Paula's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 03 May 2025 11:33:20 -0700 60 Paula's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Rental House 222267210 Listening Length = 5 hours and 48 minutes

From the award-winning author of Chemistry, a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations

Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,� says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign� wife.

Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?]]> 6 Weike Wang 0593942671 Paula 0 currently-reading 3.15 2024 Rental House
author: Weike Wang
name: Paula
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/03
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]]> Broken Country 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.�

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Paula 0 4.41 2025 Broken Country
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Paula
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/05/03
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]]> Standard Deviation 26198476
Graham Cavanaugh’s second wife, Audra, is everything his first wife was not. She considers herself privileged to live in the age of the hair towel, talks non-stop through her epidural, labour and delivery, invites the doorman to move in and the eccentric members of their son’s Origami Club to Thanksgiving. She is charming and spontaneous and fun but life with her can be exhausting.

In the midst of the day-to-day difficulties and delights of marriage and raising a child with Asperger’s, his first wife, Elspeth, reenters Graham’s life. Former spouses are hard to categorize � are they friends, enemies, old flames, or just people who know you really, really well? Graham starts to wonder: How can anyone love two such different women? Did he make the right choice? Is there a right choice?]]> 322 Katherine Heiny 0008105529 Paula 0 to-read 3.56 2017 Standard Deviation
author: Katherine Heiny
name: Paula
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/02
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]]> The Emperor of Gladness 219848315 Ocean Vuong returns with a big-hearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing � formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness � are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.]]> 416 Ocean Vuong 059383187X Paula 0 to-read 4.34 2025 The Emperor of Gladness
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Paula
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> The Blue Hour 207252770
Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge . . .

A masterful novel that is as page-turning as it is unsettling, The Blue Hour recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith, and cements Hawkins’s place among the very best of our most nuanced and stylish storytellers.]]> 320 Paula Hawkins 0063396521 Paula 0 3.27 2024 The Blue Hour
author: Paula Hawkins
name: Paula
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/30
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]]> <![CDATA[A Sorrowful Sanctuary (Lane Winslow #5)]]> 39210884 384 Iona Whishaw 177151289X Paula 3 4.08 2018 A Sorrowful Sanctuary (Lane Winslow #5)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Another Girl (Kings Lake Investigation #5)]]> 199246482 268 Peter Grainger Paula 5 4.54 2023 Another Girl (Kings Lake Investigation #5)
author: Peter Grainger
name: Paula
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
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This one, in the series was REALLY good!
]]> Heft 13707758 Long Bright River: "A stunningly sad and heroically hopeful tale…This is a beautiful novel about relationships of the most makeshift kind." � O, The Oprah Magazine

Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn’t left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel’s mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur’s. Told with warmth and intelligence through Arthur and Kel’s own quirky and lovable voices, Heft is the story of two improbable heroes whose connection transforms both their lives.]]> 352 Liz Moore 039334388X Paula 0 to-read 4.09 2012 Heft
author: Liz Moore
name: Paula
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/21
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]]> Tilt 214151301 Set over the course of one day, a heart-racing story about a woman facing the unimaginable, determined to find safety

Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, she realizes there’s nothing to do but walk.

Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. She’s determined to change her life if she can just make it home.]]> 229 Emma Pattee 1668055473 Paula 0 to-read 3.70 2025 Tilt
author: Emma Pattee
name: Paula
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> Trust Me if You Dare 51091509 384 Alan Cook Paula 0 to-read 4.10 Trust Me if You Dare
author: Alan Cook
name: Paula
average rating: 4.10
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/19
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]]> <![CDATA[A Mark of Imperfection (DCI Evan Warlow #6)]]> 63236404
The uncomfortable answers lead Evan and the team back to his roots and an old case that has haunted him for years. The deaths in the forest have all the hallmarks of a dangerous killer with no fear of consequences. And when one of Evan’s fellow officers becomes the next target, it’s clear that the murderer isn’t finished yet.

There’s a coppery aroma of vendetta in the air. Unless Evan and the team can get to the root cause of the killer’s twisted anger, there will be more deaths. And guess who’s next on the list?]]> 342 Rhys Dylan 1915185106 Paula 0 to-read 4.61 2023 A Mark of Imperfection (DCI Evan Warlow #6)
author: Rhys Dylan
name: Paula
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Gravely Concerned (DCI Evan Warlow #5)]]> 61941690 Predators watch. They’re patient. And strike when it’s least expected.

In broad daylight, on a quiet rural road, six-year-old Osian Howells disappears from his own front garden. In the blink of an eye he’s a missing person, taken, in the words of a headline hungry press, for nefarious purposes.

DCI Evan Warlow knows that the first hours after an abduction are crucial. Decisions have to be made quickly. Evidence can get lost or compromised, persons of interest need to be interrogated. And one or two have the team’s antennae twitching.

Worse, the abductor’s deviousness seems to know no bounds as cruel taunts pepper the investigation. With emotions at boiling point, and under pressure from family, the press and his superiors are all ‘gravely concerned� for the boy’s welfare.

As always in such cases, the clock is ticking. Warlow and the team need answers and soon, before a kidnapping turns into something infinitely worse.]]> 322 Rhys Dylan 1915185084 Paula 4 4.61 2022 Gravely Concerned (DCI Evan Warlow #5)
author: Rhys Dylan
name: Paula
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/18
date added: 2025/04/18
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]]> The Blue Castle 55955540 257 L.M. Montgomery Paula 3 4.47 1926 The Blue Castle
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: Paula
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1926
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
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]]> <![CDATA[A Lesson In Dying (Inspector Ramsay, #1)]]> 18491160
The school caretaker and his daughter pursue their own route of investigation, which should have made Inspector Ramsay's job a little easier. But hampered by false leads, powerless to pre-empt the killer's next move, and overshadowed by the evil atmosphere of All Hallow's Eve, Ramsay finds his own reputation is on the line...]]> 178 Ann Cleeves Paula 4 3.56 1990 A Lesson In Dying (Inspector Ramsay, #1)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Paula
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder In My Backyard (Inspector Ramsay, #2)]]> 18592125 . . . But here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David’s Eve. And when detective Stephen Ramsay starts asking questions in the village, a more ambiguous picture begins to emerge. Yes, old Mrs. Parry was loved by everyone, but sometimes her kindness had caused trouble. Yes, her two nephews were devoted to her, but they didn’t really want her interfering in their rather complicated personal lives. Even among her neighbours, Alice Parry’s helpfulness had sometimes misfired; and after her death, tension tight as a clenched fist grips the uneasy village.
Meanwhile, the suspects keep rolling in, and Heppleburn’s friendly neighbourhood killer continues his nasty piece of work . . .]]> 258 Ann Cleeves Paula 0 to-read 3.87 1991 Murder In My Backyard (Inspector Ramsay, #2)
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Paula
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Suffer the Dead (DCI Evan Warlow #4)]]> 61142623
Everything points to a botched raid by rustlers, but with no bodies, and little or no clues, the team quickly start chasing their tails. But even a hardened pro like Warlow isn’t prepared for the monstrous truth when, like a rabid sheepdog, it finally sits up and bites him on the leg.]]> 324 Rhys Dylan 1915185068 Paula 3 4.54 2022 Suffer the Dead (DCI Evan Warlow #4)
author: Rhys Dylan
name: Paula
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/11
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]]> Three Days in June 213243949 A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers

]]> 165 Anne Tyler 0593803485 Paula 4 3.61 2025 Three Days in June
author: Anne Tyler
name: Paula
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Death of a Gossip (Hamish Macbeth, #1)]]> 8857
Much is from the viewpoint of a naive secretary seduced by a blue-blood playboy. Icy blond beauty, aristocratic Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, lends a hand.]]> 179 M.C. Beaton 0446607134 Paula 3 3.66 1985 Death of a Gossip (Hamish Macbeth, #1)
author: M.C. Beaton
name: Paula
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/05
date added: 2025/04/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Death of a Cad (Hamish Macbeth, #2)]]> 213472 From the author of the Agatha Raisin television series...DEATH OF A CAD: A Hamish Macbeth MysteryWhen Priscilla Halburton-Smythe brings her London playwright fiancé home to Lochdubh, everybody in town is delighted . . . except for love-smitten Constable Hamish Macbeth. Yet his affairs of the heart will have to wait. Vile, boorish Captain Bartlett, one of the guests at Priscilla's engagement party, has just been found murdered-shot while on a grouse hunt. Now with many titled party guests as the prime suspects, each with a reason for snuffing out the despicable captain, Hamish must smooth ruffled feathers as he investigates the case. When the hidden culprit strikes again, Hamish will find himself trying to save Priscilla from a miserable marriage-and catch a killer before he flies the coop.]]> 214 M.C. Beaton 0446607142 Paula 0 currently-reading 3.80 1987 Death of a Cad (Hamish Macbeth, #2)
author: M.C. Beaton
name: Paula
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/03
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]]> The Other Einstein 28389305 A vivid and mesmerizing novel about the extraordinary woman who married and worked with one of the greatest scientists in history, written by New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict!

In the tradition of The Paris Wife and Mrs. Poe, The Other Einstein offers us a window into a brilliant, fascinating woman whose light was lost in Einstein's enormous shadow. It is the story of Einstein's wife, a brilliant physicist in her own right, whose contribution to the special theory of relativity is hotly debated and may have been inspired by her own profound and very personal insight.

Mitza Maric has always been a little different from other girls. Most twenty-year-olds are wives by now, not studying physics at an elite Zurich university with only male students trying to outdo her clever calculations. But Mitza is smart enough to know that, for her, math is an easier path than marriage. And then fellow student Albert Einstein takes an interest in her, and the world turns sideways. Theirs becomes a partnership of the mind and of the heart, but there might not be room for more than one genius in a marriage.]]> 304 Marie Benedict 1492637254 Paula 0 3.80 2016 The Other Einstein
author: Marie Benedict
name: Paula
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/03
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]]> The Princess of Las Vegas 90587135
Crissy Dowling has created a world that suits her perfectly. She passes her days by the pool in a private cabana, she splurges on ice cream but never gains an ounce, and each evening she transforms into a Princess, performing her musical cabaret inspired by the life of the late Diana Spencer. Some might find her strange or even delusional, an American speaking with a British accent, hair feathered into a style thirty years old, living and working in a casino that has become a dated trash heap. On top of that, Crissy’s daily diet of Adderall and Valium leaves her more than a little tipsy, her Senator boyfriend has gone back to his wife, and her entire career rests on resembling a dead woman. And yet, fans see her for the gifted chameleon she is, showering her with gifts, letters, and standing ovations night after night. But when Crissy’s sister, Betsy, arrives in town with a new boyfriend and a teenage daughter, and when Richie Morley, the owner of the Buckingham Palace Casino, is savagely murdered, Crissy’s carefully constructed kingdom comes crashing down all around her. A riveting tale of identity, obsession, fintech, and high-tech mobsters, The Princess of Las Vegas is an addictive, wildly original thriller from one of our most extraordinary storytellers.]]> 400 Chris Bohjalian 0385547587 Paula 0 3.39 2024 The Princess of Las Vegas
author: Chris Bohjalian
name: Paula
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> Lone Women 60460704
Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear.

The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women� taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it—except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.

Crafted by a modern master of magical suspense, Lone Women blends shimmering prose, an unforgettable cast of adventurers who find horror and sisterhood in a brutal landscape, and a portrait of early-twentieth-century America like you’ve never seen. And at its heart is the gripping story of a woman desperate to bury her past—or redeem it.]]> 275 Victor LaValle 052551208X Paula 0 3.68 2023 Lone Women
author: Victor LaValle
name: Paula
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> James 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Paula 5 4.46 2024 James
author: Percival Everett
name: Paula
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man in the Brown Suit (Colonel Race, #1)]]> 209194 Pretty, young Anne came to London looking for adventure. In fact, adventure comes looking for her—and finds her immediately at Hyde Park Corner tube station. Anne is present on the platform when a thin man, reeking of mothballs, loses his balance and is electrocuted on the rails.


The Scotland Yard verdict is accidental death. But Anne is not satisfied. After all, who was the man in the brown suit who examined the body? And why did he race off, leaving a cryptic message behind: "17-122 Kilmorden Castle"?


Twisty, clever, and intriguing, The Man in the Brown Suit showcases Agatha Christie once again at her very best.

]]> 381 Agatha Christie 0007151667 Paula 0 3.97 1924 The Man in the Brown Suit (Colonel Race, #1)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Paula
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1924
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bookstore Keepers (Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, #3)]]> 214128353
Five years into their happily ever after, Isabel and Johnny are making the most of their second chance at love. Then one night, Johnny awakens from an extraordinary dream…and their world is irrevocably altered. Isabel does her best to give Johnny space as he struggles to accept the new chapter life has opened for them. But Johnny can’t do it alone—no one can. As the whole family is soon to discover, seasons change, but love never does.]]> 35 Alice Hoffman 1662522045 Paula 0 currently-reading 4.05 2025 The Bookstore Keepers (Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, #3)
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Paula
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> The Widow 229004506 #1 New York Times bestselling author John Grisham is the acclaimed master of the legal thriller. Now, he’s back with his first-ever whodunit, even more suspenseful than his courtroom dramas, as a small-time lawyer accused of murder races to find the real killer to clear his name.

Simon Latch is a lawyer in rural Virginia, making just enough to pay his bills while his marriage slowly falls apart. Then into his office walks Eleanor Barnett, an elderly widow in need of a new will. Apparently, her husband left her a small fortune, and no one knows about it.

Once he hooks the richest client of his career, Simon works quietly to keep her wealth under the radar. But soon her story begins to crack. When she is hospitalized after a car accident, Simon realizes that nothing is as it seems, and he finds himself on trial for a crime he swears he didn’t murder.

Simon knows he’s innocent. But he also knows the circumstantial evidence is against him, and he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. To save himself, he must find the real killer�.]]> 416 John Grisham 0385548982 Paula 0 to-read 4.50 2025 The Widow
author: John Grisham
name: Paula
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> The Cliffs 200634908 A novel of family, secrets, ghosts, and homecoming set on the seaside cliffs of Maine, by the New York Times best-selling author of Friends and Strangers.

On a secluded bluff overlooking the ocean sits a Victorian house, lavender with gingerbread trim, a home that contains a century’s worth of secrets. By the time Jane Flanagan discovers the house as a teenager, it has long been abandoned. The place is an irresistible mystery to Jane. There are still clothes in the closets, marbles rolling across the floors, and dishes in the cupboards, even though no one has set foot there in decades. The house becomes a hideaway for Jane, a place to escape her volatile mother.

Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to Maine following a terrible mistake that threatens both her career and her marriage. Jane is horrified to find the Victorian is now barely recognizable. The new owner, Genevieve, a summer person from Beacon Hill, has gutted it, transforming the house into a glossy white monstrosity straight out of a shelter magazine. Strangely, Genevieve is convinced that the house is haunted—perhaps the product of something troubling Genevieve herself has done. She hires Jane to research the history of the place and the women who lived there. The story Jane uncovers—of lovers lost at sea, romantic longing, shattering loss, artistic awakening, historical artifacts stolen and sold, and the long shadow of colonialism—is even older than Maine itself.

Enthralling, richly imagined, filled with psychic mediums and charlatans, spirits and past lives, mothers, marriage, and the legacy of alcoholism, this is a deeply moving novel about the land we inhabit, the women who came before us, and the ways in which none of us will ever truly leave this earth.]]> 384 J. Courtney Sullivan 059331915X Paula 0 3.51 2024 The Cliffs
author: J. Courtney Sullivan
name: Paula
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
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]]> We Begin at the End 50279680
Duchess Day Radley is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. She is the fierce protector of her five-year-old brother, Robin, and the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids.

Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he's in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother.

Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. And Duchess and Walk must face the trouble that comes with his return. We Begin at the End is an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families—the ones we are born into and the ones we create.]]> 384 Chris Whitaker 1250759668 Paula 2 4.10 2020 We Begin at the End
author: Chris Whitaker
name: Paula
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Three Bags Full (Sheep Detective Story, #1)]]> 213960819 Soon to be a major motion picture starring Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson, this funny and surprising mystery features a new breed of detectives you’ve got to read to baaaaa-lieve.

This twentieth-anniversary deluxe paperback features a foreword by A. J. Finn, discussion questions, and more.

Something is not right with George the shepherd. His sheep have gathered around him outside the cozy Irish village of Glennkill to assess the situation. George has cared for the sheep, reading them books every night, and now he lies pinned to the ground with a spade. His flock, far savvier about the workings of the human mind than your average sheep, sets out to find George’s killer, led by Miss Maple, the smartest sheep in Glennkill (and possibly the world).

Her team of investigators includes Othello, who was rescued from the Dublin Zoo; Mopple the Whale, who is always hungry and remembers everything; and Zora, an existential ewe—just to name a few. Together, the sheep discuss the crime late into the night, and their speculations vary wildly. Determined to unravel the mystery, they embark on furtive missions into the village, where they encounter a hoof-full of two-legged suspects. There’s Ham, the terrifying butcher who smells of death; Rebecca, the secretive village newcomer; and Father Will, a sinister priest the sheep call God.

With wit and heart, this clever international bestseller is a mystery to chew on—and savor.]]> 384 Leonie Swann 1641296828 Paula 0 to-read 3.54 2005 Three Bags Full (Sheep Detective Story, #1)
author: Leonie Swann
name: Paula
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Ice Cold Malice (DCI Evan Warlow, #3)]]> 60645251
While beach combing on MOD property, two young boys stumble across a reeking mound of tangled kelp. But it isn’t the seaweed that stinks. It’s the decomposing corpse beneath it.

Called in to investigate, DCI Evan Warlow’s team are faced with finding out how and why the body of a struck-off doctor ended up on a lonely beach within sight of Laugharne’s famous Boathouse.

But this is no innocent victim. This is a man with more enemies than friends. A fact that muddies the waters no end as Warlow unearths more and more of the dead man’s sordid history. Not to mention a long line of suspects.

With a killer in their midst hell bent on achieving a deadly goal and determined to let nothing and no one stand in their way, the team need to be on their guard.

Unless they want to end up as victims, too.

Ice Cold Malice is the third book in the DCI Evan Warlow series of Black Beacons thrillers by Rhys Dylan. Set in the heart of wild Wales, this dark murder mystery tinged with wry humour and populated by true to life characters, will keep you guessing. Perfect for fans of LJ Ross, JD Kirk. JM Dalgliesh, TG Reid and Simon McCleave. Celtic noir with a spattering of dark humour.]]> 334 Rhys Dylan 1915185041 Paula 4 Still a good series! 4.50 2022 Ice Cold Malice (DCI Evan Warlow, #3)
author: Rhys Dylan
name: Paula
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
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Still a good series!
]]> <![CDATA[100 Books That Changed the World]]> 210455799 224 Colin Salter 1849948674 Paula 4 3.59 100 Books That Changed the World
author: Colin Salter
name: Paula
average rating: 3.59
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Missing Pieces (Kings Lake Investigation #4)]]> 59735235 282 Peter Grainger Paula 4 4.44 2021 Missing Pieces (Kings Lake Investigation #4)
author: Peter Grainger
name: Paula
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
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]]> A Tale of Two Cities 1953 A Tale of Two Cities is Charles Dickens’s great historical novel, set against the violent upheaval of the French Revolution. The most famous and perhaps the most popular of his works, it compresses an event of immense complexity to the scale of a family history, with a cast of characters that includes a bloodthirsty ogress and an antihero as believably flawed as any in modern fiction. Though the least typical of the author’s novels, A Tale of Two Cities still underscores many of his enduring themes—imprisonment, injustice, social anarchy, resurrection, and the renunciation that fosters renewal.]]> 489 Charles Dickens 0141439602 Paula 0 to-read 3.86 1859 A Tale of Two Cities
author: Charles Dickens
name: Paula
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1859
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Arsenic Eater's Wife 203994965 A woman is accused of killing her husband, but is she actually guilty? Inspired by a true historical case.

Liverpool, England, 1889: In the shadowy streets, the air is thick with secrets and the line between guilt and innocence blurs. Twenty-six-year-old Constance Sullivan is brought to trial charged with poisoning her husband, William. But William was no ordinary victim�

As Constance's barrister fights to prove her innocence, a sinister web of deception unravels, exposing the dark underbelly of their seemingly idyllic marriage. One by one, witnesses emerge with incriminating testimony and facts about the dark side of Constance and William’s marriage are revealed. For many, the widow’s guilt seems clear. But is someone holding the key to the whole truth?]]> 334 Tonya Mitchell 1504093607 Paula 0 to-read 3.85 2024 The Arsenic Eater's Wife
author: Tonya Mitchell
name: Paula
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> The September House 64623481 A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.]]> 352 Carissa Orlando 0593548612 Paula 0 3.87 2023 The September House
author: Carissa Orlando
name: Paula
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)]]> 5043 Ken Follett is known worldwide as the master of split-second suspense, but his most beloved and bestselling book tells the magnificent tale of a twelfth-century monk driven to do the seemingly impossible: build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known.

Everything readers expect from Follett is here: intrigue, fast-paced action, and passionate romance. But what makes The Pillars of the Earth extraordinary is the time the twelfth century; the place feudal England; and the subject the building of a glorious cathedral. Follett has re-created the crude, flamboyant England of the Middle Ages in every detail. The vast forests, the walled towns, the castles, and the monasteries become a familiar landscape.

Against this richly imagined and intricately interwoven backdrop, filled with the ravages of war and the rhythms of daily life, the master storyteller draws the reader irresistibly into the intertwined lives of his characters into their dreams, their labors, and their loves: Tom, the master builder; Aliena, the ravishingly beautiful noblewoman; Philip, the prior of Kingsbridge; Jack, the artist in stone; and Ellen, the woman of the forest who casts a terrifying curse. From humble stonemason to imperious monarch, each character is brought vividly to life.

The building of the cathedral, with the almost eerie artistry of the unschooled stonemasons, is the center of the drama. Around the site of the construction, Follett weaves a story of betrayal, revenge, and love, which begins with the public hanging of an innocent man and ends with the humiliation of a king.

For the TV tie-in edition with the same ISBN go to this Alternate Cover Edition
]]> 976 Ken Follett 045122213X Paula 0 4.34 1989 The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge, #1)
author: Ken Follett
name: Paula
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Presumed Guilty (Presumed Innocent #3)]]> 213890792 New from the author of Presumed Innocent, the #1 bestseller that redefined the legal thriller and is the basis for Apple TV+’s most-watched drama series ever.

Rusty is a retired judge attempting a third act in life with a loving soon-to-be wife, Bea, with whom he shares both a restful home on an idyllic lake in the rural Midwest and a plaintive hope that this marriage will be his best, and his last. But the peace that’s taken Rusty so long to find evaporates when Bea’s young adult son, Aaron, living under their supervision while on probation for drug possession, disappears. If Aaron doesn’t return soon, he will be sent back to jail.

Aaron eventually turns up with a vague story about a camping trip with his troubled girlfriend, Mae, that ended in a fight and a long hitchhike home. Days later, when she still hasn’t returned, suspicion falls on Aaron, and when Mae is subsequently discovered dead, Aaron is arrested and set for trial on charges of first degree murder.

Faced with few choices and even fewer hopes, Bea begs Rusty to return to court one last time, to defend her son and to save their last best hope for happiness. For Rusty, the question is not whether to defend Aaron, or whether the boy is in fact innocent—it’s whether the system to which he has devoted his life can ever provide true justice for those who are presumed guilty.]]> 544 Scott Turow 1538706369 Paula 0 to-read 4.23 2025 Presumed Guilty (Presumed Innocent #3)
author: Scott Turow
name: Paula
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Girls on the Rise 217480642 An electrifying new picture book by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman

Who are we? We are a billion voices, bright and brave; we are light, standing together in the fight. Girls are strong and powerful alone, but even stronger when they work to uplift one another. In this galvanizing original poem by presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, girls and girlhood are celebrated in their many forms, all beautiful, not for how they look but for how they look into the face of fear. Creating a rousing rallying cry with vivid illustrations by Loveis Wise, Gorman reminds us how girls have shaped our history while marching boldly into the future.]]> Amanda Gorman 0593624203 Paula 5 4.28 Girls on the Rise
author: Amanda Gorman
name: Paula
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Girl from Greenwich Street]]> 214210952 Based on the true story of a famous trial, this novel is Law and 1800, as Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr investigate the shocking murder of a young woman who everyone—and no one—seemed to know.

At the start of a new century, a shocking murder transfixes Manhattan, forcing bitter rivals Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr to work together to save a man from the gallows. 

Just before Christmas 1799, Elma Sands slips out of her Quaker cousin’s boarding house—and doesn’t come home. Has she eloped? Run away? No one knows—until her body appears in the Manhattan Well.

Her family insists they know who killed her. Handbills circulate around the city accusing a carpenter named Levi Weeks of seducing and murdering Elma. 

But privately, quietly, Levi’s wealthy brother calls in a special favor�.

Aaron Burr’s legal practice can’t finance both his expensive tastes and his ambition to win the 1800 New York elections. To defend Levi Weeks is a double a hefty fee plus a chance to grab headlines.

Alexander Hamilton has his own political aspirations; he isn’t going to let Burr monopolize the public’s attention. If Burr is defending Levi Weeks, then Hamilton will too. As the trial and the election draw near, Burr and Hamilton race against time to save a man’s life—and destroy each other.

Part murder mystery, part thriller, part true crime, The Girl From Greenwich Street revisits a dark corner of history—with a surprising twist ending that reveals the true story of the woman at the center of the tale.]]> 341 Lauren Willig 0063306115 Paula 0 to-read 3.72 2025 The Girl from Greenwich Street
author: Lauren Willig
name: Paula
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Boxcar Librarian 214325867 🎧Run Time = 13 hours and 20 minutes

A brand-new 2025 release from an author whose writing “historical fiction fans will adore� (New York Times bestselling author Madeline Martin): The stories of three women converge in 1936 Montana when editor Millie Lang arrives from DC to work on a series of travel books � only to find a town riddled with mystery, corruption, and secrets.


Inspired by true events, a thrilling Depression-era novel from the author of The Librarian of Burned Books about a woman’s quest to uncover a mystery surrounding a local librarian and the Boxcar Library—a converted mining train that brought books to isolated rural towns in Montana.

When Works Progress Administration (WPA) editor Millie Lang finds herself on the wrong end of a potential political scandal, she’s shipped off to Montana to work on the state’s American Guide Series—travel books intended to put the nation’s destitute writers to work.

Millie arrives to an eclectic staff claiming their missed deadlines are due to sabotage, possibly from the state’s powerful Copper Kings who don’t want their long and bloody history with union organizers aired for the rest of the country to read. But Millie begins to suspect that the answer might instead lie with the town’s mysterious librarian, Alice Monroe.

More than a decade earlier, Alice Monroe created the Boxcar Library in order to deliver books to isolated mining towns where men longed for entertainment and connection. Alice thought she found the perfect librarian to staff the train car in Colette Durand, a miner’s daughter with a shotgun and too many secrets behind her eyes.

Now, no one in Missoula will tell Millie why both Alice and Colette went out on the inaugural journey of the Boxcar Library, but only Alice returned.

The three women’s stories dramatically converge in the search to uncover what someone is so desperately trying to what happened to Colette Durand.

Inspired by the fascinating, true history of Missoula’s Boxcar Library, the novel blends the story of the strong, courageous women who survived and thrived in the rough and rowdy West with that of the power of standing together to fight for workers� lives. And through it all shines the capacity of books to provide connection and light to those who need it most.]]> 464 Brianna Labuskes 006337630X Paula 0 to-read 4.06 2025 The Boxcar Librarian
author: Brianna Labuskes
name: Paula
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> Heartwood 220259184 Heartwood takes you on a journey as a search and rescue team race against time when an experienced hiker mysteriously disappears on the Appalachian Trail in Maine.

In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping.

At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie, who leads the search on the ground. Meanwhile, Lena, a seventy-six-year-old birdwatcher in a Connecticut retirement community, becomes an unexpected armchair detective. Roving between these compelling narratives, a puzzle emerges, intensifying the frantic search, as Valerie’s disappearance may not be accidental.]]> 320 Amity Gaige 1668063603 Paula 0 to-read 3.93 2025 Heartwood
author: Amity Gaige
name: Paula
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> When the World Fell Silent 204208184
Nora Crowell wants more than her sister’s life as a wife and mother. As WWI rages across the Atlantic, she becomes a lieutenant in the Canadian Army Nursing Corp. But trouble is looming and it won’t be long before the truth comes to light.

Having lost her beloved husband in the trenches and with no-one else to turn to, Charlotte Campbell now lives with his haughty relations who treat her like the help. It is baby Aileen, the joy and light of her life, who spurs her to dream of a better life.

When tragedy strikes in Halifax Harbour, nothing for these two women will ever be the same again. Their paths will cross in the most unexpected way, trailing both heartbreak and joy its wake…]]> 376 Donna Jones Alward 0008647046 Paula 0 to-read 4.32 2024 When the World Fell Silent
author: Donna Jones Alward
name: Paula
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Safekeep 199798201
A house is a precious thing...

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Bomb craters have been filled, buildings reconstructed, and the war is truly over. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season.

Eva is Isabel’s antithesis: she sleeps late, walks loudly through the house, and touches things she shouldn’t. In response, Isabel develops a fury-fueled obsession, and when things start disappearing around the house—a spoon, a knife, a bowl—Isabel’s suspicions begin to spiral. In the sweltering peak of summer, Isabel’s paranoia gives way to infatuation—leading to a discovery that unravels all Isabel has ever known. The war might not be well and truly over after all, and neither Eva—nor the house in which they live—are what they seem.

Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, and infused with intrigue, atmosphere, and sex, The Safekeep is a brilliantly plotted and provocative debut novel you won’t soon forget.]]> 272 Yael van der Wouden 1668034344 Paula 0 4.05 2024 The Safekeep
author: Yael van der Wouden
name: Paula
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> Peggy 202102027 A dazzling novel about Peggy Guggenheim—a story of art, family, love, and becoming oneself—by the award-winning author of Under the Bridge, now a Hulu limited series starring Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone

“Godfrey brilliantly resurrects the avant-garde adventurer Peggy Guggenheim as a feminist icon for our times.”—Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation

Venice, 1958. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress and now legendary art collector, sits in the sun at her white marble palazzo on the Grand Canal. She’s in a reflective mood, thinking back on her thrilling, tragic, nearly impossible journey from her sheltered, old-fashioned family in New York to here: iconoclast and independent woman.

Rebecca Godfrey’s Peggy is a blazingly fresh interpretation of a woman who defies every expectation to become an original. The daughter of two Jewish dynasties, Peggy finds her cloistered life turned upside down at fourteen, when her beloved father perishes on the Titanic. His death prompts Peggy to seek a life of passion and personal freedom and, above all, to believe in the transformative power of art. We follow Peggy as she makes her way through the glamorous but sexist and anti-Semitic art worlds of New York and Europe and meet the numerous men who love her (and her money) while underestimating her intellect, talent, and vision. Along the way, Peggy must balance her loyalty to her family with her need to break free from their narrow, snobbish ways and the unexpected restrictions that come with vast fortune.

Rebecca Godfrey’s final book—completed by her friend, the acclaimed writer Leslie Jamison, following Godfrey’s death in 2022—brings to life the woman who helped make the Guggenheim name synonymous with art and genius.]]> 384 Rebecca Godfrey 0385538286 Paula 0 3.51 2024 Peggy
author: Rebecca Godfrey
name: Paula
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
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]]> Shred Sisters 208107364 A wry and riveting debut novel about family, mental illness, and a hard-won path between two sisters

It is said that when one person in a family is unstable, the whole family is destabilized. Meet the Shreds. Olivia is the sister in the spotlight, but when her stunning confidence morphs into something erratic and unpredictable, she becomes a hurricane leaving people wrecked in her wake. Put simply, she has no brakes.

Younger sister Amy, cautious and studious to the core, survives Ollie’s bullying and outcast status throughout her school years. She dreams of winning a Nobel Prize and unlocking the mysteries of the mind. Amy believes in facts, proof, and the empirical world. Except none of that can explain what’s happening to Ollie, whose physical beauty and charisma mask the bipolar disorder that will shatter Amy’s carefully constructed world.

As Amy comes of age and seeks to find her place—first in academics, then New York publishing, and through a series of troubled relationships—every step brings collisions with Ollie, who slips in and out of the Shred family without warning. For all that upends and unsettles these sisters, an inextricable bond always draws them back.

Spanning two decades, Shred Sisters is an intimate and bittersweet story exploring the fierce complexities of sisterhood, mental health, loss and love. If anything is true it’s what Amy learns on her road to self-acceptance: No one will love you or hurt you more than a sister.]]> 272 Betsy Lerner 080216370X Paula 3 3.76 Shred Sisters
author: Betsy Lerner
name: Paula
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Late Lord Thorpe (D.C. Smith #11)]]> 217032663 455 Peter Grainger Paula 5 4.60 2024 The Late Lord Thorpe (D.C. Smith #11)
author: Peter Grainger
name: Paula
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/18
date added: 2025/02/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Frozen People (Ali Dawson, #1)]]> 209207517 Cold cases are a lot easier to solve when you can travel back in time to find new evidence—unless, that is, you get stuck in the nineteenth century.

Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old they’re frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team has a secret: They can travel back in time to look for evidence.

So far Ali has made trips only to the recent past, so she’s surprised when she’s asked to investigate a murder that took place in 1850. The killing has been pinned on an aristocratic patron of the arts and antiquities, a member of a sinister group called "The Collectors." She arrives in the Victorian era during a mini ice age to find another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. But when her son is arrested, Ali attempts to return home only to find herself trapped in 1850.]]> 352 Elly Griffiths 1529433355 Paula 0 to-read 4.25 2025 The Frozen People (Ali Dawson, #1)
author: Elly Griffiths
name: Paula
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Little Puppy (My Little Animal Friend)]]> 207298948 From beloved author-illustrator Nicola Killen comes an adorable story about Valentine’s Day and puppy love, tenderly told and illustrated in limited color with lovely red foil and interactive die cut pages.When Grandma comes for a special Valentine’s visit with her puppy, Milo, Ollie spends a special day playing with her new friend.]]> 32 Nicola Killen 1665965908 Paula 5 3.77 2024 The Little Puppy (My Little Animal Friend)
author: Nicola Killen
name: Paula
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[It Begins In Betrayal (Lane Winslow #4)]]> 37768345 The fourth book in what the Globe and Mail has proclaimed “a terrific series� by “a writer to watch.�

Summer descends over the picturesque King’s Cove as Darling and Lane’s mutual affection blossoms. But their respite from solving crime is cut short when a British government official arrives in Nelson to compel Darling to return to England for questioning about the death of a rear gunner under his command in 1943.

In Darling’s absence, Ames oversees the investigation into the suspicious death of a local elderly woman and uncovers a painful betrayal inflicted forty years earlier. Meanwhile, Lane follows Darling to London, where he is charged with murder and faces hanging. While desperately seeking answers, Lane is presented with a proposal that could save the man she loves, but only if she returns to the very life she sought to leave behind.

]]> 328 Iona Whishaw 1771512628 Paula 3 4.25 2018 It Begins In Betrayal (Lane Winslow #4)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
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]]> <![CDATA[James Herriot's Yorkshire Revisited]]> 8390052
These vignettes of Herriot country describe scenes ranging from spring in the lush, lamb-sprinkled valleys, to desperate journeys across snow-laden winter moors. This book is a wonderful reminder of James Herriot’s immensely readable prose, and the superb accompanying photographs are an eloquent demonstration that little has changed in this beautiful corner of England.]]> 192 James Herriot 0771041020 Paula 3 3.00 1999 James Herriot's Yorkshire Revisited
author: James Herriot
name: Paula
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
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]]> When the Stammer Came to Stay 208433094 The author of Hamnet explores sisterly affection and what it means to rediscover your voice—and yourself—in this illustrated storybook.

This is the tale of two sisters . . .
who had no idea that everything was about to change.

Quiet Bea keeps her shoes polished, folds her clothes every night, and alphabetizes her books. Her rambunctious sister Min wears torn trousers and wades into ponds to collect frogspawn. Above all, Min is a storyteller who loves to chat with everyone. But one day she chokes, and the words forming in her mouth never make it out. Words suddenly feel dangerous, unwieldly. Min is no longer herself—not with some strange creature stealing her words, a creature not even her sister can see. But that doesn’t matter, because Bea sees Min. Award-winning author Maggie O’Farrell pulls from her own experiences with stammering to create a realistic portrait of shaken self-confidence and how sharing painful situations with a loved one can make all the difference. Featuring expressive and detailed illustrations from Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini, this book will speak to readers who have ever lost a part of themselves—and found something new in return.]]> 72 Maggie O'Farrell 1536239100 Paula 5 4.17 When the Stammer Came to Stay
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: Paula
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
I didn’t know this author had written children’s books also. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful! A story told very well.
]]> <![CDATA[Marble Hall Murders (Susan Ryeland, #3)]]> 216850869
She is freelancing for Causton Books, where she is asked to work on a ‘continuation� novel , Pünd’s Last Case, by a young author, Eliot Crace. Eliot Crace is the grandson of one of the most well known children’s authors ever, Marian Crace. Think Enid Blyton, then double her sales. Marian Crace died some 15 years previously and Eliot is sure she was poisoned.

Rather doubtfully, Susan starts to read the opening chapters, finding to her relief that Pünd’s Last Case is actually pretty good. Set in the South of France, it revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont who, though mortally ill, is poisoned � perhaps by a member of her own family. But why? And who did it?

It soon becomes clear to Susan that the clues to who was responsible for the death of Eliot’s grandmother, Marian Crace, are hidden from view in this Atticus Pünd mystery.

Eliot’s behaviour becomes increasingly erratic as his alcohol and gambling addictions increase. But when he is killed in a hit and run accident, Susan realises that she is suspected of his murder.

Three mysterious deaths and a group of people with multiple motives for Susan realises that if she doesn’t solve the mystery in Pünd’s Last Case, her death may well be next …]]> 579 Anthony Horowitz 1804943010 Paula 0 to-read 4.55 2025 Marble Hall Murders (Susan Ryeland, #3)
author: Anthony Horowitz
name: Paula
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories]]> 209456170
Book swap your latest read in a cool 1950s style fridge in New Zealand or hike through the ethereal woodlands of Eas Mor in Scotland where a hidden library in a small log cabin awaits. Each entry shares the library's mission and impact on the local community and offers fascinating stories from its resident caretaker.

Inside Hidden Libraries:

- 50 enchanting, obscure and astounding libraries from around the world
- Fascinating insider knowledge and unique stories from each library's resident caretaker
- Captivating photos accompany every entry and the exact location of each hidden library is revealed

Featured libraries include:
North America - Idaho: Little Free Library in a Cottonwood Tree; California: The Prison Library Project.
South America - Argentina: The Weapon of Mass Instruction; Colombia: The Biblioburro.
Africa - Egypt: St Catherine's Monastery; Mali: The Timbuktu Manuscripts.
Asia & the Middle East - China: The Lonely Library; Philippines: Reading Club 2000.
Europe - England: Phone Booth Library; Norway: The Future Library.
Oceania & Beyond - Antarctica: The Little Free Library at the South Pole; Outer Space: The International Space Station Library

Written by Diana Helmuth, an award winning author who writes about subjects including travel, nature, and philosophical trends

From the rare to the romantic, this extraordinary guide to our planet's hidden libraries makes the ultimate gift for literature lovers, adventurers, and dreamers alike. Nothing brings people together quite like a good book.]]> 208 DC Helmuth 1837582726 Paula 5 4.28 Hidden Libraries: The World’s Most Unusual Book Depositories
author: DC Helmuth
name: Paula
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
review:
If you love libraries, this is a fantastic book-loved it!!
]]> <![CDATA[The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)]]> 139391940 A spicy small-town romance and TikTok phenomenon, perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and Stephanie Archer.

When Jeanie's aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor's gossip at all costs. But Jeanie's arrival disrupts Logan's routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her.

Will Jeanie's happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won't fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes�

The Pumpkin Spice Café is a cozy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls, with a grumpy x sunshine dynamic, a small-town setting and a HEA guaranteed!

Tropes:

� grumpy x sunshine
� small town
� found family
� spicy]]> 373 Laurie Gilmore 0008610665 Paula 2 3.36 2023 The Pumpkin Spice Café (Dream Harbor, #1)
author: Laurie Gilmore
name: Paula
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
review:
Why do I get sucked into the hype every once in a while-sigh
]]> The Wood at Midwinter 206101583 'A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They're the same thing really.'

Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees—and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods.

One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst—and the path of her life is changed forever.

From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting, beautifully illustrated short story set in the Strange universe. Featuring an introduction by Susanna Clarke and gorgeous illustrations from Victoria Sawdon truly worthy of the magic of this story, this is a mesmerising, must-have addition to any fantasy reader's bookshelf.]]> 64 Susanna Clarke 1639734481 Paula 3 3.47 2024 The Wood at Midwinter
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Paula
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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]]> All My Friends Are Dead 8044557
This witty and captivating tale offers a delightful primer for laughing at the If you're a dinosaur, all your friends are dead. If you're a pirate, all your friends have scurvy. If you're a tree, all your friends are end tables. Showcasing the downside of being everything from a clown to a cassette tape to a zombie, each page of this illustrated humor book is laugh-out-loud funny. Simple yet effective comic-style imagery and short, hilarious quips come together to create an amusing adventure through a range of unique grievances and wide-eyed dilemmas, from the sock whose only friends have gone missing to the houseplant whose friends are being slowly killed by irresponsible plant owners (like you). Cute and dark all at once, this children's book for adults presents endlessly entertaining stories about life and existential predicaments.

TALENTED National bestseller All My Friends Are Dead and companion volume All My Friends Are Still Dead are written by Avery Monsen, an actor, artist, and writer and Jory John, a writer, editor, and journalist. They are friends, and neither is dead. Yet.

READERS LOVE With hundreds of five-star ratings, reviewers can't get enough of this book. One calls it "gloriously dark," and another says that "guests are drawn to it like a magnet."

EDITORIAL This uproarious book has garnered praise from several media outlets, including The Huffington Post : "Laugh out loud funny, and a tiny bit disturbing. In other words, perfect." and Paste "Finds humor in mortality."

Perfect ]]> 96 Avery Monsen 0811874559 Paula 5 4.15 2010 All My Friends Are Dead
author: Avery Monsen
name: Paula
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Old, Cold Grave (Lane Winslow #3)]]> 34696033 The third book in the popular Lane Winslow mystery series by an author the Globe and Mail has called a -writer to watch.-

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

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

This delightful new historical mystery series will appeal to fans of Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford.]]> 352 Iona Whishaw 1771512407 Paula 4 3.96 2017 An Old, Cold Grave (Lane Winslow #3)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
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review:
This one was also good but hit VERY close to home regarding children being shipped overseas to Canada from England during WW2�..
]]> <![CDATA[Roxanne (Kings Lake Investigation #3)]]> 55923850 233 Peter Grainger Paula 4 4.45 2020 Roxanne (Kings Lake Investigation #3)
author: Peter Grainger
name: Paula
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves:
review:
Another one in this series-all really good!
]]> <![CDATA[Wildflower Emily: A Story About Young Emily Dickinson]]> 200982324
Follow along as we delve into Emily Dickinson’s childhood, revealing a young girl desperate to go out exploring―to meet the flowers in their own homes. Wade through tall grasses to gather butterfly weed and goldenrod, the air alive with the “buccaneers of buzz.� And, don’t forget to keep a hot potato in your pocket to keep your
fingers warm.

This is Emily Dickinson as you’ve never seen her before, embarking on an unforgettable journey in her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, with her trusty four-legged companion, Carlo.]]> 112 Lydia Corry 1250868203 Paula 5 4.38 2024 Wildflower Emily: A Story About Young Emily Dickinson
author: Lydia Corry
name: Paula
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
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review:
This is the most beautiful graphic novel I have ever read. It is about a time of Emily Dickinson’s life but none of her poetry. The illustrations are amazing and this would be a beautiful gift for a bookish tween.
]]> The Magic of Ordinary Days 620580 304 Ann Howard Creel 0142000906 Paula 4 3.84 2001 The Magic of Ordinary Days
author: Ann Howard Creel
name: Paula
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Martha: The Cookbook�100 Favorite Recipes, with Lessons and Stories from My Kitchen]]> 205802468 Martha Stewart celebrates her landmark 100th book with an intimate collection of 100 treasured recipes and the memories and stories behind them. A must for everyone who has ever been inspired by the one-and-only Martha.

Join Martha in the kitchen as she shares favorite recipes and invaluable tips along with charming photos from her private archives. Her most personal book yet, The Cookbook is a must for everyone who has ever been inspired by the one-and-only Martha. Learn how to cook her mother’s humble Potato Pierogi, her decadent Ҵdzܲè, a comforting Apple Brioche Bread Pudding, and the famous Paella she makes for the luckiest friends who visit her in summer. You’ll find something to satisfy everyone’s taste, whether it’s a simple meal you make for yourself, a weeknight family dinner, or a special celebration, recipes range from breakfast & brunch to soups & salads, hors d'oeuvres, cocktails, dinner, and of course dessert.

Like a scrapbook of Martha’s life in cookbook form, this is the ultimate collection for devotees as well as newer fans who want to become more confident in the kitchen and do what Martha does Start with the basics and elevate them. From timeless classics to contemporary delights, these recipes reflect storied moments from her legendary, trailblazing career.]]> 302 Martha Stewart 0593139216 Paula 3 3.93 Martha: The Cookbook—100 Favorite Recipes, with Lessons and Stories from My Kitchen
author: Martha Stewart
name: Paula
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
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]]> Who Goes There? 6468870 This Wildside Press edition is the only ebook version of this classic story authorized by the Campbell estate.]]> 161 John W. Campbell Jr. 0982332203 Paula 4 A short novella! 3.78 1938 Who Goes There?
author: John W. Campbell Jr.
name: Paula
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1938
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
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A short novella!
]]> Loving 864779 Alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Bettina Daniels lived a fairytale existence of glamour, endless parties, and luxury among America's top celebrities--simply because she was the beautiful daughter of famous American author Justin Daniels. Then, in one moment of tragedy, her father was dead, and Bettina discovered the truth--he had spent every dime he'd ever earned and run up millions in debt. At eighteen, penniless and alone, she had lost everything except her father's dearest friend, Ivo Stewart. A wealthy, handsome publisher of sixty-two, he offered Bettina a way out: marriage. But only for a time. What lay ahead for Bettina was a life filled with shocks and surprises--and eventually a chance to become a playwright, and a writer like her father. Having learned her lessons dearly, Bettina blossoms into her own person at last.]]> 384 Danielle Steel 0440146577 Paula 2 3.67 Loving
author: Danielle Steel
name: Paula
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 2
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date added: 2025/01/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society]]> 204316914 A librarian with a knack for solving murders realizes there is something decidedly supernatural afoot in her little town in this cozy fantasy mystery.

Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies—and solving murders. But she's concerned by just how many killers she's had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count...but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural. But when someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon, Sherry begins to think she’s going to need to become an exorcist as well as an amateur sleuth. With the help of her town's new priest, and an assortment of friends who dub themselves the "Demon-Hunting Society," Sherry will have to solve the murder and get rid of a demon. This riotous mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder, She Wrote is a lesson for demons and murderers.

Never mess with a librarian.]]> 339 C.M. Waggoner 1984805886 Paula 2 3.39 2024 The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society
author: C.M. Waggoner
name: Paula
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
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]]> The Old Man and the Sea 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Paula 3 3.81 1952 The Old Man and the Sea
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Paula
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Big Empty (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike #20)]]> 201750163 Private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, face a cryptic case and a terrifying, unpredictable killer in this twisty, satisfying thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Robert Crais.

Traci Beller was thirteen when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. The police couldn't find her dad and neither could the detectives her mother hired, but now, ten years later, Traci is a super-popular influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire a new detective: Elvis Cole.

Taking on a ten-years-cold missing person case is almost always a loser, but Elvis heads to Rancha where he learns an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the simple missing persons case becomes far more sinister and dangerous. Elvis calls in his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, to help, but even Pike might not be able to help.

As Elvis Cole and Joe Pike follow Tommy Beller's trail into the twisted, nightmare depths of a monstrous evil, the case flips on its head. Victims become predators, predators become prey, and when everyone is a victim, can Elvis Cole save them all?

In a case that tests Elvis Cole's loyalty to his clients and himself, the truth must come out no matter the cost. Elvis must face The Big Empty and see justice done.]]> 373 Robert Crais 0525535799 Paula 0 to-read 4.55 2025 The Big Empty (Elvis Cole and Joe Pike #20)
author: Robert Crais
name: Paula
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Nora Ephron at the Movies: A Visual Celebration of the Writer and Director Behind When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and More]]> 207003745 224 Ilana Kaplan 1419763636 Paula 5 3.32 2024 Nora Ephron at the Movies: A Visual Celebration of the Writer and Director Behind When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle, and More
author: Ilana Kaplan
name: Paula
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
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This is a fantastic book-really miss Nora and her wonderful talents.
]]> Karla's Choice 205899901 An extraordinary new novel set in the world of John le Carré's most iconic spy, George Smiley, written by acclaimed novelist Nick Harkaway

It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West’s spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only for a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumor in Whitehall—unconfirmed and a little scandalous—that George Smiley might almost be happy.

But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple interview Szusanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead. But, as Smiley well knows, even the softest step in the shadows resounds with terrible danger. Soon, he is back there, in East Berlin, and on the trail of his most devious enemy’s hidden past.

Set in the missing decade between two iconic instalments in the George Smiley saga, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Nick Harkaway’s Karla’s Choice is an extraordinary, thrilling return to the world of spy fiction’s greatest writer, John le Carré.]]> 320 Nick Harkaway Paula 3 3.99 2024 Karla's Choice
author: Nick Harkaway
name: Paula
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Henry and the Cow Problem (Annikins)]]> 1744390 Iona Whishaw 1550372548 Paula 5 4.05 1995 Henry and the Cow Problem (Annikins)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
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]]> Bear 196056205 A mesmerising novel of two sisters on a Pacific Northwest island whose lives are upended by an unexpected visitor � a tale of family, obsession, and a mysterious creature in the woods, by the celebrated, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth.

They were sisters and they would last past the end of time.

Sam and her sister, Elena, dream of another life. On the island off the coast of Washington where they were born and raised, they and their mother struggle to survive. Sam works long days on the ferry that delivers wealthy mainlanders to their vacation homes while Elena bartends at the local golf club, but even together they can’t earn enough to get by, stirring their frustration about the limits that shape their existence.

Then one night on the boat, Sam spots a bear swimming the dark waters of the channel. Where is it going? What does it want? When the bear turns up by their home, Sam, terrified, is more convinced than ever that it’s time to leave the island. But Elena responds differently to the massive beast. Enchanted by its presence, she throws into doubt the plan to escape and puts their long-held dream in danger.

A story about the bonds of sisterhood and the mysteries of the animals that live among us � and within us � Bear is a propulsive, mythical, rich novel from one of the most acclaimed young writers in America.]]> 304 Julia Phillips 0525520430 Paula 2 3.21 2024 Bear
author: Julia Phillips
name: Paula
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
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]]> Killer Potential 215217589 Darkly funny and provocative, this edge-of-your-seat thrill ride follows two unlikely fugitives—an SAT tutor who finds her rich employers brutally murdered and the bound woman she frees from their mansion—an irresistible debut novel perfect for fans of The GuestԻMy Sister, the Serial Killer

A scholarship kid with straight As and big dreams, Evie Gordon always thought she was special, that she’d be someone. But after graduating from an elite university, she finds herself drowning in debt and working as an SAT tutor for the super-rich of Los Angeles.

Everything changes one Sunday, when she arrives for her weekly lesson at the Victors� Beverly Hills estate and, in lieu of a bored teenager, finds the bloody remains of the parents strewn through their beautiful back garden, and a woman crying for help within a closet. As Evie works to free her, the two are spotted—and within moments, they go from bystanders to suspects to fugitives.

Suddenly at the heart of a manhunt and accompanied by a mysterious woman who refuses to speak, Evie knows the only way to clear her name is to find the real killer. But first she’ll have to break down the barriers of her companion, who is quickly becoming the most important person in Evie’s upside-down life. Their breathless spree takes them across the U.S. as developments in the case shock the nation and the press runs wild with Evie’s a gifted kid turned killer. She's now on the cover of every magazine and newspaper—anointed the new Charles Manson, a bloodthirsty ninety-nine percenter looking to start a class war. Evie is finally someone.

By turns cuttingly hilarious and deeply insightful, Killer Potential is a strikingly original debut. A literary novel with the page-turning intensity of a thriller that asks timely questions about our belief in the romance of social mobility, and how the stories we’re sold about our potential can shape the course of our lives.]]> 320 Hannah Deitch 0063356481 Paula 0 to-read 3.46 2025 Killer Potential
author: Hannah Deitch
name: Paula
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[An Anthology of Exquisite Birds (DK Children's Anthologies)]]> 203608443 Soar through the sky with best-selling author Ben Hoare and discover some of the most exquisite birds on our planet.From the miniature bee hummingbird that flaps its wings 200 times a second, to the oilbird that navigates pitch-black caves using echolocation, this stunning collection showcases more than 90 of the world's most extraordinary birds. Detailed photography is paired with storybook descriptions that will captivate young readers, whether it's finding out about condors and cuckoos or swans and starlings. Features on eggs, feathers, nests, and other key topics explore the enormous variety of avian adaptations. There is also a visual index packed with reference information, including the size and range of each species.With foil on the cover, gilded edges, and a ribbon for keeping your place, An Anthology of Exquisite Birds makes a beautiful gift for any child who is fascinated by birds. It's ideal for young readers to explore by themselves or perfect for bedtime stories.]]> 224 Ben Hoare 0593843584 Paula 5 4.48 An Anthology of Exquisite Birds (DK Children's Anthologies)
author: Ben Hoare
name: Paula
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
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review:
If you or someone you know loves birds, this is a n absolutely gorgeous book and would make a lovely gift. Just gorgeous images and interesting writing. Highly recommended!
]]> <![CDATA[Death in a Darkening Mist (Lane Winslow #2)]]> 32202653 The second instalment in the Lane Winslow mystery series; for fans of the Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford series.

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

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

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

“Iona Whishaw is an exciting addition to Canada’s fine roster of mystery writers. I’m already planning to read [Killer in King’s Cove] again, and this time I’ll read the teaser for Whishaw’s next novel provided at the end. A debut mystery by an author destined for awards.� –Don Graves, Canadian Mystery Reviews blog]]> 384 Iona Whishaw 1771511710 Paula 4 4.02 2017 Death in a Darkening Mist (Lane Winslow #2)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
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]]> Go Tell It on the Mountain 17143 Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a semi-autobiographical novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.]]> 256 James Baldwin 0141185910 Paula 4 4.06 1953 Go Tell It on the Mountain
author: James Baldwin
name: Paula
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Black Echo (Harry Bosch, #1; Harry Bosch Universe, #1)]]> 32508 482 Michael Connelly 0446612731 Paula 0 currently-reading 4.11 1992 The Black Echo (Harry Bosch, #1; Harry Bosch Universe, #1)
author: Michael Connelly
name: Paula
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Don't Be a Stranger 205436030 A mesmerizing new novel from the author of the story of a woman swept into a love affair at mid-life

Ivy Cooper is 52 years old when Ansel Fleming first walks into her life. Twenty years her junior, a musician newly released from prison on a minor drug charge, Ansel’s beguiling good looks and quiet intensity instantly seduce her. Despite the gulf between their ages and experience the physical chemistry between them is overpowering, and over the heady weeks and months that follow Ivy finds her life bifurcated by his.

On the surface she is a responsible mother, managing the demands of friends, an ex-husband, home; but emotionally, psychologically, sexually, she is consumed by desire and increasingly alive only in the stolen moments-out-of-time, with Ansel in her bed.

In spellbinding prose, Susan Minot has crafted a luminous novel about erotic obsession, and the hunger for intimacy, communication, and oblivion. Don't Be a Stranger is a gripping, sensual, and provocative work from one of the most remarkable voices in contemporary fiction.]]> 320 Susan Minot 0593802446 Paula 0 3.14 2024 Don't Be a Stranger
author: Susan Minot
name: Paula
average rating: 3.14
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders]]> 105992 687 Vincent Bugliosi 0393322238 Paula 4 4.05 1974 Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
author: Vincent Bugliosi
name: Paula
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1974
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
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]]> Circe 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Paula 4 4.22 2018 Circe
author: Madeline Miller
name: Paula
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Animals Brag About Their Bottoms]]> 53634064
All bottoms are wonderful! Don’t you agree? Each animal in this adorable book has a different reason for loving their behind—from cute and round to fashionable and striped. Maki Saito makes readers laugh out loud with playful illustrations of the backsides of hippos, zebras, pandas, mandrills, and more. Her traditional Japanese art techniques add a sophisticated, beautiful feel. Charming and whimsical, this book encourages self-love and body positivity, as well as a whole lot of laughter and fun.]]> 32 Maki Saito 1771647108 Paula 5 3.97 2018 Animals Brag About Their Bottoms
author: Maki Saito
name: Paula
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:
This is a smart and adorable children’s book-would make a wonderful gift!!
]]> <![CDATA[The Golden Mole: and Other Living Treasure]]> 60100179 In this passionately persuasive and sharply funny book, Katherine Rundell tells us how and why.
A lavishly illustrated collection of the lives of some of the Earth's most astounding animals, The Golden Mole is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck - to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness.
A swift flies two million kilometres in its lifetime. That's far enough to get to the moon and back twice over - and then once more to the moon. A pangolin keeps its tongue furled in a pouch by its hip, a Greenland shark can live five hundred years, a wombat once inspired a love poem.]]> 152 Katherine Rundell 0571362516 Paula 0 to-read 4.44 2022 The Golden Mole: and Other Living Treasure
author: Katherine Rundell
name: Paula
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Killer in King's Cove (Lane Winslow #1)]]> 29467155 A smart and enchanting postwar mystery written for fans of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear.


It is 1946, and war-weary young ex-intelligence officer Lane Winslow leaves London to look for a fresh start. When she finds herself happily settled into a sleepy hamlet nestled in the idyllic interior of British Columbia surrounded by a suitably eclectic cast of small-town characters she feels like she may finally be able to put her past to rest.

But then a body is discovered, the victim of murder, and although she works alongside the town’s inspectors Darling and Ames to discover who might have possibly have motivation to kill, she unknowingly casts doubt on herself. As the investigation reveals facts that she has desperately tried to keep a secret, it threatens to pull her into a vortex of even greater losses than the ones she has already endured.

A clever postwar mystery that will appeal to fan of historical mysteries with women sleuths like the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear or the Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd.]]> 432 Iona Whishaw 1771511982 Paula 5 3.79 2015 A Killer in King's Cove (Lane Winslow #1)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
Wow, no clue what rock I was under when this first novel in the series came out. It definitely had a touch of “Canadian� given the author is Canadian and the location of the novel is just outside Nelson British Columbia but aside from that, it’s quirky with the story line and I am excited there are 10 more in the series.
]]> My Friends 217163697 #1New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

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

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

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be put into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. As she struggles to decide what to do with this bequest, she embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn the story of how the painting came to be. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more she feels compelled to unleash her own artistic spirit, but happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this fresh testament to the transformative power of friendship and art.]]> 448 Fredrik Backman 1982112824 Paula 0 to-read 4.57 2025 My Friends
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Paula
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> Wild Dark Shore 211004089
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, eighteen and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, seventeen, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; nine-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back toward the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.]]> 303 Charlotte McConaghy 1250827957 Paula 0 to-read 4.27 2025 Wild Dark Shore
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Paula
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Joy of Yarn: Your Stash Solution for Curating, Organizing and Using Your Yarn―with 10 Knitting Patterns]]> 65211429 Say Goodbye to Your Yarn Stash Woes � Forever

Every knitter knows the innate joy of purchasing yarn, and many also know the stress and shame that comes with an out-of-control stash. No longer! Let bestselling author, designer and educator Marie Greene change your outlook on buying, organizing and using your yarn for good. With this tried-and-true guide, you’ll rediscover the joy in your stash―no yarn diets necessary!―as you learn to find inspiration in the yarn you already have, shop for skeins you’ll actually use and organize it all for maximum creativity.

Best of all, Marie has designed 10 brand-new patterns to help you use your existing yarn in exciting ways, so you can work through your stash with ease and continue to curate your yarn collection with purpose. Use the color wheel to whip up creative combos in the Color Theory Socks or Shawl. Make leftovers look intentional with the Block Party Beanie or Pullover, or double your strands for double the fun in the Marled Stripe Mittens or Mini Mohair Cowl. Soon you’ll not only have a satisfying stash system that is clear, tidy and inspirational, but an assortment of gorgeous knitted projects to remind you how truly joyful yarn can be.]]> 144 Marie Greene 1645679268 Paula 3 3.85 2023 The Joy of Yarn: Your Stash Solution for Curating, Organizing and Using Your Yarn―with 10 Knitting Patterns
author: Marie Greene
name: Paula
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> For Today 10233028 381 Overeaters Anonymous Paula 5 4.64 1982 For Today
author: Overeaters Anonymous
name: Paula
average rating: 4.64
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Jane and Dan at the End of the World]]> 214268974 Date night goes off the rails in this hilariously insightful take on midlife and marriage when one unhappy couple find themselves at the heart of a crime in progress, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise.

Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.

But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.

Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it. This wasn’t what Jane was thinking of when she said “’til death do us part� all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything—even marriage.]]> 368 Colleen Oakley 0593200829 Paula 0 to-read 3.74 2025 Jane and Dan at the End of the World
author: Colleen Oakley
name: Paula
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Lightning Strikes the Silence (Lane Winslow #11)]]> 185127073 500 Iona Whishaw 1771514329 Paula 0 to-read 4.26 Lightning Strikes the Silence (Lane Winslow #11)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.26
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[To Track a Traitor (Lane Winslow #10)]]> 61950323 With events spanning both world wars, the tenth installment in the Lane Winslow mystery series is a transatlantic tale of sibling rivalry, infidelity, and espionage.

It’s an early morning in May when Lane is pulled from a deep sleep by a concerning phone call from Scotland—her grandfather has had a heart attack. Lane hastily makes plans to fly overseas, and a dejected Inspector Darling prepares himself for a stint of bachelorhood. But before he can begin to dwell on it the Nelson Police learn that Ben Arden, a local cad, has gone out for a late-night boat ride and not returned, which immediately sets the town rumour mill churning.

In Scotland Lane finds her grandfather on the mend but her estranged sister Diana caught up in stressful—and mysterious—circumstances of her own. As Lane follows the thread leading from South Africa to Aberdeen to the War Office in London it becomes apparent that her sister is on the run, and that keeping secrets seems to be a Winslow family trait.

Back at the Nelson Police station a strange assemblage of clues begins to amass around the Arden case, stretching from the local printshop all the way back to the Great War. But progress is interrupted when the mayor himself issues a demand that Darling travel to England to tie up a decades-old mystery with local connections. True to form, upon Darling’s arrival in London he is quickly swept up in Lane’s mission, which threatens to endanger the entire family.]]> 473 Iona Whishaw 177151387X Paula 0 to-read 4.15 2023 To Track a Traitor (Lane Winslow #10)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Framed in Fire (Lane Winslow #9)]]> 58975073
It’s early spring 1948 and Lane arrives in New Denver to find that her friend, Peter Barisoff, is not at home. Instead, in a nearby meadow, she encounters Tom, an Indigenous man in search of his ancestral lands. Lane is intrigued. Unfortunately, once Peter returns home, the day takes a gloomy turn when the trio uncovers human remains next to Peter’s garden, and Lane must tell her husband, Inspector Darling, that she’s inadvertently stumbled into his professional domain―again.

Back in Nelson, the Vitalis, Lane and Darling’s favourite restaurateurs, are victims of arson. Constable Terrell’s investigation suggests prejudice as a motive, and the case quickly escalates, as the Vitalis receive increasingly threatening notes of warning. Meanwhile, Sergeant Ames works a robbery while alienating Tina Van Eyck in his personal time, and a swirling rumour sets the entire station on edge and prompts an RCMP investigation into Darling’s integrity.

Amid the local bustle series readers have come to love, Framed in Fire is bound up in difficult questions of community and belonging, and the knowledge that trusted neighbours can sometimes be as sinister as a stranger in the dark.]]> 480 Iona Whishaw 1771513802 Paula 0 to-read 4.19 2022 Framed in Fire (Lane Winslow #9)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[A Lethal Lesson (Lane Winslow #8)]]> 56176029 Shortlisted for the 2022 BC and Yukon Book Prizes' Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice AwardAn Indigo Top 10 Best Mystery of 2021A Globe and Mail bestseller#1 Bestselling New Release in Canada

Lane Winslow trades crime solving for substitute teaching in the eighth installment of this mystery series that Kirkus Reviews calls “riveting�.

Back home in the Kootenays after her Arizona honeymoon, Lane offers her assistance when neither the outgoing teacher, Rose, nor her replacement, Wendy, show up at the local schoolhouse one blizzardy Monday in December. But when she finds the teachers' cottage ransacked with Rose unconscious and bleeding, and Wendy missing, Lane delivers Rose to the hospital in Nelson and turns the case over to her exasperated husband, Inspector Darling, and his capable colleagues, Sergeant Ames and Constable Terrell.

Never one to leave a post unmanned, Lane enlists as substitute teacher for the final two weeks before the Christmas holidays, during which time she discovers a threatening note in the teachers' desk and a revolver in the supply cupboard. But these clues only convolute the case further. Who has been tormenting these women, and where has Wendy gone?

Meanwhile, Darling finds the body of a hit-and-run victim in a snowbank miles outside of Nelson, the residents of King's Cove are preoccupied by the possibility of a new neighbour, and Sergeant Ames is as confused as ever by the inimitable Tina Van Eyck.]]> 392 Iona Whishaw 1771513543 Paula 0 to-read 4.18 2021 A Lethal Lesson (Lane Winslow #8)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[A Match Made for Murder (Lane Winslow #7)]]> 50550968 Winner of the 2021 Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award

“An intriguing mix of character, plot, time, and place. Highly recommended.� —Ian Hamilton, author of the bestselling Ava Lee novels

Lane and Darling's Arizona honeymoon is interrupted by gunshots in the newest instalment in a series Kirkus Reviews calls "relentlessly exciting."

It’s November, and Lane and Darling have escaped the chilly autumn in the Kootenays for a honeymoon at the posh and romantic Santa Cruz Inn in sunny Tucson, Arizona. But despite her very best intentions to relax, soon after their arrival Lane’s plans to spend the holiday poolside with a good mystery are interrupted by gunfire. One of the hotel’s wealthy guests has been shot point blank and Lane is second on the scene.

Though Lane and Darling attempt to distance themselves from the investigation, the longer they stay at the Santa Cruz Inn, the deeper they are drawn into a web of suspects and bystanders, and a collection of seemingly perfect marriages fraught with jealousy and violence. The situation threatens first their honeymoon and then their lives when Lane puts herself directly in the sights of local criminals who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Back in Nelson, Sergeant Ames has been left in charge of the department during Darling’s absence. As he investigates a case of vandalism at the Van Eyck garage, it seems to lead directly to the death of the suspected vandal himself. Working with Constable Terrell, the new recruit, to piece together what happened in this strange and unsettling murder, Ames finds his romantic interest in mechanic Tina Van Eyck creates complications that are more than awkward; they could be deadly.

Fans of Maisie Dobbs and the Kopp sisters will delight in the latest Lane Winslow, a study of matrimony and mirage in the American Southwest.]]> 342 Iona Whishaw 1771513276 Paula 0 to-read 4.17 2020 A Match Made for Murder (Lane Winslow #7)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[A Deceptive Devotion (Lane Winslow #6)]]> 41766139 392 Iona Whishaw 1771513004 Paula 0 to-read 4.12 2019 A Deceptive Devotion (Lane Winslow #6)
author: Iona Whishaw
name: Paula
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> Run for the Hills 218671843 An unexpected road trip across America brings a family together, in this raucous and moving new novel from the bestselling author of Nothing to See Here.

Ever since her dad left them twenty years ago, it’s just been Madeline Hill and her mom on their farm in Coalfield, Tennessee. While she sometimes admits it’s a bit lonely and a less exciting life than she imagined for herself, it’s mostly OK. Mostly.

Then one day Reuben Hill pulls up in a PT Cruiser and informs Madeline that he believes she’s his half sister. Reuben—left behind by their dad thirty years ago—has hired a detective to track down their father and a string of other half siblings. And he wants Mad to leave her home and join him for the craziest kind of road trip imaginable to find them all.

As Mad and Rube—and eventually the others—share stories of their father, who behaved so differently in each life he created, they begin to question what he was looking for with each new incarnation. Who are they to one another? What kind of man will they find? And how will these new relationships change Mad’s previously solitary life on the farm?

Infused with deadpan wit, zany hijinks, and enormous heart, Run for the Hills is a sibling story like no other—a novel about a family forged under the most unlikely circumstances and united by hope in an unknown future.]]> 256 Kevin Wilson 0063317516 Paula 0 to-read 4.03 2025 Run for the Hills
author: Kevin Wilson
name: Paula
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> Crush 213870131 When a husband asks his reluctant wife to consider what might be missing from their marriage, what follows surprises them both—sex, heartbreak and heart rekindling, and a rediscovered sense of all that is possible

She’s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life—a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of “husband� and “wife� force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose. 

Using the author’s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, Crush is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and most of all the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes. Destined to become a classic novel of marriage, and tackling the big questions being asked about partnership in postpandemic relationships, Crush is a sharp, funny, seductive, and revelatory novel about holding on to everything it’s possible to love—friends, children, parents, passion, lovers, husbands, all of the world’s good books, and most of all one’s own deep sense of purpose.]]> 288 Ada Calhoun 0593832027 Paula 0 to-read 3.01 2025 Crush
author: Ada Calhoun
name: Paula
average rating: 3.01
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/17
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]]> Held 200241802
1917. On a battlefield near the River Aisne, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory—a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night, his childhood on a faraway coast—as the snow falls.

1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near another river—alive, but not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and endeavours to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his ghosts whose messages he cannot understand .

So begins a narrative that spans four generations, moments of connection and consequence igniting and re-igniting as the century unfolds. In luminous moments of desire, comprehension, longing, and transcendence, the sparks fly upward, working their transformations decades later. This resonance through time—not only of actions but also of feelings and perceptions—desire in its many forms—are at the heart of this novel’s profound investigation.

Held is a deeply affecting and intensely beautiful novel, full of unforgettable characters and imagery, wisdom and compassion. It explores the deepest mysteries, and the ways in which desire in its many forms—and perhaps the deepest desire, to find meaning—manifests itself. Held moves through history to light upon Darwin, Sir Ernest Rutherford, North Sea ganseys, early photography, Ella Mary Leather, modern field hospitals…while lovers find each other and snow drifts down across the centuries. From the WW1 battlefield where the novel begins, and its opening lines, Held is alive with "We know life is finite. Why should we believe death lasts forever?”]]> 240 Anne Michaels 0771005458 Paula 5 3.50 2023 Held
author: Anne Michaels
name: Paula
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
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Such BEAUTIFUL writing! Congratulations on the Giller Prize-well deserved.
]]> March 13529 Winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

From the author of the acclaimed Year of Wonders, a historical novel and love story set during a time of catastrophe, on the front lines of the American Civil War. Acclaimed author Geraldine Brooks gives us the story of the absent father from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women—and conjures a world of brutality, stubborn courage and transcendent love. An idealistic abolitionist, March has gone as chaplain to serve the Union cause. But the war tests his faith not only in the Union—which is also capable of barbarism and racism—but in himself. As he recovers from a near-fatal illness, March must reassemble and reconnect with his family, who have no idea of what he has endured. A love story set in a time of catastrophe, March explores the passions between a man and a woman, the tenderness of parent and child, and the life-changing power of an ardently held belief.]]> 280 Geraldine Brooks Paula 0 to-read 3.77 2005 March
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Paula
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/16
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]]> Every Arc Bends Its Radian 207293958 From PEN Award­­–winning author Sergio de la Pava comes an existential detective novel about a private investigator who flees New York City for Colombia after a personal tragedy and finds himself entangled in a young woman’s strange disappearance—which may be connected to one of the world’s most ruthless criminal organizations. Riv—poet, philosopher, private eye—arrives in Cali, Colombia, hoping to find nothing. Running away from his family and an unspeakable event surrounding his ex-wife Jane, Riv accidentally connects with his cousin Mauro and great Aunt Corelletta who asks him to find her daughter Angelica Alfa. No sooner is Riv on the trail when it becomes clear that not only are the cops not looking for Angelica, but they are actively preventing him from finding her. This could be a good thing because the police are clearly in the pocket of one Exeter Mondragon, a name best never uttered in public if one wants to stay alive. But Riv is not one to leave things incomplete. When his investigation leads him straight into the heart of Mondragon’s criminal empire, he is forced not only to face unimaginable horrors, but also to plunge into the deepest and most perplexing conundrums of the human condition. Lightning fast on the page and steeped in the cultural history of Columbia, Every Arc Bends Its Radian is a novel only Sergio de la Pava could write. As incredibly funny as it is ridiculously smart, it poses large philosophical questions while keeping you laughing. A novel idea about the biggest idea of them all—what in God’s name are we even put on earth for, this book is a singular exploration of the human mind.]]> 265 Sergio de la Pava 1668056704 Paula 0 to-read 3.15 Every Arc Bends Its Radian
author: Sergio de la Pava
name: Paula
average rating: 3.15
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/15
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]]> Westport 199408564 351 James B. Comey 1613165242 Paula 3 3.79 2024 Westport
author: James B. Comey
name: Paula
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves:
review:
It was good but not as good as the first book.
]]> The River Is Waiting 219319489 480 Wally Lamb 1668006391 Paula 0 to-read 4.38 2025 The River Is Waiting
author: Wally Lamb
name: Paula
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Farm 17557913
But with that phone call, everything changes. Your mother's not well, his father tells him. She's been imagining things--terrible, terrible things. She's had a psychotic breakdown, and has been committed to a mental hospital.

Daniel prepares to rush to Sweden, on the first available flight the next day. Before he can board the plane, his father contacts him again with even more frightening news: his mother has been released from the hospital, and he doesn't know where she is.

Then, he hears from his mother:

I'm sure your father has spoken to you. Everything that man has told you is a lie. I'm not mad. I don't need a doctor. I need the police. I'm about to board a flight to London. Meet me at Heathrow.

Caught between his parents, and unsure of who to believe or trust, Daniel becomes his mother's unwilling judge and jury as she tells him an urgent tale of secrets, of lies, of a horrible crime and a conspiracy that implicates his own father.]]> 400 Tom Rob Smith 1471110672 Paula 2 3.55 2014 The Farm
author: Tom Rob Smith
name: Paula
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
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review:

]]>