Jenne's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:24:02 -0800 60 Jenne's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Annotated Mansfield Park 18310155 An alternative cover can be found here.

Adopted into the household of her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, Fanny Price grows up a meek outsider among her cousins in the unaccustomed elegance of Mansfield Park. Soon after Sir Thomas absents himself on estate business in Antigua (the family's investment in slavery and sugar is considered in the Introduction in a new, post-colonial light), Mary Crawford and her brother Henry arrive at Mansfield, bringing with them London glamour, and the seductive taste for flirtation and theatre that precipitates a crisis. While Mansfield Park appears in some ways to continue where Pride and Prejudice left off, it is, as Kathryn Sutherland shows in her illuminating Introduction, a much darker work, which challenges 'the very values (of tradition, stability, retirement and faithfulness) it appears to endorse'. This new edition provides an accurate text based, for the first time since its original publication, on the first edition of 1814.]]> 885 Jane Austen 0307390799 Jenne 4 4.28 1814 The Annotated Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at: 2018/05/06
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves:
review:
I actually enjoyed it more on this reread. Fanny is still a bit of a dishrag, and Edmund is a bit of a prig, but I liked the realistic depiction of daily life, and the shocking denouement! V. exciting.
]]> Girl Through Glass 28562110
An Amazon Best Book of the Month?

A?Buzzfeed?Most Exciting Book of?the Year

A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Year & Bestseller

Selected as a?Skimm Read?

A?Refinery 29?Best Book of the Year

Chosen as a?Rumpus Book Club Selection

Chosen as a?Bustle Best Literary Debut Novel Written By Women in the Last 5 Years

An enthralling literary debut that tells the story of a young girl¡¯s coming of age in the cutthroat world of New York City ballet¡ªa story of obsession and the quest for perfection, trust and betrayal, beauty and lost innocence.

In the roiling summer of 1977, eleven-year-old Mira is an aspiring ballerina in the romantic, highly competitive world of New York City ballet. Enduring the mess of her parent¡¯s divorce, she finds escape in dance¡ªthe rigorous hours of practice, the exquisite beauty, the precision of movement, the obsessive perfectionism. Ballet offers her control, power, and the promise of glory. It also introduces her to forty-seven-year-old Maurice DuPont, a reclusive, charismatic balletomane who becomes her mentor.

Over the course of three years, Mira is accepted into the prestigious School of American Ballet run by the legendary George Balanchine, and eventually becomes one of ¡°Mr. B¡¯s girls¡±¡ªa dancer of rare talent chosen for greatness. As she ascends higher in the ballet world, her relationship with Maurice intensifies, touching dark places within herself and sparking unexpected desires that will upend both their lives.

In the present day, Kate, a professor of dance at a Midwestern college, embarks on a risky affair with a student that threatens to obliterate her career and capsizes the new life she has painstakingly created for her reinvented self. When she receives a letter from a man she¡¯s long thought dead, Kate is hurled back into the dramas of a past she thought she had left behind.

Told in interweaving narratives that move between past and present, Girl Through Glass illuminates the costs of ambition, secrets, and the desire for beauty, and reveals how the sacrifices we make for an ideal can destroy¡ªor save¡ªus.]]> 309 Sari Wilson 0062326295 Jenne 3 arc 3.63 2016 Girl Through Glass
author: Sari Wilson
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2015/10/29
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: arc
review:
I'm conflicted about how to rate this. The unpleasant squirmy feeling was obviously intentional, yet still squirmy and unpleasant. Four stars for execution, two stars for enjoyableness, I guess? And if there were half stars, I would give it an extra one for being about ballet dancers.
]]> <![CDATA[Santa Olivia (Santa Olivia, #1)]]> 6676040 Lushly written with rich and vivid characters, Santa Olivia is Jacqueline Carey's take on comic book superheroes and the classic werewolf myth. Loup Garron was born and raised in Santa Olivia, an isolated, disenfranchised town next to a US military base inside a DMZ buffer zone between Texas and Mexico. A fugitive "Wolf-Man" who had a love affair with a local woman, Loup's father was one of a group of men genetically-manipulated and used by the US government as a weapon. The "Wolf-Men" were engineered to have superhuman strength, speed, sensory capability, stamina, and a total lack of fear, and Loup, named for and sharing her father's wolf-like qualities, is marked as an outsider. After her mother dies, Loup goes to live among the misfit orphans at the parish church, where they seethe from the injustices visited upon the locals by the soldiers. Eventually, the orphans find an outlet for their They form a vigilante group to support Loup Garron who, costumed as their patron saint, Santa Olivia, uses her special abilities to avenge the town. Aware that she could lose her freedom, and possibly her life, Loup is determined to fight to redress the wrongs her community has suffered. And like the reincarnation of their patron saint, she will bring hope to all of Santa Olivia.]]> 354 Jacqueline Carey 0446551414 Jenne 5 favorites, apocalypterature 4.02 2009 Santa Olivia (Santa Olivia, #1)
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2011/11/27
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: favorites, apocalypterature
review:

]]> Around the World in 80 Days 1038671 317 Jules Verne 1416939369 Jenne 3 3.63 1872 Around the World in 80 Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1872
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> Blindsight (Firefall, #1) 48484 Two months since the stars fell...

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune¡¯s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever¡¯s out there isn¡¯t talking to us. It¡¯s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn¡¯t want to meet?

You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees X-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won¡¯t be needed, and a fainter hope she¡¯ll do any good if she is needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called ¡°vampire,¡± recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist ¨C an informational topologist with half his mind gone ¨C as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.

You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they¡¯ve been sent to find.

But you¡¯d give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them¡­]]> 384 Peter Watts 0765312182 Jenne 2 didnt-finish
It's certainly a gutsy choice to have a person with no empathy as your main character, but it's pretty hard to get readers to care about someone who has only a vaguely intellectual interest in other people. Especially if the story is told in the first person by this character.
So as a result, we know that one guy is a vampire, and another guy has some kind of prosthetic senses, and there's a military woman and another woman with a multiple personality. We don't really get to know much else about them, or at least not by page 183.

The other problem I had with this book was that it was hard to picture exactly where everyone was and what they were doing in whatever scene. Most of the action takes place in a spaceship, and you never get a clear idea of how it's set up, plus there are all these sort of virtual-reality things going on at the same time, and the vampire guy tends to hide out in his room and you don't really know where that is, and I think there are supposed to be some kind of tents that the people live in? On a spaceship? I don't know.

Anyway, it's not that a book has to be easy to read; I like books that are complicated, but I think it's the mark of a good writer that you shouldn't have to be wondering where the aft thruster maintenance room is instead of just being engrossed in the story.]]> 4.01 2006 Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
author: Peter Watts
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2007/06/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: didnt-finish
review:
Okay, I gave this book TWO second chances because I had heard great things about it, but I eventually gave up.

It's certainly a gutsy choice to have a person with no empathy as your main character, but it's pretty hard to get readers to care about someone who has only a vaguely intellectual interest in other people. Especially if the story is told in the first person by this character.
So as a result, we know that one guy is a vampire, and another guy has some kind of prosthetic senses, and there's a military woman and another woman with a multiple personality. We don't really get to know much else about them, or at least not by page 183.

The other problem I had with this book was that it was hard to picture exactly where everyone was and what they were doing in whatever scene. Most of the action takes place in a spaceship, and you never get a clear idea of how it's set up, plus there are all these sort of virtual-reality things going on at the same time, and the vampire guy tends to hide out in his room and you don't really know where that is, and I think there are supposed to be some kind of tents that the people live in? On a spaceship? I don't know.

Anyway, it's not that a book has to be easy to read; I like books that are complicated, but I think it's the mark of a good writer that you shouldn't have to be wondering where the aft thruster maintenance room is instead of just being engrossed in the story.
]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Jenne 3 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Once and Future King 10571
Exquisite comedy offsets the tragedy of Arthur¡¯s personal doom as White brings to life the major British epic of all time with brilliance, grandeur, warmth and charm.]]> 823 T.H. White 0006483011 Jenne 4 4.07 1958 The Once and Future King
author: T.H. White
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1958
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves:
review:

]]> Beowulf 863467 Beowulf is one of the important Northern epics and a classic of European literature.
In his new translation, Seamus Heaney has produced a work which is both true, line by line, to the original poem, and an expression, in its language and music, of something fundamental to his own creative gift.]]> Unknown 1565114272 Jenne 5 I love the way Heaney reads it, lovingly alliterated and with a sort of BOOOM BOOOM at the ends of phrases.]]> 3.93 1000 Beowulf
author: Unknown
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1000
rating: 5
read at: 2013/03/13
date added: 2024/05/08
shelves: audiobook, fiftyfifty-me-2013, fantasy
review:
Pretty much the definition of EPIC.
I love the way Heaney reads it, lovingly alliterated and with a sort of BOOOM BOOOM at the ends of phrases.
]]> <![CDATA[Spoon River Anthology (Signet Classics)]]> 919220 Spoon River Anthology remains an American classic.]]> 319 Edgar Lee Masters 0451525302 Jenne 4 3.76 1915 Spoon River Anthology (Signet Classics)
author: Edgar Lee Masters
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1915
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/11/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 (Otouto no Otto, #1-2)]]> 32337897
(Please note: This book is a traditional work of manga, and reads back to front and right to left.)]]> 352 Gengoroh Tagame 1101871512 Jenne 4 graphic-novel Sweet and sad. 4.32 2015 My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 (Otouto no Otto, #1-2)
author: Gengoroh Tagame
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2018/07/09
date added: 2023/09/13
shelves: graphic-novel
review:
Sweet and sad.
]]> <![CDATA[Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language]]> 248193
Le ton beau de Marot¡± literally means ¡±The sweet tone of Marot¡±, but to a French ear it suggests ¡±Le tombeau de Marot¡±¡ªthat is, ¡±The tomb of Marot¡±. That double entendre foreshadows the linguistic exuberance of this book, which was sparked a decade ago when Hofstadter, under the spell of an exquisite French miniature by Marot, got hooked on the challenge of recreating both its sweet message and its tight rhymes in English¡ªjumping through two tough hoops at once. In the next few years, he not only did many of his own translations of Marot's poem, but also enlisted friends, students, colleagues, family, noted poets, and translators¡ªeven three state-of-the-art translation programs!¡ªto try their hand at this subtle challenge.

The rich harvest is represented here by 88 wildly diverse variations on Marot's little theme. Yet this barely scratches the surface of Le Ton beau de Marot, for small groups of these poems alternate with chapters that run all over the map of language and thought.

Not merely a set of translations of one poem, Le Ton beau de Marot is an autobiographical essay, a love letter to the French language, a series of musings on life, loss, and death, a sweet bouquet of stirring poetry¡ªbut most of all, it celebrates the limitless creativity fired by a passion for the music of words.

Dozens of literary themes and creations are woven into the picture, including Pushkin's Eugene Onegin , Dante's Inferno, Salinger's Catcher in the Rye , Villon's Ballades, ±·²¹²ú´Ç°ì´Ç±¹¡¯²õ essays, Georges Perec's La Disparition, Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate, Horace's odes, and more.

Rife with stunning form-content interplay, crammed with creative linguistic experiments yet always crystal-clear, this book is meant not only for lovers of literature, but also for people who wish to be brought into contact with current ideas about how creativity works, and who wish to see how today¡¯s computational models of language and thought stack up next to the human mind.

Le Ton beau de Marot is a sparkling, personal, and poetic exploration aimed at both the literary and the scientific world, and is sure to provoke great excitement and heated controversy among poets and translators, critics and writers, and those involved in the study of creativity and its elusive wellsprings.]]> 632 Douglas R. Hofstadter 0465086454 Jenne 5 4.25 1995 Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language
author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2004/06/01
date added: 2023/08/06
shelves:
review:
This is the book that makes ME want to be a translator.
]]> <![CDATA[The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art]]> 137926
The book distinguishes what belongs to artistic theory from what has traditionally been confused with it, namely aesthetic theory and offers as well a systematic account of metaphor, expression, and style, together with an original account of artistic representation. A wealth of examples, drawn especially from recent and contemporary art, illuminate the argument.]]> 224 Arthur C. Danto 0674903463 Jenne 0 to-read 4.17 The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art
author: Arthur C. Danto
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 17125 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]> 182 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Jenne 3 3.98 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves:
review:

]]> The Bug 138805
In 1984, at the dawn of the personal-computer era, Roberta Walton, a novice software tester at a SiliconValley start-up, stumbles across a bug. She brings it to its inadvertent creator, Ethan Levin, a longtime programmer who is working at the limits of his knowledge and abilities. Both believe this is a bug like any other to be found and fixed and crossed off the list. But no matter how obsessively Ethan combs through the depths of the code, he can't find its cause. Roberta runs test after test but can't make the bug appear at will. Meanwhile, the bug, living up to its name, "The Jester," shows itself only at the least opportune times and jeopardizes the fate of the company.

Under the pressures of his obsession with the bug and his rapidly deteriorating personal life, Ethan begins to unravel. Roberta, on the other hand, is drawn to the challenge. Forced to learn how to program, she comes to appreciate the intense intimacy of speaking the computer's language.

As she did in Close to the Machine , Ellen Ullman brilliantly limns the space between human beings and computers¨Ca space we all occupy every day as we peer into our monitors. Ullman has been a computer programmer for more than twenty years, and having switched from code to prose, she has shown herself to be a unique, revelatory writer. She is the insider who can articulate the realities of the technical world, taking readers to emotional and intellectual places fiction has never brought them before. With The Bug , Ullman proves she is not only a remarkable essayist but also a master storyteller.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 368 Ellen Ullman 1400032350 Jenne 3 3.68 2004 The Bug
author: Ellen Ullman
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/07/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Dandelion Wine 76776
The only god living in Green Town, Illinois, that Douglas Spaulding knew of.

The facts about John Huff, aged twelve, are simple and soon stated.

? He could pathfind more trails than any Choctaw or Cherokee since time began.
? Could leap from the sky like a chimpanzee from a vine.
? Could live underwater two minutes and slide fifty yards downstream.
? Could hit baseballs into apple trees, knocking down harvests.
? Could jump six-foot orchard walls.
? Ran laughing.
? Sat easy.
? Was not a bully.
? Was kind.
? Knew the words to all the cowboy songs and would teach you if you asked.
? Knew the names of all the wild flowers and when the moon would rise or set and when the tides came in or out.

He was, in fact, the only god living in the whole of Green Town, Illinois, during the twentieth century that Douglas Spaulding knew of.

¡°[Ray] Bradbury is an authentic original.¡±¡ª Time]]> 239 Ray Bradbury 0553277537 Jenne 2 4.13 1957 Dandelion Wine
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1957
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2023/06/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What's up, America?: A Foreigner's Guide to Understanding Americans]]> 13098677 271 Diane Asitimbay 0975927639 Jenne 1 Also just confusing and wrong in many places, e.g. "The southern accent sounds like this: 'Y'all want a cup of tea?'"
Not to mention the many personal value judgments, incorrect etymologies, and weird uses of idiomatic phrases.
Verdict: Don't buy this for your visiting foreign friends! I will investigate and see if there's anything better. ]]> 3.67 2004 What's up, America?: A Foreigner's Guide to Understanding Americans
author: Diane Asitimbay
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2004
rating: 1
read at: 2013/12/09
date added: 2023/05/24
shelves: fiftyfifty-me-2013, nonfiction
review:
I picked this up because I was curious what they'd have to say about American culture, but it was kind of terrible. Not well-written, way too subjective, and in this weird condescending tone like an elementary school teacher.
Also just confusing and wrong in many places, e.g. "The southern accent sounds like this: 'Y'all want a cup of tea?'"
Not to mention the many personal value judgments, incorrect etymologies, and weird uses of idiomatic phrases.
Verdict: Don't buy this for your visiting foreign friends! I will investigate and see if there's anything better.
]]> Sun House 64000510 An epic?comedy about love, spirit, and the quest for transcendence in an anything-but-transcendent America, from the author of the perennial cult bestsellers? The River Why and?The Brothers K
?
A random bolt from a DC-8 falls from the sky, killing a child and throwing the faith of a young Jesuit into crisis.?A boy¡¯s mother dies on his fifth birthday, sparking a lifetime of repressed anger that he unleashes once a year in reckless duels with the Fate, God, or Power who let the coincidence happen. A young woman on a run in Seattle experiences a shooting star moment that pierces her with a love that will eventually help heal the Jesuit, the angry young man, and innumerable others.

The journeys of this unintentional menagerie carry them to the healing lands of Montana and a newly founded community¡ªwhere nothing tastes better than Maker's Mark mixed with glacier ice, and nothing seems less likely than the soul-filling delight that a troupe of spiritual refugees, urban sophisticates, road-weary musicians, and local cowboys begin to find in each other's company.???????????

With?Sun House, David James Duncan continues exploring the American search for meaning and love. This stunning novel, set amid the gorgeous landscapes of the American West, illuminates the contemporary world through the prisms of Eastern wisdom; cast-off ecstatic religious ideals; and the unpredictable, expansive yearnings of the human heart.]]> 784 David James Duncan 0316129372 Jenne 0 to-read 3.75 2023 Sun House
author: David James Duncan
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4)]]> 8698
"HE LOST ALL FAITH IN THE STRAIGHTFORWARD OPERATION OF CAUSE AND EFFECT THE DAY HE GOT UP INTENDING TO CATCH UP WITH SOME READING AND ENDED UP ON A PREHISTORIC EARTH WITH A MAN FROM BETELGEUSE AND A SPACESHIP-LOAD OF ALIEN TELEPHONE SANITISERS...".

Left at the end of LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING with the address for God's Final Message To His Creation, Arthur Dent let this crucial information slip his mind. He tries everything to jog his memory - meditation, mind-reading, hitting himself about the head with blunt objects. But none of it works. Of course, as everyone knows, the answer lies in making life flash before your eyes...
Source: douglasadams.com]]> 167 Douglas Adams 0330491237 Jenne 5 4.09 1984 So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Breaking Wave 7353087
Sidelined by a wartime injury, fighter pilot Alan Duncan reluctantly returns to his parents¡¯ remote sheep station in Australia to take the place of his brother Bill, who died a hero in the war. But his homecoming is marred by the suicide of his parents¡¯ parlormaid, of whom they were very fond. Alan soon realizes that the dead young woman is not the person she pretended to be. Upon discovering that she had served in the Royal Navy and participated along with his brother in the secret build-up to the Normandy invasion, Alan sets out to piece together the tragic events and the lonely burden of guilt that unravelled one woman¡¯s life. In the process of finding the answer to the mystery, he realizes how much he had in common with this woman he never knew and how ¡°a war can go on killing people long after it¡¯s all over.¡±]]> 249 Nevil Shute 030747402X Jenne 3 3.95 1955 The Breaking Wave
author: Nevil Shute
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1955
rating: 3
read at: 2010/07/26
date added: 2023/02/05
shelves:
review:
Well, I wrote this whole review but it got disappeared by the internet and I don't have the energy to redo it. Just imagine it's EVEN BETTER than the Breaking Dawn one.
]]> <![CDATA[Air Logic (Elemental Logic #4)]]> 45729263 348 Laurie J. Marks Jenne 5 4.72 2019 Air Logic (Elemental Logic #4)
author: Laurie J. Marks
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.72
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/27
date added: 2022/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)]]> 34778
Louis and Claudia travel Europe, eventually coming to Paris and the ragingly successful Theatre des Vampires--a theatre of vampires pretending to be mortals pretending to be vampires. Here they meet the magnetic and ethereal Armand, who brings them into a whole society of vampires. But Louis and Claudia find that finding others like themselves provides no easy answers and in fact presents dangers they scarcely imagined.

Originally begun as a short story, the book took off as Anne wrote it, spinning the tragic and triumphant life experiences of a soul. As well as the struggles of its characters, Interview captures the political and social changes of two continents. The novel also introduces Lestat, Anne's most enduring character, a heady mixture of attraction and revulsion. The book, full of lush description, centers on the themes of immortality, change, loss, sexuality, and power.
source: annerice.com]]> 340 Anne Rice 0394498216 Jenne 3 3.98 1976 Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)
author: Anne Rice
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/11/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Heavens 40642331
But for Kate, the dream becomes increasingly real and compelling until it threatens to overwhelm her life. And soon she's waking from it to find the world changed--pictures on her wall she doesn't recognize, new buildings in the neighborhood that have sprung up overnight. As she tries to make sense of what's happening, Ben worries the woman he's fallen in love with is losing her grip on reality.

Transporting the reader between a richly detailed past and a frighteningly possible future, The Heavens is a powerful reminder of the consequences of our actions, a poignant testament to how the people we love are destined to change, and a masterful exploration of the power of dreams.]]> 272 Sandra Newman 0802129021 Jenne 4 [spoilers removed]]]> 3.33 2019 The Heavens
author: Sandra Newman
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/02/20
date added: 2022/05/28
shelves:
review:
I'm not sure what really happened in this book, but now that I'm done I miss everybody and would have been happy to keep reading through another 300 pages of uncertainty and shifting realities.
[spoilers removed]
]]> <![CDATA[Crazy in Poughkeepsie (Neddie & Friends, #6)]]> 58841707 The inimitable Daniel Pinkwater (The Big Orange Splot; The Hoboken Chicken Emergency) brings his zany wit and wisdom to a gentle middle-grade adventure following a kid's off-the-beaten-path journey, featuring an unfocused spiritual guide, a not-quite-dwarf, a graffiti "artist," a ghost whale, and mystical shenanigans galore.

Mick is a good kid, but maybe he can use just a little guidance. But it's unclear who will be guiding whom, because Mick's brother came home from Tibet with the self-proclaimed Guru Lumpo Smythe-Finkel and his dog Lhasa--and then promptly settled both of them in Mick's bedroom.

(The thing about this kind of guru is that he doesn't seem to know exactly what he's trying to do. He sure does seem to be hungry, though.)

Anyway, Mick agrees to something like a quest, roaming the suburbs with the oddest group of misfits: Lumpo and Lhasa; graffiti-fanatic Verne; and Verne's unusual friend Molly. Molly is a Dwergish girl--don't worry if you don't know what that is yet--and she seems to be going off the rails a bit. But she knows that she is defniitely not Verne's girlfriend.

Along the way, the gang will get invited to a rollicking ghost party, consult a very strange little king, and actually discover the truth about Heaven. Or a version of the truth anyway, because in a Daniel Pinkwater tale, the truth is never the slightest bit like what you're expecting.]]> 192 Daniel Pinkwater 1616963743 Jenne 0 to-read 3.77 2022 Crazy in Poughkeepsie (Neddie & Friends, #6)
author: Daniel Pinkwater
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/05/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume--Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions (Hainish Cycle, #1-3)]]> 57693509 THREE REMARKABLE JOURNEYS INTO THE STARS.
Worlds of Exile and Illusion by Ursula K. Le Guin includes: Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions

These three spacefaring adventures mark the beginning of grand master Ursula K. Le Guin's remarkable career. Set in the same universe as Le Guin's groundbreaking classics The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, these first three books of the celebrated Hainish Series follow travelers of many worlds and civilizations in the depths of space.

The novels collected in this Tor Essentials edition are the first three ever published by Le Guin, a frequent winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards and one of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers of all time.

With a new introduction by Amal El-Mohtar, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author.]]> 352 Ursula K. Le Guin 1250781264 Jenne 0 to-read 4.30 1966 Worlds of Exile and Illusion: Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume--Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions (Hainish Cycle, #1-3)
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sandry's Book (Circle of Magic, #1)]]> 153790
When four strange, and strangely talented, youngsters are brought to Winding Circle by master mage Niko they find themselves drawn together in a Circle of Magic¡ªa circle that binds them despite their differences.Tamora Pierce, America¡¯s most popular writer of young adult fantasy novels, weaves her own special magic in the opening volume of her wildly popular Circle of Magic quartet. Tammy herself narrates this recording, supported by a cast of nearly thirty actors, including Bruce Coville appearing as Niko. The rich web of voices bring this intricate story to life in a way that listeners will never forget.


Length approx 6 hours.]]> 6 Tamora Pierce 1932076158 Jenne 3 ya 4.06 1997 Sandry's Book (Circle of Magic, #1)
author: Tamora Pierce
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1997
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/03/13
shelves: ya
review:

]]> Mistral's Daughter 350039 Mistral's Daughter captures the explosive??glamour of life at the top of the worlds of art and??high fashion. Judith Krantz has given us a??glittering international tale as spellbinding as her??other celebrated best-sellers,??Scruples, Princess Daisy, I'll Take??Manhattan, Till We Meet Again,??Scruple s Two,??Dazzle, and Lovers.]]> 592 Judith Krantz 0553259172 Jenne 4 3.96 1982 Mistral's Daughter
author: Judith Krantz
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/08/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Inheritors of Power 58214919 The third book of The Broken Trust continues a deadly battle for power in this sociological sci-fi novel where brother is pitted against brother.

Many years have passed since the Eminence Nekantor and Heir Adon seized power, and life in Pelismara has found a fragile equilibrium under Nekantor¡¯s thumb. Now the Imbati Service Academy suspects that Xinta, Manservant to the Eminence, may have taken control of Nekantor for his own sinister purposes, endangering what peace still remains. Imbati Cat¨ªn, an Academy prodigy, vows service to Adon, balancing two core purposes ¡ª to advance her Master's designs on power, and to determine the full extent of Xinta's influence.

When a trash hauler named Akrabitti Corbinan walks into a place he doesn¡¯t belong, everything falls out of balance. Cat¨ªn, who is investigating this newly discovered hidden library, immediately arrests Corbinan for trespassing. Nekantor then seizes Corbinan, believing he's a spy who sought to topple the government, and Xinta vanishes him before Cat¨ªn can determine his intent. What was Corbinan really seeking? What dangerous information does the library contain, that Xinta might seek to control? And what might happen if someone more dangerous finds Corbinan first?]]> 400 Juliette Wade 0756418011 Jenne 0 to-read 4.27 2022 Inheritors of Power
author: Juliette Wade
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Archivist: A Thriller 56917572 700 Rex Pickett 153851964X Jenne 1 didnt-finish 2.88 2021 The Archivist: A Thriller
author: Rex Pickett
name: Jenne
average rating: 2.88
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2021/08/23
shelves: didnt-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age]]> 53122357
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of ?atalh?y¨¹k in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii on Italy¡¯s southern coast, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.

Newitz travels to all four sites and investigates the cutting-edge research in archaeology, revealing the mix of environmental changes and political turmoil that doomed these ancient settlements. Tracing the early development of urban planning, Newitz also introduces us to the often anonymous workers¡ªslaves, women, immigrants, and manual laborers¡ªwho built these cities and created monuments that lasted millennia.

Four Lost Cities is a journey into the forgotten past, but, foreseeing a future in which the majority of people on Earth will be living in cities, it may also reveal something of our own fate.]]> 320 Annalee Newitz 0393652661 Jenne 0 arc, nonfiction, didnt-finish 3.76 2021 Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
author: Annalee Newitz
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/10
shelves: arc, nonfiction, didnt-finish
review:

]]> The Overstory 40180098 The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers¡¯s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours¡ªvast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.]]> 502 Richard Powers 039335668X Jenne 0 didnt-finish 4.10 2018 The Overstory
author: Richard Powers
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/10
shelves: didnt-finish
review:

]]> Fall; or, Dodge in Hell 35429993 The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Seveneves, Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon returns with a wildly inventive and entertaining science fiction thriller¡ªParadise Lost by way of Phillip K. Dick¡ªthat unfolds in the near future, in parallel worlds.

In his youth, Richard ¡°Dodge¡± Forthrast founded Corporation 9592, a gaming company that made him a multibillionaire. Now in his middle years, Dodge appreciates his comfortable, unencumbered life, managing his myriad business interests, and spending time with his beloved niece Zula and her young daughter, Sophia.

One beautiful autumn day, while he undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong. Dodge is pronounced brain dead and put on life support, leaving his stunned family and close friends with difficult decisions. Long ago, when a much younger Dodge drew up his will, he directed that his body be given to a cryonics company now owned by enigmatic tech entrepreneur Elmo Shepherd. Legally bound to follow the directive despite their misgivings, Dodge¡¯s family has his brain scanned and its data structures uploaded and stored in the cloud, until it can eventually be revived.

In the coming years, technology allows Dodge¡¯s brain to be turned back on. It is an achievement that is nothing less than the disruption of death itself. An eternal afterlife¡ªthe Bitworld¡ªis created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls.

But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem . . .

Fall, or Dodge in Hell is pure, unadulterated fun: a grand drama of analog and digital, man and machine, angels and demons, gods and followers, the finite and the eternal. In this exhilarating epic, Neal Stephenson raises profound existential questions and touches on the revolutionary breakthroughs that are transforming our future. Combining the technological, philosophical, and spiritual in one grand myth, he delivers a mind-blowing speculative literary saga for the modern age.

]]> 896 Neal Stephenson 0062458736 Jenne 0 didnt-finish 3.44 2019 Fall; or, Dodge in Hell
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/10
shelves: didnt-finish
review:

]]> Shockproof Sydney Skate 125722 240 Marijane Meaker 0060087919 Jenne 0 didnt-finish 3.34 1972 Shockproof Sydney Skate
author: Marijane Meaker
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.34
book published: 1972
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/10
shelves: didnt-finish
review:

]]> Fireweed 1871790 160 Jill Paton Walsh 0374423164 Jenne 3 ya 3.62 1969 Fireweed
author: Jill Paton Walsh
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/23
date added: 2021/07/24
shelves: ya
review:

]]> Termination Shock 55200380 A visionary technothriller about climate change.

Neal Stephenson's sweeping, prescient new novel transports readers to a near-future world where the greenhouse effect has inexorably resulted in a whirling-dervish troposphere of superstorms, rising sea levels, global flooding, merciless heat waves, and virulent, deadly pandemics.

One man has a Big Idea for reversing global warming, a master plan perhaps best described as "elemental." But will it work? And just as important, what are the consequences for the planet and all of humanity should it be applied?

Ranging from the Texas heartland to the Dutch royal palace in the Hague, from the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas to the sunbaked Chihuahuan Desert, Termination Shock brings together a disparate group of characters from different cultures and continents who grapple with the real-life repercussions of global warming. Ultimately, it asks the question: Might the cure be worse than the disease?]]> 896 Neal Stephenson 0063028077 Jenne 0 currently-reading, arc 3.78 2021 Termination Shock
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/24
shelves: currently-reading, arc
review:

]]> Chaos on CatNet (CatNet, #2) 53205853 Catfishing on CatNet, It takes an AI to catch an AI¡­

When a mysterious entity starts hacking into social networks and chat rooms to instigate paranoia and violence in the real world, it¡¯s up to Steph and her new friend, Nell, to find a way to stop it¡ªwith the help of their benevolent AI friend, CheshireCat.]]> 304 Naomi Kritzer 1250165229 Jenne 4 sf, ya 4.10 2021 Chaos on CatNet (CatNet, #2)
author: Naomi Kritzer
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/23
date added: 2021/07/23
shelves: sf, ya
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Subtle Blood (The Will Darling Adventures, #3)]]> 52238002
And then a brutal murder in a gentleman¡¯s club plunges them back into the shadow world of crime, deception, and the power of privilege. Worse, it brings them up against Kim¡¯s noble, hostile family, and his upper-class life where Will can never belong.

With old and new enemies against them, and secrets on every side, Will and Kim have to fight for each other harder than ever¡ªor be torn apart for good.]]> 290 K.J. Charles Jenne 4 romance 4.41 2021 Subtle Blood (The Will Darling Adventures, #3)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/13
date added: 2021/07/23
shelves: romance
review:

]]> The Lost Books of the Odyssey 6699949 A BRILLIANT AND BEGUILING REIMAGINING OF ONE OF OUR GREATEST MYTHS BY A GIFTED YOUNG WRITER

Zachary Mason¡¯s brilliant and beguiling debut novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer¡¯s classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer¡¯s original that taken together open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations. The Lost Books of the Odyssey is punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.]]> 228 Zachary Mason 0374192154 Jenne 4 short-stories I think my favorite is the one where Odysseus meets his double. Or maybe the one where he's sent to assassinate himself. Or no, maybe the one where Penelope is some kind of feral wilderness person? Anyway, it's beautiful and so, so cleverly made...but as a book of stories there is just no center for me to grab onto and love. I could only like.]]> 3.85 2007 The Lost Books of the Odyssey
author: Zachary Mason
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2015/03/26
date added: 2021/07/22
shelves: short-stories
review:
Okay, first off you are going to need to read the Odyssey. Just go do that and come back. And if you read it back in college you're probably going to need to read it again. Otherwise these stories are going to make no sense whatsoever. But once you do, you will be so glad you did because it's like putting on 3-D glasses.
I think my favorite is the one where Odysseus meets his double. Or maybe the one where he's sent to assassinate himself. Or no, maybe the one where Penelope is some kind of feral wilderness person? Anyway, it's beautiful and so, so cleverly made...but as a book of stories there is just no center for me to grab onto and love. I could only like.
]]> Planet of Exile 201882 The lonely & dwindling human settlement is beginning to feel the strain. Every winter --a season that lasts for 15 years-- the Earthmen have neighbors: the humanoid hilfs, a nomadic people who only settle down for the cruel cold spell. The hilfs fear the Earthmen, whom they think of as witches & call the farborns.
But hilfs & farborns have common enemies: the hordes of ravaging barbarians called gaals & eerie preying snow ghouls. Will they join forces or be annihilated?]]> 126 Ursula K. Le Guin 0441669514 Jenne 3 sf, fiftyfifty-me-2013 You can definitely tell that Le Guin was the child of anthropologists--all the things she pays attention to are so different than the laser gun/alien monster books that were a large part of the genre. Not to mention how the perspectives and actions of old people/women/other races are important and real. ]]> 3.73 1966 Planet of Exile
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1966
rating: 3
read at: 2013/09/22
date added: 2021/07/22
shelves: sf, fiftyfifty-me-2013
review:
This is a pretty forgettable little book, but it's also kind of amazing when you look at it compared to the other science fiction that was being published in 1966.
You can definitely tell that Le Guin was the child of anthropologists--all the things she pays attention to are so different than the laser gun/alien monster books that were a large part of the genre. Not to mention how the perspectives and actions of old people/women/other races are important and real.
]]> The Times I Knew I Was Gay 50892014 Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and found dating boys much more confusing than many of her friends did. As she grew older, so did her fears and a deep sense of unbelonging. From her first communion to her first girlfriend via a swathe of self-denial, awkward encounters, and everyday courage, Ellie tells her story through gorgeous illustrations--a fresh and funny self-portrait of a young woman becoming herself.

The Times I Knew I Was Gay reminds us that people sometimes come out not just once but again and again; that identity is not necessarily about falling in love with others, but about coming to terms with oneself. Full of vitality and humor, it will ring true for anyone who has taken the time to discover who they truly are.]]> 320 Eleanor Crewes 1982147105 Jenne 4 graphic-novel, nonfiction 3.92 2020 The Times I Knew I Was Gay
author: Eleanor Crewes
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/09
date added: 2021/07/13
shelves: graphic-novel, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Transgressions of Power (The Broken Trust, #2)]]> 54228073
To marry into the most powerful family in Varin is to step into a trap. Della has spent thirteen years under the scrutiny of Pelismara's political elites, supporting Tagaret in a dangerous pretense as his brother Nekantor's closest ally. In secret, however, they've planned to escape, and to break down the restrictions of Varin's caste society. When Nekantor offers to send them to Selimna, the city where their caste experiments can be carried out, how can they not accept the opportunity?

But ever since Nekantor seized power as the Eminence Herin's Heir, he's wanted to keep power in the family, and that means his eye is on the children--especially their thirteen-year-old brother Adon. In their absence, Nekantor begins to execute his own long-schemed plan, and soon Della realizes they've unwittingly become a part of it.

How far does Nekantor's influence spread? How much will he seek to control? And how can she save Adon from falling into his snare?]]> 466 Juliette Wade 0756415764 Jenne 4 fantasy, sf 4.09 2021 Transgressions of Power (The Broken Trust, #2)
author: Juliette Wade
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/09
date added: 2021/07/11
shelves: fantasy, sf
review:

]]> Light from Uncommon Stars 56179360
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six. When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate. But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline. As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 372 Ryka Aoki 1250789060 Jenne 4 arc, fantasy, sf 4.03 2021 Light from Uncommon Stars
author: Ryka Aoki
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/07/11
date added: 2021/07/11
shelves: arc, fantasy, sf
review:

]]> Honey Girl 49362138 A refreshingly timely and relatable debut novel about a young woman whose life plans fall apart when she meets her wife.

With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls¡¯ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She¡¯s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn¡¯t know¡­until she does exactly that.

This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father¡¯s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn¡¯t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her father¡¯s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows.

In New York, she¡¯s able to ignore all the annoying questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she¡¯s been running from all along¡ªthe fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.]]> 352 Morgan Rogers 1488077509 Jenne 3 3.65 2021 Honey Girl
author: Morgan Rogers
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/06/19
date added: 2021/06/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All the Feels (Spoiler Alert, #2)]]> 53746015 Following Spoiler Alert, Olivia Dade returns with another utterly charming romantic comedy about a devil-may-care actor¡ªwho actually cares more than anyone knows¡ªand the no-nonsense woman hired to keep him in line.

Alexander Woodroe has it all. Charm. Sex appeal. Wealth. Fame. A starring role as Cupid on TV¡¯s biggest show, God of the Gates. But the showrunners have wrecked his character, he¡¯s dogged by old demons, and his post-show future remains uncertain. When all that reckless emotion explodes into a bar fight, the tabloids and public agree: his star is falling.

Enter Lauren Clegg, the former ER therapist hired to keep him in line. Compared to her previous work, watching over handsome but impulsive Alex shouldn¡¯t be especially difficult. But the more time they spend together, the harder it gets to keep her professional remove and her heart intact, especially when she discovers the reasons behind his recklessness¡­not to mention his Cupid fanfiction habit.

When another scandal lands Alex in major hot water and costs Lauren her job, she¡¯ll have to choose between protecting him and offering him what he really wants¡ªher. But he¡¯s determined to keep his improbably short, impossibly stubborn, and extremely endearing minder in his life any way he can. And on a road trip up the California coast together, he intends to show her exactly what a falling star will do to catch the woman he loves: anything at all.]]> 385 Olivia Dade 006300559X Jenne 4 arc, romance 3.84 2021 All the Feels (Spoiler Alert, #2)
author: Olivia Dade
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/19
date added: 2021/06/19
shelves: arc, romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2)]]> 55354918 A budding dark sorceress determined not to use her formidable powers uncovers yet more secrets about the workings of her world in the stunning sequel to A Deadly Education, the start of Naomi Novik¡¯s groundbreaking crossover series.

At the Scholomance, El, Orion, and the other students are faced with their final year¡ªand the looming specter of graduation, a deadly ritual that leaves few students alive in its wake. El is determined that her chosen group will survive, but it is a prospect that is looking harder by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules . . .]]> 389 Naomi Novik 0593128877 Jenne 5 arc, fantasy 4.31 2021 The Last Graduate (The Scholomance, #2)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/16
date added: 2021/06/16
shelves: arc, fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It (The Siege, #2)]]> 49088677
The City may be under siege, but everyone still has to make a living. Take Notker, the acclaimed playwright, actor and impresario. Nobody works harder, even when he's not working. Thankfully, the good citizens of Classis appreciate an evening at the theatre even when there are large rocks falling out of the sky.

But Notker is a man of many talents, and all the world is, apparently, a stage. It seems that the Empire needs him - or someone who looks a lot like him - for a role that will call for the performance of a lifetime. At least it will guarantee fame, fortune and immortality. If it doesn't kill him first.

]]> 354 K.J. Parker 031649867X Jenne 0 to-read 4.06 2020 How to Rule an Empire and Get Away with It (The Siege, #2)
author: K.J. Parker
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/06/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Catfishing on CatNet (CatNet, #1)]]> 41556068
When a threat from Steph¡¯s past catches up to her and ChesireCat¡¯s existence is discovered by outsiders, it¡¯s up to Steph and her friends, both online and IRL, to save her.]]> 299 Naomi Kritzer 1250165075 Jenne 4 sf, ya 4.04 2019 Catfishing on CatNet (CatNet, #1)
author: Naomi Kritzer
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/14
date added: 2021/06/14
shelves: sf, ya
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 10 (A Bride's Story, #10)]]> 40223491
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori's pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heart-warming, slice-of-life tale that is at once wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the characters she has created.]]> 188 Kaoru Mori 1975327985 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.42 2018 A Bride's Story, Vol. 10 (A Bride's Story, #10)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/02
date added: 2021/06/09
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 11 (A Bride's Story, #11)]]> 43886665
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori's pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heartwarming, slice-of-life tale that is at once wholly exotic yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the characters she has created.]]> 188 Kaoru Mori 197538492X Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.38 2018 A Bride's Story, Vol. 11 (A Bride's Story, #11)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/04
date added: 2021/06/09
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 12 (A Bride's Story, #12)]]> 52269553
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori's pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heartwarming, slice-of-life tale that is at once wholly exotic yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the characters she has created.]]> 184 Kaoru Mori 1975333195 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.31 2019 A Bride's Story, Vol. 12 (A Bride's Story, #12)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/05
date added: 2021/06/09
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Winter's Orbit (Winter's Orbit, #1)]]> 53205912
But when it comes to light that Prince Taam's death may not have been an accident, and that Jainan himself may be a suspect, the unlikely pair must overcome their misgivings and learn to trust one another as they navigate the perils of the Iskat court, try to solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war... all while dealing with their growing feelings for each other.]]> 432 Everina Maxwell 1250758831 Jenne 4 romance, sf 4.00 2021 Winter's Orbit (Winter's Orbit, #1)
author: Everina Maxwell
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/06
date added: 2021/06/08
shelves: romance, sf
review:

]]> Cloud Cuckoo Land 56783258 When everything is lost, it¡¯s our stories that survive.

How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that¡¯s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr¡¯s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.]]> 626 Anthony Doerr 1982168439 Jenne 3 arc 4.24 2021 Cloud Cuckoo Land
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/05/31
date added: 2021/05/31
shelves: arc
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)]]> 45154547 WINNER OF THE 2022 HUGO AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL
Now a USA Today bestseller!
Publishers Weekly's Best Books of 2021
Amazon's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2021
Bookpage's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2021
Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Choice Awards Nominee for Best Science Fiction Book of 2021

A Desolation Called Peace is the spectacular space opera sequel to Arkady Martine's genre-reinventing, Hugo Award-winning debut, A Memory Called Empire.

An alien armada lurks on the edges of Teixcalaanli space. No one can communicate with it, no one can destroy it, and Fleet Captain Nine Hibiscus is running out of options.

In a desperate attempt at diplomacy with the mysterious invaders, the fleet captain has sent for a diplomatic envoy. Now Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass¡ªstill reeling from the recent upheaval in the Empire¡ªface the impossible task of trying to communicate with a hostile entity.

Their failure will guarantee millions of deaths in an endless war. Their success might prevent Teixcalaan¡¯s destruction¡ªand allow the empire to continue its rapacious expansion.

Or it might create something far stranger . . .
]]> 496 Arkady Martine 125018648X Jenne 4 sf 4.31 2021 A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)
author: Arkady Martine
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/26
date added: 2021/05/26
shelves: sf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Seditious Affair (Society of Gentlemen, #2)]]> 25241403 K. J. Charles turns up the heat in her new Society of Gentlemen novel, as two lovers face off in a sensual duel that challenges their deepest beliefs.
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Silas Mason has no illusions about himself. He¡¯s not lovable, or even likable. He¡¯s an overbearing idealist, a Radical bookseller and pamphleteer who lives for revolution . . . and for Wednesday nights. Every week he meets anonymously with the same man, in whom Silas has discovered the ideal meld of intellectual companionship and absolute obedience to his sexual commands. But unbeknownst to Silas, his closest friend is also his greatest enemy, with the power to see him hanged¡ªor spare his life.
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A loyal, well-born gentleman official, Dominic Frey is torn apart by his affair with Silas. By the light of day, he cannot fathom the intoxicating lust that drives him to meet with the Radical week after week. In the bedroom, everything else falls away. Their needs match, and they are united by sympathy for each other¡¯s deepest vulnerabilities. But when Silas¡¯s politics earn him a death sentence, desire clashes with duty, and Dominic finds himself doing everything he can to save the man who stole his heart.
?
Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.]]> 251 K.J. Charles 1101886064 Jenne 4 romance 4.26 2015 A Seditious Affair (Society of Gentlemen, #2)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/03
date added: 2021/05/04
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Fashionable Indulgence (Society of Gentlemen, #1)]]> 23834716 In the first novel of an explosive new series from K. J. Charles, a young gentleman and his elegant mentor fight for love in a world of wealth, power, and manipulation.

When he learns that he could be the heir to an unexpected fortune, Harry Vane rejects his past as a Radical fighting for government reform and sets about wooing his lovely cousin. But his heart is captured instead by the most beautiful, chic man he¡¯s ever met: the dandy tasked with instructing him in the manners and style of the ton. Harry¡¯s new station demands conformity¡ªand yet the one thing he desires is a taste of the wrong pair of lips.

After witnessing firsthand the horrors of Waterloo, Julius Norreys sought refuge behind the luxurious facade of the upper crust. Now he concerns himself exclusively with the cut of his coat and the quality of his boots. And yet his prot¨¦g¨¦ is so unblemished by cynicism that he inspires the first flare of genuine desire Julius has felt in years. He cannot protect Harry from the worst excesses of society. But together they can withstand the high price of passion.]]> 264 K.J. Charles 1101886021 Jenne 4 romance 3.93 2015 A Fashionable Indulgence (Society of Gentlemen, #1)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/02
date added: 2021/05/04
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Gentleman's Position (Society of Gentlemen, #3)]]> 25893424 Power, privilege, and the rigid rules of class leave two hearts yearning for connection in the sizzling new Society of Gentlemen novel from K. J. Charles.
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Among his eccentric though strictly principled group of friends, Lord Richard Vane is the confidant on whom everyone depends for advice, moral rectitude, and discreet assistance. Yet when Richard has a problem, he turns to his valet, a fixer of unparalleled genius¡ªand the object of Richard¡¯s deepest desires. If there is one rule a gentleman must follow, it is never to dally with servants. But when David is close enough to touch, the rules of class collide with the basest sort of animal instinct: overpowering lust.
?
For David Cyprian, burglary and blackmail are as much in a day¡¯s work as bootblacking¡ªanything for the man he¡¯s devoted to. But the one thing he wants for himself is the one thing Richard refuses to give: his heart. With the tension between them growing to be unbearable, David¡¯s seemingly incorruptible master has left him no choice. Putting his finely honed skills of seduction and manipulation to good use, he will convince Richard to forget all about his well-meaning objections and give in to sweet, sinful temptation.
?
Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.]]> 246 K.J. Charles 1101886072 Jenne 4 romance 4.21 2016 A Gentleman's Position (Society of Gentlemen, #3)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2021/05/04
date added: 2021/05/04
shelves: romance
review:

]]> The Startup Wife 55711675 Newlyweds Asha and Cyrus build an app that replaces religious rituals and soon find themselves running one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.

Meet Asha Ray.

Brilliant coder and possessor of a Pi tattoo, Asha is poised to revolutionize artificial intelligence when she is reunited with her high school crush, Cyrus Jones.

Cyrus inspires Asha to write a new algorithm. Before she knows it, she¡¯s abandoned her PhD program, they¡¯ve exchanged vows, and gone to work at an exclusive tech incubator called Utopia.

The platform creates a sensation, with millions of users seeking personalized rituals every day. Will Cyrus and Asha¡¯s marriage survive the pressures of sudden fame, or will she become overshadowed by the man everyone is calling the new messiah?

In this gripping, blistering novel, award-winning author Tahmima Anam takes on faith and the future with a gimlet eye and a deft touch. Come for the radical vision of human connection, stay for the wickedly funny feminist look at startup culture and modern partnership. Can technology¡ªwith all its limits and possibilities¡ªdisrupt love?]]> 304 Tahmima Anam 198215618X Jenne 3 arc 3.51 2021 The Startup Wife
author: Tahmima Anam
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/28
date added: 2021/04/28
shelves: arc
review:

]]> <![CDATA[BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes]]> 3717673
Follow kitchen sleuth Shirley Corriher as she solves everything about why the cookie crumbles. With her years of experience from big-pot cooking at a boarding school and her classic French culinary training to her work as a research biochemist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Shirley looks at all aspects of baking in a unique and exciting way. She describes useful techniques, such as brushing your puff pastry with ice water¡ªnot just brushing off the flour¡ªto make the pastry higher, lighter, and flakier. She can help you make moist cakes; shrink-proof perfect meringues; big, crisp cream puffs; amazing pastries; and crusty, incredibly flavorful, open-textured French breads, such as baguettes.

Restaurant chefs and culinary students know Shirley from their grease-splattered copies of CookWise , an encyclopedic work that has saved them from many a cooking disaster. With numerous ¡°At-a-Glance¡± charts, BakeWise gives busy people information for quick problem solving. BakeWise also includes Shirley's signature ¡°What This Recipe Shows¡± in every recipe. This scientific and culinary information can apply to hundreds of recipes, not just the one in which it appears.

BakeWise does not have just a single source of knowledge; Shirley loves reading the works of chefs and other good cooks and shares their tips with you, too. She applies not only her expertise but that of the many artisans she admires, such as famous French pastry chefs Gaston Len?tre and Chef Roland Mesnier, the White House pastry chef for twenty-five years; and Bruce Healy, author of Mastering the Art of French Pastry . Shirley also retrieves "lost arts" from experts of the past such as Monroe Boston Strause, the pie master of 1930s America. For one dish, she may give you techniques from three or four different chefs plus her own touch of science¡ª¡°better baking through chemistry.¡± She adds facts such as the right temperature, the right mixing speed, and the right mixing time for the absolutely most stable egg foam, so you can create a light-as-air g¨¦noise every time.

Beginners can cook from BakeWise to learn exactly what they are doing and why. Experienced bakers find out why the techniques they use work and also uncover amazing pastries from the past, such as Pont Neuf (a creation of puff pastry, p?te ¨¤ choux, and pastry cream) and Religieuses, adorable ¡°little nuns¡± made of puff pastry filled with a satiny chocolate pastry cream and drizzled with mocha icing.

Some will want it simply for the recipes¡ªincredibly moist whipped cream pound cake made with heavy cream; flourless fruit souffl¨¦s; chocolate crinkle cookies with gooey, fudgy centers; huge popovers; famed biscuits. But this book belongs on every baker's shelf.]]> 544 Shirley O. Corriher 1416560785 Jenne 0 currently-reading, nonfiction 4.31 2003 BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes
author: Shirley O. Corriher
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/27
shelves: currently-reading, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting (Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune, #1)]]> 56239247
Until Robin sets his sights on Sir John Hartlebury's heiress niece. The notoriously graceless baronet isn't impressed by good looks, or fooled by false charm. He's sure Robin is a liar¡ªa fortune hunter, a card sharp, and a heartless, greedy fraud¡ªand he'll protect his niece, whatever it takes.

Then, just when Hart thinks he has Robin at his mercy, things take a sharp left turn. And as the grumpy baronet and the glib fortune hunter start to understand each other, they also find themselves starting to care¡ªmore than either of them thought possible.

But Robin's cheated and lied and let people down for money. Can a professional rogue earn an honest happy ever after?]]> 244 K.J. Charles 1912688212 Jenne 4 romance 4.12 2021 The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting (Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune, #1)
author: K.J. Charles
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/24
date added: 2021/04/26
shelves: romance
review:

]]> Early Morning Riser 53489729 A wise, bighearted, boundlessly joyful novel of love, disaster, and unconventional family

Jane falls in love with Duncan easily. He is charming, good-natured, and handsome but unfortunately, he has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan¡¯s old girlfriends everywhere¨Cat restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away.

While Jane may be able to come to terms with dating the world¡¯s most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she did not have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, a woman with shiny hair and pale milkmaid skin, still has Duncan mow her lawn. His coworker, Jimmy, comes and goes from Duncan¡¯s apartment at the most inopportune times. Sometimes Jane wonders if a relationship can even work with three people in it¨Cnever mind four. Five if you count Aggie¡¯s eccentric husband, Gary. Not to mention all the other residents of Boyne City, who freely share with Jane their opinions of her choices.

But any notion Jane had of love and marriage changes with one terrible car crash. Soon Jane¡¯s life is permanently intertwined with Duncan¡¯s, Aggie¡¯s, and Jimmy¡¯s, and Jane knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But could it be possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of Jane¡¯s eyes? A novel that is alternately bittersweet and laugh-out-loud funny, Katherine Heiny¡¯s Early Morning Riser is her most astonishingly wonderful work to date.]]> 320 Katherine Heiny 052565934X Jenne 4 arc 3.51 2021 Early Morning Riser
author: Katherine Heiny
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/26
date added: 2021/04/26
shelves: arc
review:
Compelling and quirky, with lots of good food.
]]> <![CDATA[A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Mary Russell #2)]]> 64495 Beaconsfield introduces Russell to the New Temple of God, led by the enigmatic, electrifying Margery Childe. Part suffragette, part mystic, she lives quite well for a woman of God from supposedly humble origins.

Despite herself, Russell is drawn ever deeper into Childe¡¯s circle. When Veronica has a near-fatal accident¨Cand turns out to be the fourth bluestocking in the group to meet with misadventure after changing her will¨CRussell and Holmes launch a quiet investigation. But the Temple may bring the newly rich Russell far closer to heaven than she would like.¡­]]> 336 Laurie R. King 0553574566 Jenne 4 3.98 1995 A Monstrous Regiment of Women (Mary Russell #2)
author: Laurie R. King
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Band Sinister 39345944
Guy Frisby and his sister Amanda live in rural seclusion after a family scandal. But when Amanda breaks her leg in a riding accident, she¡¯s forced to recuperate at Rookwood Hall, where Sir Philip is hosting the Murder.

Guy rushes to protect her, but the Murder aren¡¯t what he expects. They¡¯re educated, fascinating people, and the notorious Sir Philip turns out to be charming, kind¡ªand dangerously attractive.

In this private space where anything goes, the longings Guy has stifled all his life are impossible to resist...and so is Philip. But all too soon the rural rumour mill threatens both Guy and Amanda. The innocent country gentleman has lost his heart to the bastard baronet¡ªbut does he dare lose his reputation too?]]> 224 K.J. Charles Jenne 3 romance 4.19 2018 Band Sinister
author: K.J. Charles
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/04/15
date added: 2021/04/15
shelves: romance
review:

]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 29245354 One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize¨Cwinning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buend¨ªa family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buend¨ªa family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth¡ªthese universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.]]> 15 Gabriel Garc¨ªa M¨¢rquez 1483086852 Jenne 4 audiobook 3.41 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel Garc¨ªa M¨¢rquez
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.41
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at: 2021/04/15
date added: 2021/04/15
shelves: audiobook
review:

]]> Project Hail Mary 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn¡¯t know that. He can¡¯t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he¡¯s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he¡¯s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it¡¯s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery¡ªand conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he¡¯s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Jenne 0 arc, didnt-finish 4.49 2021 Project Hail Mary
author: Andy Weir
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/14
shelves: arc, didnt-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Trade Deadline (Hat Trick, #3)]]> 48999098
Don¡¯t miss this friends-to-lovers hockey romance from Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn.

Daniel ¡°Bellzie¡± Bellamy should be on top of the world¡ªa Stanley Cup is the perfect topper to his fourteen-year NHL career. But despite the post-win high, something¡¯s missing. When the chance to play for his hometown team, the Miami Thunder, comes along, he¡¯s open to it. And when he runs into an old friend from his past soon after he makes the move, he wonders if it might be kismet.

Micah Kelly never thought he¡¯d see his childhood crush¡ªand first kiss¡ªagain. Danny Bellamy moved on to bigger and better things when they were teenagers, and the idea that Micah¡¯s relationship with the professional hockey player could be anything more than one-sided Instagram thirst seems too good to be true.

Maybe too good to be true is the new reality, though. As the season goes on, Micah teaches Daniel to surf, and Daniel introduces Micah to his lovable pack of rescue dogs and the world of being a hockey boyfriend. Life is good. But when things on the ice don¡¯t go as planned, they¡¯ll have to decide if their rediscovered romance is built to last.
]]> 304 Avon Gale 1488053952 Jenne 2 romance 3.49 2020 Trade Deadline (Hat Trick, #3)
author: Avon Gale
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2021/04/12
date added: 2021/04/14
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Goalie Interference (Hat Trick, #2)]]> 43263028 It¡¯s goalie vs. goalie in this brand-new enemies-to-lovers hockey romance from Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn¡­

Ryu Mori has had a stellar season as goalie for the Atlanta Venom. So when he¡¯s called into management¡¯s office, he¡¯s expecting to hear he¡¯s the new starting goalie for the team, not that some new guy¡ªan incredibly hot, annoyingly bratty rookie¡ªis here to compete for his spot.

Not everyone gets to play in the best league in the world. Emmitt Armstrong knows that, and he¡¯s not about to waste the opportunity after grinding his way from the bottom to the top. If the Venom is looking for a meek, mild-mannered pushover, they¡¯ve got the wrong guy.

Ryu doesn¡¯t want to admit the other goalie¡¯s smart mouth turns him on. Beating Armstrong at practice feels good, sure, but there are other, more fun ways to shut his rival up.

In this league, it¡¯s winner takes all. But there¡¯s more to life than winning, and if Emmitt and Ryu can get past their egos and competitive natures, they might just discover they work better as partners than they ever imagined possible.

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 72,000 words]]> 304 Avon Gale 1488053804 Jenne 2 romance 3.67 2019 Goalie Interference (Hat Trick, #2)
author: Avon Gale
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2021/04/11
date added: 2021/04/14
shelves: romance
review:

]]> Off the Ice (Hat Trick, #1) 35482402
Sebastian is on the bottom rung of the Sociology Department at Georgia State. He has his sights set on tenure, and he can¡¯t afford to be distracted, especially not by a sexy student with a body straight out of Sebastian¡¯s dreams. No matter how much Tristan tempts him, that¡¯s one line Sebastian won¡¯t cross. At least not until summer classes end. After that, everything is fair game.

But Sebastian lives loud and proud, and Tristan is terrified of being the first out player in the NHL. Neither of them can afford to risk their hearts when they can¡¯t imagine a happily ever after. The problem is, unlike hockey, when it comes to love, there are no rules.]]> 275 Avon Gale 1626496617 Jenne 2 romance 3.63 2017 Off the Ice (Hat Trick, #1)
author: Avon Gale
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2021/04/08
date added: 2021/04/08
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 9 (A Bride's Story, #9)]]> 34523231
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori's pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heart-warming, slice-of-life tale that is at once wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the characters she has created.]]> 228 Kaoru Mori 0316562629 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.50 2016 A Bride's Story, Vol. 9 (A Bride's Story, #9)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[ÒÒ¼ÞÕZ¤ê 8 [Otoyomegatari 8] (A Bride's Story, #8)]]> 28230509
¥¢¥ß¥ë¤ÎÓÑÈ˥ѥê¥ä¤Ë¤È¤Ã¤Æ¡¢Ä¿Ï¤ΤȤ³¤íšÝ¤Ë¤Ê¤ë¤Î¤Ï½á»éÏàÊÖ¡£
ÂÊÖ±¤¹¤®¤ëÐÔ¸ñ¤¬ÔÖ¤¤¤·¤Æ¤«¡¢¤Ê¤«¤Ê¤«¿F̸¤¬¤Þ¤È¤Þ¤é¤Ê¤¤ÈÕ¡©¡£
¤½¤ó¤Ê¥Ñ¥ê¥ä¤Ë¤â×î½ü¡¢šÝ¤Ë¤Ê¤ëÏàÊÖ¤¬¤Ç¤­¤¿¤è¤¦¤Ç¡­¡­¡£
µÚ5¤ÎÒÒ¼Þ(¤ª¤È¤è¤á)¤ÏÈ˚ݤθߤ¤¥Ñ¥ê¥ä¤µ¤ó¤ÎÎïÓï!
¹û¤¿¤·¤Æ¥Ñ¥ê¥ä¤Ï½Y»é¤Ç¤­¤ë¤Î¤«!? °µü\ÆÚ¤«¤é’i¤±³ö¤»¤ë¤Î¤«!?
ÓƾäδóµØ?ÖÐÑ륢¥¸¥¢¤òÎę̀¤ËÃ褯¥Ö¥é¥¤¥É?¥¹¥È©`¥ê©`¡ºÒÒ¼ÞÓï¤ê¡»¡¢±§¸¹½~µ¹¤ÎµÚ8Ž†!±Õ±Õ> 192 Kaoru Mori 4047307823 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.46 2015 ÒÒ¼ÞÕZ¤ê 8 [Otoyomegatari 8] (A Bride's Story, #8)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/05
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> Moby-Dick; or, the Whale 7847 "WHAT'S THE USE OF ELABORATING what, in its very essence, is so short-lived as a modern book? Though I wrote the Gospels in this century, I should die in the gutter." --Herman Melville, in a letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1851

ONE HUNDRED FIFTY YEARS HAVE passed since Herman Melville wrote his masterpiece. Yet Moby-Dick endures as an indisputable literary classic that continues to speak to readers today. Join Captain Ahab, an eerily compelling madman, as he pursues an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. In his monomaniacal quest, Ahab focuses his distilled hatred and suffering--and that of generations before him--against one single creature, and pursues it relentlessly.

More than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, this is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most unforgettable and enduring characters in literature. Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is a profound and timeless inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.]]> 625 Herman Melville 0142000086 Jenne 0 currently-reading 4.14 1851 Moby-Dick; or, the Whale
author: Herman Melville
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1851
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Goldilocks 52257262 The Earth is in environmental collapse. The future of humanity hangs in the balance. But a team of women are preparing to save it. Even if they¡¯ll need to steal a spaceship to do it.

Despite increasing restrictions on the freedoms of women on Earth, Valerie Black is spearheading the first all-female mission to a planet in the Goldilocks Zone, where conditions are just right for human habitation.

The team is humanity's last hope for survival, and Valerie has gathered the best women for the mission: an ace pilot who is one of the only astronauts ever to have gone to Mars; a brilliant engineer tasked with keeping the ship fully operational; and an experienced doctor to keep the crew alive. And then there's Naomi Lovelace, Valerie's surrogate daughter and the ship's botanist, who has been waiting her whole life for an opportunity to step out of Valerie's shadow and make a difference.

The problem is that they¡¯re not the authorized crew, even if Valerie was the one to fully plan the voyage. When their mission is stolen from them, they steal the ship bound for the new planet.

But when things start going wrong on board, Naomi begins to suspect that someone is concealing a terrible secret -- and realizes time for life on Earth may be running out faster than they feared . . .

Goldilocks is a bold and thought-provoking new thriller for readers of The Martian and The Handmaid's Tale.]]> 352 L.R. Lam 1472267648 Jenne 2 sf, trapped-together 3.69 2020 Goldilocks
author: L.R. Lam
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2021/04/02
date added: 2021/04/02
shelves: sf, trapped-together
review:

]]> Kate in Waiting 48579405 From bestselling YA rom-com queen Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda (Love, Simon), comes a new novel about daring to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight in love, life and, yes, theatre.

Contrary to popular belief, best friends Kate Garfield and Anderson Walker are not codependent. Carpooling to and from theatre rehearsals? Environmentally sound and efficient. Consulting each other on every single life decision? Basic good judgment. Pining for the same guys from afar? Shared crushes are more fun anyway.

But when Kate and Andy's latest long-distance crush shows up at their school, everything goes off-script. Matt Olsson is talented and sweet, and Kate likes him. She really likes him. The only problem? So does Anderson.

Turns out, communal crushes aren't so fun when real feelings are involved. This one might even bring the curtains down on Kate and Anderson's friendship.]]> 387 Becky Albertalli 0062643835 Jenne 0 to-read 3.80 2021 Kate in Waiting
author: Becky Albertalli
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rakess (Society of Sirens, #1)]]> 49978975 Meet the SOCIETY OF SIRENS¡ªthree radical, libertine ladies determined to weaponize their scandalous reputations to fight for justice and the love they deserve¡­

She's a Rakess on a quest for women's rights¡­

Seraphina Arden's passions include equality, amorous affairs, and wild, wine-soaked nights. To raise funds for her cause, she's set to publish explosive memoirs exposing the powerful man who ruined her. Her ideals are her purpose, her friends are her family, and her paramours are forbidden to linger in the morning.

He's not looking for a summer lover¡­

Adam Anderson is a wholesome, handsome, widowed Scottish architect, with two young children, a business to protect, and an aversion to scandal. He could never, ever afford to fall for Seraphina. But her indecent proposal¡ªone month, no strings, no future¡ªproves too tempting for a man who strains to keep his passions buried with the losses of his past.

But one night changes everything...

What began as a fling soon forces them to confront painful secrets¡ªand yearnings they thought they'd never have again. But when Seraphina discovers Adam's future depends on the man she's about to destroy, she must decide what to protect¡­her desire for justice, or her heart.]]> 400 Scarlett Peckham 0062935615 Jenne 3 romance 3.78 2020 The Rakess (Society of Sirens, #1)
author: Scarlett Peckham
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/29
date added: 2021/03/29
shelves: romance
review:

]]> Tweet Cute 45045129 Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming ¨D mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly running Big League Burger¡¯s massive Twitter account.

Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper¡¯s side. When he isn¡¯t trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin¡¯s shadow, he¡¯s busy working in his family¡¯s deli. His relationship with the business that holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma¡¯s iconic grilled cheese recipe, he¡¯ll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time.

All¡¯s fair in love and cheese ¨D that is, until Pepper and Jack¡¯s spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they¡¯re publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they¡¯re also falling for each other in real life ¨D on an anonymous chat app Jack built.

As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate ¨D people on the internet are shipping them?? ¨D their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can¡¯t ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected.

A fresh, irresistible rom-com from debut author Emma Lord about the chances we take, the paths life can lead us on, and how love can be found in the opposite place you expected.]]> 368 Emma Lord 1250237327 Jenne 4 ya 3.87 2020 Tweet Cute
author: Emma Lord
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/26
date added: 2021/03/26
shelves: ya
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers, #4)]]> 50209317
At the Five-Hop One-Stop, long-haul spacers can stretch their legs (if they have legs, that is), and get fuel, transit permits, and assorted supplies. The Five-Hop is run by an enterprising alien and her sometimes helpful child, who work hard to provide a little piece of home to everyone passing through.

When a freak technological failure halts all traffic to and from Gora, three strangers¡ªall different species with different aims¡ªare thrown together at the Five-Hop. Grounded, with nothing to do but wait, the trio¡ªan exiled artist with an appointment to keep, a cargo runner at a personal crossroads, and a mysterious individual doing her best to help those on the fringes¡ªare compelled to confront where they¡¯ve been, where they might go, and what they are, or could be, to each other.]]> 336 Becky Chambers 0062936050 Jenne 4 arc, sf 4.38 2021 The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers, #4)
author: Becky Chambers
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/21
date added: 2021/03/21
shelves: arc, sf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me]]> 40864841 All Freddy Riley wants is for Laura Dean to stop breaking up with her.

The day they got together was the best one of Freddy's life, but nothing's made sense since. Laura Dean is popular, funny, and SO CUTE ... but she can be really thoughtless, even mean. Their on-again, off-again relationship has Freddy's head spinning ¡ª and Freddy's friends can't understand why she keeps going back.

When Freddy consults the services of a local mystic, the mysterious Seek-Her, she isn't thrilled with the advice she receives. But something's got to give: Freddy's heart is breaking in slow motion, and she may be about to lose her very best friend as well as her last shred of self-respect. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnist Anna Vice, to help her through being a teenager in love.

Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O'Connell bring to life a sweet and spirited tale of young love that asks us to consider what happens when we ditch the toxic relationships we crave to embrace the healthy ones we need.]]> 289 Mariko Tamaki 1250312841 Jenne 4 graphic-novel 3.86 2019 Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me
author: Mariko Tamaki
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/20
date added: 2021/03/21
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 7 (A Bride's Story, #7)]]> 25602608
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori's pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heart-warming, slice-of-life tale that is at once wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the characters she has created.]]> 192 Kaoru Mori 0316348937 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.13 2015 A Bride's Story, Vol. 7 (A Bride's Story, #7)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2021/03/19
date added: 2021/03/21
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> H is for Hawk 18803640
When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel for ?800 on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk food and unplugs the phone, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.

Destined to be a classic of nature writing, "H is for Hawk" is a record of a spiritual journey - an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. At the same time, it's a kaleidoscopic biography of the brilliant and troubled novelist T. H. White, best known for "The Once and Future King." It's a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to try to reconcile death with life and love.]]> 300 Helen Macdonald 0224097008 Jenne 0 to-read 3.73 2014 H is for Hawk
author: Helen Macdonald
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Five Dysfunctions of a Team]]> 21343 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two best-selling books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams.

Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech's CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Will she succeed? Will she be fired? Will the company fail? Lencioni's utterly gripping tale serves as a timeless reminder that leadership requires as much courage as it does insight.

Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. Just as with his other books, Lencioni has written a compelling fable with a powerful yet deceptively simple message for all those who strive to be exceptional team leaders.]]> 228 Patrick Lencioni 0787960756 Jenne 3 nonfiction 4.09 2002 The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
author: Patrick Lencioni
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/17
date added: 2021/03/17
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Let's Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower]]> 53330230 A game-changing model for giving effective feedback to peers, employees, or even your boss--without offending or demotivating.

How are you supposed to tell someone that they're not meeting expectations without crushing their spirit? Regular feedback, when delivered skillfully, can turn average performers into the hardest workers and stars into superstars. Yet many see it as an awkward chore: Recent studies have revealed 37% of managers dread giving feedback, and 65% of employees wish their managers gave more feedback.

This trail-blazing new model eliminates the guesswork. Dr. Therese Huston, the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Seattle University, discovered that the key to being listened to is to listen. First, find out what kind of feedback an employee wants most: appreciation, coaching, or evaluation. If they crave one, they'll be more receptive once their need has been satisfied. Then Huston lays out counterintuitive strategies for delivering each type of feedback successfully, including:

- Start by saying your good intentions out loud: it may feel unnecessary, but it makes all the difference.
- Side with the person, not the problem: a bad habit or behavior probably is probably less entrenched than you think.
- Give reports a chance to correct inaccurate feedback: they want an opportunity to talk more than they want you to be a good talker.

This handbook will make a once-stressful ordeal feel natural, and, by greasing the wheels of regular feedback conversations, help managers improve performance, trust, and mutual understanding.]]> 304 Therese Huston 0593086627 Jenne 3 nonfiction 4.26 Let's Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower
author: Therese Huston
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/16
date added: 2021/03/16
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Three Bags Full (Sheep Detective Story, #1)]]> 779463
On a hillside near the cozy Irish village of Glennkill, a flock of sheep gathers around their shepherd, George, whose body lies pinned to the ground with a spade. George has cared devotedly for the flock, even reading them books every night. Led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world), they set out to find George¡¯s killer.

The A-team of investigators includes Othello, the ¡°bad-boy¡± black ram; Mopple the Whale, a Merino who eats a lot and remembers everything; and Zora, a pensive black-faced ewe with a weakness for abysses. Joined by other members of the richly talented flock, they engage in nightlong discussions about the crime, wild metaphysical speculations, and embark on reconnaissance missions into the village, where they encounter some likely suspects. Along the way, the sheep confront their own all-too-human struggles with guilt, misdeeds, and unrequited love.
Funny, fresh, and endearing, it introduces a wonderful new breed of detectives to the reader.]]> 341 Leonie Swann 038566379X Jenne 4 mystery 3.63 2005 Three Bags Full (Sheep Detective Story, #1)
author: Leonie Swann
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/10
date added: 2021/03/12
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All, #1)]]> 55277878 Following the recipe is the key to a successful bake. Rosaline Palmer has always lived by those rules¡ªwell, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she¡¯s teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there¡¯s a whisk there¡¯s a way . . . and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation¡¯s most beloved baking show.

Winning the prize money would give her daughter the life she deserves¡ªand Rosaline is determined to stick to the instructions. However, more than collapsing trifles stand between Rosaline and sweet, sweet victory.? Suave, well-educated, and parent-approved Alain Pope knows all the right moves to sweep her off her feet, but it¡¯s shy electrician Harry Dobson who makes Rosaline question her long-held beliefs¡ªabout herself, her family, and her desires.

Rosaline fears falling for Harry is a guaranteed recipe for disaster. Yet as the competition¡ªand the ovens¡ªheat up, Rosaline starts to realize the most delicious bakes come from the heart.]]> 435 Alexis Hall 1538703327 Jenne 4 romance 3.96 2021 Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All, #1)
author: Alexis Hall
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/28
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[ÒÒ¼ÞÕZ¤ê 6 [Otoyomegatari 6] (A Bride's Story, #6)]]> 18689133
Ó¢¹úÈË¥¹¥ß¥¹¤È°¸ÄÚÈË¥¢¥ê¤¬¡¢¥¢¥ó¥«¥é¤Ø¤ÎÂäò¾A¤±¤ëÇê¡£
¥¢¥ß¥ë¤ÎÐÖ¡¢¥¢¥¼¥ë¤Ï¿à˜¤·¤Æ¤¤¤¿¡£Éú¤­²Ð¤ë¤¿¤á¤Ë¡¢¥«¥ë¥ë¥¯¤Î´å¤òÂԶ᤹¤ë¤È¾ö¤á¤¿Ç××夿¤Á¡£
¤½¤Î±³ºó¤Ë¤Ï¡¢¤Ä¤Ö¤·ºÏ¤¤¤ò¾Ñ¤¦¥í¥·¥¢¤Î˼»ó¤¬¼û¤¨ëL¤ì¤¹¤ë¡£
Ò»×å¤Ø¤ÎÖÒ³ÏÐĤȡ¢ÃÃ¥¢¥ß¥ë¤Ø¤Î°®Çé¡¢¤Õ¤¿¤Ä¤Î°åЮ¤ß¤Î¤Ê¤«¤Ç¡¢¥¢¥¼¥ë¤¬¾ö¤á¤¿¡¸Õý¤·¤¤Ñ¡’k¡¹¤È¤Ï¡­¡­?
Ç°Ž†¤Þ¤Ç¤Î¥é¥Ö?¥³¥á¥Ç¥£©`¤«¤éһܞ¡¢È«±à¤Ë¶É¤Ã¤Æ¥¢¥¯¥·¥ç¥óÃè䤬ƒê¤¨¶É¤ë¡¢‘éêLȺÏñ¤Î¡ºÒÒ¼ÞÓï¤ê¡»µÚ6Ž†!±Õ±Õ> 200 Kaoru Mori 4047293962 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.48 2014 ÒÒ¼ÞÕZ¤ê 6 [Otoyomegatari 6] (A Bride's Story, #6)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/26
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 3 (A Bride's Story, #3)]]> 12413203
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori¡¯s pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heartwarming, slice-of-life tale that is at once both wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the rich characters she has created.]]> 208 Kaoru Mori 031621034X Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.28 2011 A Bride's Story, Vol. 3 (A Bride's Story, #3)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/22
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 4 (A Bride's Story, #4)]]> 15744161
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori¡¯s pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heartwarming, slice-of-life tale that is at once both wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the rich characters she has created.]]> 192 Kaoru Mori 0316232033 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.27 2012 A Bride's Story, Vol. 4 (A Bride's Story, #4)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/23
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 5 (A Bride's Story, #5)]]> 18129480
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori's pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heart-warming, slice-of-life tale that is at once wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the characters she has created.]]> 208 Kaoru Mori 0316243094 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.32 2013 A Bride's Story, Vol. 5 (A Bride's Story, #5)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/24
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Spoiler Alert (Spoiler Alert, #1)]]> 50496918
April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she¡¯s long hidden her fanfic and cosplay hobbies from her ¡°real life¡±¡ªbut not anymore. When she dares to post her latest costume creation on Twitter, her plus-size take goes viral. And when Marcus asks her out to spite her internet critics, truth officially becomes stranger than fanfiction.

On their date, Marcus quickly realizes he wants more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. But when he discovers she¡¯s Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to keep from her.

With love and Marcus¡¯s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?]]> 409 Olivia Dade 0063005549 Jenne 3 romance 3.64 2020 Spoiler Alert (Spoiler Alert, #1)
author: Olivia Dade
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2021/02/28
shelves: romance
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)]]> 45023240
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion¡ªall while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret¡ªone that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life¡ªor rescue it from annihilation.]]> 16 Arkady Martine Jenne 4 audiobook, sf 3.92 2019 A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
author: Arkady Martine
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/18
date added: 2021/02/18
shelves: audiobook, sf
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Witness for the Dead (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #1)]]> 41302953 Katherine Addison returns to the glittering world she created for her beloved novel, 'The Goblin Emperor', in this stand-alone sequel.

When the young half-goblin emperor Maia sought to learn who had killed his father and half-brothers, he turned to an obscure resident of his Court, a Prelate of Ulis and a Witness for the Dead. Thara Celehar found the truth, though it did him no good to discover it. He lost his place as a retainer of his cousin the former Empress, and made far too many enemies among the many factions vying for power in the new Court. The favor of the Emperor is a dangerous coin.

Now Celehar lives in the city of Amalo, far from the Court though not exactly in exile. He has not escaped from politics, but his position gives him the ability to serve the common people of the city, which is his preference. He lives modestly, but his decency and fundamental honesty will not permit him to live quietly. As a Witness for the Dead, he can, sometimes, speak to the recently dead: see the last thing they saw, know the last thought they had, experience the last thing they felt. it is his duty to use that ability to resolve disputes, to ascertain the intent of the dead, to find the killers of the murdered.

Celehar's skills now lead him out of the quiet and into a morass of treachery, murder, and injustice. No matter his own background with the imperial house, Celehar will stand with the commoners, and possibly find a light in the darkness.]]> 240 Katherine Addison 0765387441 Jenne 4 arc, fantasy 4.11 2021 The Witness for the Dead (The Cemeteries of Amalo, #1)
author: Katherine Addison
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/16
date added: 2021/02/18
shelves: arc, fantasy
review:

]]> Mexican Gothic 53152636
Noem¨ª 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 Noem¨ª; 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 Noem¨ª, 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 Noem¨ª digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And Noem¨ª, 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 Jenne 3 horror 3.66 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/09
date added: 2021/02/09
shelves: horror
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Disney Costuming: Heroes, Villains, and Spaces Between (Disney Editions Deluxe)]]> 43522534 Cinderella has been reimagined. Each project has brought with it inherent cultural challenges when bringing a familiar and beloved tale to life again and again, and all have yielded stunning and distinct results. At last, the full galleries (organized by the character archetypes of heroes and villains, and those complex, always interesting, "spaces between") showcase costumes across more than thirty Disney films. At each turn, this volume offers a one-of-a-kind backstage view of remarkable works of art, and it inspires a true appreciation for the highly skilled and talented costumers who created them.]]> 176 Jeff Kurtti 1484741226 Jenne 4 nonfiction 4.29 2019 The Art of Disney Costuming: Heroes, Villains, and Spaces Between (Disney Editions Deluxe)
author: Jeff Kurtti
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/04
date added: 2021/02/04
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Awakening (The Dragon Heart Legacy, #1)]]> 49127421 In the realm of Talamh, a teenage warrior named Keegan emerges from a lake holding a sword¡ªrepresenting both power and the terrifying responsibility to protect the Fey. In another realm known as Philadelphia, a young woman has just discovered she possesses a treasure of her own¡­

When Breen Kelly was a girl, her father would tell her stories of magical places. Now she¡¯s an anxious twentysomething mired in student debt and working a job she hates. But one day she stumbles upon a shocking discovery: her mother has been hiding an investment account in her name. It has been funded by her long-lost father¡ªand it¡¯s worth nearly four million dollars.

This newfound fortune would be life-changing for anyone. But little does Breen know that when she uses some of the money to journey to Ireland, it will unlock mysteries she couldn¡¯t have imagined. Here, she will begin to understand why she kept seeing that silver-haired, elusive man, why she imagined his voice in her head saying Come home, Breen Siobhan. It¡¯s time you came home. Why she dreamed of dragons. And where her true destiny lies¡ªthrough a portal in Galway that takes her to a land of faeries and mermaids, to a man named Keegan, and to the courage in her own heart that will guide her through a powerful, dangerous destiny¡­]]> 435 Nora Roberts 1250272610 Jenne 0 didnt-finish 4.05 2020 The Awakening (The Dragon Heart Legacy, #1)
author: Nora Roberts
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/04
shelves: didnt-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 2 (A Bride's Story, #2)]]> 10954336
Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori¡¯s pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heartwarming, slice-of-life tale that is at once both wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the rich characters she has created.]]> 196 Kaoru Mori 0316194468 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.35 2010 A Bride's Story, Vol. 2 (A Bride's Story, #2)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/21
date added: 2021/01/05
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Our Rainbow Queen: A Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and Her Colorful Wardrobe]]> 44279313 A full-spectrum collection of photos of the Queen, paired with illuminating captions explaining each outfit, spanning nine decades of fashion and every color of the rainbow.

This riotously colorful book takes a photographic journey through Queen Elizabeth II's ten decades of color-blocked style. The photographs, which span the colors of the rainbow and a century of style, are gloriously accessorized with captions and commentary by journalist and broadcaster Sali Hughes, who gives fascinating context to each photo. Readers will learn how the Queen has used color and fashion in strategic and discreetly political ways, such as wearing the colors of the European flag to a post-Brexit meeting or a pin given to her by the Obamas to a meeting with Donald Trump.

With stunning photographs that span from the 1950s to today, and featuring brilliant colors ranging from the dusky pinks the Queen wore in girlhood through to the neon green dress that prompted the hashtag #NeonAt90, this must-have collection celebrates the iconic fashion statements of the UK's longest reigning and most vibrant monarch.]]> 208 Sali Hughes 0593086252 Jenne 4 nonfiction 4.25 2019 Our Rainbow Queen: A Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and Her Colorful Wardrobe
author: Sali Hughes
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/08/28
date added: 2021/01/05
shelves: nonfiction
review:
Not going to change anyone's life or anything, but it's delightful in its very specific way!
]]> <![CDATA[Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour]]> 288448
Through a mixture of anthropological analysis and her own unorthodox experiments (using herself as a reluctant guinea-pig), Kate Fox discovers what these unwritten behaviour codes tell us about Englishness.]]> 424 Kate Fox 0340752122 Jenne 4 In a lot of ways, this book did what I wished Snoop:what your stuff says about you had done. The descriptions of what things like your garden plants say about your social class were priceless.]]> 3.91 2004 Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour
author: Kate Fox
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2008/11/21
date added: 2020/12/30
shelves:
review:
This was really a fun read. I haven't spent much time in England, but from the countless novels and movies that are set there, her observations seem pretty legit.
In a lot of ways, this book did what I wished Snoop:what your stuff says about you had done. The descriptions of what things like your garden plants say about your social class were priceless.
]]> Station Eleven 21792828 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization¡¯s collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

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

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band¡¯s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 354 Emily St. John Mandel Jenne 5 "An audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame, and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse"...well that's not untrue exactly but I think it gives you the completely wrong impression.

"Audacious": not sure what is audacious about an apocalypse story, unless you only read literary fiction and have never heard of this idea before?
"darkly glittering": this makes it sound like a cross between Stephen King and Jackie Collins or something, instead of a bittersweet and almost cozy story about the human condition.
"novel": yes it is a novel.
"about art": yes it is about art.
"fame and ambition": it is sort of about fame, but not really. I would say it's not about ambition at all. It's more about things like...what it means to be civilized.
"set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse": also yes, but I don't think "eerie" is the right word at all.

All of that aside, this basically swallowed my entire head. I love stories about the end of civilization "as we know it" and how people deal with that.
(Also, I was reading it on a plane and all I could think was, WHAT IF THIS IS THE LAST TIME I EVER SEE THE EARTH FROM ABOVE??)

I've never heard of this author before (her photo makes her look SUPER annoying but I'm sure that's not her fault) but I'm really curious to see what her other books are like.]]> 4.13 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2014/06/20
date added: 2020/12/23
shelves: arc, fifty-fifty-me-2014, apocalypterature
review:
"An audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame, and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse"...well that's not untrue exactly but I think it gives you the completely wrong impression.

"Audacious": not sure what is audacious about an apocalypse story, unless you only read literary fiction and have never heard of this idea before?
"darkly glittering": this makes it sound like a cross between Stephen King and Jackie Collins or something, instead of a bittersweet and almost cozy story about the human condition.
"novel": yes it is a novel.
"about art": yes it is about art.
"fame and ambition": it is sort of about fame, but not really. I would say it's not about ambition at all. It's more about things like...what it means to be civilized.
"set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse": also yes, but I don't think "eerie" is the right word at all.

All of that aside, this basically swallowed my entire head. I love stories about the end of civilization "as we know it" and how people deal with that.
(Also, I was reading it on a plane and all I could think was, WHAT IF THIS IS THE LAST TIME I EVER SEE THE EARTH FROM ABOVE??)

I've never heard of this author before (her photo makes her look SUPER annoying but I'm sure that's not her fault) but I'm really curious to see what her other books are like.
]]> Hench (Hench, #1) 49867430
?As a temp, she¡¯s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called ¡°hero¡± leaves her badly injured.? And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she¡¯s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing.? And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It¡¯s not too long before she¡¯s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

A sharp, witty, modern debut, Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics.?]]> 403 Natalie Zina Walschots 0062978578 Jenne 5 logistics, sf 3.98 2020 Hench (Hench, #1)
author: Natalie Zina Walschots
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/22
date added: 2020/12/22
shelves: logistics, sf
review:
Takes everything I hate about the superhero genre and turns it inside-out without being dull or preachy. Fun yet satisfying, with excellent sensory descriptions!
]]> <![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 1 (A Bride's Story, #1)]]> 10105459 Emma, Shirley) brings the nineteenth-century Silk Road to lavish life, chronicling the story of Amir Halgal, a young woman from a nomadic tribe betrothed to a twelve-year-old boy eight years her junior. Coping with cultural differences, blossoming feelings for her new husband, and expectations from both her adoptive and birth families, Amir strives to find her role as she settles into a new life and a new home in a society quick to define that role for her.

Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori¡¯s pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heartwarming, slice-of-life tale that is at once both wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the rich characters she has created.]]> 191 Kaoru Mori 0316180998 Jenne 5 graphic-novel 4.24 2009 A Bride's Story, Vol. 1 (A Bride's Story, #1)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/19
date added: 2020/12/21
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The New Pie: Modern Techniques for the Classic American Dessert: A Baking Book]]> 42358753 Create 75 beautiful and unique pies using traditional techniques and modern tools from a couple who has baked their way to the top. IACP AWARD FINALIST ? NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR AND FOOD52Get ready for a new, fresh take on baking the ultimate feel-good pie! In The New Pie, Chris Taylor and Paul Arguin¡ªwinners of more than 500 awards for baking (including the Best of Show Award at the National Pie Championships)¡ªre-examine the wholesome world of pie. Through traditional time-honored techniques, modern cooking methods (like sous vide), innovative flavors (birthday cake; Tahitian pineapple; and mocha "mystery"), and a love for kitchen gadgets (like immersion circulators and silicone texture mats), these legendary competition circuit pie experts reinvent the traditional pastime of pie-making. With step-by-step instructions and playful photography, you'll learn to make groundbreaking creations, including a magnificent Blueberry-Maple Pie with wood-grain lattice, the King Fluffernutter Pie, and a striped chocolate Pie of the Tiger. Whether you are a pie voyeur, new baker, or baking enthusiast you will find inspiration at every turn and pies to satisfy every craving.]]> 266 0525576452 Jenne 4 nonfiction 3.99 2019 The New Pie: Modern Techniques for the Classic American Dessert: A Baking Book
author: Chris Taylor
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/25
date added: 2020/12/09
shelves: nonfiction
review:
I don¡¯t usually count cookbooks in my reading list, but I actually read this straight through from cover to cover!
]]> We Ride Upon Sticks 50215350 Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts (which in 1692 was Salem Village, site of the origins of the Salem Witch Trials), the story follows the Danvers High field hockey team as they discover that the dark impulses of their Salem forebears may be the key to a winning season.

The 1989 Danvers Falcons are on an unaccountable winning streak. Quan Barry weaves together the individual and collective journeys of this enchanted team as they storm their way to the state championship. Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza, whose bleached blond "Claw" sees and knows all, the DHS Falcons prove to be as wily and original as their North of Boston ancestors, flaunting society's stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport.]]> 367 Quan Barry 1524748099 Jenne 4 audiobook 3.78 2020 We Ride Upon Sticks
author: Quan Barry
name: Jenne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/25
date added: 2020/12/08
shelves: audiobook
review:
Cute, and had a better ending than I expected! Lots of late-80s nostalgia which was fun.
]]> <![CDATA[The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles]]> 786621 288 Julie Andrews Edwards 0064403149 Jenne 0 fantasy, jf, didnt-finish 4.31 1974 The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
author: Julie Andrews Edwards
name: Jenne
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/08
shelves: fantasy, jf, didnt-finish
review:

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