en-US Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:21:27 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 23735663 Librarian's Note: An alternate cover for this ASIN can be found here

He might have struck out. . .but he refuses to stop swinging. Noah Fox's life is changing. Ever since he was hit in the head by a pitch, nothing has been the same. Fighting daily headaches and the growing fear that his baseball career is over, Noah goes in search of the woman who once loved and left him. What he finds in the tiny town of Sand Point is nothing he could have ever expected. A trained chef and a certified “foodie,� Maggie May King has been perfectly content to devote the last three years of her life to running her baby, the Sand Point Café. Noah’s never met anyone less awed by his good looks or his celebrity, and even though she’s the last person he should be befriending, he finds himself seduced by Maggie’s sweetness and her even sweeter orange rolls.]]> 496 Beth Bolden 1495112276 Chain 4 3.79 2014
author: Beth Bolden
name: Chain
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/09/23
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]]> 22057864 A naïve, innocent woman too sweet for her own good meets a man too bad for words in this sexy stand-alone baseball romance!Strike Hotheaded Tyler Brock arrives in Raleigh as the Rockets' first baseman, owing one hundred hours of community service for starting a bar fight. Strike Lost in a new town with a new team, Tyler can't confide his greatest shame to anyone—he can't read.And strike Tyler is assigned to work for Emily Holt. Emily is beautiful, uptight, and ready to shed her secret, unwanted virginity. They hit it off, in more ways than one. But when illiterate Tyler shirks his book-bound community service, Emily must hold him accountable.Can this mismatched pair save each other by sharing their long-held secrets?The Diamond Brides Baseball Each volume can be read on its own, and the series can be read in any order.Perfect Pitch (DJ Thomas and Samantha Winger)Catching Hell (Zach Ormond and Anna Benson)Reaching First (Tyler Brock and Emily Holt)Second Thoughts (Nick Durban and Jamie Martin)Third Degree (Josh Cantor and Ashley Harris)Stopping Short (Drew Marshall and Jessica Barnes)From Left Field (Adam Sartain and Haley Thurman)Center Stage (Ryan Green and Lindsey Ormond)Always Right (Kyle Norton and Amanda Carter)122022mfm]]> 168 Mindy Klasky Chain 0 abandoned 3.82
author: Mindy Klasky
name: Chain
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: abandoned
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]]> 4965
Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition.

As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.

As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a "year of wonders."

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. ]]> 304 Geraldine Brooks 0142001430 Chain 5 4.00 2001
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Chain
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/11/11
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]]> 30076395
When we were forced to go to Paris together for an assignment, I wasn’t interested in his seductive smile, his sexy accent or his dirty laugh. I wasn’t falling for his charms.

Until I did.

Until Paris.

Until he was kissing me and I was wondering how it happened. Until he was dragging his lips across my skin and I was hoping for more. Paris does funny things to a girl and he might have gotten me naked.

But Paris couldn’t last forever.

Parisian Nights is a hot, stand alone romance.

Previously titled "What the Lightning Sees: The Complete Series".]]> 412 Louise Bay Chain 3 3.84 2015
author: Louise Bay
name: Chain
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/13
date added: 2023/05/20
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]]> 7433
The case soon takes Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, as well as the sinister underbelly of the city's art world. And while navigating her way into the heart of the aristocratic yet bohemian Bassington-Hopes, Maisie is deeply troubled by the tragedy of another, quite different family in need.

In Messenger of Truth, Maisie Dobbs again uncovers the dark legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself in difficult times. But to solve the mystery of the artist's death, she will have to remain steady as the forces behind his death come out of the shadows to silence her.

Following on the bestselling Pardonable Lies, Jacqueline Winspear delivers another vivid, thrilling, and utterly unique episode in the life of Maisie Dobbs.]]> 322 Jacqueline Winspear 0805078983 Chain 4 3.97 2006
author: Jacqueline Winspear
name: Chain
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/02
date added: 2021/04/02
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]]> 29099264 480 Michael W. Twitty 0062379283 Chain 4 3.80 2017
author: Michael W. Twitty
name: Chain
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/02
date added: 2021/04/02
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]]> 36249638
In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Margaret must figure out how to move forward on her own terms while facing long-held family secrets, devastating heartbreak, and the idea that love might find her in the last place she would ever expect.]]> 302 Katherine Center 1250149061 Chain 4 4.06 2018
author: Katherine Center
name: Chain
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/29
date added: 2021/03/29
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]]> 39293273 #1 National Bestseller
Finalist, CBC Canada Reads
Finalist, Scotiabank Giller Prize

By turns savage, biting, funny, poetic, and heartbreaking, Megan Gail Coles’s debut novel rips into the inner lives of a wicked cast of characters, exposing class, gender, and racial tensions over the course of one Valentine’s Day in the dead of a winter storm.

Valentine’s Day, the longest day of the year.

A fierce blizzard is threatening to tear a strip off the city, while inside The Hazel restaurant a storm system of sex, betrayal, addiction, and hurt is breaking overhead. Iris, a young hostess, is forced to pull a double despite resolving to avoid the charming chef and his wealthy restaurateur wife. Just tables over, Damian, a hungover and self-loathing server, is trying to navigate a potential punch-up with a pair of lit customers who remain oblivious to the rising temperature in the dining room. Meanwhile Olive, a young woman far from her northern home, watches it all unfurl from the fast and frozen street.

Through rolling blackouts, we glimpse the truth behind the shroud of scathing lies and unrelenting abuse, and discover that resilience proves most enduring in the dead of this winter’s tale.]]> 440 Megan Gail Coles 1487001711 Chain 0 abandoned 3.58 2019
author: Megan Gail Coles
name: Chain
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/25
shelves: abandoned
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]]> 33786693 No Visible Bruises, journalist Rachel Louise Snyder frames this urgent and immersive account of the scale of domestic violence in our country around key stories that explode the common myths: That if things were bad enough, victims would just leave; that a violent person cannot become nonviolent; that shelter is an adequate response; that violence inside the home is separate from other forms of violence like mass shootings, gang violence, and sexual assault. Through the stories of victims, perpetrators, law enforcement, and reform movements from across the country, Snyder explores not only the dark corners of private violence, but also its far-reaching consequences for society, and what it will take to truly address it.]]> 320 Rachel Louise Snyder Chain 4 4.52 2019
author: Rachel Louise Snyder
name: Chain
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/25
date added: 2021/03/25
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]]> 30363088 A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles�Found, on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September.

Bone china cup and saucer�Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October.

Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidentally left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.

Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.

As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice’s redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest?

Full of character, wit, and wisdom, The Keeper of Lost Things is heartwarming tale that will enchant fans of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Garden Spells, Mrs Queen Takes the Train, and The Silver Linings Playbook.]]> 288 Ruth Hogan Chain 3 3.70 2017
author: Ruth Hogan
name: Chain
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/24
date added: 2021/03/24
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]]> 52218375 In West Adams, a rapidly changing part of South Los Angeles, they’re referred to as “these women.”ĚýThese women on the corner …ĚýThese women in the club â€� These women who won’t stop asking questions â€� These women who got what they deserved â€�

Ivy Pochoda creates a kaleidoscope of loss, power, and hope featuring five very different women whose lives are steeped in danger and anguish.ĚýThey’re connected by one man and his deadly obsession, though not all of them know that yet.ĚýThere’s Dorian, still adrift after her daughter’s murder remains unsolved; Julianna, a young dancer nicknamed Jujubee, who lives hard and fast, resisting anyone trying to slow her down; Essie, a brilliant vice cop who sees a crime pattern emerging where no one else does; Marella, a daring performance artist whose work has long pushed boundaries but now puts her in peril; and Anneke, a quiet woman who has turned a willfully blind eye to those around her for far too long. The careful existence they have built for themselves starts to crumble when two murders rock their neighborhood.]]> 352 Ivy Pochoda 0062656384 Chain 5 3.76 2020
author: Ivy Pochoda
name: Chain
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/20
date added: 2021/03/20
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]]> 17572045 192 Harriet Baskas 0762780479 Chain 3 3.46 2013
author: Harriet Baskas
name: Chain
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/19
date added: 2021/03/19
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]]> 50489379 A thrilling history of the West’s scramble for the riches of ancient Egypt by the foremost Egyptologist of our time.

From the decipherment of hieroglyphics in 1822 to the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon a hundred years later, the uncovering of Egypt’s ancient past took place in an atmosphere of grand adventure and international rivalry.
In A World Beneath the Sands, acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson chronicles the ruthless race between the British, French, Germans, and Americans to lay claim to its mysteries and treasures. He tells riveting stories of the men and women whose obsession with Egypt’s ancient civilization helped to enrich and transform our understanding of the Nile Valley and its people, and left a lasting impression on Egypt, too. Travelers and treasure-hunters, ethnographers and archaeologists: whatever their motives, whatever their methods, a century of adventure and scholarship revealed a lost world, buried for centuries beneath the sands.]]> 510 Toby Wilkinson 1324006897 Chain 5 3.90 2020
author: Toby Wilkinson
name: Chain
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/18
date added: 2021/03/18
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]]> 27208942
Data, research, scientific formulae--Annabelle Coffey is completely at ease with all of them. Men, not so much. But that's all going to change after she asks Dr. Charles Douglas, the postdoctoral fellow in her lab, to have sex with her. Charles is not only beautiful, he is also adorably awkward, British, brilliant, and nice. What are the odds he'd turn her down?

Very high, as it happens. Something to do with that whole student/teacher/ethics thing. But in a few weeks, Annie will graduate. As soon as she does, the unlikely friendship that's developing between them can turn physical--just until Annie leaves for graduate school. Yet nothing could have prepared either Annie or Charles for chemistry like this, or for what happens when a simple exercise in mutual pleasure turns into something as exhilarating and infernally complicated as love.]]> 320 Emily Foster 1496704185 Chain 4 3.62 2016
author: Emily Foster
name: Chain
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/10
date added: 2021/03/10
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]]> 37415 238 Zora Neale Hurston 0061120065 Chain 5 3.98 1937
author: Zora Neale Hurston
name: Chain
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1937
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/10
date added: 2021/03/10
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]]> 46007673 509 Tana French 0735224641 Chain 4 3.55 2018
author: Tana French
name: Chain
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/08/09
date added: 2021/03/07
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]]> 39189837 In a most improbable friendship, she found love. In a world where women were silenced, she found her voice.

From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.� When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy.

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice—and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had.

At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all.]]> 435 Patti Callahan Henry Chain 4 4.04 2018
author: Patti Callahan Henry
name: Chain
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/06
date added: 2021/03/06
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]]> 40881649
Strange visitations, suspicious accidents, and a botched kidnapping convince Amelia that there is a plot afoot to harm Evelyn. Now Amelia finds herself up against an unknown enemy-and perilous forces that threaten to make her first Egyptian trip also her last . . .]]> 262 Elizabeth Peters Chain 5 3.98 1975
author: Elizabeth Peters
name: Chain
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/05
date added: 2021/03/05
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]]> 25817386
But after one provocative encounter with the captivating Merry, Trent desires her more than any woman he has ever met. He is determined to have her as his wife, no matter what it takes. And Trent is a man who always gets what he wants.

The problem is, Merry is already betrothed, and the former runaway bride has vowed to make it all the way to the altar. As honor clashes with irresistible passion, Trent realizes the stakes are higher than anyone could have imagined. In his battle to save Merry and win her heart, one thing becomes clear: All is fair in love and war.]]> 432 Eloisa James 0062389432 Chain 0 abandoned 3.83 2015
author: Eloisa James
name: Chain
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/02
shelves: abandoned
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]]> 29946121
But is the woman she's becoming-capable of lies, swapping identities like dresses-the true Kate? Or has the real disguise been the good girl she always thought she was? As the tensions between the north and south escalate, Kate takes on a job in which the stakes have never been higher. The nation's future is at risk, even as the lines between disguise and reality begin to blur.]]> 308 Greer Macallister 1492635227 Chain 4 3.70 2017
author: Greer Macallister
name: Chain
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/01
date added: 2021/03/01
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]]> 2936415 The bestselling author of Into the Wild, Into Thin Air, and Under the Banner of Heaven delivers a stunning, eloquent account of a remarkable young man’s haunting journey.

Like the men whose epic stories Jon Krakauer has told in his previous bestsellers, Pat Tillman was an irrepressible individualist and iconoclast. In May 2002, Tillman walked away from his $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army. He was deeply troubled by 9/11, and he felt a strong moral obligation to join the fight against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Two years later, he died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan.

Though obvious to most of the two dozen soldiers on the scene that a ranger in Tillman’s own platoon had fired the fatal shots, the Army aggressively maneuvered to keep this information from Tillman’s wife, other family members, and the American public for five weeks following his death. During this time, President Bush repeatedly invoked Tillman’s name to promote his administration’s foreign policy. Long after Tillman’s nationally televised memorial service, the Army grudgingly notified his closest relatives that he had “probably� been killed by friendly fire while it continued to dissemble about the details of his death and who was responsible.

In Where Men Win Glory, Jon Krakauer draws on Tillman’s journals and letters, interviews with his wife and friends, conversations with the soldiers who served alongside him, and extensive research on the ground in Afghanistan to render an intricate mosaic of this driven, complex, and uncommonly compelling figure as well as the definitive account of the events and actions that led to his death. Before he enlisted in the army, Tillman was familiar to sports aficionados as an undersized, overachieving Arizona Cardinals safety whose virtuosity in the defensive backfield was spellbinding. With his shoulder-length hair, outspoken views, and boundless intellectual curiosity, Tillman was considered a maverick. America was fascinated when he traded the bright lights and riches of the NFL for boot camp and a buzz cut. Sent first to Iraq—a war he would openly declare was “illegal as hell”—and eventually to Afghanistan, Tillman was driven by complicated, emotionally charged, sometimes contradictory notions of duty, honor, justice, patriotism, and masculine pride, and he was determined to serve his entire three-year commitment. But on April 22, 2004, his life would end in a barrage of bullets fired by his fellow soldiers.

Krakauer chronicles Tillman’s riveting, tragic odyssey in engrossing detail highlighting his remarkable character and personality while closely examining the murky, heartbreaking circumstances of his death. Infused with the power and authenticity readers have come to expect from Krakauer’s storytelling, Where Men Win Glory exposes shattering truths about men and war.
From the inside cover of ISBN 0385522266 / 9780385522267]]> 383 Jon Krakauer 0385522266 Chain 5 4.07 2009
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Chain
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/26
date added: 2021/02/26
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]]> 42983586
For Nesto Vasquez, moving his Afro-Caribbean food truck from New York City to the wilds of Upstate New York is a huge gamble. If it works? He’ll be a big fish in a little pond. If it doesn’t? He’ll have to give up the hustle and return to the day job he hates. He’s got six months to make it happen—the last thing he needs is a distraction.

Jude Fuller is proud of the life he’s built on the banks of Cayuga Lake. He has a job he loves and good friends. It’s safe. It’s quiet. And it’s damn lonely. Until he tries Ithaca’s most-talked-about new lunch spot and works up the courage to flirt with the handsome owner. Soon he can’t get enough—of Nesto’s food or of Nesto. For the first time in his life, Jude can finally taste the kind of happiness that’s always been just out of reach.

An opportunity too good to pass up could mean a way to stay together and an incredible future for them both…if Nesto can remember happiness isn’t always measured by business success. And if Jude can overcome his past and trust his man will never let him down.

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise : all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!

This book is approximately 94,000 words]]> 290 Adriana Herrera 1488051232 Chain 3 4.02 2019
author: Adriana Herrera
name: Chain
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/25
date added: 2021/02/25
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]]> 34696033 The third book in the popular Lane Winslow mystery series by an author the Globe and Mail has called a -writer to watch.-

It's early spring of 1947 in idyllic King's Cove, and the Hughes ladies, mere et filles, are gardening and sorting through the jars of food that have been put up for the winter. But while cleaning up after the roof of their root cellar has caved in slightly, they are horrified to discover a small skeletal hand embedded in the mess. Panicked, they call Lane Winslow, the ex-British secret service agent, and, not without some misgivings about the state of their tense relationship, Lane calls Inspector Darling.

Before long the police crew discover the body of a young child buried almost 40 years before. Who is the child, and why has it not been buried in the local cemetery? Inspector Darling, already busy dealing with a teenage girl who has gone on a destructive rampage at a local mill, asks Lane for help in unearthing the long-forgotten secrets of the early life of the tiny town, and the identity of the long-forgotten child.

This delightful new historical mystery series will appeal to fans of Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford.]]> 352 Iona Whishaw 1771512407 Chain 5 3.96 2017
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Chain
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/21
date added: 2021/02/21
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]]> 6945186 63 Victoria Scott 0940880385 Chain 3 2.71 1992
author: Victoria Scott
name: Chain
average rating: 2.71
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/19
date added: 2021/02/19
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]]> 50265329
Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for patients in hospice.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways--the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she's never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices...or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now?]]> 416 Jodi Picoult 198481835X Chain 4 3.61 2020
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Chain
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/18
date added: 2021/02/18
shelves:
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]]> 92057
Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind.

An established classic of modern America, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was hailed by the New York Times as "Extraordinary. A brilliant, painful, important book." Still extraordinary, still important, this electrifying story has transformed Malcolm X's life into his legacy. The strength of his words, and the power of his ideas continue to resonate more than a generation after they first appeared.]]> 466 Malcolm X Chain 0 4.35 1965
author: Malcolm X
name: Chain
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at: 2021/02/18
date added: 2021/02/18
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]]> 23398625
Each chapter in J. Ryan Stradal's startlingly original debut tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the zeitgeist of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother-daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life--its missed opportunities and its joyful surprises. It marks the entry of a brilliant new talent.]]> 310 J. Ryan Stradal 052542914X Chain 3 3.80 2015
author: J. Ryan Stradal
name: Chain
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2021/02/13
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]]> 41541435 Remember me ) Believe me: Dating a professional hockey player wasn't anything I expected to do in college. My parents don't know; my teammates have no clue...

And Jack and I aren't sure that we want to keep it a secret.]]> 336 Ngozi Ukazu 1250179505 Chain 5 4.38 2020
author: Ngozi Ukazu
name: Chain
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/02/09
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]]> 53492673

On the case is Inspector Cutter, a detective as sharp and committed to his work as he is wryly hilarious. Gideon Bliss, a Cambridge dropout in love with one of the missing girls, stumbles into a role as Cutter’s sidekick. And clever young journalist Octavia Hillingdon sees the case as a chance to tell a story that matters—despite her employer’s preference that she stick to a women’s society column. As Inspector Cutter peels back the mystery layer by layer, he leads them all, at last, to the secrets that lie hidden at the house on Vesper Sands.


By turns smart, surprising, and impossible to put down, The House on Vesper Sands offers a glimpse into the strange undertow of late nineteenth-century London and the secrets we all hold inside us.]]> 408 Paraic O'Donnell 1951142241 Chain 2 3.34 2018
author: Paraic O'Donnell
name: Chain
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/07
date added: 2021/02/07
shelves:
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]]> 52091261 An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings.

From the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Joseph “Ziggyâ€� Johnson, has been the pulse of Detroit’s famous Black Bottom. A celebrated gossip columnist for the city’s African-American newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, he is also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he’s rubbed elbows with the legendary black artists of the era, including Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstein, and Count Basie. Ziggy is also the founder and dean of the Ziggy Johnson School of Theater. But now the doyen of Black Bottom is ready to hang up his many dapper hats.ĚýĚý

As he lays dying in the black-owned-and-operated Kirkwood Hospital, Ziggy reflects on his life, the community that was the center of his world, and the remarkable people who helped shape it.

Inspired by the Catholic Saints Day Books, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom’s venerable "52 Saints." Among them are a vulnerable Dinah Washington, a defiant JoeĚýLouis, and a raucous Bricktop. Randall balances the stories of these larger-than-life "Saints" with local heroes who became household names, enthralling men and women whose unstoppable ambition, love of style, and faith in community made this black Midwestern neighborhood the rival of New York City’s Harlem.

Accompanying these “tributes� are thoughtfully paired cocktails—special drinks that capture the essence of each of Ziggy’s saints—libations as strong and satisfying as Alice Randall’s wholly original view of a place and time unlike any other.]]> 384 Alice Randall 0062968629 Chain 3 3.88 2020
author: Alice Randall
name: Chain
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/07
date added: 2021/02/07
shelves:
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]]> 15808243 From A to Z, the Penguin Drop Caps series collects 26 unique hardcovers—featuring cover art by type superstar Jessica HischeĚý

It all begins with a letter. Fall in love with Penguin Drop Caps, a new series of twenty-six collectible and gift-worthy hardcover editions, each with a type cover showcasing a gorgeously illustrated letter of the alphabet by superstar type designer Jessica Hische, whose work has appeared everywhere from Tiffany & Co. to Wes Anderson's filmĚýMoonrise KingdomĚýto Penguin's own bestsellersĚý°ä´Çłľłľľ±łŮłŮ±đ»ĺĚýandRules of Civility. A collaboration between Jessica Hische and Penguin Art Director Paul Buckley, Ěýthe series design encompasses foil-stamped paper-over-board cases in a rainbow-hued spectrum across all twenty-six book spines and a decorative stain on all three paper edges. Penguin Drop Caps debuts with an “Aâ€� for Jane Austen’sĚýPride and Prejudice, a “Bâ€� for Charlotte Brontë’sĚýJane Eyre, and a “Câ€� for Willa Cather’sĚýMy Ă�ntonia, and continues with more classics from Penguin.

A is for Austen.ĚýFew have failed to be charmed by the witty and independent spirit of Elizabeth Bennet in Austen’s beloved classicĚýPride and Prejudice. Elizabeth’s early determination to dislike Mr. Darcy is a prejudice only matched by the folly of his arrogant pride. Their first impressions give way to true feelings in a comedy profoundly concerned with happiness and how it might be achieved.
--penguinrandomhouse.com]]> 403 Jane Austen 0143123165 Chain 5 4.40 1813
author: Jane Austen
name: Chain
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1813
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/25
date added: 2021/02/06
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]]> 84725 General. Racing northward at speeds approaching sixty miles an hour, cutting telegraph lines and destroying track along the way, Andrews planned to open East Tennessee to the Union army, cutting off men and matériel from the Confederate forces in Virginia. If they succeeded, Andrews and his raiders could change the course of the war. But the General's young conductor, William A. Fuller, chased the stolen train first on foot, then by handcar, and finally aboard another engine, the Texas. He pursued the General until, running out of wood and water, Andrews and his men abandoned the doomed locomotive, ending the adventure that would soon be famous as The Great Locomotive Chase. But the ordeal of the soldiers involved was just beginning. In the days that followed, the "engine thieves" were hunted down and captured. Eight were tried and executed as spies, including Andrews. Eight others made a daring escape to freedom, including two assisted by a network of slaves and Union sympathizers. For their actions, before a personal audience with President Abraham Lincoln, six of the raiders became the first men in American history to be awarded the Medal of Honor—the nation's highest decoration for gallantry.

Americans north and south, both at the time and ever since, have been astounded and fascinated by this daring raid. But until now, there has not been a complete history of the entire episode and the fates of all those involved. Based on eyewitness accounts, as well as correspondence, diaries, military records, newspaper reports, deposition testimony and other primary sources, Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor by Russell S. Bonds is a blend of meticulous research and compelling narrative that is now considered to be the definitive history of "the boldest adventure of the war."]]> 444 Russell S. Bonds 1594160333 Chain 3 3.97 2006
author: Russell S. Bonds
name: Chain
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/03
date added: 2021/02/03
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]]> 14742759 81 Zen Cho 1476177678 Chain 4 3.77 2012
author: Zen Cho
name: Chain
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/30
date added: 2021/01/30
shelves:
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]]> 31450983
North and South is a wonderful blend of social comment on the dramatic changes in society brought about by the industrial revolution and a compelling love story. Written from the author's first-hand experience, the novel follows the story of Margaret Hope, the young heroine, in her move from the tranquil setting in rural southern England to the raw and turbulent northern town of Milton. Margaret takes an instant dislike to her new home and its people. She hates the dirt, noise and lack of civilisation. Her distaste extends to handsome and charismatic cotton mill owner John Thornton whom she believes epitomises everything unpleasant about the North. However, as Margaret gradually begins to settle in Milton, she learns about the poverty and workplace struggles. As events conspire to throw Margaret and Thornton together, the two spirited characters have to overcome their repressed physical attraction for one another and conquer prejudices of class and circumstance. The passion and the history embedded in this narrative is as appealing and engrossing today as when it was first published.]]> 656 Elizabeth Gaskell 1509827943 Chain 4 4.29 1855
author: Elizabeth Gaskell
name: Chain
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1855
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/30
date added: 2021/01/30
shelves:
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]]> 7943816
Still, with each encounter, his charm works its magic and Juliette starts to fall for him again. This time, however, it's different� Tyler is different. And while she could ignore the man he used to be, this man—the one who's doing good things for his family and this community—is far too irresistible.]]> 256 Molly O'Keefe 0373716575 Chain 3 3.63 2010
author: Molly O'Keefe
name: Chain
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2021/01/27
shelves:
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]]> 36952311
Nora, the owner of the Miss Guthrie Diner, is perfectly happy serving up apple cider donuts, coffee, and eggs-any-way-you-like-em to her regulars, and she takes great pleasure in knowing exactly what’s “the usual.� But her life is soon shaken when she discovers she and her free-spirited, younger sister Kit stand to inherit the home and land of the town’s beloved cake lady, Peggy Johnson.

Kit, an aspiring–and broke–filmmaker thinks her problems are solved when she and Nora find out Peggy was in the process of selling the land to a big-box developer before her death. The people of Guthrie are divided–some want the opportunities the development will bring, while others are staunchly against any change–and they aren’t afraid to leave their opinions with their tips.

Time is running out, and the sisters need to make a decision soon. But Nora isn’t quite ready to let go of the land, complete with a charming farmhouse, an ancient apple orchard and the clues to a secret life that no one knew Peggy had. Troubled by the conflicting needs of the town, and confused by her growing feelings towards Elliot, the big-box developer’s rep, Nora throws herself into solving the one problem that everyone in town can agree on–finding Peggy’s missing dog, Freckles.

When a disaster strikes the diner, the community of Guthrie bands together to help her, and Nora discovers that doing the right thing doesn’t always mean giving up your dreams.]]> 325 Louise Miller 1101981237 Chain 3 3.73 2018
author: Louise Miller
name: Chain
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/26
date added: 2021/01/26
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]]> 39082248
The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.

Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.]]> 213 Waubgeshig Rice 1770414002 Chain 5 3.83 2018
author: Waubgeshig Rice
name: Chain
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/24
date added: 2021/01/24
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]]> 52062913 Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes turn the Riviera upside-down to crack their most captivating case yet in the New York Times bestselling series that Lee Child called "the most sustained feat of imagination in mystery fiction today."

It's summertime on the Riviera, where the Jazz Age is busily reinventing the holiday delights of warm days on golden sand and cool nights on terraces and dance floors. Just up the coast lies a more traditional pleasure ground: Monte Carlo, where fortunes are won, lost, stolen, and hidden away. So when Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes happen across the CĂ´te d'Azur in this summer of 1925, they find themselves pulled between the young and the old, hot sun and cool jazz, new friendships and old loyalties, childlike pleasures and very grownup sins...]]> 336 Laurie R. King 0525620834 Chain 3 3.95 2020
author: Laurie R. King
name: Chain
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/21
date added: 2021/01/21
shelves:
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]]> 50403476 Veteran style journalist Elizabeth Holmes expands her popular Instagram series, So Many Thoughts, into a nuanced look at the fashion and branding of the four most influential members of the British Royal Family: Queen Elizabeth II; Diana, Princess of Wales; Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge; and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex.


Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle are global style icons, their every fashion choice chronicled and celebrated. With all eyes on them, the duchesses select clothes that send a message about their values, interests, and priorities. Their thoughtful sartorial strategies follow in the footsteps of Queen Elizabeth II and Diana, Princess of Wales, two towering figures known for using their personal style to great acclaim.


With one section devoted to each woman, HRH is a celebration of their stories and their style, pairing hundreds of gorgeous photographs with extensive research. A picture emerges of the British monarchy’s evolution and the power of royal fashion, showing there’s always more than what meets the eye.]]> 327 Elizabeth Holmes 1250625084 Chain 4 4.21 2020
author: Elizabeth Holmes
name: Chain
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/18
date added: 2021/01/18
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]]> 37534577
Eric Bittle is a former Georgia junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and amateur pâtissier. But as accomplished as he is, nothing could prepare him for his freshman year of playing hockey at the prestigious Samwell University in Samwell, Massachusetts. It's nothing like co-ed club hockey back in the South! For one? There’s checking. Second, there is Jack—his very attractive but moody captain.

A collection of the first half of the mega-popular webcomic series of the same name, Check, Please!: # Hockey is the first in a hilarious and stirring two-volume coming-of-age story about hockey, bros, and trying to find yourself during the best four years of your life.]]> 288 Ngozi Ukazu 1250177952 Chain 4 4.22 2018
author: Ngozi Ukazu
name: Chain
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/16
date added: 2021/01/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 40909438 "Stony the Road presents a bracing alternative to Trump-era white nationalism. . . . In our current politics we recognize African-American history--the spot under our country's rug where the terrorism and injustices of white supremacy are habitually swept. Stony the Road lifts the rug. --Nell Irvin Painter, New York Times Book Review

A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind.

The abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar story, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: if emancipation sparked a new birth of freedom in Lincoln's America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America? In this new book, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of our leading chroniclers of the African-American experience, seeks to answer that question in a history that moves from the Reconstruction Era to the nadir of the African-American experience under Jim Crow, through to World War I and the Harlem Renaissance.

Through his close reading of the visual culture of this tragic era, Gates reveals the many faces of Jim Crow and how, together, they reinforced a stark color line between white and black Americans. Bringing a lifetime of wisdom to bear as a scholar, filmmaker, and public intellectual, Gates uncovers the roots of structural racism in our own time, while showing how African Americans after slavery combatted it by articulating a vision of a New Negro to force the nation to recognize their humanity and unique contributions to America as it hurtled toward the modern age.

The story Gates tells begins with great hope, with the Emancipation Proclamation, Union victory, and the liberation of nearly 4 million enslaved African-Americans. Until 1877, the federal government, goaded by the activism of Frederick Douglass and many others, tried at various turns to sustain their new rights. But the terror unleashed by white paramilitary groups in the former Confederacy, combined with deteriorating economic conditions and a loss of Northern will, restored home rule to the South. The retreat from Reconstruction was followed by one of the most violent periods in our history, with thousands of black people murdered or lynched and many more afflicted by the degrading impositions of Jim Crow segregation.

An essential tour through one of America's fundamental historical tragedies, Stony the Road is also a story of heroic resistance, as figures such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells fought to create a counter-narrative, and culture, inside the lion's mouth. As sobering as this tale is, it also has within it the inspiration that comes with encountering the hopes our ancestors advanced against the longest odds.]]> 296 Henry Louis Gates Jr. 0525559531 Chain 4 4.15 2019
author: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
name: Chain
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/16
date added: 2021/01/16
shelves:
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]]> 49435379 ąó¸é°ż˛ŃĚýNEW YORK TIMESĚýBESTSELLING AUTHOR ERICA BAUERMEISTER COMES A MEMOIR ABOUTĚýTHE POWER OFĚýHOME AND THE TRANSFORMATIVE ACT OF RESTORINGĚýONE HOUSE IN PARTICULAR.
Ěý
“I think anyone who saves an old house has to be a caretaker at heart, a believer in underdogs, someone whose imagination is inspired by limitations, not endless options.�
Ěý
In this mesmerizing memoir-in-essays, Erica Bauermeister renovates a trash-filled house in eccentric Port Townsend, Washington, and in the process takes readers on a journey to discover the ways our spaces subliminally affect us. A personal, accessible, and literary exploration of the psychology of architecture, as well as aĚýlovingĚýtribute to the connections we forge with the homes we care forĚýand live in, this book is designed for anyone who’s ever fallen head over heels for a house. It is also a story of a marriage, of family, and of the kind of roots that settle deep into your heart. Discover what happens when a house has its own lessons to teach in this moving and insightful memoir that ultimately shows us how to make ourĚýownĚýhomes (and lives) better.
]]> 240 Erica Bauermeister 1632172445 Chain 4 3.99 2020
author: Erica Bauermeister
name: Chain
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/12
date added: 2021/01/12
shelves:
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]]> 32285196 Why does it matter?

The Reading Mind is a brilliant, beautifully crafted, and accessible exploration of arguably life's most important skill: reading. Daniel T. Willingham, the bestselling author of Why Don't Students Like School?, offers a perspective that is rooted in contemporary cognitive research. He deftly describes the incredibly complex and nearly instantaneous series of events that occur from the moment a child sees a single letter to the time they finish reading. The Reading Mind explains the fascinating journey from seeing letters, then words, sentences, and so on, with the author highlighting each step along the way. This resource covers every aspect of reading, starting with two fundamental processes: reading by sight and reading by sound. It also addresses reading comprehension at all levels, from reading for understanding at early levels to inferring deeper meaning from texts and novels in high school. The author also considers the undeniable connection between reading and writing, as well as the important role of motivation as it relates to reading. Finally, as a cutting-edge researcher, Willingham tackles the intersection of our rapidly changing technology and its effects on learning to read and reading.

Every teacher, reading specialist, literacy coach, and school administrator will find this book invaluable. Understanding the fascinating science behind the magic of reading is essential for every educator. Indeed, every "reader" will be captivated by the dynamic but invisible workings of their own minds.]]> 233 Daniel T. Willingham 1119301378 Chain 4 4.17 2017
author: Daniel T. Willingham
name: Chain
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/12
date added: 2021/01/12
shelves:
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]]> 52167727 Tracey Livesay continues her fun-filled Girls Trip series with this romance that will tug at your heartstrings.

Sometimes faking it can lead to the real thingâ€�Ěý

Driven and focused, Dr.ĚýNicole AllenĚýis an accomplished surgeon. With a tough past, Nic’s gone above and beyond everyone’s expectations. But when she disciplines an intern—a powerful donor’s son—a prestigious fellowship she’s awaiting is placed in jeopardy.Ěý

Coming from a successful family who runs a medical business empire, Benjamin Reed Van Mont is the black sheep, having chosen to start his own business instead. Though he’s not ready to settle down, he knows when the time comes it definitely won’t be with a workaholic doctor like his friend Nic—even if she’s had him re-examining his edict…more than once.Ěý

When Ben’s status-climbing ex-girlfriend finds her way back into his orbit, Nic proposes a swap of services. She’ll spend the week with Ben on Martha’s Vineyard, pretending to be his girlfriend—but only if he’ll have his family intervene on her behalf so she won’t lose her fellowship. How hard can the charade be?Ěý

But as they’re about to discover, they’ve sorely underestimated their true feelings for each other…]]> 384 Tracey Livesay 0062979566 Chain 0 3.78 2020
author: Tracey Livesay
name: Chain
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/12
date added: 2021/01/12
shelves:
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]]> 44153387

Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.]]> 336 Kirk Wallace Johnson 1101981636 Chain 5 4.01 2018
author: Kirk Wallace Johnson
name: Chain
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/12
date added: 2021/01/12
shelves:
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]]> 211146 259 Deborah Crombie 0060534389 Chain 3 3.72 1993
author: Deborah Crombie
name: Chain
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/12
date added: 2021/01/12
shelves:
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]]> 44792512
A year later, Reid has tracked Meg down to find out—before he leaves New York for good—how she knew that his meticulously planned future was about to implode. But with a looming deadline, a fractured friendship, and a bad case of creative block, Meg doesn’t have time for Reid’s questions—unless he can help her find her missing inspiration. As they gradually open up to each other about their lives, work, and regrets, both try to ignore the fact that their unlikely connection is growing deeper. But the signs are there—irresistible, indisputable, urging Meg to heed the messages Reid is sending her, before it’s too late . . .]]> 307 Kate Clayborn 1496725174 Chain 4 3.62 2019
author: Kate Clayborn
name: Chain
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/02
date added: 2021/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 53916522 New York Times bestseller Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics is a landmark celebration of the remarkable life and career of a country music and pop culture legend.

This landmark volume explores the remarkable life and lyrics of the one and only Dolly Parton.

As told in her own inimitable words, Songteller explores the songs that have defined Parton's journey. Illustrated throughout with previously unpublished images from her personal and business archives, the Washington Post calls it "a gold mine of little-seen photos and personal anecdotes."

Mining over 60 years of songwriting, Dolly Parton highlights 175 of her songs and brings readers behind the lyrics. A celebrity memoir like no other, Dolly Parton, Songteller reveals the stories and memories that have made Dolly a beloved icon across generations, genders, and social and international boundaries.

A RARE VISUAL ARCHIVE: Packed with never-before-seen photographs and classic memorabilia from Parton's archives, this book is a show-stopping must-have for every Dolly Parton fan.

BEHIND THE BELOVED SONGS: Learn the history, personal stories, candid insights, and myriad memories behind classic Parton songs like "Jolene," "9 to 5," "I Will Always Love You," and more in this "splashy, entertaining guide to the lyrics of one of the most popular musicians of our time" (Kirkus Reviews ).

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED: First published in hardcover with resounding response from fans and media alike, including show-stopping interviews with Oprah, Stephen Colbert, Brené Brown, and The Today Show , features in People, Parade, Marie Claire, USA Today, Washington Post, and much more.

EVERYONE LOVES DOLLY: The perfect gift for Dolly Parton fans, as well as lovers of music history and country singer-songwriters.

Perfect for:
•Fans of Dolly Parton's music, books, television and movie roles, theme park, and charitable work
•Readers who loved Dolly's Coat of Many Colors; Run, Rose, Run, co-authored with James Patterson; and Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business
•Gift giving for birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day, holiday, anniversary, or any special occasion for anyone who loves Dolly, country music, or American music history
•To shelve alongside such music best sellers as Coal Miner's Daughter by Loretta Lynn, The Lyrics by Paul McCartney, Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley, and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen]]> 380 Dolly Parton 1797205099 Chain 3 4.02 2020
author: Dolly Parton
name: Chain
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/01
date added: 2021/01/01
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]]> 537269 Married to a successful physician and prominently ensconced in Harlem's vibrant society of the 1920s, Irene Redfield leads a charmed existence until a chance encounter with a childhood friend. Clare Kendry has been "passing for white," hiding her true identity from everyone, including her racist husband. Clare and her dangerous secret pose an increasingly powerful threat to Irene's security, forcing both women to confront the hazards of public and private deception.

]]> 94 Nella Larsen 0486437132 Chain 5 3.87 1929
author: Nella Larsen
name: Chain
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1929
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/31
date added: 2020/12/31
shelves:
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]]> 758037
With the lightest touch and the most tender of comic instincts, Madeleine St. John conjures a vanished summer of innocence. The Women in Black is a classic.]]> 141 Madeleine St. John 0349105227 Chain 3 3.49 1993
author: Madeleine St. John
name: Chain
average rating: 3.49
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/26
date added: 2020/12/26
shelves:
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]]> 34426779 this edition

The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her.

Before humans ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West.

With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world.

But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park’s stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.

These forces collide in American Wolf, a riveting multi-generational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing cultural clash in the West—between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country’s most iconic landscapes.]]> 0 Nate Blakeslee 0525493271 Chain 4 4.35 2017
author: Nate Blakeslee
name: Chain
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/12/26
date added: 2020/12/26
shelves:
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]]> 673915 The Red Lobster perched in the far corner of a run-down New England mall hasn't been making its numbers and headquarters has pulled the plug. But manager Manny DeLeon still needs to navigate a tricky last shift with a near-mutinous staff. All the while, he's wondering how to handle the waitress he's still in love with, what to do about his pregnant girlfriend, and where to find the present that will make everything better.

Stewart O'Nan has been called "the bard of the working class," and Last Night at the Lobster is one of his most acclaimed works to date.

]]> 160 Stewart O'Nan 0670018279 Chain 5 3.59 2007
author: Stewart O'Nan
name: Chain
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/21
date added: 2020/12/21
shelves:
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]]> 34109621
Reeling from the indignity of a double dumping on the same day, Georgina snatches at the next job that she’s offered—barmaid in a newly opened pub, which just so happens to run by the boy she fell in love with at school: Lucas McCarthy. And whereas Georgina (voted Most Likely to Succeed in her school yearbook) has done nothing but dead-end jobs in the last twelve years, Lucas has not only grown into a broodingly handsome man, but also has turned into an actual grown-up along the way, with a business and a dog.

Meeting Lucas again not only throws Georgina’s rackety present into sharp relief, but also brings a dark secret from her past bubbling to the surface. Only she knows the truth about what happened on the last day of school, and why she’s allowed it to chase her all these years…]]> 433 Mhairi McFarlane 0008169322 Chain 5 3.82 2019
author: Mhairi McFarlane
name: Chain
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/21
date added: 2020/12/21
shelves:
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]]> 49127718 A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined

Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix up their own marriage. There's a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.

Includes short story - The Last Round of Golf]]> 336 Fredrik Backman 198216963X Chain 3 4.17 2019
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Chain
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/20
date added: 2020/12/20
shelves:
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]]> 7728889 578 Libba Bray Chain 3 3.93 2012
author: Libba Bray
name: Chain
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/18
date added: 2020/12/18
shelves:
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]]> 32325158 Van Reid 0736655778 Chain 4 4.50
author: Van Reid
name: Chain
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/12/15
date added: 2020/12/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 20697487 Ěý
Get set to build your best ever wardrobe featuring the hardest-working looks from around the globe with Refinery29—the world’s leading style destination—as their editors break down the essentials of the everyday chic, straight from the street.
Ěý
What transforms a look from on-trend to trendsetting? Editor-in-Chief Christene Barberich and Executive Creative Director Piera Gelardi deconstruct their favorite outfits to reveal what trailblazing looks like on the real-life fashion front,
Ěý
� HOW TO WEAR modern metallics, mixed prints, everyday ladylike, tomboy chic, lots of layers, and more.
Ěý
� CLEVER TIPS such as wearing one piece in three fresh ways, building blocks for discovering your own signature style, and updating your closet each season.
Ěý
� AND A ZOOM LENS on all the details and accessories that totally make the look.
Ěý
Featuring the fashion world’s coolest tastemakers, designers, stylists, and editors, these fearless iconoclasts challenge conventions and inspire a whole new generation of women to dress for themselves and discover their true inner style stars...just like YOU.
Ěý]]> 192 Piera Gelardi 0804185530 Chain 3 3.36 2014
author: Piera Gelardi
name: Chain
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/12
date added: 2020/12/12
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]]> 19534 The River Why, but this massive second effort is well worth the wait. It is a stunning work: a complex tapestry of family tensions, baseball, politics and religion, by turns hilariously funny and agonizingly sad. Highly inventive formally, the novel is mainly narrated by Kincaid Chance, the youngest son in a family of four boys and identical twin girls, the children of Hugh Chance, a discouraged minor-league ballplayer whose once-promising career was curtained by an industrial accident, and his wife Laura, an increasingly fanatical Seventh-Day Adventist. The plot traces the working-out of the family's fate from the beginning of the Eisenhower years through the traumas of Vietnam.]]> 645 David James Duncan 055337849X Chain 0 abandoned 4.39 1992
author: David James Duncan
name: Chain
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/10
shelves: abandoned
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]]> 6827652 Priceless, Robert K. Wittman, the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team, pulls back the curtain on his career for the first time.

Rising from humble roots as the son of an antiques dealer, Wittman built a twenty-year career that was nothing short of extraordinary. He went undercover, usually unarmed, to catch art thieves, scammers, and black market traders in Paris and Philadelphia, Rio and Santa Fe, Miami and Madrid.

In this memoir, Wittman relates the stories behind his recoveries of priceless art and antiquities: The golden armor of an ancient Peruvian warrior king. The Rodin sculpture that inspired the Impressionist movement. The headdress Geronimo wore at his final Pow-Wow. The rare Civil War battle flag carried into battle by one of the nation’s first African-American regiments.

The breadth of Wittman’s exploits is unmatched: He traveled the world to rescue paintings by Rockwell and Rembrandt, Pissarro, Monet and Picasso, often working undercover overseas at the whim of foreign governments. Closer to home, he recovered an original copy of the Bill of Rights and cracked the scam that rocked the PBS series Antiques Roadshow.

By the FBI’s accounting, Wittman saved hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and antiquities. He says the statistic isn’t important. After all, who’s to say what is worth more --a Rembrandt self-portrait or an American flag carried into battle? They're both priceless.

The art thieves and scammers Wittman caught run the gamut from rich to poor, smart to foolish, organized criminals to desperate loners.Ěý The smuggler who brought him a looted 6th-century treasure turned out to be a high-ranking diplomat.Ěý The appraiser who stole countless heirlooms from war heroesâ€� descendants was a slick, aristocratic con man.Ěý The museum janitor who made off with locks of George Washington's hair just wanted to make a few extra bucks, figuring no one would miss what he’d filched.

In his final case, Wittman called on every bit of knowledge and experience in his arsenal to take on his greatest challenge: working undercover to track the vicious criminals behind what might be the most audacious art theft of all.]]> 324 Robert K. Wittman 0307461475 Chain 4 3.81 2010
author: Robert K. Wittman
name: Chain
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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]]> 17675004 The memoir of a young diplomat’s wife who must reinvent her dream of living in Paris—one dish at a time

When journalist Ann Mah’s diplomat husband is given a three-year assignment in Paris, Ann is overjoyed. A lifelong foodie and Francophile, she immediately begins plotting gastronomic adventures à deux. Then her husband is called away to Iraq on a year-long post—alone. Suddenly, Ann’s vision of a romantic sojourn in the City of Lights is turned upside down.

So, not unlike another diplomatic wife, Julia Child, Ann must find a life for herself in a new city.ĚýJourneying through Paris and the surrounding regions of France, Ann combats her loneliness by seeking out the perfect pain au chocolat and learning the way the andouillette sausage is really made. She explores the history and taste of everything from boeuf Bourguignon to soupe au pistou to the crispiest of buckwheat crepes. And somewhere between Paris and the south of France, she uncovers a few of life’s truths.

Like Sarah Turnbull’s Almost French and Julie Powell’s New York Times bestseller Julie and Julia, Mastering the Art of French Eating is interwoven with the lively characters Ann meets and the traditional recipes she samples. Both funny and intelligent, this is a story about love—of food, family, and France.]]> 288 Ann Mah 0670025992 Chain 3 3.58 2013
author: Ann Mah
name: Chain
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/06
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]]> 38491997 A witty and profound portrait of the most talked-about English royal

She made John Lennon blush and Marlon Brando tongue-tied. She iced out Princess Diana and humiliated Elizabeth Taylor. Andy Warhol photographed her. Jack Nicholson offered her cocaine. Gore Vidal revered her. Francis Bacon heckled her. Peter Sellers was madly in love with her. For Pablo Picasso, she was the object of sexual fantasy.

Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. To her friends, she was witty and regal. To her enemies, she was rude and demanding. In her 1950s heyday, she was seen as one of the most glamorous and desirable women in the world. By the time of her death in 2002, she had come to personify disappointment. One friend said he had never known an unhappier woman. The tale of Princess Margaret is Cinderella in reverse: hope dashed, happiness mislaid, life mishandled.

Such an enigmatic and divisive figure demands a reckoning that is far from the usual fare. Combining interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogues, and essays, Craig Brown's Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret is a kaleidoscopic experiment in biography and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.]]> 423 Craig Brown 0374906041 Chain 3 3.21 2017
author: Craig Brown
name: Chain
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/01
date added: 2020/12/01
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]]> 40121959 Miracle Creek is a powerhouse debut about how far we'll go to protect our families, and our deepest secrets.

In rural Miracle Creek, Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine. A pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic “dives,� it's also a repository of hopes and dreams: the dream of a mom that her child can be like other kids; the dream of a young doctor desperate to cure his infertility and save his marriage; the dream of the Yoos themselves, Korean immigrants who have come to the United States so their teenage daughter can have a better life.

When the oxygen chamber mysteriously explodes, killing two people, all these dreams shatter with it, and the ensuing murder trial uncovers imaginable secrets and lies. In Miracle Creek, Angie Kim takes a classic form—courtroom drama—and draws on her own experience as an immigrant, a lawyer, and the mother of a real-life "submarine" patient to turn it into something wholly original, unputdownable . . . real. This is a spellbinding novel by an exciting new voice.]]> 355 Angie Kim 0374156026 Chain 4 3.86 2019
author: Angie Kim
name: Chain
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/28
date added: 2020/11/28
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]]> 48842183
Once Leena learns of Eileen's romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen will live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will rest and take care of things in rural Yorkshire.

But trading places isn't as easy as either of them expected. Will swapping lives help Eileen and Leena find themselves…and maybe even find love?]]> 330 Beth O'Leary 1250769868 Chain 4 3.91 2020
author: Beth O'Leary
name: Chain
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/26
date added: 2020/11/26
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]]> 46060957
Weaving together the lives of these characters,ĚýThe Glass HotelĚýmoves between the ship, the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the wilderness of remote British Columbia, painting a breathtaking picture of greed and guilt, fantasy and delusion, art and the ghosts of our pasts.

From the award-winning author ofĚýStation Eleven,Ěýa captivating novel of money, beauty, white-collar crime, ghosts and moral compromise in which a woman disappears from a container ship off the coast of Mauritania and a massive Ponzi scheme implodes in New York, dragging countless fortunes with it.]]> 301 Emily St. John Mandel 1443455733 Chain 4 3.69 2020
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Chain
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/25
date added: 2020/11/25
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]]> 51704131
We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but was accidentally killed--or even murdered. Or how about the fact that one of Andy Warhol's most enduring legacies involves Caroline Kennedy's moldy birthday cake and a collection of toenail clippings?

ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest, and most fascinating stories behind the world's great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird, and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore.]]> 288 Jennifer Dasal 0143134590 Chain 5 3.85 2020
author: Jennifer Dasal
name: Chain
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/22
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]]> 7432
A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world.

In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength tested, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche. The mission also brings her together once again with her college friend Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers to the war � one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection to the missing Ralph Lawton.]]> 359 Jacqueline Winspear 0312426216 Chain 4 4.06 2005
author: Jacqueline Winspear
name: Chain
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/19
date added: 2020/11/19
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]]> 29999 213 Dashiell Hammett Chain 5 3.89 1930
author: Dashiell Hammett
name: Chain
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1930
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/19
date added: 2020/11/19
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]]> 35271238 From acclaimed author Alyssa Cole comes the tale of a city Cinderella and her Prince Charming in disguise . . .

Between grad school and multiple jobs, Naledi Smith doesn’t have time for fairy tales…or patience for the constant e-mails claiming she’s betrothed to an African prince. Sure. Right.ĚýDelete! As a former foster kid, she’s learnedĚýthat the only things she can depend on are herself and the scientific method, and a silly e-mail won’t convince her otherwise.

Prince Thabiso is the sole heir to the throne of Thesolo, shouldering the hopes of his parents and his people. At the top of their list? His marriage. Ever dutiful, he tracks down his missing betrothed. When Naledi mistakes the prince for a pauper, Thabiso can’t resist the chance to experience life—and love—without the burden of his crown.

The chemistry between them is instant and irresistible, and flirty friendship quickly evolves into passionate nights. But when the truth is revealed, can a princess in theory become a princess ever after?

Selected as one ofĚýtheĚýNew York Times 100 Notable Books of 2018! ]]> 360 Alyssa Cole 0062685546 Chain 4 3.76 2018
author: Alyssa Cole
name: Chain
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/14
date added: 2020/11/14
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]]> 38620150
Since its creation in 1876, the Indian Act has shaped, controlled, and constrained the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples, and is at the root of many enduring stereotypes. Bob Joseph’s book comes at a key time in the reconciliation process, when awareness from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities is at a crescendo. Joseph explains how Indigenous Peoples can step out from under the Indian Act and return to self-government, self-determination, and self-reliance—and why doing so would result in a better country for every Canadian. He dissects the complex issues around truth and reconciliation, and clearly demonstrates why learning about the Indian Act’s cruel, enduring legacy is essential for the country to move toward true reconciliation.]]> 160 Bob Joseph 0995266522 Chain 5 4.57 2018
author: Bob Joseph
name: Chain
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/14
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]]> 12850917 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 978-1616201425 can be found here.

With the opening line of Silver Sparrow, "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist," author Tayari Jones unveils a breathtaking story about a man's deception, a family's complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle.

Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon's two families—the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode. This is the third stunning novel from an author deemed "one of the most important writers of her generation" (the Atlanta Journal Constitution).]]> 368 Tayari Jones 1616201428 Chain 4 4.01 2011
author: Tayari Jones
name: Chain
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/10
date added: 2020/11/10
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]]> 32191710
But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.]]> 223 Neil deGrasse Tyson 0393609391 Chain 4 4.07 2017
author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
name: Chain
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/10
date added: 2020/11/10
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]]> 48814109
It's 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn't ask for more out of life--her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building, and they are blessed with two children. But headstrong, passionate Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open. As her studies take her all over the city, she finds herself drawn to Greenwich Village's new bohemia, where she discovers the Heterodoxy Club--a radical, all-female group in which women are encouraged to loudly share their opinions on suffrage, birth control, and women's rights. Soon, Laura finds herself questioning her traditional role as wife and mother. But when valuable books are stolen back at the library, threatening the home and institution she loves, she's forced to confront her shifting priorities head on . . . and may just lose everything in the process.

Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan struggles with the legacy of her grandmother, the famous essayist Laura Lyons, especially after she's wrangled her dream job as a curator at the New York Public Library. But the job quickly becomes a nightmare when rare manuscripts, notes, and books for the exhibit Sadie's running begin disappearing from the library's famous Berg Collection. Determined to save both the exhibit and her career, the typically risk-adverse Sadie teams up with a private security expert to uncover the culprit. However, things unexpectedly become personal when the investigation leads Sadie to some unwelcome truths about her own family heritage--truths that shed new light on the biggest tragedy in the library's history.]]> 354 Fiona Davis 1524744611 Chain 2 3.83 2020
author: Fiona Davis
name: Chain
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2020
rating: 2
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date added: 2020/11/06
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]]> 26196177 Pretentiousness is for anyone who has braved being different, whether that's making a stand against artistic consensus or running the gauntlet of the last bus home dressed differently from everyone else. It's an essential ingredient in pop music and high art. Why do we choose accusations of elitism over open-mindedness? What do our anxieties about "pretending" say about us?

Co-editor of frieze, Europe's foremost magazine of contemporary art and culture, Dan Fox has authored over two hundred essays, interviews, and reviews and contributed to numerous catalogues and publications produced by major international art galleries and institutions.]]> 144 Dan Fox 156689428X Chain 3 3.77 2016
author: Dan Fox
name: Chain
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2020/11/06
date added: 2020/11/06
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]]> 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]> 343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Chain 4 4.11 2020
author: Brit Bennett
name: Chain
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/04
date added: 2020/11/04
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]]> 93799
Now Allon is back in Venice, when a terrible explosion in Rome leads to a disturbing personal revelation: the existence of a dossier in the hands of terrorists that strips away his secrets, lays bare his history. Hastily recalled home to Israel, drawn once more into the heart of a service he had once forsaken, Gabriel Allon finds himself stalking an elusive master terrorist across a landscape drenched in generations of blood, along a trail that keeps turning in upon itself, until, finally, he can no longer be certain who is stalking whom. And when at last the inevitable showdown comes, it's not Gabriel alone who is threatened with destruction-for it is not his history alone that has been laid bare.

A knife-edged thriller of astonishing intricacy and feeling, filled with exhilarating prose, this is Daniel Silva's finest novel yet!]]> 432 Daniel Silva 0451215737 Chain 0 abandoned 4.17 2005
author: Daniel Silva
name: Chain
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/11/03
shelves: abandoned
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]]> 34347751 Bestselling author and world-renowned chef David Lebovitz continues to mine the rich subject of his evolving ex-Pat life in Paris, using his perplexing experiences in apartment renovation as a launching point for stories about French culture, food, and what it means to revamp one's life. Includes dozens of new recipes.

When David Lebovitz began the project of updating his apartment in his adopted home city, he never imagined he would encounter so much inexplicable red tape while contending with the famously inconsistent European work ethic and hours. Lebovitz maintains his distinctive sense of humor with the help of his partner Romain, peppering this renovation story with recipes from his Paris kitchen. In the midst of it all, he reveals the adventure that accompanies carving out a place for yourself in a foreign country--under baffling conditions--while never losing sight of the magic that inspired him to move to the City of Light many years ago, and to truly make his home there.]]> 368 David Lebovitz 0804188386 Chain 3 3.58 2017
author: David Lebovitz
name: Chain
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2020/11/03
date added: 2020/11/03
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]]> 53152636
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

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

And NoemĂ­, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 320 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 0525620788 Chain 5 3.66 2020
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Chain
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/29
date added: 2020/10/29
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]]> 25622878

Shedding new light on the cataclysm, author Steve Olson interweaves the history and science behind this event with page-turning accounts of what happened to those who lived and those who died.


Powerful economic and historical forces influenced the fates of those around the volcano that sunny Sunday morning, including the construction of the nation’s railroads, the harvest of a continent’s vast forests, and the protection of America’s treasured public lands. The eruption of Mount St. Helens revealed how the past is constantly present in the lives of us all. At the same time, it transformed volcanic science, the study of environmental resilience, and, ultimately, our perceptions of what it will take to survive on an increasingly dangerous planet.


Rich with vivid personal stories of lumber tycoons, loggers, volcanologists, and conservationists, Eruption delivers a spellbinding narrative built from the testimonies of those closest to the disaster, and an epic tale of our fraught relationship with the natural world.]]> 320 Steve Olson 039324279X Chain 4 3.86 2016
author: Steve Olson
name: Chain
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/28
date added: 2020/10/28
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]]> 29414017
After eight years of nights and weekends chained to his desk, Calvin Wilcox, Jr. is up for partner at his prestigious law firm. But even if Cal kicks ass at his next trial, partnership isn’t guaranteed. Some of his colleagues are sticklers for propriety, and getting entangled with a sweet, sexy masseuse is a distraction he can’t afford.

But their best intentions soon unravel. Will they risk their dreams to follow their hearts? The jury’s still out.

Winning Her Over is the first book in Golden Heart® award winner Alexa Rowan’s BigLaw Romance series, where smart, ambitious heroes and heroines struggle with realistic conflicts as they seek love, success, and that elusive work-life balance. This steamy standalone romance novel includes long-distance not-quite-friends with benefits, two hungry people sharing an orgasmically delicious pizza, some scorching-hot sex scenes, and NO cliffhangers.]]> 154 Alexa Rowan 1942802005 Chain 2 3.74 2017
author: Alexa Rowan
name: Chain
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2020/10/26
date added: 2020/10/26
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]]> 36950898 n+1 and author of All the Sad Young Literary Men

When Andrei Kaplan's older brother Dima insists that Andrei return to Moscow to care for their ailing grandmother, Andrei must take stock of his life in New York. His girlfriend has stopped returning his text messages. His dissertation adviser is dubious about his job prospects. It's the summer of 2008, and his bank account is running dangerously low. Perhaps a few months in Moscow are just what he needs. So Andrei sublets his room in Brooklyn, packs up his hockey stuff, and moves into the apartment that Stalin himself had given his grandmother, a woman who has outlived her husband and most of her friends. She survived the dark days of communism and witnessed Russia's violent capitalist transformation, during which she lost her beloved dacha. She welcomes Andrei into her home, even if she can't always remember who he is.

Andrei learns to navigate Putin's Moscow, still the city of his birth, but with more expensive coffee. He looks after his elderly--but surprisingly sharp!--grandmother, finds a place to play hockey, a cafe to send emails, and eventually some friends, including a beautiful young activist named Yulia. Over the course of the year, his grandmother's health declines and his feelings of dislocation from both Russia and America deepen. Andrei knows he must reckon with his future and make choices that will determine his life and fate. When he becomes entangled with a group of leftists, Andrei's politics and his allegiances are tested, and he is forced to come to terms with the Russian society he was born into and the American one he has enjoyed since he was a kid.

A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile, family, love, history and fate, A Terrible Country asks what you owe the place you were born, and what it owes you. Writing with grace and humor, Keith Gessen gives us a brilliant and mature novel that is sure to mark him as one of the most talented novelists of his generation.]]> 338 Keith Gessen 0735221316 Chain 4 3.86 2018
author: Keith Gessen
name: Chain
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/24
date added: 2020/10/24
shelves:
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]]> 30653790 In the second portrait of his series Great Parisian Neighborhoods, award-winning raconteur John Baxter leads us on a whirlwind tour of Montmartre, the hill-top village that fired the greatest achievements of modern art while also provoking bloody revolution and the sexual misbehavior that made Paris synonymous with sin

High on the northern edge of Paris, Montmartre has always attracted bohemians, political radicals, the searchers for artistic inspiration as well as those hungry for pleasure. In its winding, windmill-shadowed streets, which, only fifty years before, saw the anarchist rising of the Commune, Renoir, Picasso and van Gogh seized a similar freedom to remake painting, while, in the tenderloin of Pigalle, Toulouse-Lautrec drew the cancan dancers of the Moulin Rouge, celebrating a hedonism that titillated the world,

In Montmartre, bestselling author and IACP Award winner John Baxter lifts the curtain on a district that visitors to Paris seldom see.Ěý From the tumbledown workshops of the Bateau Lavoir in which Picasso and Braque created Cubism to Clichy's Cabaret of Nothingness where guests dined at coffins under lamps of human bones, the whole of this mysterious enclave is ours to explore.

For visitors and armchair travelers alike, Montmartre captures the excitement and scandal of a fascinating quarter that condenses the elusive perfumes, colors and songs of Paris.


Ěý]]> 256 John Baxter 0062431897 Chain 3 3.87
author: John Baxter
name: Chain
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/23
date added: 2020/10/23
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]]> 30747137
Blake Riley sees the wedding as fate’s gift to him. Jess is the maid of honor, and he’s the best man? Let the games begin. So what if he’s facing a little (fine, a lot) of resistance? He just needs to convince the stubborn blonde that he’s really a good boy with a bad rap. Luckily, every professional hockey player knows that you’ve got to make an effort if you want to score.

But Jess has more pressing issues to deal with than sexy-times with a giant man-child. Such as: Will the ceremony start on time, even though someone got grandma drunk? Does glitter ever belong at a wedding? And is it wrong to murder the best man?

Caution: May cause accidental aspiration of tea or coffee. Do not read in a public place where loud laughter is inappropriate. Contains hot but hilarious hockey players, puppy cuddling and a snarky pair of underwear.]]> 269 Sarina Bowen 1942444303 Chain 0 abandoned 3.96 2017
author: Sarina Bowen
name: Chain
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/22
shelves: abandoned
review:

]]> 49348458 Squashed among a bus full of strangers, mother-daughter duo Jessica and Emily Burnstein watch their carefully mapped-out college tour devolve into a series of off-roading misadventures, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill.

Jessica and Emily Burnstein have very different ideas of how this college tour should go.

For Emily, it’s a preview of freedom, exploring the possibility of her new and more exciting future. Not that she’s sure she even wants to go to college, but let’s ignore that for now. And maybe the other kids on the tour will like her more than the ones at school. . . . They have to, right?

For Jessica, it’s a chance to bond with the daughter she seems to have lost. They used to be so close, but then Goldfish crackers and Play-Doh were no longer enough of a draw. She isn’t even sure if Emily likes her anymore. To be honest, Jessica isn’t sure she likes herself.

Together with a dozen strangers–and two familiar enemies–Jessica and Emily travel the East Coast, meeting up with family and old friends along the way. Surprises and secrets threaten their relationship and, in the end, change it forever.]]> 352 Abbi Waxman 0451491890 Chain 4 3.66 2020
author: Abbi Waxman
name: Chain
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/20
date added: 2020/10/20
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]]> 50870424 The Skin We're In will spark a national conversation, influence policy, and inspire activists.

In his 2015 cover story for Toronto Life magazine, Desmond Cole exposed the racist actions of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times he had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The story quickly came to national prominence, shaking the country to its core and catapulting its author into the public sphere. Cole used his newfound profile to draw insistent, unyielding attention to the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis.

Both Cole’s activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book, The Skin We’re In. Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year�2017—in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more.

The year also witnessed the profound personal and professional ramifications of Desmond Cole’s unwavering determination to combat injustice. In April, Cole disrupted a Toronto police board meeting by calling for the destruction of all data collected through carding. Following the protest, Cole, a columnist with the Toronto Star, was summoned to a meeting with the paper’s opinions editor and informed that his activism violated company policy. Rather than limit his efforts defending Black lives, Cole chose to sever his relationship with the publication. Then in July, at another police board meeting, Cole challenged the board to respond to accusations of a police cover-up in the brutal beating of Dafonte Miller by an off-duty police officer and his brother. When Cole refused to leave the meeting until the question was publicly addressed, he was arrested. The image of Cole walking out of the meeting, handcuffed and flanked by officers, fortified the distrust between the city’s Black community and its police force.

Month-by-month, Cole creates a comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality. Urgent, controversial, and unsparingly honest, The Skin We’re In is destined to become a vital text for anti-racist and social justice movements in Canada, as well as a potent antidote to the all-too-present complacency of many white Canadians.]]> 248 Desmond Cole 038568634X Chain 5 4.45 2020
author: Desmond Cole
name: Chain
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/18
date added: 2020/10/18
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]]> 35403058
Ever since Cass almost drowned (okay, she did drown, but she doesn't like to think about it), she can pull back the Veil that separates the living from the dead...and enter the world of spirits. Her best friend is even a ghost.

So things are already pretty strange. But they're about to get much stranger...]]> 272 Victoria E. Schwab 1338111035 Chain 4 3.87 2018
author: Victoria E. Schwab
name: Chain
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/17
date added: 2020/10/17
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]]> 866453
Mysterious and subtly erotic, Picnic at Hanging Rock inspired the iconic 1975 film of the same name by Peter Weir. A beguiling landmark of Australian literature, it stands with Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, and Jeffrey Eugenides' The Virgin Suicides as a masterpiece of intrigue.]]> 186 Joan Lindsay 0582081742 Chain 4 3.62 1967
author: Joan Lindsay
name: Chain
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/16
date added: 2020/10/16
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]]> 49099926 A chance meeting with a handsome stranger turns into a whirlwind affair that gets everyone talking.

Dating is the last thing on Olivia Monroe's mind when she moves to LA to start her own law firm. But when she meets a gorgeous man at a hotel bar and they spend the entire night flirting, she discovers too late that he is none other than hotshot junior senator Max Powell. Olivia has zero interest in dating a politician, but when a cake arrives at her office with the cutest message, she can't resist--it is chocolate cake, after all.

Olivia is surprised to find that Max is sweet, funny, and noble--not just some privileged white politician she assumed him to be. Because of Max's high-profile job, they start seeing each other secretly, which leads to clandestine dates and silly disguises. But when they finally go public, the intense media scrutiny means people are now digging up her rocky past and criticizing her job, even her suitability as a trophy girlfriend. Olivia knows what she has with Max is something special, but is it strong enough to survive the heat of the spotlight?]]> 312 Jasmine Guillory 0593100816 Chain 4 3.72 2020
author: Jasmine Guillory
name: Chain
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/14
date added: 2020/10/14
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]]> 6335 263 Kazuo Ishiguro 0676977111 Chain 5 3.77 2005
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Chain
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/14
date added: 2020/10/14
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]]> 13194934 304 M.F.K. Fisher 1402778139 Chain 3 3.91 2012
author: M.F.K. Fisher
name: Chain
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/12
date added: 2020/10/12
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]]> 32202653 The second instalment in the Lane Winslow mystery series; for fans of the Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford series.

On a snowy day in December 1946, Lane Winslow—a former British intelligence agent who’s escaped to the rural Canadian community of King’s Cove in pursuit of a tranquil life—is introduced to the local hot springs. While there she overhears nearby patrons speaking Russian. When one of those patrons is found dead in the change room, Lane’s linguistic and intelligence experience is of immeasurable value to the local police force in solving the murder.

The investigation points to the Soviet Union, where Stalin’s purges are eliminating enemies, and the reach of Stalin’s agent snakes all the way into a harmless Doukhobor community. Winslow’s complicated relationship with the local police inspector, Darling, is intensified by the perils of the case—and by the discovery of her own father’s death during the war.

The case comes to a frantic and shocking end with a perilous nighttime journey along treacherous snow-covered roads.

“Iona Whishaw is an exciting addition to Canada’s fine roster of mystery writers. I’m already planning to read [Killer in King’s Cove] again, and this time I’ll read the teaser for Whishaw’s next novel provided at the end. A debut mystery by an author destined for awards.� –Don Graves, Canadian Mystery Reviews blog]]> 384 Iona Whishaw 1771511710 Chain 4 4.02 2017
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Chain
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/09
date added: 2020/10/09
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]]> 30851000
Vikram Vij, one of Canada’s great chefs, shares his story of the trials and triumphs in building a world-renowned food empire
Ěý
Fragrant with the smells of cumin, turmeric, fennel, and cloves, Vij reveals the story of Vikram Vij, one of Canada’s most celebrated chefs and entrepreneurs. Co-owner of the world-famous Vij’s Restaurant in Vancouver, his story is a true rags-to-riches tale of a college dropout from northern India who made it to Europe’s temples of high cuisine, then with a one-way ticket bound for Canada, found fame serving some of the world’s most transcendent Indian cuisine. Vij’s Restaurant, originally a fourteen-seat establishment known for its extraordinary flavours and spice blends, along with a firm no-reservation policy, received accolades from restaurant critics and patrons alike.
Ěý
A culinary journey that began in India as a boy enjoying the praise of visitors for his chai and biscuits, Vikram’s passion for Indian cooking and his lifelong mission to bring awareness to the culture he left behind have fueled his tireless drive in building a world-renowned food empire. Driven to succeed, Vikram realized his dream to launch five major initiatives under the Vij’s brand by age fifty, but with challenges and sacrifices along the way.
Ěý
For the first time, Vikram opens up about his struggles with prejudice, his mentors� lasting lessons, and the painful demise of his marriage—both the successes and the failures that have shaped and sharpened one of Canada’s most unique and revered culinary talents.]]> 256 Vikram Vij 0670069507 Chain 4 3.87
author: Vikram Vij
name: Chain
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/08
date added: 2020/10/08
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]]> 27071490 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi's magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control. Homegoing is a tremendous reading experience, not to be missed, by an astonishingly gifted young writer.]]> 305 Yaa Gyasi Chain 4 4.48 2016
author: Yaa Gyasi
name: Chain
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2016
rating: 4
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date added: 2020/10/05
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]]> 48590164 A gorgeously illustrated, first-ever graphic novel adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s beloved American classic.

First published in 1925, The Great Gatsby has been acclaimed by generations of readers and is now reimagined in stunning graphic novel form. Jay Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy Buchanan, and the rest of the cast are captured in vivid and evocative illustrations by artist Aya Morton. The iconic text has been artfully distilled by Fred Fordham, who also adapted the graphic novel edition of To Kill a Mockingbird. Blake Hazard, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great-granddaughter, contributes a personal introduction.

This quintessential Jazz Age tale stands as the supreme achievement of Fitzgerald’s career and is a true classic of 20th-century literature. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy is exquisitely captured in this enchanting and unique edition.]]> 208 Fred Fordham 1982144548 Chain 5 3.80 2020
author: Fred Fordham
name: Chain
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/05
date added: 2020/10/05
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]]> 52588078
When Mallory Blessing's son, Link, receives deathbed instructions from his mother to call a number on a slip of paper in her desk drawer, he's not sure what to expect. But he certainly does not expect Jake McCloud to answer. It's the late spring of 2020 and Jake's wife, Ursula DeGournsey, is the frontrunner in the upcoming Presidential election.

There must be a mistake, Link thinks. How do Mallory and Jake know each other?

Flash back to the sweet summer of 1993: Mallory has just inherited a beachfront cottage on Nantucket from her aunt, and she agrees to host her brother's bachelor party. Cooper's friend from college, Jake McCloud, attends, and Jake and Mallory form a bond that will persevere -- through marriage, children, and Ursula's stratospheric political rise -- until Mallory learns she's dying.

Based on the classic film Same Time Next Year (which Mallory and Jake watch every summer), 28 Summers explores the agony and romance of a one-weekend-per-year affair and the dramatic ways this relationship complicates and enriches their lives, and the lives of the people they love.]]> 432 Elin Hilderbrand 0316420042 Chain 4 4.12 2020
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Chain
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/04
date added: 2020/10/04
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]]> 38212121
“Doughty chronicles [death] practices with tenderheartedness, a technician’s fascination, and an unsentimental respect for grief.â€� ―Jill Lepore, The New Yorker Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty embarks on a global expedition to discover how other cultures care for the dead. From Zoroastrian sky burials to wish-granting Bolivian skulls, she investigates the world’s funerary customs and expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with dignity. Her account questions the rituals of the American funeral industry―especially chemical embalming―and suggests that the most effective traditions are those that allow mourners to personally attend to the body of the deceased. Exquisitely illustrated by artist Landis Blair, From Here to Eternity Ěýis an adventure into the morbid unknown, a fascinating tour through the unique ways people everywhere confront mortality. 45 illustrations]]> 256 Caitlin Doughty 0393356280 Chain 3 4.30 2017
author: Caitlin Doughty
name: Chain
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2020/09/29
date added: 2020/09/29
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]]> 45310560
Adam Cortinas may be gorgeous, but he’s made it clear he can’t stand Olivia—and the feeling is one hundred percent mutual. Too bad, because in order to bring the company’s new power plant online, they’re stuck with each other for the next week.

When their travel plans go horribly awry, Olivia finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere with Adam, AKA the bane of her existence.

He’s in her space and in her head. All the forced proximity is driving Olivia insane. That’s the only explanation for these FEELINGS she’s suddenly having.

But it doesn’t change anything. They still hate each other.

Right?

Applied Electromagnetism is the fourth full-length novel in a series of standalone rom-coms about women in STEM fields.]]> 262 Susannah Nix 195008700X Chain 4 3.80 2019
author: Susannah Nix
name: Chain
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/28
date added: 2020/09/29
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]]> 30178957 Revised edition: This edition of A Quiet Life In The Country includes editorial revisions.

Lady Emily Hardcastle is an eccentric widow with a secret past. Florence Armstrong, her maid and confidante, is an expert in martial arts. The year is 1908 and they’ve just moved from London to the country, hoping for a quiet life.

But it is not long before Lady Hardcastle is forced out of her self-imposed retirement. There’s a dead body in the woods, and the police are on the wrong scent. Lady Hardcastle makes some enquiries of her own, and it seems she knows a surprising amount about crime investigation�

As Lady Hardcastle and Flo delve deeper into rural rivalries and resentment, they uncover a web of intrigue that extends far beyond the village. With almost no one free from suspicion, they can be certain of only one fact: there is no such thing as a quiet life in the country.]]> 257 T.E. Kinsey Chain 3 3.96 2016
author: T.E. Kinsey
name: Chain
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2020/09/28
date added: 2020/09/28
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]]> 52753733 New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six) author of Limelight and Small Admissions returns with a hilarious and heartfelt new novel about a perfectly imperfect summer of love, secrets, and second chances.

Bridget and Will have the kind of relationship that people envy: they’re loving, compatible, and completely devoted to each other. The fact that they’re strictly friends seems to get lost on nearly everyone; after all, they’re as good as married in (almost) every way. For three decades, they’ve nurtured their baby, the Forsyth Trio—a chamber group they created as students with their Juilliard classmate Gavin Glantz. In the intervening years, Gavin has gone on to become one of the classical music world’s reigning stars, while Bridget and Will have learned to embrace the warm reviews and smaller venues that accompany modest success.

Bridget has been dreaming of spending the summer at her well-worn Connecticut country home with her boyfriend Sterling. But her plans are upended when Sterling, dutifully following his ex-wife’s advice, breaks up with her over email and her twin twenty-somethings arrive unannounced, filling her empty nest with their big dogs, dirty laundry, and respective crises.

Bridget has problems of her own: her elderly father announces he’s getting married, and the Forsyth Trio is once again missing its violinist. She concocts a plan to host her dad’s wedding on her ramshackle property, while putting the Forsyth Trio back into the spotlight. But to catch the attention of the music world, she and Will place their bets on luring back Gavin, whom they’ve both avoided ever since their stormy parting.

With her trademark humor, pitch-perfect voice, and sly perspective on the human heart, Amy Poeppel crafts a love letter to modern family life with all of its discord and harmony. In the tradition of novels by Maria Semple and Stephen McCauley, Musical Chairs is an irresistibly romantic story of role reversals, reinvention, and sweet synchronicity.]]> 416 Amy Poeppel 1501176412 Chain 4 3.75 2020
author: Amy Poeppel
name: Chain
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/09/28
date added: 2020/09/28
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]]> 34649348 234 Cherie Dimaline 1770864865 Chain 3 3.94 2017
author: Cherie Dimaline
name: Chain
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2020/09/26
date added: 2020/09/26
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]]> 51931413 From the New York Times bestselling author of Love Walked In and Belong to Me comes a profound and heart-rending story about a horrific tragedy that marks one woman and her hometown and about the explosive secrets that come to light twenty years later.

Ginny Beale is eighteen, irreverent, funny, and brave, with a brother she adores and a circle of friends for whom she would do anything. Because of one terrible night, she loses them all—and her adventurous spirit—seemingly forever. While the town cheers on the high school football team, someone sets the school’s auditorium ablaze. Ginny’s best friend Gray Marsden’s father, a fire fighter, dies in the blaze.

While many in the town believe Daniel York, a notoriously troubled local teen, set the fire, Ginny makes a shattering discovery that casts blame on the person she trusts most in the world. Ginny tells no one, but the secret isolates her, looming between her and her friends and ruining their friendship.

Over the next two decades, Ginny puts aside her wanderlust and her dreams. Moving back to her hometown, she distances herself from the past and from nearly everyone in it. She marries a quiet man, raises their daughter, Avery, and cares for her tyrannical, ailing mother, Adela. But when Ginny’s husband, Harris, becomes embroiled in a scandal, Ginny’s carefully controlled life crumbles, and, just when she believes she is regaining her bearings, the secret she’s kept for twenty years emerges and threatens to destroy her hopes for the future.

With the help of fifteen-year-old Avery and of friends both old and new, Ginny must summon the courage to confront old lies and hard truths and to free herself and the people she loves from the mistakes and regrets that have burdened them for so long.]]> 272 Marisa de los Santos 0062844482 Chain 3 3.71 2020
author: Marisa de los Santos
name: Chain
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2020/09/24
date added: 2020/09/24
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]]>