway. Can he reach her in time?!]]> 192 Gege Akutami 1974727106 Bella 5 4.51 2021
author: Gege Akutami
name: Bella
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/16
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 57652485
Sukuna, unleashed, is wrecking Shibuya, and Fushiguro has suffered a serious injury from a curse user’s surprise attack. Fushiguro comes up with a desperate plan to deal with both the rampaging Sukuna and the curse user, but the cost will be grave…]]> 192 Gege Akutami 1974725324 Bella 5 4.63 2021
author: Gege Akutami
name: Bella
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/26
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: i-am-looking-respectfully, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 60321376
In order to thwart the culling game, Itadori needs the help of Kinji Hakari, a third-year who is currently suspended from Jujutsu High, so he decides to participate in an underground fight club where Hakari works as a bookie. Meanwhile, Fushiguro infiltrates the fight club and heads for Hakari’s base of operations, but another Jujutsu High third-year is using their cursed technique to block his way!]]> 192 Gege Akutami 1974734390 Bella 4 manga, read-in-1-sitting 4.22 2021
author: Gege Akutami
name: Bella
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/09
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 39947376 The Myth of Sisyphus—featured here in a stand-alone edition—is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide--the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly posits a way out of despair, reaffirming the value of personal existence, and the possibility of life lived with dignity and authenticity.]]> 160 Albert Camus 0525564454 Bella 4 gifted, buddy-read, classics "One must imagine Sisyphus happy" bro spitting bars ]]> 4.09 1942
author: Albert Camus
name: Bella
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: gifted, buddy-read, classics
review:
"One must imagine Sisyphus happy" bro spitting bars
]]> 49090884
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]> 209 Agustina Bazterrica 1982150920 Bella 4 gifted 3.5 stars]]> 3.75 2017
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Bella
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/23
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: gifted
review:
actual rating: 3.5 stars
]]> 5213 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes--each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned--becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.]]> 480 Janet Fitch 0316284955 Bella 0 to-read 4.00 1999
author: Janet Fitch
name: Bella
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 11991
The Fall (French: La Chute) is a philosophical novel by Albert Camus. First published in 1956, it is his last complete work of fiction. The Fall explores themes of innocence, imprisonment, non-existence, and truth. In a eulogy to Albert Camus, existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre described the novel as "perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood" of Camus' books.]]> 147 Albert Camus 0679720227 Bella 4 4.07 1956
author: Albert Camus
name: Bella
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: gifted, classics, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 25716554
Nothing in the whole of literature compares with The Master and Margarita. One spring afternoon, the Devil, trailing fire and chaos in his wake, weaves himself out of the shadows and into Moscow. Mikhail Bulgakov’s fantastical, funny, and devastating satire of Soviet life combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with historical, imaginary, frightful, and wonderful characters. Written during the darkest days of Stalin’s reign, and finally published in 1966 and 1967, The Master and Margarita became a literary phenomenon, signaling artistic and spiritual freedom for Russians everywhere.]]> 412 Mikhail Bulgakov 0143108271 Bella 3 buddy-read, gifted 4.17 1967
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Bella
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1967
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves: buddy-read, gifted
review:

]]> 34506916
Mary Shelley first began penning Frankenstein as part of a dare to write a ghost story, but the seeds of that story were planted long before that night. Mary, just nineteen years old at the time, had been living on her own for three years and had already lost a baby days after birth. She was deeply in love with famed poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a mad man who both enthralled and terrified her, and her relationship with him was rife with scandal and ridicule. But rather than let it crush her, Mary fueled her grief, pain, and passion into a book that the world has still not forgotten 200 years later.

Dark, intense, and beautiful, this free-verse novel with over 300 pages of gorgeous black-and-white watercolor illustrations is a unique and unforgettable depiction of one of the greatest authors of all time.]]> 312 Lita Judge 1626725004 Bella 4 4.33 2018
author: Lita Judge
name: Bella
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: graphic-novels, gifted, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 207571113 624 Makoto Yukimura 1646519825 Bella 4 gifted, manga 4.75
author: Makoto Yukimura
name: Bella
average rating: 4.75
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: gifted, manga
review:

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

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

But that god cannot be contained forever.

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

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.
]]> 525 Simon Jimenez 0593156595 Bella 3 patreon-buddy-read 4.17 2022
author: Simon Jimenez
name: Bella
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: patreon-buddy-read
review:

]]> 184590904
This cute and twisty manga spin on Romeo and Juliet is the latest hit in Japan, coming to print from a successful digital-first release!

Capulet & Montague, Chidori & Kikyo

Chidori High is a boys' school that takes in the dregs of society with the lowest grades. Next door stands Kikyo Girls' High, where the wealthy, high-class families send their precious daughters. Chidori second-year Rintaro, who has a fierce face but a gentle heart, is helping at his family's patisserie when he meets a girl named Kaoruko. The two hit it off right away...but this blissful peace is quickly disturbed when Rintaro discovers that Kaoruko is actually a student at Kikyo. Worse, she doesn't seem to realize what a huge problem this really is! Will these two be able to forge a path for themselves, and sidestep the traps (metaphorical and literal) laid by their classmates?]]> 192 Saka Mikami Bella 4 3.5 stars]]> 4.21 2022
author: Saka Mikami
name: Bella
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: gifted, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:
actual rating: 3.5 stars
]]> 44451887
In a world where demons feed on unsuspecting humans, fragments of the legendary and feared demon Ryoma Sukuna were lost and scattered about. Should any demon consume Sukuna’s body parts, the power they gain could destroy the world as we know it. Fortunately, there exists a mysterious school of Jujutsu Sorcerers who exist to protect the precarious existence of the living from the undead!

Yuji Itadori is high schooler who spends his days visiting his bedridden grandfather. Although he looks like your average teenager, his immense physical strength is something to behold! Every sports club wants him to join, but Itadori would rather hang out with the school outcasts in the Occult Club. One day, the club manages to get their hands on a sealed cursed object, but little do they know the terror they’ll unleash when they break the seal...?]]> 192 Gege Akutami 1974710025 Bella 5 4.31 2018
author: Gege Akutami
name: Bella
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/22
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: manga, read-in-1-sitting, i-am-looking-respectfully
review:

]]> 129223
Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents—a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.

The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.]]> 448 Radclyffe Hall Bella 4 classics, gifted 3.74 1928
author: Radclyffe Hall
name: Bella
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: classics, gifted
review:
this book was written to test how much I can handle back to back before I have a complete breakdown
]]> 60708415 178 Sakaomi Yuzaki 1975348826 Bella 0 to-read 4.36 2021
author: Sakaomi Yuzaki
name: Bella
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 207608583 401 Sophie Kim 1399716964 Bella 0 to-read 3.98 2024
author: Sophie Kim
name: Bella
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 42800903
贤者の石を求め、东の大国シンよりやってきたというリン?ヤオと出会ったエルリック兄弟。一方、军上层部の秘密を知ったロイが独自の调査を行う中、ヒューズ杀害の犯人が挙げられ…!?　最强ダークファンタジー完全版、衝撃の第6巻発売!!闭闭> 268 Hiromu Arakawa 1421599880 Bella 5 4.61 2011
author: Hiromu Arakawa
name: Bella
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2019/10/31
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: manga, i-am-looking-respectfully
review:

]]> 36495876
A hardcover, deluxe collector’s edition of one of the most beloved manga and anime of all time! Fully remastered with an updated translation and completely fresh lettering, and presented with color pages on large-trimmed archival-quality paper, this gorgeous hardcover edition presents the timeless dark adventures of the Elric brothers as they were truly meant to be seen. Includes brand-new cover art, color inserts and behind-the-scenes character sketches from author Hiromu Arakawa!

In an alchemical ritual gone wrong, Edward Elric lost his arm and his leg, and his brother Alphonse became nothing but a soul in a suit of armor. Equipped with mechanical “auto-mail” limbs, Edward becomes a state alchemist, seeking the one thing that can restore his and his brother’s bodies… the legendary Philosopher’s Stone!

The best-selling manga Fullmetal Alchemist finally available in a high-quality hardcover collectors' edition.]]> 280 Hiromu Arakawa 1421599775 Bella 5
And I'm finally getting around to reading the mangas ]]> 4.59 2011
author: Hiromu Arakawa
name: Bella
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2019/02/22
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: manga, i-am-looking-respectfully
review:
Is anyone surprised I gave this 5 stars? This is literally my favorite anime ever which I've rewatched more than 7 times.

And I'm finally getting around to reading the mangas
]]> 182163 112 Stefan Zweig 1901285480 Bella 0 to-read 3.94 1925
author: Stefan Zweig
name: Bella
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212436950
Somewhere in Brooklyn, a feast awaits its guests, a man cannot believe his great good luck, and ancient gods get ready to receive their due in this horror-fantasy updating of Greek myths.

An exclusive paperback for Indie Bookstore Day, featuring a new story from Chelsea G. Summers, the bestselling author of A Certain Hunger. Signed by the author.]]> 69 Chelsea G. Summers 196188416X Bella 4 4.00 2024
author: Chelsea G. Summers
name: Bella
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 207299356
The five identified-class kaiju created by No. 9 gather in the eastern division’s area. Specifically designed to eliminate the Defense Force’s main players, these kaiju have drawn every division into a struggle. Meanwhile, Kafka makes a promise to Kikoru before the battle. What could it be?!]]> 204 Naoya Matsumoto 1974749002 Bella 5 4.51 2023
author: Naoya Matsumoto
name: Bella
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 199798743
With kaiju cataclysms transpiring across Japan, Hoshina heads into battle equipped with Numbers Weapon 10 and soon discovers that wielding the first-ever sentient kaiju weapon won’t be easy. Meanwhile, back in the Oizumi area where Kafka is, six supergiant-class kaiju emerge, worsening an already grave situation. But just as things get dire, some unexpected backup arrives!]]> 196 Naoya Matsumoto 1974746992 Bella 5 4.53 2023
author: Naoya Matsumoto
name: Bella
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 42462068
The original Thai langaue edition of The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth won the prestigious South East Asian Writers ("S.E.A. Write") Award for fiction and was best-seller in Thailand. It is translated into English by Thai film critic and recipient of France's Chevalier dans I'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Kong Rithdee.

Attuned to the addictive rhythms of a Thai soap opera and written with the consuming intensity of a fever dream, this novel opens an insightful and truly compelling window onto the Thai heart.]]> 208 Veeraporn Nitiprapha 6164510139 Bella 0 to-read 3.94 2013
author: Veeraporn Nitiprapha
name: Bella
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 176443013
With the looming threat of a cataclysm induced by No. 9, the next generation of the Defense Force takes steps to prepare. Reno undergoes training and becomes the first compatible user of No. 6 in history. Kafka sharpens his skills by learning squadron-style combat techniques under Hoshina’s tutelage. Meanwhile, Kikoru gets clearance from Narumi to inherit a powerful memento that once belonged to her mother.]]> 192 Naoya Matsumoto 1974743012 Bella 5 4.45 2023
author: Naoya Matsumoto
name: Bella
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: gifted, manga, i-am-looking-respectfully, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 101158778
Reno finally puts his Numbers Weapon training to the test in a live kaiju-combat field test. Meanwhile, Iharu, feeling left behind after witnessing Reno’s explosive progress, shifts his focus to improving his own skills—that is, until an abnormality strikes Reno during their neutralization mission and forces Iharu into action!]]> 184 Naoya Matsumoto 1974740625 Bella 5 4.36 2022
author: Naoya Matsumoto
name: Bella
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: i-am-looking-respectfully, gifted, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 62919707
Kaiju No. 9 shows up to steal the power of Kaiju No. 2, wielded by Isao Shinomiya, director general of the Defense Force. At the end of the deadly battle, Isao manages to get No. 9 on the ropes, but he ends up exhausting all his strength, allowing the kaiju to steal No. 2’s power. With Isao defeated, No. 9 fuses with the director general and takes on Kafka, Kikoru, and Narumi! Will they be able to defeat No. 9 and save their fearless leader?!]]> 204 Naoya Matsumoto 1974738698 Bella 5 4.39 2022
author: Naoya Matsumoto
name: Bella
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 61273650
Kafka has encountered Kaiju No. 9, but he finds himself unable to transform. Luckily, Kikoru comes to the rescue and goes head-to-head with it. Meanwhile, the Kaiju No. 9 that Captain Narumi encountered undergoes an evolution during battle! With the pressure on, Director General Shinomiya is left with no choice but to act!]]> 196 Naoya Matsumoto 1974736334 Bella 5 4.45 2022
author: Naoya Matsumoto
name: Bella
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 67699
Originally published in the United States in 1959, The Charioteer is a bold, unapologetic portrayal of male homosexuality during World War II that stands with Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar and Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories as a monumental work in gay literature.]]> 347 Mary Renault 0375714189 Bella 4 gifted, classics, buddy-read 3.5 stars]]> 4.10 1953
author: Mary Renault
name: Bella
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves: gifted, classics, buddy-read
review:
actual rating: 3.5 stars
]]> 50891156 192 Koyoharu Gotouge 1974717607 Bella 5 manga, read-in-1-sitting 4.66 2019
author: Koyoharu Gotouge
name: Bella
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/16
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 52228762
In Taisho-era Japan, Tanjiro Kamado is a kindhearted boy who makes a living selling charcoal. But his peaceful life is shattered when a demon slaughters his entire family. His little sister Nezuko is the only survivor, but she has been transformed into a demon herself! Tanjiro sets out on a dangerous journey to find a way to return his sister to normal and destroy the demon who ruined his life.

Despite some comic misunderstandings that almost blow their cover, Tanjiro, Inosuke and Zenitsu smoke out Daki, a demon that has been devouring the residents of the entertainment district for years. The Hashira Tengen Uzui and his ninja companions engage Daki, but if they cannot handle her, will Tanjiro and his friends be able to take on one of Kibutsuji’s Upper-Ranked demons by themselves?]]> 200 Koyoharu Gotouge 1974704556 Bella 5 manga, read-in-1-sitting 4.57 2018
author: Koyoharu Gotouge
name: Bella
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/26
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 207298761 208 Eiichiro Oda 1974749924 Bella 4 4.22 1997
author: Eiichiro Oda
name: Bella
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: gifted, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 55711518
In an epic confrontation, Tanjiro and his fellow Demon Slayers have fought on through the night, suffering terrible losses against the King of Demons, Muzan Kibutsuji. Dawn is breaking soon, and if they can keep Muzan at bay just a little longer, it will be the end of the centuries-long struggle. But Muzan, who will stop at nothing to destroy the Demon Slayers, unleashes his most terrible powers. If he can’t defeat the Demon Slayers, he may be able to cause them to destroy themselves from within. All fates and destinies will be decided as the sun begins to rise…]]> 232 Koyoharu Gotouge 1974723631 Bella 5 4.71 2020
author: Koyoharu Gotouge
name: Bella
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/16
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: cried-like-a-baby, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 67697
In Alexander's childhood, his defiant character was molded into the makings of a king. His mother, Olympias, and his father, King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son's loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle. His love for the youth Hephaistion, on whom he depended for he rest of his life, taught him trust, whilst Aristotle's tutoring provoked his mind and Homer's Iliad fuelled his aspirations. He killed his first man in battle at the age of twelve and became the commander of Macedon's cavalry at eighteen - by the time his father was murdered and he acceded to the throne, Alexander's skills had grown to match his fiery ambition.]]> 375 Mary Renault 0375726829 Bella 0 to-read 3.98 1969
author: Mary Renault
name: Bella
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58736096
Also included in this final volume are eight short stories about what happens when an epic tale ends but life goes on. From magical incense burners to tense banquets, lotus-pod-hunting to Night Hunts with the juniors—these stories span dawn to dusk and so much more!]]> 444 Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù 1638585490 Bella 4 gifted 3.75 stars ]]> 4.59 2016
author: Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù
name: Bella
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: gifted
review:
actual rating: 3.75 stars
]]> 210906882 From Eric LaRocca—Bram Stoker Award–nominated and Splatterpunk Award–winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke—肠辞尘别蝉 At Dark, I Become Loathsome, a grim yet gentle, horrifying yet hopeful, intense tale of death, trauma, and love.

“If you’re reading this, you’ve likely thought that the world would be a better place without you.”

A single line of text, glowing in the darkness of the internet. Written by Ashley Lutin, who has often thought the same—and worse—in the years since his wife died and his young son disappeared. But the peace of the grave is not for him—it’s for those he can help. Ashley has constructed a peculiar ritual for those whose desire to die is at war with their yearning to live a better life.

Struggling to overcome his own endless grief, one night Ashley finds connection with Jinx—a potential candidate for Ashley’s next ritual—who spins a tale both revolting and fascinating. Thus begins a relationship that traps the two men in an ever-tightening spiral of painful revelations, where long-hidden secrets are dragged, kicking and screaming, into the light.

Only through pain can we find healing. Only through death can we find new life.]]> 178 Eric LaRocca Bella 0 to-read 3.33 2025
author: Eric LaRocca
name: Bella
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44033470
Born into Kusanagi's legendary Matsuda family, fourteen-year-old Mamoru has always know his purpose: to master his family's fighting techniques and defend his homeland. But when an outsider arrives and pulls back the curtain on Kaigen's alleged age of peace, Mamoru ralizes that he might not have much time before he has to become the fighter he was bred to be. Even worse, the empire he was born to defend might stand on a foundation of lies.

Misaki told herself that she left the passions of her youth behind when she married into the Matsuda house. Determined to be a good housewife and mother, she hid away her sword, along with everything from her days as a fighter in a faraway country. But with her son asking questions about the outside world, the threat of invasion looming on the horizon, and her frigid husband grating on her nerves, Misaki finds the fighter in her clawing its way back to the surface.

When the winds of war reach their peninsula, will the Matsuda family have the strength to defend their empire? Or will they tear each other apart before the true enemies ever reach their shores?]]> 631 M.L. Wang 172019386X Bella 5 best book i read in 2025 4.51 2019
author: M.L. Wang
name: Bella
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: patreon-buddy-read, i-am-looking-respectfully, gifted
review:
best book i read in 2025
]]> 58736095 388 Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù 1638583013 Bella 5 gifted okay i like it picasso 4.71 2016
author: Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù
name: Bella
average rating: 4.71
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: gifted
review:
okay i like it picasso
]]> 58736094 Shoot Down the Sun

The bloody war against the Wen Clan once led Wei Wuxian to seek power in demonic cultivation, and the dark acts he committed drove a wedge between him and Lan Wangji. Now, those old sins come back to haunt him as his reincarnated identity is revealed to the cultivation world. But even as the other clans call for Wei Wuxian’s death, Lan Wangji stands by him, making Wei Wuxian realize what he took for disapproval in the past might have been a much deeper emotion.]]> 416 Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù 1638581568 Bella 4 i-am-looking-respectfully 4.66 2016
author: Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù
name: Bella
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: i-am-looking-respectfully
review:

]]> 213243908 A hopeless romantic meets a jaded radio host in this cozy, Sleepless in Seattle-inspired love story from beloved author B.K. Borison.

Aiden Valentine has a secret: he's fallen out of love with love. And as the host of Baltimore's romance hotline, that's a bit of a problem. But when a young girl calls in to the station asking for dating advice for her mom, the interview goes viral, thrusting Aiden and Heartstrings into the limelight.

Lucie Stone thought she was doing just fine. She has a good job; an incredible family; and a smart, slightly devious kid. But when all of Baltimore is suddenly scrutinizing her love life-or lack thereof—she begins to question if she's as happy as she thought. Maybe a little more romance wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Everyone wants Lucie to find her happy ending... even the handsome, temperamental man calling the shots. But when sparks start to fly behind the scenes, Lucie must make the final call between the radio-sponsored happily ever after or the man in the headphones next to her.]]> 448 B.K. Borison 0593641191 Bella 0 to-read 4.06 2025
author: B.K. Borison
name: Bella
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209432179
Tucked away down a Kyoto backstreet lies the extraordinary Kamogawa Diner, run by Chef Nagare and his daughter, Koishi. The father-daughter duo have reinvented themselves as “food detectives,” offering a service that goes beyond cooking mouth-watering meals. Through their culinary sleuthing, they revive lost recipes and rekindle forgotten memories.

From the Olympic swimmer who misses his estranged father’s bento lunchbox to the one-hit-wonder pop star who remembers the tempura she ate to celebrate her only successful record, each customer leaves the diner forever changed—though not always in the ways they expect . . .

The Kamogawa Diner doesn’t just serve meals—it’s a door to the past through the miracle of delicious food. A beloved bestseller in Japan, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes is a tender and healing novel for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold.]]> 224 Hisashi Kashiwai 1035009625 Bella 0 gifted, buddy-read 3.5 stars]]> 3.71 2014
author: Hisashi Kashiwai
name: Bella
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: gifted, buddy-read
review:
actual rating: 3.5 stars
]]> 21956219
Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.]]> 392 Robin Hobb 000756225X Bella 4 gifted 4.19 1995
author: Robin Hobb
name: Bella
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: gifted
review:

]]> 58705561
Following the trail of a dismembered corpse, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji arrive at the gates of Yi City: an old, abandoned town shrouded in mist and restless spirits. A fiendish foe awaits them in the shadows, heralding a tale of heartbreak and tragedy. When the mysterious corpse’s identity is finally revealed, the hunt for its killer plunges Wei Wuxian back into the depths of the cultivation world's politics, where he must keep his enemies close and Lan Wangji even closer.]]> 403 Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù 1648279201 Bella 4 4.63 2016
author: Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù
name: Bella
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 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 Bella 0 to-read 4.22 2025
author: Emily Henry
name: Bella
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217182552 disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes—all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediately yes. That is until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Like, really wrong. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving an asshole wrong…

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

Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life—and even a love—worth remembering.]]> 368 Abby Jimenez 1538759195 Bella 0 to-read 4.16 2025
author: Abby Jimenez
name: Bella
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214151601 The long-awaited new novel from the author of global sensation Tender Is the Flesh: a thrilling work of literary horror about a woman cloistered in a secretive, violent religious order, while outside the world has fallen into chaos.

From her cell in a mysterious convent, a woman writes the story of her life in whatever she can find—discarded ink, dirt, and even her own blood. A lower member of the Sacred Sisterhood, deemed an unworthy, she dreams of ascending to the ranks of the Enlightened at the center of the convent and of pleasing the foreboding Superior Sister. Outside, the world is plagued by catastrophe—cities are submerged underwater, electricity and the internet are nonexistent, and bands of survivors fight and forage in a cruel, barren landscape. Inside, the narrator is controlled, punished, but safe.

But when a stranger makes her way past the convent walls, joining the ranks of the unworthy, she forces the narrator to consider her long-buried past—and what she may be overlooking about the Enlightened. As the two women grow closer, the narrator is increasingly haunted by questions about her own past, the environmental future, and her present life inside the convent. How did she get to the Sacred Sisterhood? Why can’t she remember her life before? And what really happens when a woman is chosen as one of the Enlightened?

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts, this is another unforgettable novel from a master of feminist horror.]]> 192 Agustina Bazterrica 1668051885 Bella 0 to-read 3.64 2023
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Bella
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.]]> 400 R.F. Kuang Bella 0 to-read 4.04 2025
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Bella
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 215020997 ALL first edition copies will be signed by the author! Signed copies available while supplies last.

From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger.

This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.

This is a story about love.
1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.

This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.

This is a story about life—
how it ends, and how it starts.

USA Today, 15 Most Anticipated of 2025
BookBub, Most Anticipated of 2025 (and Reader’s Pick)
Readers Digest, 20 Most Anticipated Books This Year
Paste Magazine, Most Anticipated Fantasy Books of 2025
BookRiot, Most Anticipated Books of 2025
Men's Health, 25 Best & Most Anticipated Books of 2025
The Nerd Daily, SFF to Devour in 2025
欧宝娱乐, Readers' Most Anticipated Books of 2025]]> 560 Victoria E. Schwab 1035064642 Bella 0 to-read 4.38 2025
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Bella
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 217163697 #1?New York Times?bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier. There’s Joar, who never backs down from a fight; quiet and bookish Ted who is mourning his father; Ali, the daughter of a man who never stays in one place for long; and finally, there’s the artist, a boy who hoards sleeping pills and shuns attention, but who possesses an extraordinary gift that might be his ticket to a better life. These four lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 Bella 0 to-read 4.58 2025
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Bella
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 204593511 From acclaimed Japanese author?Sanaka Hiigari comes a?heartwarming, life-affirming novel about a?magical photo studio, where people go after they die to view key moments from their life—and relive one precious memory before they pass into the afterlife.

The hands and pendulum of the old wooden clock on the wall were motionless. Hirasaka?cocked his head to listen, but the silence inside the photo studio was almost deafening. His?leather shoes sank softly into the aging red carpet as he strode over to the arrangement of?flowers on the counter and carefully adjusted the angle of the petals...

This is the story of the peculiar and magical photo studio owned by Mr. Hirasaki, a collector of antique cameras. In the dimly lit interior, a paper background is pulled down in front of a wall, and in front of it stands a single, luxurious chair with an armrest on one side. On a stand is a large bellows camera. On the left is the main studio; photos can also be taken in the courtyard.

Beyond its straightforward interior, however, is a secret. The studio is, in fact, the door to the afterlife, the place between life and death?where those who have departed have a chance—one last time—to see their entire life flash before their eyes via?Mr. Hirasaki's "spinning lantern of?memories."

We meet?Hatsue, a ninety-two year old woman who worked as a nursery teacher,?the rowdy Waniguchi, a yakuza overseer in his life who is also capable of great compassion, and finally?Mitsuru, a young girl who has died tragically young at the hands of abusive parents.?

Sorting through the many photos of their lives,?Mr. Hirasaki also offers guests one guests a second a?chance to travel back in time to take a photo of one?particular moment in their lives that they wish to cherish in a special way.

Full of charm and whimsy, The Lantern of Lost Memories will sweep you away to a world of nostalgia,?laughter, and love.]]> 208 Sanaka Hiiragi 1538757435 Bella 0 4.12 2019
author: Sanaka Hiiragi
name: Bella
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: read-in-1-sitting, patreon-buddy-read
review:

]]> 61280442 Two best friends fake date to reach their holiday happily ever after in this first romantic comedy in the Lovelight series.

A pasture of dead trees. A hostile takeover of the Santa barn by a family of raccoons. And shipments that have mysteriously gone missing. Lovelight Farms is not the magical winter wonderland of Stella Bloom’s dreams.

In an effort to save the Christmas tree farm she’s loved since she was a kid, Stella enters a contest with Instagram-famous influencer Evelyn St. James. With the added publicity and the $100,000 cash prize, Stella might just be able to save the farm from its financial woes. There’s just one problem. To make the farm seem like a romantic destination for the holidays, she lied on her application and said she owns Lovelight Farms with her boyfriend. Only…there is no boyfriend.

Enter best friend Luka Peters. He just stopped by for some hot chocolate and somehow got a farm and a serious girlfriend in the process. But fake dating his best friend might be the best Christmas present he’s ever received.]]> 416 B.K. Borison Bella 4 read-in-1-sitting actual rating: 3.5 stars

first read:
actual rating: 4.5 stars ]]> 3.94 2021
author: B.K. Borison
name: Bella
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/22
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: read-in-1-sitting
review:
second read:
actual rating: 3.5 stars

first read:
actual rating: 4.5 stars
]]> 26067902 The first new Penguin Classics translation in forty years of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece

The subject of the world’s longest-running musical and the recent Academy Award–nominated and BAFTA-winning film starring Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway,?Les Misérables?is a genuine literary treasure. Victor Hugo’s tale of injustice, heroism, and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him, and has been a perennial favorite since it first appeared nearly 150 years ago. This exciting new translation will be a gift both to readers who have already fallen for its timeless story and to new readers discovering it for the first time.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 1456 Victor Hugo 0241248744 Bella 0 buddy-read, classics 4.46 1862
author: Victor Hugo
name: Bella
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1862
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/19
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: buddy-read, classics
review:

]]> 83137176 Fake amnesia. Real feelings? Real problems.

Sam Becker loves―or, okay, likes―his job. Sure, managing a bed and bath retailer isn't exactly glamorous, but it's good work and he gets on well with the band of misfits who keep the store running. He could see himself being content here for the long haul. Too bad, then, that the owner is an infuriating git.

Jonathan Forest should never have hired Sam. It was a sentimental decision, and Jonathan didn't get where he is by following his heart. Determined to set things right, Jonathan orders Sam down to London for a difficult talk…only for a panicking Sam to trip, bump his head, and maybe accidentally imply he doesn't remember anything?

Faking amnesia seemed like a good idea when Sam was afraid he was getting sacked, but now he has to deal with the reality of Jonathan's guilt―as well as the unsettling fact that his surly boss might have a softer side to him. There's an unexpected freedom in getting a second shot at a first impression…but as Sam and Jonathan grow closer, can Sam really bring himself to tell the truth, or will their future be built entirely on one impulsive lie?]]> 432 Alexis Hall 1728245109 Bella 3 gifted 3.87 2023
author: Alexis Hall
name: Bella
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves: gifted
review:

]]> 199531989 Knives Out gets a rom-com twist in this rivals-to-lovers Christmas romance-mystery from New York Times bestselling author Ally Carter

The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room three days before Christmas.

Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-Time Thriller Guy.

She hates his guts.

He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)

But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.

That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.

She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?

As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth—and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.

Assuming they don’t kill each other first.]]> 293 Ally Carter 0063276682 Bella 3 subscription-box 3.92 2024
author: Ally Carter
name: Bella
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: subscription-box
review:

]]> 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 Bella 3 subscription-box 3.87 2024
author: Sally Rooney
name: Bella
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: subscription-box
review:

]]> 60811826 Deep underground, forty women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only a vague recollection of their lives before.


As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl—the fortieth prisoner—sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.


Jacqueline Harpman was born in Etterbeek, Belgium, in 1929, and fled to Casablanca with her family during WWII. Informed by her background as a psychoanalyst and her youth in exile, I Who Have Never Known Men is a haunting, heartbreaking post-apocalyptic novel of female friendship and intimacy, and the lengths people will go to maintain their humanity in the face of devastation. Back in print for the first time since 1997, Harpman’s modern classic is an important addition to the growing canon of feminist speculative literature.]]> 184 Jacqueline Harpman 1945492600 Bella 4 patreon-buddy-read 3.5 stars]]> 4.11 1995
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Bella
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: patreon-buddy-read
review:
actual rating: 3.5 stars
]]> 25658482 this cocktail!'

From this moment of inspiration, Sartre will create his own extraordinary philosophy of real, experienced life–of love and desire, of freedom and being, of cafés and waiters, of friendships and revolutionary fervour. It is a philosophy that will enthral Paris and sweep through the world, leaving its mark on post-war liberation movements, from the student uprisings of 1968 to civil rights pioneers.

At the Existentialist Café tells the story of modern existentialism as one of passionate encounters between people, minds and ideas. From the ‘king and queen of existentialism'–Sartre and de Beauvoir–to their wider circle of friends and adversaries including Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Iris Murdoch, this book is an enjoyable and original journey through a captivating intellectual movement. Weaving biography and thought, Sarah Bakewell takes us to the heart of a philosophy about life that also changed lives, and that tackled the biggest questions of all: what we are and how we are to live.]]> 440 Sarah Bakewell 0701186585 Bella 0 to-read 4.23 2016
author: Sarah Bakewell
name: Bella
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200794570 They captured me, broke me. Molded me into their perfect weapon. They made me murder and seduce strangers.

Until a hitman killed my captors and set me free.

Leroi

I rescued a girl from a basement thinking she was innocent, but I brought home a serial killer whose darkness borders on insanity.

Now, I need to tame her murderous instincts before I become her next victim.

Seraphine is reckless, unstable, and likely to get us both destroyed. Every instinct says I should end her, but she’s too captivating to resist.

Each day, she draws me deeper into her web, her allure stripping my self-control. But I’m harboring secrets treacherous enough to add me to her list of men to slaughter.

Seraphine

Leroi is dark, deadly, and dangerously attractive.

I don’t know what he wants, but resisting him is impossible and I'm ready to slay him at the first sign of betrayal.

When a dark figure from the past rises from the shadows, wanting to reclaim me, I'm forced to trust a man who might stab me in the back.

Taming Seraphine is a dark romance containing themes that may be disturbing to some. Please check the warnings inside the book.]]> 544 Gigi Styx Bella 0 to-read 3.93
author: Gigi Styx
name: Bella
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 123179008
For the first time in her life, Clementine “Emmy” Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favorite thing: riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.

Luke Brooks is Meadowlark’s most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy’s older brother’s best friend, Luke spent most of his childhood antagonizing her. It’s been years since he’s seen her, but when she walks into his bar and back into his life, he can’t take his eyes off her. Despite his better judgment, he wants to do a whole lot more than just look at her.

Emmy’s got too much on her mind to think about romance. And Luke knows he should stay away from his best friend’s younger sister. But what if Luke is just what Emmy needs to get her spark back? Or will they both go up in flames?]]> 356 Lyla Sage Bella 3 um-childe-anyways-so 3.83 2023
author: Lyla Sage
name: Bella
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: um-childe-anyways-so
review:

]]> 61253362
She’s waded through all of the fish in the sea, each one more disappointing than the last. Apparently owning the bakery at Inglewild’s most romantic destination does not help one’s love life—despite her best efforts. All she wants is a partner who gives her butterflies, not someone who ghosts her at dinner and leaves her with the check.

Good thing Caleb Alvarez has the perfect solution.

After saving Layla from another date gone bad, he has a simple proposition: One month of no-strings dating. He’ll do his best to renew her faith in men while she rates his dating game. It’s a win-win situation. All the benefits of dating, without the added pressure of feelings and unmet expectations.

But there’s one ingredient they haven’t considered. The chemistry between them is red hot and the urge to take things to the next level is more tempting than Layla’s double fudge mocha brownies.

Will the heat between them boil over? Or will it be another case of mixed signals?

Mixed Signals is a sweet and steamy small-town romance. Our story features a bashful man who can rock a Hawaiian shirt, a hopeful and dreamy bakery owner, enough sweets to give you a cavity, and your favorite Inglewild residents. Mixed Signals is a standalone romance and the third book in the Lovelight series, a collection of interconnected novels.]]> 339 B.K. Borison Bella 5 4.16 2022
author: B.K. Borison
name: Bella
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 60233443 410 B.K. Borison Bella 5 4.00 2022
author: B.K. Borison
name: Bella
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 203578770 Author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.

Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.

One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?

Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.

Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style.]]> 144 M.L. Rio 1250356792 Bella 1 3.18 2024
author: M.L. Rio
name: Bella
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: read-in-1-sitting, um-childe-anyways-so, patreon-buddy-read
review:

]]> 49491339 The acclaimed adult fantasy/horror manga now in 7x10 deluxe hardcover editions!

Guts, the feared Black Swordsman, has saved the Band of the Hawk mercenaries from annihilation at the hands of the army of Midland, but he must now descend into the dungeons of Windham Castle to liberate Griffith, the Hawks' charismatic leader. Imprisoned and tortured for his tryst with the King of Midland's daughter, the flayed and starved Griffith may be in isolation, but he is far from alone. Unspeakable horrors dwell within the dank catacombs, where the living may truly envy the dead! Collects Berserk volumes 10-12.

Kentaro Miura's Berserk has ruled in hell for three decades, creating an international horde of disciples and inspiring anime TV series and feature films, video and card games, and a blizzard of related products. And now, the entire Berserk series is being released in handsome oversized bookshelf editions, each collecting three volumes of the original manga.

Collects Berserk Volume 10, 11, and 12.]]> 704 Kentaro Miura 1506715214 Bella 5 4.84 2020
author: Kentaro Miura
name: Bella
average rating: 4.84
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:
hey how am i supposed to cope after this
]]> 97411 No man can live a happy life, or even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is one of the most famous Roman philosophers. Instrumental in guiding the Roman Empire under emperor Nero, Seneca influenced him from a young age with his Stoic principles. Later in life, he wrote Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, or Letters from a Stoic, detailing these principles in full.

Seneca’s letters read like a diary or a handbook of philosophical meditations. Often beginning with observations on daily life, the letters focus on many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy, such as the contempt of death, the value of friendship, and virtue as the supreme good.

Using Gummere’s translation from the early twentieth century, this selection of Seneca’s letters shows his belief in the austere, ethical ideals of Stoicism – teachings we can still learn from today.]]> 254 Seneca 0140442103 Bella 5 classics 4.5 stars]]> 4.33 64
author: Seneca
name: Bella
average rating: 4.33
book published: 64
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/29
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves: classics
review:
actual rating: 4.5 stars
]]> 329892 121 Fyodor Dostoevsky 0938618016 Bella 0 to-read 3.39 1847
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Bella
average rating: 3.39
book published: 1847
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53344030
Nick and Charlie are very much in love. They've finally said those three little words, and Charlie has almost persuaded his mum to let him sleep over at Nick's house ... But with Nick going off to university next year, is everything about to change?

By Alice Oseman, winner of the YA Book Prize, Heartstopper encompasses all the small moments of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

Contains discussions around mental health and eating disorders, and sexual references.]]> 336 Alice Oseman 1444957651 Bella 5 4.47 2023
author: Alice Oseman
name: Bella
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves: graphic-novels, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 199252912 Two opposites decide to test their chemistry with one steamy night together. But will once be enough?

Nova Porter isn’t looking for love, and she certainly has no explanation for her attraction to buttoned-up, three-piece-suit-wearing investment banker Charlie Milford. Maybe it’s his charm? Or maybe it’s his determination to help her fledgling business however he can. Either way, she’s distracted every time he’s around. With her new tattoo studio set to open in her hometown of Inglewild, she doesn’t have time for frivolous flirtations.?

In an effort to get Charlie out of her system once and for all, Nova offers a proposition. One night. No strings. They’ll kick their uncomfortable attraction to the curb and return to their respective responsibilities.?But their explosive night together scatters their expectations like fallen leaves. And with Charlie in town as the temporary head of Lovelight Farms, Nova can’t quite avoid him.?

And Charlie? Well, Charlie knows a good investment when he sees one. He’s hoping he can convince Nova he’s worth some of her time.]]> 384 B.K. Borison 0593641175 Bella 5 4.10 2024
author: B.K. Borison
name: Bella
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves:
review:
the first five star prediction i'm actually right about
]]> 203166784 624 Makoto Yukimura 1646519817 Bella 4 4.77
author: Makoto Yukimura
name: Bella
average rating: 4.77
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully, manga
review:

]]> 204593562 B&N Best Horror of 2024
A Golden Poppy Octavia E. Butler Award Finalist
A Book of the Month Club Pick

A new mom in need of help opens her door to her long-estranged?mother—only to invite something much darker inside—in this "fast-paced and frightening debut" (Rachel Harrison) about the long shadows cast by family secrets, perfect for readers of Grady Hendrix or Ashley Audrain.

Flora is a new mom enamored of her baby girl, Iris, even if she arrived a few weeks early. With her husband still deployed, Flora navigates the newborn stage alone. But as the sleepless nights pass in the loneliness of their half-empty home, the edges of her reality begin to blur.

Just as Flora becomes convinced she is losing her mind, a surprising guest shows up: Flora’s own mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken in years. Can they mend their fraught relationship? Or is there more Flora’s mother isn’t telling her about the events that led to their estrangement?

As stranger and scarier events unfold, Flora begins to suspect the house is not as empty as she once thought. She must determine: is her hold on reality slipping dangerously away? Or is she, in fact, the only thing standing between a terrifying visitor and her baby??]]> 297 Jacquie Walters 0316580295 Bella 4 subscription-box 3.75 stars]]> 3.50 2024
author: Jacquie Walters
name: Bella
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves: subscription-box
review:
actual rating: 3.75 stars
]]> 216847477 From National Book Award finalist Randy Ribay comes the gripping follow-up to The Reckoning of Roku, book one in the latest duology in the New York Times bestselling Chronicles of the Avatar series, set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra

This epic sixth installment in the Chronicles of the Avatar series continues Avatar Roku’s journey toward discovering what it means to be a spirit of no nation…even if the lesson comes at great personal cost.

The stunning conclusion to a powerful duology, The Awakening of Roku is certain to leave readers breathless.]]> 368 Randy Ribay 1419780662 Bella 0 to-read 5.00
author: Randy Ribay
name: Bella
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

Librarian note: There is an alternate cover edition of this book here.]]> 238 bell hooks 0060959479 Bella 4 buddy-read 3.89 1999
author: bell hooks
name: Bella
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/09
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: buddy-read
review:
in my lover girl era or whatever
]]> 199190261
Percy, Annabeth, and Grover settle into Hecate’s seemingly endless mansion and start getting acquainted with the fussy, terrifying animals. The trio has been warned not to touch anything, but while Percy and Annabeth are out at school, Grover can’t resist drinking a strawberry-flavored potion in the laboratory. It turns him into a giant frenzied goat, and after he rampages through the house, damaging everything in sight, and passes out, Hecuba and Gale escape. Now the friends have to find Hecate’s pets and somehow restore the house, all before Hecate gets back on Saturday. It’s going to take luck, demigod wiles, and some old and new friends to hunt down the animals and set things right again.]]> 322 Rick Riordan 1368112382 Bella 0 to-read 4.14 2024
author: Rick Riordan
name: Bella
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 176729898
Includes volumes 7-9 of the Japanese edition of Vinland Saga and new bonus content.

His army starving for resources, King Canute schemes to confiscate Ketil's farm. Ketil and his sons become fugitives, barely escaping the capital aboard Leif Ericson's ship, but Canute follows in pursuit with his best men. Upon Ketil's return, he finds his beloved slave Arnheid has helped her former husband, a runaway who has killed many of Ketil's bodyguards, escape. Beset by betrayal on all sides, there may be no way out for Ketil, but Thorfinn finally has his freedom. Yet, the son of Thors feels bound to Denmark by his unfinished business with Canute...

This premium, hardcover edition presents the acclaimed action epic in hardcover, at a bigger size than ever before (7 by 10 inches), wrapped in a red leather-patterned cover with logo stamping. This new edition features all the content of the original release, plus new and exclusive bonus illustrations, interviews, and behind-the-scenes details never before translated.]]> 640 Makoto Yukimura 1646519809 Bella 5 4.75
author: Makoto Yukimura
name: Bella
average rating: 4.75
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: gifted, manga, i-am-looking-respectfully, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 262147
In his introduction, David Leavitt explores the significance of the novel in relation to Forster's own life and as a founding work of modern gay literature. This edition reproduces the Abinger text of the novel, and includes new notes, a chronology and further reading.]]> 232 E.M. Forster 0141441135 Bella 4 4.11 1971
author: E.M. Forster
name: Bella
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: classics, gifted, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 197053065 From National Book Award finalist Randy Ribay comes a gripping new chapter—starring Avatar Roku—in the New York Times bestselling Chronicles of the Avatar series, set in the world of Avatar: the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

A young Avatar Roku has only just commenced his training at the Southern Air Temple when his erstwhile friend, Prince Sozin, requests his aid in preventing the Earth Kingdom from claiming a remote Fire Nation island. Despite his inexperience, Avatar Roku slips away with the help of an irritating young Airbender named Gyatso. As the reluctant companions delve deeper into their wayward mission, they begin to realize that even greater threats lie ahead. Plagued by self-doubt but eager to prove himself, Roku fights for his life and the lives of others while ensuring that the hidden secret of the island doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

This searing fifth installment in the Chronicles of the Avatar series explores the beginning of Roku’s journey from privileged Fire Nation noble to the powerful but indecisive Avatar whose hesitancy may ultimately pave the way for the Hundred Year War.]]> 368 Randy Ribay 1419776037 Bella 4 3.95 2024
author: Randy Ribay
name: Bella
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: gifted, i-am-looking-respectfully
review:

]]> 44036458 The acclaimed adult fantasy manga now in 7x10 deluxe hardcover editions!

The hundred-year war between the kingdoms of Midland and Tudor nears an end as the legendary Band of the Hawk mercenaries, led by the charismatic Griffith and his fearless berserker champion Guts, turn the tide in Midland's favor. But impending victory ignites a secret war within Midland, as those seeking courtly favor see the ambitious Griffith as an obstacle to power. And nothing is more powerful than an enemy unseen! Collects Berserk volumes 7-9.

Kentaro Miura's Berserk has reigned in darkness for three decades, creating an international legion of acolytes and inspiring anime TV series and feature films, video and card games, and a phalanx of related products. And now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, the entire Berserk series is being released in handsome oversized bookshelf editions, each collecting three volumes of the original manga.

Collects Berserk Volume 7, 8, and 9.]]> 704 Kentaro Miura 1506712002 Bella 0 4.80 2019
author: Kentaro Miura
name: Bella
average rating: 4.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/23
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: gifted, manga, i-am-looking-respectfully
review:

]]> 42454096 The reigning king of adult fantasy manga now in deluxe 7x10 hardcover editions! Born in tragedy, raised in abuse and neglect, young Guts is hardened into a warrior of fearsome prowess and fearless will, drawing the attention of the charismatic Griffith, commander of the elite mercenary legion, the Band of the Hawk. This crossroad will take Guts to fame and glory . . . and to damnation!

Kentaro Miura's Berserk has cast its enormous shadow for three decades, creating an international legion of acolytes and inspiring a parade of TV series, feature films, and video games. And now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, the entire Berserk series is being released in handsome oversized bookshelf format, each collecting three volumes of the original manga.]]> 704 Kentaro Miura 1506711995 Bella 5 4.72 2019
author: Kentaro Miura
name: Bella
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: gifted, manga, i-am-looking-respectfully
review:

]]> 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.?

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.??

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

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.?

She does not know this yet. But she will.]]> 295 Ava Reid 0593722566 Bella 4 3.46 2024
author: Ava Reid
name: Bella
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: patreon-buddy-read, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 50213170 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780099561545.

Colum McCann once called Stoner one of the great forgotten novels of the past century, but it seems it is forgotten no longer - in 2013 translations of Stoner began appearing on bestseller lists across Europe. Forty-eight years after its first, quiet publication in the US, Stoner is finally finding the wide and devoted readership it deserves. Have you read it yet?William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture., A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman., His life is quiet, and after his death his colleagues remember him rarely. Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value. Stoner tells of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history, and reclaims the significance of an individual life., A reading experience like no other, itself a paean to the power of literature, it is a novel to be savoured.]]> 288 John Williams Bella 5 4.43 1965
author: John Williams
name: Bella
average rating: 4.43
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/15
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: classics, cried-like-a-baby, gifted
review:

]]> 40741802 Humiliated and Insulted plunges the reader into a world of moral degradation, childhood trauma, unrequited love and irreconcil?able relationships. At the centre of the story are a young struggling author, an orphaned teenager and a depraved aristocrat, who not only foreshadows the great figures of evil in Dostoevsky's later fiction, but is a powerful and original presence in his own right.

This new translation catches the verve and tumult of the original, which – in concept and execution – affords a refreshingly unfamiliar glimpse of the author.]]> 384 Fyodor Dostoevsky 1847497802 Bella 4 buddy-read, classics, gifted
]]> 4.16 1861
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Bella
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1861
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: buddy-read, classics, gifted
review:
its just me and daddy dostoyevsky against the world


]]> 10225194 Death & Strawberry

Ichigo Kurosaki has always been able to see ghosts, but this ability doesn't change his life nearly as much as his close encounter with Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper and member of the mysterious Soul Society. While fighting a Hollow, an evil spirit that preys on humans who display psychic energy, Rukia attempts to lend Ichigo some of her powers so that he can save his family; but much to her surprise, Ichigo absorbs every last drop of her energy. Now a full-fledged Soul Reaper himself, Ichigo quickly learns that the world he inhabits is one full of dangerous spirits, and along with Rukia--who is slowly regaining her powers--it's Ichigo's job to protect the innocent from Hollows and help the spirits themselves find peace.

The paranormal action-adventure begins now!]]> 569 Tite Kubo 1421539926 Bella 4 4.35 2011
author: Tite Kubo
name: Bella
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: gifted, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 282282
Kyoko Mogami followed her true love Sho to Tokyo to support him while he made it big as an idol. But he’s casting her out now that he’s famous! Kyoko won’t suffer in silence—she’s going to get her sweet revenge by beating Sho in show biz!

Kyoko knows she's not plain and uninteresting, no matter what Sho says. With the help of a little makeover, Kyoko's ready to exact her revenge. But first she needs to land an audition, and she sets her sights on the agency where Sho's lead rival works. Her persistence pays off, but her broken heart turns out to be a disadvantage. Kyoko has lost the will to love anybody, let alone fans she's never met. Can the agency see past this problem to Kyoko's true star potential?

Chapters: 1-5]]> 184 Yoshiki Nakamura 1421505851 Bella 4 4.26 2002
author: Yoshiki Nakamura
name: Bella
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: gifted, manga, read-in-1-sitting
review:

]]> 101159298
Denji is desperate to tell the world that he’s Chainsaw Man, but is he competent enough to pull off a proper reveal? Meanwhile, Asa has made a friend! But this new friendship may be hiding a dark secret.]]> 184 Tatsuki Fujimoto 1974741028 Bella 4 3.5 stars]]> 4.16 2023
author: Tatsuki Fujimoto
name: Bella
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: gifted, read-in-1-sitting, manga
review:
actual rating: 3.5 stars
]]> 34204355 The Room on the Roof is a timeless coming-of-age novel that will resonate with a whole new generation of readers. Written by renowned author Ruskin Bond when he was just seventeen, it is the story of Rusty, a teenage Anglo-Indian boy who is orphaned and has to live with his English guardian in the stifling European quarter of Dehra Dun. Unhappy with the strict ways of his guardian, Rusty runs away from home to live with his Indian friends into the dream-bright world of the bazaar, Hindu festivals and all manner of Indian life. Rusty is enthralled, and is lost forever to the prim proprieties of the claustrophic European community.]]> 208 Ruskin Bond 0141386762 Bella 4 3.5 stars]]> 3.62 1956
author: Ruskin Bond
name: Bella
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: classics, gifted, read-in-1-sitting
review:
actual rating: 3.5 stars
]]>