en-US Sat, 26 Apr 2025 09:15:38 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 25733983
Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands�; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.

Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home.]]> 290 Hope Jahren 1101874937 Tara 0 to-read 3.95 2016
author: Hope Jahren
name: Tara
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> 59851730
Created from more than forty hours of intimate conversations with the journalist Seán O’Hagan, this is a profoundly thoughtful exploration, in Cave’s own words, of what really drives his life and creativity.

The book examines questions of belief, art, music, freedom, grief and love. It draws candidly on Cave’s life, from his early childhood to the present day, his loves, his work ethic and his dramatic transformation in recent years.

Faith, Hope and Carnage offers ladders of hope and inspiration from a true visionary.]]> 294 Nick Cave 0374607370 Tara 0 to-read 4.41 2022
author: Nick Cave
name: Tara
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> 222348800 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN 9781250899576 can be found here

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

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

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 367 Alison Espach 1250899575 Tara 0 to-read 4.15 2024
author: Alison Espach
name: Tara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 61980307 The saying goes that "God only gives you what you can handle." Well God didn't grow up in my atheist, Wiccan, fame-laden, oversexed, teetotalling, drug-free, cloistered, chaotic, non-communicative, workaholic, feral-feeling house.'

For Moon Unit, daughter of musician Frank Zappa and his 'manager', Gail, processing a life so unique, so punctuated by the whims of creative urges, the tastes of popular culture and the calculus of celebrity, has at times been eviscerating. But it is her deep sense of humour and unshakeable humility that keeps her - and this memoir - pinned to the ground.

A child-star at age 14 after her accidental international hit single (recorded with her father), 'Valley Girl', turned her into a reluctant celebrity, Moon Unit Zappa's life has been utterly extraordinary from her birth in 1967 into a family that was already blessed/cursed as music royalty thanks to the acknowledged genius of Frank. But what are the consequences of growing up in a family who spend most of their time naked arguing about sexual/extra-marital liaisons and practising white magic in a free-for-all state of nonconformist, virtuoso abandon?

Earth to Moon is a reckoning with self-esteem, the ghosts of the past and a mother and a father who, in the process of leaving their mark upon on the world, scarred their first daughter on home soil. Brutally self-deprecating and funny as hell, it belies a rose-tinted perspective on the 70s and 80s west coast American scene, from within the belly of the beast of the rock and roll world.]]> 351 Moon Unit Zappa 0063113341 Tara 0 to-read 4.17 2024
author: Moon Unit Zappa
name: Tara
average rating: 4.17
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]]> 214175247 An unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary life—one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood in “slummy, one-horse townsâ€�; obsessive desire; bursts of comedy; and indispensable friendships, reflecting on the way art, music, and a deep connection to nature helped her on a singular journeyĚýto become a beloved, Grammy-nominated artist.

Neko Case has long been revered as one of music’s most influential artists, whose authenticity, lyrical storytelling, and sly wit have endeared her to a legion of critics, musicians, and lifelong fans.ĚýInĚýThe Harder I Fight, the More I Love You,ĚýCaseĚýbrings her trademarkĚýcandor andĚýprecisionĚýto a memoir that traces her evolution from an invisibleĚýgirl “raised by two dogs and a space heaterâ€� in rural Washington state toĚýher improbable emergence as an internationally-acclaimed talent. In luminous, sharp-edged prose, CaseĚýshows readers what it’s like to be left alone for hours and hours as a child, to take refuge in the woods around her home, and to channel theĚýmonotony and loneliness and joy that comes from music, camaraderie, and shared experience into art.

The Harder I Fight, the More I Love YouĚýis a rebellious meditation on identity and corruption, and a manifesto on how to make space for ourselves in this world, despite the obstacles we face.


Ěý±Ő±Ő> 288 Neko Case 1538710501 Tara 0 currently-reading 4.08 2025
author: Neko Case
name: Tara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 214151379 Gen X icon Ione Skye bares all in an achingly vulnerable coming-of-age memoir about chasing fame, desire, and true love in the shadow of her famous, absent father.

In 1987, sixteen-year-old Ione Skye landed the breakout role of Diane Court, the dream girl who inspires John Cusack’s iconic boombox serenade in the hit Cameron Crowe film, Say Anything. While Skye seemed perfectly typecast as an aloof valedictorian, she was anything but.

Deserted by her dad, the folk singer legend Donovan, Skye was a ninth-grade dropout who sought solace and validation in the eyes of audiences and dreamy costars like Keanu Reeves, River Phoenix, Matthew Perry, John Cusack, and Robert Downey Jr. But like her sixties It Girl mom, Skye’s greatest weakness was musicians.

On the heels of a toxic relationship with the Red Hot Chili Peppers� Anthony Kiedis, which began when she was just sixteen and he was twenty-four, the actress leapt into wedded bliss with her first great love, Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz.

But marriage was not the magical hall pass to adulthood Skye had imagined. Awakening to her bisexuality and desperately insecure, she risked her fairytale marriage for a string of affairs with gorgeous nineties “bad girls.� The dream marriage imploded, and Skye’s trust in herself and her future along with it.

Set against a backdrop of rock royalty compounds, supermodel cliques, and classic late-century films like River’s Edge, Gas Food Lodging, and Wayne’s World, Say Everything is a wild ride of Hollywood thrills as well as a lyrical reflection on ambition, intimacy, and a messy, sexy, unconventional life.]]> 304 Ione Skye 1668048264 Tara 5 memoirs, read-in-25 4.10
author: Ione Skye
name: Tara
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: memoirs, read-in-25
review:
I devoured this and couldn't have loved it more. It was genuine, unapologetic, messy, perfect.
]]> 4980 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.]]> 303 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0385334206 Tara 0 currently-reading 4.08 1973
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Tara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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]]> 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found.

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Tara 0 currently-reading 4.15 2024
author: Liz Moore
name: Tara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 12357 Take the Cannoli is a moving and wickedly funny collection of personal stories stretching across the immense landscape of the American scene. Vowell tackles subjects such as identity, politics, religion, art, and history with a biting humor. She searches the streets of Hoboken for traces of the town's favorite son, Frank Sinatra. She goes under cover of heavy makeup in an investigation of goth culture, blasts cannonballs into a hillside on a father-daughter outing, and maps her family's haunted history on a road trip down the Trail of Tears. Vowell has an irresistible voice—caustic and sympathetic, insightful and double-edged—that has attracted a loyal following for her magazine writing and radio monologues on This American Life.]]> 224 Sarah Vowell 0141006579 Tara 4 read-in-25 3.84 2000
author: Sarah Vowell
name: Tara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
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]]> 222631674 From bestselling author John Boyne, a gripping and profound exploration of guilt, blame, trauma, and the human capacity for redemption.

In The Elements, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator, and the victim.

The narrative follows a mother on the run from her past, a young soccer star facing a trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and a father on a transformative journey with his son. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways.

Boyne’s most ambitious work yet, The Elements is both an engrossing drama and a moving investigation of why and how we allow crime to occur. With masterful, spellbinding prose, he navigates this complex subject with extraordinary empathy and unflinching honesty. The story resonates on a deeply emotional level, challenging readers to confront their own conceptions of guilt and innocence at every step. Amid the wildly engrossing storytelling, the book ultimately What would you do when faced with the unthinkable?]]> 496 John Boyne 1250410363 Tara 0 to-read 4.64 2025
author: John Boyne
name: Tara
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2025
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]]> 75584918 Golden Hill.

In a city that never was, in an America that never was, on a snowy night at the end of winter, two detectives find a body on the roof of a skyscraper.

It's 1922, and Americans are drinking in speakeasies, dancing to jazz, stepping quickly to the tempo of modern times. Beside the Mississippi, the ancient city of Cahokia lives on—a teeming industrial metropolis, containing every race and creed. Among them, peace holds. Just about. But that body on the roof is about to spark off a week that will spill the city's secrets, and bring it, against a soundtrack of wailing clarinets and gunfire, either to destruction or rebirth.

The multiple-award-winning Francis Spufford returns, with a lovingly created, richly pleasure-giving, epically scaled tale set in the golden age of wicked entertainments.]]> 496 Francis Spufford 0571336876 Tara 0 to-read 3.91 2023
author: Francis Spufford
name: Tara
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/20
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]]> 22750155
Conflict is a natural part of any intimate relationship. Yet most couples either avoid it or try to smooth over their differences. This results in at least one partner compromising their integrity—and stunting their own growth. Gritty, often irreverent, and always practical, Rock the Boat challenges couples not to flee from conflicts, because the emotional stalemate that conflicts produce creates an opportunity for profound transformation. This transformation affirms each partner’s individuality while forging a more mature intimacy, a greater trust, and a deeper bond.

Rock the Boat challenges the idea that conflict between partners is unhealthy or something to avoid. Instead, it encourages both people to stand by what they need and who they are—but to do so with compassion rather than competitiveness or vengefulness. This is the purpose of an intimate to create an atmosphere where both people learn to grow up and mature in their relationship by appreciating each other’s individual needs in a caring and mature way.

Author Resmaa Menakem, a licensed clinical social worker specializing in couples therapy, addresses key factors in making this happen, including accepting discomfort and uncertainty; honesty and openness about sex, money, kids, and in-laws; recognizing when conflict might escalate into violence or abuse; and, when appropriate, finding and working with a good therapist.

Rock the Boat is not about ideals, or what we hope or imagine relationships to be. It's an honest, unflinching look at what actually works.]]> 240 Resmaa Menakem 1616495790 Tara 0 to-read 4.24 2015
author: Resmaa Menakem
name: Tara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/18
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]]> 34146782
In this groundbreaking work, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of body-centered psychology. He argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.

My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

This book paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system. It offers a step-by-step solution—a healing process—in addition to incisive social commentary.

Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, is a therapist with decades of experience currently in private practice in Minneapolis, MN, specializing in trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, and violence prevention. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil as an expert on conflict and violence. Menakem has studied with bestselling authors Dr. David Schnarch (Passionate Marriage) and Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score). He also trained at Peter Levine's Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute.]]> 300 Resmaa Menakem 1942094477 Tara 0 to-read 4.38 2017
author: Resmaa Menakem
name: Tara
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/18
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]]> 1963638 The Untethered Soul offers simple yet profound answers to these questions.

Whether this is your first exploration of inner space, or you’ve devoted your life to the inward journey, this book will transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. You’ll discover what you can do to put an end to the habitual thoughts and emotions that limit your consciousness. By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, author and spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization.

Copublished with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) The Untethered Soul begins by walking you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping you uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It then delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness. Finally, with perfect clarity, this book opens the door to a life lived in the freedom of your innermost being.]]> 183 Michael A. Singer Tara 4 to-read, read-in-25 4.19 2007
author: Michael A. Singer
name: Tara
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/04/17
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]]> 1311812 ted-hughes 0571176267 Tara 0 to-read 4.25 1995
author: ted-hughes
name: Tara
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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]]> 96532 40 Cooper Edens 0671760521 Tara 5 read-in-25 4.56 1980
author: Cooper Edens
name: Tara
average rating: 4.56
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: read-in-25
review:

]]> 5642662 256 Heather Clark 0199287317 Tara 0 to-read 4.33 2006
author: Heather Clark
name: Tara
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> 48721389 The first biography of this great and tragic poet that takes advantage of a wealth of new material, this is an unusually balanced, comprehensive and definitive life of Sylvia Plath.

*A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE DAILY TELEGRAPH AND THE TIMES*

Determined not to read Plath's work as if her every act, from childhood on, was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark presents new materials about Plath's scientist father, her juvenile writings, and her psychiatric treatment, and evokes a culture in transition in the mid-twentieth century, in the shadow of the atom bomb and the Holocaust, as she explores Sylvia's world: her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife; her conflicted ties to her well-meaning, widowed mother; her troubles at the hands of an unenlightened mental-health industry; and her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes, a true marriage of minds that would change the course of poetry in English.

Clark's clear-eyed sympathy for Hughes, his lover Assia Wevill, and other demonized players in the arena of Plath's suicide promotes a deeper understanding of her final days, with their outpouring of first-rate poems. Along with illuminating readings of the poems themselves, Clark's meticulous, compassionate research brings us closer than ever to the spirited woman and visionary artist who blazed a trail that still lights the way for women poets the world over.]]> 1154 Heather Clark 1473579236 Tara 5 read-in-25
Plath's story has historically been so scattered with various sources from those who knew her and wanted to tell their own side of things. This is the first time that everything has been pulled together in an unbiased and incredibly well orchestrated book.

Truth be told, I knew the only way for me to finish such a book was via audio. I know I won't lug around the massive 1150+ page book that I also own, so it was nice to have the pictures to go back and reference as I read, and read certain passages I want to see on paper.

If you love Plath's lore like I do but want to know the truest story of her we have collectively on record, this is it. ]]> 4.56 2020
author: Heather Clark
name: Tara
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/17
shelves: read-in-25
review:
Now THIS is how you write a biography.

Plath's story has historically been so scattered with various sources from those who knew her and wanted to tell their own side of things. This is the first time that everything has been pulled together in an unbiased and incredibly well orchestrated book.

Truth be told, I knew the only way for me to finish such a book was via audio. I know I won't lug around the massive 1150+ page book that I also own, so it was nice to have the pictures to go back and reference as I read, and read certain passages I want to see on paper.

If you love Plath's lore like I do but want to know the truest story of her we have collectively on record, this is it.
]]> 176443930
A decade ago, two vans filled with high school seniors on a school service trip crashed into a Tennessee ravine—a tragedy that claimed the lives of multiple classmates and teachers. The nine students who managed to escape the river that night were irrevocably changed. A year later, after one of the survivors dies by suicide on the anniversary of the crash, the rest of them make a to come together each year to commemorate that terrible night.

To keep one another safe.
To hold one another accountable.
Or both.

Their annual meeting place, a house on the Outer Banks, has long been a refuge. But by the tenth anniversary, Cassidy Bent has worked to distance herself from the tragedy and from the other survivors. She’s changed her mobile number. She’s blocked the others� email addresses. This year, she is determined to finally break ties once and for all. But on the day of the reunion, she receives a text with an obituary another survivor is gone. Now they are seven—and Cassidy finds herself hurling back toward the group, wild with grief—and suspicion.

Almost immediately, something feels off this year. Cassidy is the first to notice when Amaya, the annual organizer, slips away, overwhelmed. This wouldn’t raise alarm except for the impending storm. Suddenly, they’re facing the threat of closed roads and surging waters…again. Then Amaya stops responding to her phone. After all they’ve been through, she wouldn’t willfully make them worry. Would she?

And—as they promised long ago—each survivor will do whatever he or she can do to save one another. Won’t they?

A propulsive and chilling locked-box mystery filled with the dazzling hairpin twists that are the author’s signature, The Only Survivors is New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda’s best novel yet.]]> 352 Megan Miranda 1668010429 Tara 0 to-read 3.60 2023
author: Megan Miranda
name: Tara
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 1006306 322 Al �lvarez 0393306577 Tara 0 to-read 3.98 1971
author: Al �lvarez
name: Tara
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1971
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
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]]> 211004838 John Lennon and Paul McCartney knew each other for twenty-three years, from 1957 to 1980. This book is the myth-shattering biography of a relationship that changed the cultural history of the world.

The Beatles shook the world to its core in the 1960’s and, to this day, remain an active ingredient in our cultural bloodstream, as new generations fall in love with their songs and their story. At the heart of this phenomenon lies the dynamic between John and Paul. Few other musical partnerships have been rooted in such a deep, intense and complicated personal relationship.

John and Paul’s relationship was defined by its complexity: compulsive, tender and tempestuous; full of longing, riven by jealousy. Like the band, their relationship was always in motion, never in equilibrium for long. John and Paul traces its twists and turns and reveals how these shifts manifested themselves in the music. Yoko Ono remarked on the resemblance of their friendship to a romantic relationship and suggested that at some point that’s what John wanted it to be. The two of them shared a private language, rooted in the stories, comedy and songs they both loved as teenagers, and later, in the lyrics of Beatles songs.

In John and Paul, acclaimed writer on human psychology and creativity Ian Leslie traces the shared journey of these men before, during and after The Beatles, offering us both a new look at two of the greatest icons in music history, and rich insights into the nature of creativity, collaboration, and human intimacy.]]> 424 Ian Leslie 1250869544 Tara 0 to-read 4.53 2025
author: Ian Leslie
name: Tara
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/14
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]]> 15924945 63 Sylvia Plath 0955836786 Tara 0 to-read 4.37 2011
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Tara
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2011
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]]> 46199 Listy do mlodego poety 80 Rainer Maria Rilke 0486422453 Tara 0 to-read 4.32 1929
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Tara
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1929
rating: 0
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]]> 54304135
Introduced at a workshop in Boston University led by the acclaimed and famous poet Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton formed a friendship that would soon evolve into a fierce rivalry, colored by jealousy and respect in equal terms.

In the years that followed, these two women would not only become iconic figures in literature, but also lead curiously parallel lives haunted by mental illness, suicide attempts, self-doubt, and difficult personal relationships. With weekly martini meetings at the Ritz to discuss everything from sex to suicide, theirs was a relationship as complex and subversive as their poetry.

Based on in-depth research and unprecedented archival access, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz is a remarkable and unforgettable look at two legendary poets and how their work has turned them into lasting and beloved cultural figures.]]> 280 Gail Crowther 1982138394 Tara 0 to-read 3.80 2021
author: Gail Crowther
name: Tara
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/11
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]]> 35504431
Aza Holmes never intended to pursue the disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett’s son Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.]]> 290 John Green 0525555366 Tara 0 to-read 3.88 2017
author: John Green
name: Tara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> 176443380
As her paranoia spirals out of control, Enid must contend with her mounting suspicion that something is seriously wrong with her. Because at the end of the day there’s only one person she can’t outrun—herself.

Brimming with quirky humor, charm, and heart, Interesting Facts about Space effortlessly shows us the power of revealing our secret shames, the most beautifully human parts of us all.]]> 320 Emily R. Austin 1668014238 Tara 0 to-read 3.84 2024
author: Emily R. Austin
name: Tara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/10
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]]> 223436601 An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.

From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite.

Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.�

Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.]]> 400 Sarah Wynn-Williams 1250391237 Tara 0 to-read 4.30 2025
author: Sarah Wynn-Williams
name: Tara
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/09
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]]> 220273416 From the Grammy-nominated and multiplatinum singer-songwriter and New York Times bestselling author Tori Amos comes Tori and the Muses, a thoughtful and sprightly tale of young Tori navigating the magical world of inspiration in all its forms.

Tori is no ordinary child—her musical inspirations and talents are clear from a young age. But when her dad forces her to rehearse for her recital, Tori is unhappy. She wants to play what she wants to play! And though they don’t see eye to eye, Tori has a eleven Muses who have visited her since she was a baby and inspire her to write and make her own beautiful music. These fairy godmother–like Muses remind Tori that inspiration is everywhere, and perhaps in helping others find their own Muses—including Dad—she may better understand her own inspirations.

So, Tori takes her brand-new floating pink piano—a gift from the Muses—to see what might inspire others, in hopes of understanding what her dad’s Muses might be.Ěý And she is surprised at what she finds.Ěý

Filled with joy, curiosity, and imagination, this debut picture book written by Tori Amos with otherworldly illustrations by Demelsa Haughton will inspire, encourage, and most importantly, remind young readers to find inspiration in the things they love, and to listen to their own Muses.]]> 40 Tori Amos 0593750349 Tara 0 to-read 4.25
author: Tori Amos
name: Tara
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> 222376493 An astonishing masterwork of memoir from one of our most renowned and acclaimed writers, telling pieces of her own story in nonfiction for the first time.

“Why do you write?� the organizer of a literary event in Mexico City asks Miriam Toews. Each attempted answer from Toews—all of them unsatisfactory to the organizer—surfaces new layers of grief, guilt, and futility connected to her sister’s suicide. She has been keeping up, she realizes, a decades-old internal correspondence, filling a silence she barely understands. And we, her readers, come to see that the question is as impossible to answer as deciding whether to live life as a comedy or a tragedy.
Marking the first time Toews has written her own story in nonfiction, A Truce That Is Not Peace explores the uneasy pact every creative person makes with memory. Wildly inventive yet masterfully controlled; slyly casual yet momentous; wrenching and joyful; hilarious and humane—this is Miriam Toews at her dazzling best, remaking her world and inventing a brilliant literary form to contain it.]]> 192 Miriam Toews 1639734740 Tara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Miriam Toews
name: Tara
average rating: 0.0
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date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> 123979787 320 Emily Van Duyne 1324006978 Tara 0 to-read 4.24 2024
author: Emily Van Duyne
name: Tara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
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]]> 11625 Sylvia Plath's famous collection, as she intended it.

When Sylvia Plath died, she not only left behind a prolific life but also her unpublished literary masterpiece, Ariel. When her husband, Ted Hughes, first brought this collection to life, it garnered worldwide acclaim, though it wasn't the draft Sylvia had wanted her readers to see. This facsimile edition restores, for the first time, Plath's original manuscript—including handwritten notes—and her own selection and arrangement of poems. This edition also includes in facsimile the complete working drafts of her poem "Ariel," which provide a rare glimpse into the creative process of a beloved writer. This publication introduces a truer version of Plath's works, and will no doubt alter her legacy forever.]]> 256 Sylvia Plath 0060732601 Tara 0 to-read 4.30 2004
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Tara
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/04
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]]> 31122 408 Dodie Smith 0312181108 Tara 0 to-read 3.99 1948
author: Dodie Smith
name: Tara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1948
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 29127 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451450524

She was magical, beautiful beyond belief—and completely alone...

The unicorn had lived since before memory in a forest where death could touch nothing. Maidens who caught a glimpse of her glory were blessed by enchantment they would never forget. But outside her wondrous realm, dark whispers and rumours carried a message she could not ignore: "Unicorns are gone from the world."

Aided by a bumbling magician and an indomitable spinster, she set out to learn the truth. but she feared even her immortal wisdom meant nothing in a world where a mad king's curse and terror incarnate lived only to stalk the last unicorn to her doom...]]> 294 Peter S. Beagle Tara 5 read-in-25 4.16 1968
author: Peter S. Beagle
name: Tara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1968
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/01
date added: 2025/04/01
shelves: read-in-25
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]]> 224103430 The new novel from the bestselling author of If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift—a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood, and made her who she is

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills� wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.]]> 400 M.L. Rio 1668070022 Tara 0 to-read 4.13 2025
author: M.L. Rio
name: Tara
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/31
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]]> 13646454 101 George Orwell 3257213980 Tara 0 to-read 4.05
author: George Orwell
name: Tara
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/31
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]]> 219301747 From the award-winning author of Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath, a stunning debut novel: the story of an intense first love haunted by history and family memory, inspired by the startling WWII scrapbook of Clark’s own grandfather, hidden in an attic until after his death

The traumas of the past and the aftershocks of fascism echo and reverberate through the present in this story of a lifechanging seduction.

Harvard, 1996. Anna is about to graduate when she falls hard for Christoph, a visiting German student. Captivated by his beauty and intelligence, she follows him to Germany, where charming squares and grand facades belie the nation’s recent history and the war’s destruction. Christoph condemns his country’s actions but remains cryptic about the part his own grandfather played. Anna, meanwhile, cannot forget the photos taken by her American GI grandfather at the end of the war, preserved in a scrapbook only she has seen.

As Anna travels back and forth to Germany to deepen her relationship with the elusive Christoph, her perspective is powerfully interrupted by chapters that follow both of their grandfathers during the war. One witnesses the plight of Holocaust victims in the days after liberation and helps capture Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, while the other fights for Nazi Germany. Their fragmented stories haunt Anna and her lover two generations later—and may still tear them apart.

Not a “World War Two novel� in the traditional sense, The Scrapbook delivers a consuming tale of first love, laced with a backstory of dark family legacies and historical conscience.]]> 256 Heather Clark 0593701909 Tara 0 to-read 4.45
author: Heather Clark
name: Tara
average rating: 4.45
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
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]]> 214037520 A woman who can’t remember her past encounters a mysterious stranger in a chilling novel of mounting psychological suspense by the authors of The Last Girl Left.

She wakes on the shore of a remote lake in the middle of the night, freezing and afraid. With no memory of who she is or how she got there, she stumbles frantically toward the lights of a house. The handsome stranger who lives there is shocked to see a woman on his doorstep and takes her in.

Trapped by a winter storm and cut off from the outside world, she starts to suspect that all is not right with the house on Gravewater Lake—or the man, who says his name is Gregg. Because there are whispers in the night, and phantom footsteps pace the halls. Is Gregg hiding a dark secret, or is she losing her mind?

As she struggles to remember her past and make sense of her present, she soon discovers that people are not always who they seem, and the truth might be more deadly than she could ever have imagined.]]> 359 A.M. Strong 1662518404 Tara 0 to-read 3.90 2025
author: A.M. Strong
name: Tara
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 1567088 165 KenzaburĹŤ ĹŚe 0330344358 Tara 0 to-read 3.98 1964
author: KenzaburĹŤ ĹŚe
name: Tara
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> 123675190
Read the book that launched Percy Jackson into the stratosphere before the Disney+ series comes out!

Lately, mythological monsters and the Olympian gods seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy Jackson’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. Zeus's master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Percy and his friends have just ten days to find and return Zeus's stolen property and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus.Ěý

Whether you are new to Percy or a longtime fan, this tie-in paperback edition with full-color photos from the Disney+ series is a must-have for your library.]]> 416 Rick Riordan 1368098169 Tara 0 to-read 4.37 2005
author: Rick Riordan
name: Tara
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> 6693658 Michael Mirolla, author of The Formal Logic of Emotion and Berlin

“One of the most original and thought-provoking stories I have ever read...true literary art...Not a word is wasted in this masterpiece. Yes, I call it that. I have read many classics, and I can tell you that The Divine Farce should be counted among them; the finest in American literature.”� Geekscribe

Three strangers are condemned to live together in darkness, crushed together in a concrete stall so small that they can never sit down. Liquid food drips down from above. Waste drains through a grid on the floor. So begins one of the strangest, most surreal comments on the human experience, on love and hatred and the human ability to find good in any situation, no matter how difficult. Michael S. A. Graziano delights in the macabre and surreal, yet it is his optimism that lifts this little novel. Like The Love Song of Monkey , this book is deeply thought provoking, horrifying, and funny.]]> 128 Michael S.A. Graziano 1935248049 Tara 0 to-read 4.16 2009
author: Michael S.A. Graziano
name: Tara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 60018618
Essential lessons in hospitality for every business, from the former co-owner of legendary restaurant Eleven Madison Park.

Will Guidara was twenty-six when he took the helm of Eleven Madison Park, a struggling two-star brasserie that had never quite lived up to its majestic room. Eleven years later, EMP was named the best restaurant in the world.
Ěý
How did Guidara pull off this unprecedented transformation? Radical reinvention, a true partnership between the kitchen and the dining room—and memorable, over-the-top, bespoke hospitality. Guidara’s team surprised a family who had never seen snow with a magical sledding trip to Central Park after their dinner; they filled a private dining room with sand, complete with mai-tais and beach chairs, to console a couple with a cancelled vacation. And his hospitality extended beyond those dining at the restaurant to his own team, who learned to deliver praise and criticism with intention; why the answer to some of the most pernicious business dilemmas is to give more—not less; and the magic that can happen when a busser starts thinking like an owner.
Ěý
Today, every business can choose to be a hospitality business—and we can all transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences. Featuring sparkling stories of his journey through restaurants, with the industry’s most famous players like Daniel Boulud and Danny Meyer, Guidara urges us all to find the magic in what we do—for ourselves, the people we work with, and the people we serve.]]> 288 Will Guidara 0593418573 Tara 0 to-read 4.42
author: Will Guidara
name: Tara
average rating: 4.42
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date added: 2025/03/28
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]]> 386372
Death is the Grim Reaper of the Discworld, a black-robed skeleton with a scythe who ushers souls into the next world. He is also fond of cats and endlessly baffled by humanity. Soon Death is yearning to experience what humanity really has to offer, but to do that, he'll need to hire some help.

It's an offer Mort can't refuse. As Death's apprentice he'll have free board, use of the company horse—and being dead isn't compulsory. It's a dream job—until Mort falls in love with Death's daughter, Ysabell, and discovers that your boss can be a killer on your love life…]]> 243 Terry Pratchett 0061020680 Tara 0 to-read 4.24 1987
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Tara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 350 NAME: Valentine Michael Smith
ANCESTRY: Human
ORIGIN: Mars

Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while teaching them his own fundamental beliefs in grokking, watersharing, and love.]]> 525 Robert A. Heinlein Tara 0 to-read 3.93 1961
author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Tara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 113380

From the Paperback edition.]]> 304 Tania Aebi 0345410122 Tara 0 to-read 4.17 1989
author: Tania Aebi
name: Tara
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 54860342
During the early twentieth century, transatlantic travel was the province of the great ocean liners. It was an extraordinary undertaking made by many women, whose lives were changed forever by their journeys between the Old World and the New. Some traveled for leisure, some for work; others to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. They were celebrities, migrants and millionaires, refugees, aristocrats and crew members whose stories have mostly remained untold―until now.

Maiden Voyages is a fascinating portrait of the era, the ships themselves, and these women as they crossed the Atlantic. The ocean liner was a microcosm of contemporary society, divided by class: from the luxury of the upper deck, playground for the rich and famous, to the cramped conditions of steerage or third class travel. In first class you’ll meet A-listers like Marlene Dietrich, Wallis Simpson, and Josephine Baker; the second class carried a new generation of professional and independent women, like pioneering interior designer Sibyl Colefax. Down in steerage, you’ll follow the journey of émigré Maria Riffelmacher as she escapes poverty in Europe. Bustling between decks is a crew of female workers, including Violet “The Unsinkable Stewardess� Jessop, who survived the Titanic disaster.

Entertaining and informative, Maiden Voyages captures the golden age of ocean liners through the stories of the women whose transatlantic journeys changed the shape of society on both sides of the globe.]]> 368 Siân Evans 1250246466 Tara 0 to-read 3.70 2021
author: Siân Evans
name: Tara
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 211671383 She was only eleven-and-a-half inches tall, but she would change the world. Barbie is born in this bold new novel by USA Today bestselling author Renée Rosen.

When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she’s setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up.

In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be mothers. Ruth’s vision for a doll shaped like a grown woman and outfitted in an enviable wardrobe will let them dream they can be anything.

As Ruth assembles her team of creative rebels—head engineer Jack Ryan who hides his deepest secrets behind his genius and designers Charlotte Johnson and Stevie Klein, whose hopes and dreams rest on the success of Barbie’s fashion—she knows they’re working against a ticking clock to get this wild idea off the ground.

In the decades to come—through soaring heights and devastating personal lows, public scandals and private tensions� each of them will have to decide how tightly to hold on to their creation. Because Barbie has never been just a doll—she’s a legacy.]]> 432 Renée Rosen 0593335686 Tara 0 to-read 4.04 2025
author: Renée Rosen
name: Tara
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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]]> 14578407 Penpal began as a series of short and interconnected stories posted on an online horror forum. Before long, it was adapted into illustrations, audio recordings, and short films; and that was before it was revised and expanded into a novel!

How much do you remember about your childhood?

In Penpal, a man investigates the seemingly unrelated bizarre, tragic, and horrific occurrences of his childhood in an attempt to finally understand them. Beginning with only fragments of his earliest years, you'll follow the narrator as he discovers that these strange and horrible events are actually part of a single terrifying story that has shaped the entirety of his life and the lives of those around him. If you've ever stayed in the woods just a little too long after dark, if you've ever had the feeling that someone or something was trying to hurt you, if you remember the first friend you ever made and how strong that bond was, then Penpal is a story that you won't soon forget, despite how you might try.]]> 243 Dathan Auerbach 098554550X Tara 0 to-read 3.84 2012
author: Dathan Auerbach
name: Tara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 214960921 Secrets, lies, and second chances are served up beneath the stars at a picturesque mountain getaway in this powerful novel about love and family by the bestselling author of This Is Not How It Ends.

At the Vis Ta Vie inn, Reneé and Jean-Paul De La Rue face the daunting decision to close their beloved home for good.

They’re not the only ones going through a season of change, though. Their guests include three couples in Hollywood celebs Leo and Penny are spending their silver anniversary together while on the cusp of divorce. Lucy, a practical-minded therapist, and Henry, an astronomer with his head in the stars, are struggling to find common ground. And former lawyer and current stay-at-home mom Sienna and charismatic sports agent Adam look perfect but are hiding rifts of their own. Thrown into the mix are self-absorbed single mother Cassidy and her sullen fifteen-year-old daughter, Rosalie.

The stage is set for a week of betrayals, regrets, and shocking truths that can rend the heart or heal it. Vis Ta Vie�live your life—captures what it means to love through the darkness, and to find the light even after the magic fades.]]> 363 Rochelle B. Weinstein 1662520883 Tara 0 to-read 4.11 2025
author: Rochelle B. Weinstein
name: Tara
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 55333938 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780593101537.

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.]]> 341 Marie Benedict Tara 0 to-read 3.98 2021
author: Marie Benedict
name: Tara
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 59808050 The New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists returns…with a family reunion that leads to murder.

After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours.

The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. Then at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows�

Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide comes in and all is revealed.

With a wicked wink to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Daisy Darker’s unforgettable twists will leave readers reeling.]]> 352 Alice Feeney 1250843936 Tara 0 to-read 3.75 2022
author: Alice Feeney
name: Tara
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 123942 A Very Easy Death has long been considered one of Simone de Beauvoir’s masterpieces. The profoundly moving, day-by-day recounting of her mother’s death “shows the power of compassion when it is allied with acute intelligence� (The Sunday Telegraph).
Ěý
Powerful, touching, and sometimes shocking, this is an end-of-life account that no reader is ever likely to forget.]]> 112 Simone de Beauvoir 0394728998 Tara 0 to-read 4.08 1964
author: Simone de Beauvoir
name: Tara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 214269353 From the award-winning author of Flux comes a dazzling novel about love, family, and the art of sushi that asks: What if you could return to the point of a fateful choice, wiser than before, and find the courage to forge a new path?

A coma can change a man, but the world Jack Jr. awakens to is one he barely recognizes. His advertising job is history, his Manhattan apartment is gone, and the love of his life has left him behind. He’s been asleep for two years; with no one to turn to, he realizes it’s been ten years since he last saw his family.Ěý

Lost and disoriented, he makes a reluctant homecoming back to the bustling Korean American enclave of Fort Lee, New Jersey; back into the waiting arms of his parents, who are operating under the illusion he never left; and back to Joja, their ever-struggling sushi restaurant that he was set to inherit before he ran away from it all. As he steps back into the life he abandoned—learning his Appa’s life lessons over crates of tuna on bleary-eyed 4 AM fish runs, doling out amberjack behind the omakase counter while his Umma tallies the night's pitiful number of customers, and sparring with his recovering alcoholic brother, James—he embraces new roles, That of romantic interest to the male nurse who took care of him throughout, and that of sage (but underqualified) uncle to his gangly teenage nephew.

There is value in the joyous rhythms of this once-abandoned life. But second chances are an even messier business than running a restaurant, and the lure of a self-determined path might, once again, prove too hard to resist.

Why do we run from those we love, and why do we still love those who run from us? A highly entertaining and poignant story about second chances and self-discovery, I Leave It Up to You pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one’s footing after the ground gives way.]]> 311 Jinwoo Chong 0593727053 Tara 0 to-read 4.03 2025
author: Jinwoo Chong
name: Tara
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 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 Tara 0 to-read 4.28 2025
author: Charlotte McConaghy
name: Tara
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/27
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]]> 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

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

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Tara 0 currently-reading 4.05 2014
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Tara
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 58987268 Heather Clark Tara 0 to-read 0.0
author: Heather Clark
name: Tara
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> 51162491 A modern, inclusive guide to astrology that will illuminate your love life as well as your relationships with your family, your friends, and yourself.

When it comes to friendship, family, and romance, we all want the same things: to love and be loved, to communicate, to fight fair, and to feel okay in our own skin. Astrology for Real Relationships is a modern, practical guide to life's least practical matters--relationships of all kinds and matters of the heart--that will help you understand your blind spots, blocks, and fears so you can make choices that leave you happy and fulfilled. Full of real talk about attraction, dating, sex, frenemies, self-love, and how to deal with family, this book will help you build and maintain strong connections--with your crushes, your spouse, your boss, or your mom--and uncover and get what you really want in relationships, not what you think you should want.]]> 246 Jessica Lanyadoo 1984856251 Tara 0 to-read 4.30 2019
author: Jessica Lanyadoo
name: Tara
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/14
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]]> 9938498
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the New Germany, she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Goring and the expectedly charming—yet wholly sinister—Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.]]> 448 Erik Larson 0307408841 Tara 0 to-read 3.87 2011
author: Erik Larson
name: Tara
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> 23995249
In this illuminating biography, Andrea Wulf brings Humboldt’s extraordinary life back into focus: his prediction of human-induced climate change; his daring expeditions to the highest peaks of South America and to the anthrax-infected steppes of Siberia; his relationships with iconic figures, including Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson; and the lasting influence of his writings on Darwin, Wordsworth, Goethe, Muir, Thoreau, and many others. Brilliantly researched and stunningly written, The Invention of Nature reveals the myriad ways in which Humboldt’s ideas form the foundation of modern environmentalism—and reminds us why they are as prescient and vital as ever.]]> 473 Andrea Wulf 038535066X Tara 0 to-read 4.28 2015
author: Andrea Wulf
name: Tara
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> 196585876 An Unfinished Love A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.

Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir.

Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved.

The Goodwins� last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.

Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.]]> 480 Doris Kearns Goodwin 1982108665 Tara 0 to-read 4.53 2024
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Tara
average rating: 4.53
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]]> 38657386
In Leadership, Goodwin draws upon the four presidents she has studied most closely—Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson (in civil rights)—to show how they recognized leadership qualities within themselves and were recognized as leaders by others. By looking back to their first entries into public life, we encounter them at a time when their paths were filled with confusion, fear, and hope.

Leadership tells the story of how they all collided with dramatic reversals that disrupted their lives and threatened to shatter forever their ambitions. Nonetheless, they all emerged fitted to confront the contours and dilemmas of their times.

No common pattern describes the trajectory of leadership. Although set apart in background, abilities, and temperament, these men shared a fierce ambition and a deep-seated resilience that enabled them to surmount uncommon hardships. At their best, all four were guided by a sense of moral purpose. At moments of great challenge, they were able to summon their talents to enlarge the opportunities and lives of others.]]> 473 Doris Kearns Goodwin Tara 0 to-read 4.38 2018
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Tara
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2018
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]]> 17334495 Team of Rivals, captures the Progressive Era through the story of the broken friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, culminating in their running against one another for president in 1912.]]> 910 Doris Kearns Goodwin Tara 0 to-read 4.12 2013
author: Doris Kearns Goodwin
name: Tara
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2013
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]]> 13079982 Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.� But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 194 Ray Bradbury Tara 0 to-read 3.97 1953
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Tara
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1953
rating: 0
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]]> 228684185
From otherworldly horrors to dystopian visions, each story delves into the depths of fear and fascination, promising to captivate and thrill. Uncover dark corners of the universe and embrace the supernatural as you turn each page.

Dare to explore The Midnight Vault-where the fantastic and the frightful come alive..

Stories included:

"A Six-Part Death" - William Pauley III
"The HALCYONIUM" - Clancy Steadwell
"Hector" - Annie Hendrix
"The Lonely Planter" - Bryan Pirolli
"Separate Memories" - Michele Bardsley
"All The World's Static" - Jason Thompson
"An Elegant Solution" - Bridget Riley
"The Creative Lives Of The Lichtensteins" - EJ Trask
"Watched Pots" - Will Boucher
"Off Switch" - Honeygloom
"The Last Stop" - Shane Bzdok
"The Sun And The Moon" - CB Mason
"Sunbonnet Sue" - Lisa Kuznak
"Blink Twice If You Can Hear Me" - Sean Thomas McDonnell
"Vote Control" - Andy Futuro
"Soma's Reflection" - Edith Bow
"Room 13" - Miguel S.
"The Thing In The Box" - A.P. Murphy
"Amanita" - Sean Archer
"The Swing of the Pendulum" - Adam Rockwell
"In Capable Hands" - Shaina Read
"August's Fog" - Nyanka J.
"The Zeno Paradox" - J. Curtis
"The Joke's On You" - Stephen Duffy
"Mail-Order Bride" - K.C. Knouse
"The Switchboard" - Hanna Delaney
"What You're Made Of" - Jon Toews
"Conception" - Bob Graham
"Good Neighbors" - Liz Zimmers]]> 404 J. Curtis Tara 0 to-read 5.00 2025
author: J. Curtis
name: Tara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
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]]> 32072974
Uh, basically everything. It would be eight long years before she landed her Emmy-nominated role of Pam Beesley on The Office—nearly a decade of failure, struggle, rejection and doubt.

The path to professional acting was more competitive than she’d ever imagined. Headshots, agents, classes, auditions . . . there was a lot to learn. And with so many obstacles to navigate, it wasn’t always easy to fight off discouragement.

If only she’d had a handbook for the struggling actor. Or, better yet, someone to show her the way—an established actor who could manage her expectations, educate her about the business, and reassure her in those moments of despair.

Jenna Fischer wants to be that person for you.

With candor and wit, Fischer lays out what it takes to establish yourself in the profession. Based on her own memorable and hilarious experiences, she provides invaluable advice on how to get the right head shot, what to look for in representation, and the importance of getting out there and just doing something. She also provides helpful hints on how to be gutsy and take risks, the tricks to good auditioning and callbacks, and how not to fall for certain scams. (Auditions in a guy’s apartment are probably not legit—or at least not for the kind of part you’re looking for!)

Fischer’s inspiring guidance will make you feel like you have a trusted friend who’s made the journey and has now returned to walk beside you, pointing out the pitfalls as you blaze your own path toward the life of a professional actor.]]> 252 Jenna Fischer 1944648224 Tara 0 to-read 4.17 2017
author: Jenna Fischer
name: Tara
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
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]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Tara 0 to-read 4.33 2011
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Tara
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
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]]> 217077258 Just Glow is a profoundly impactful memoir that provides readers with an unfiltered look at the turmoil and devastation of war, even long after the immediate aftermath has faded. It also delves into the enduring grief that accompanies the loss of comrades and how that sorrow permeates the lives of those who still remain.

Quotes

"In an honest and heartfelt voice, Augusto provides the reader with insight into the brotherhood in the military, and the importance of the bonds that exist. He illustrates the journey of the human spirit and love that surges from these bonds, despite the tragedy of war."
—Gary Sturgis, Grief Specialist and Author of Surviving Grief: 365 Days a Year

"This memoir is written so well and is a page turner despite the heavy subject� He writes with honesty and a fresh perspective. I like his focus on how important caring for one's mental health is, why grief needs to be addressed so it can be healed."
—Lisa Athan, MA Grief Specialist, Executive Director, Grief Speaks]]> 438 Augusto C. Cespedes Jr Tara 0 to-read 4.90
author: Augusto C. Cespedes Jr
name: Tara
average rating: 4.90
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]]> 142391544
The Sisterhood tells the story of how this remarkable community transformed American writing and cultural institutions. Drawing on original interviews with Sisterhood members as well as correspondence, meeting minutes, and readings of their works, Courtney Thorsson explores the group’s everyday collaboration and profound legacy. The Sisterhood advocated for Black women writers at trade publishers and magazines such as Random House, Ms., and Essence, and eventually in academic departments as well―often in the face of sexist, racist, and homophobic backlash. Thorsson traces the personal, professional, and political ties that brought the group together as well as the reasons for its dissolution. She considers the popular and critical success of Sisterhood members in the 1980s, the uneasy absorption of Black feminism into the academy, and how younger writers built on the foundations the group laid. Highlighting the organizing, networking, and community building that nurtured Black women’s writing, this book demonstrates that The Sisterhood offers an enduring model for Black feminist collaboration.]]> 296 Courtney Thorsson 0231204728 Tara 0 to-read 3.98
author: Courtney Thorsson
name: Tara
average rating: 3.98
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]]> 62039165
Orphaned from infancy, Catherine de� Medici endured a tumultuous childhood. Married to the French king, she was widowed by forty, only to become the power behind the French throne during a period of intense civil strife. In 1546, Catherine gave birth to a daughter, Elisabeth de Valois, who would become Queen of Spain. Two years later, Catherine welcomed to her nursery the beguiling young Mary Queen of Scots, who would later become her daughter-in-law.

Together, Catherine, Elisabeth, and Mary lived through the sea changes that transformed sixteenth-century Europe, a time of expanding empires, religious discord, and populist revolt, as concepts of nationhood began to emerge and ideas of sovereignty inched closer to absolutism. They would learn that to rule as a queen was to wage a constant war against the deeply entrenched misogyny of their time.

Following the intertwined stories of the three women from girlhood through young adulthood, Leah Redmond Chang's Young Queens paints a picture of a world in which a woman could wield power at the highest level yet remain at the mercy of the state, her body serving as the currency of empire and dynasty, sacrificed to the will of husband, family, kingdom.]]> 416 Leah Redmond Chang 0374294488 Tara 0 to-read 4.15 2023
author: Leah Redmond Chang
name: Tara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
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]]> 53260224 This explosive book of history and cultural criticism argues that white feminism has been a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women and all colonized women. It offers a long-overdue validation of the experiences of women of color. Taking us from the slave era—when white women fought in court to keep "ownership" of their slaves—through the centuries of colonialism—when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics—to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars

Examining subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and nineteenth-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad builds a powerful argument about the entrenched systems of white supremacy that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight.]]> 284 Ruby Hamad 194822674X Tara 0 to-read 4.56 2020
author: Ruby Hamad
name: Tara
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> 58724802 Things We Do in the Dark is a brilliant new thriller from Jennifer Hillier, the award-winning author of the breakout novels Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts. Paris Peralta is suspected of killing her celebrity husband, and her long-hidden past now threatens to destroy her future.

When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.

Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she's unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for all.

Because the only thing worse than a murder charge are two murder charges.]]> 352 Jennifer Hillier 1250763169 Tara 0 to-read 3.92 2022
author: Jennifer Hillier
name: Tara
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
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]]> 46756 Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.]]> 389 Margaret Atwood Tara 0 to-read 4.01 2003
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Tara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> 44318414
The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives, they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.]]> 337 Ann Patchett 0062963678 Tara 0 to-read 4.08 2019
author: Ann Patchett
name: Tara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> 190257 34 Ray Bradbury 0912264799 Tara 0 to-read 4.03 1973
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Tara
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> 897906
This volume, which was close to completion at the time of her death, contains the distillation of her studies, combined with new discoveries, insights, and analysis. Editor Miriam Robbins Dexter has added introductory and concluding remarks, summaries, and annotations. The first part of the book is an accessible, beautifully illustrated summation of all Gimbutas's earlier work on "Old European" religion, together with her ideas on the roles of males and females in ancient matrilineal cultures. The second part of the book brings her knowledge to bear on what we know of the goddesses today―those who, in many places and in many forms, live on.]]> 286 Marija Gimbutas 0520229150 Tara 0 to-read 4.23 1999
author: Marija Gimbutas
name: Tara
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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]]> 33387822 Tegevus toimub vaheldumisi Alam-Kolkaküla alevis ja Brüsseli peakorteri kuluaarides. Teemadeks on Lääne-Euroopa muutumine miljonite migrantide saabudes, Ida’Euroopa suhtumine sellesse, inimeste identiteedikriis ja Eesti hetkevalikud. Läbiva liinina otsitakse vastust küsimusele, kas eestlusel on tulevikku, ja kui, siis kus ja missugune?
Autorile omaselt on romaani stiil irooniline.]]> 208 Mihkel Mutt 9949933668 Tara 0 to-read 3.83
author: Mihkel Mutt
name: Tara
average rating: 3.83
book published:
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]]> 29278486 The Legend of Barney Thomson, recently released as a major motion picture starring two times Academy award-winner Emma Thompson, comes a dark, brooding new crime series.

Police detective Ben Westphall is burnt out and leading a quiet life in the North of Scotland. Things change when he is assigned to investigate the cold case of a UK national who disappeared in Eastern Europe under mysterious circumstances and who, despite being declared dead, has re-appeared, claiming to have been held for over a decade, various body parts having been harvested during that time. Westphall travels to Estonia, chasing leads and shadows that may lead to an international drugs and organ trafficking conspiracy.

Praise for Song of the Dead:

'A Tartan Noir tour de force. Lindsay writes with an economy and skill all too rare in modern fiction. If you haven't read the Barney Thomson author yet - buy this and join the bandwagon, you'll find me on there, beating the drum for this briliant book.' Tony Black, author of Artefacts of the Dead and The Last Tiger]]> 272 Douglas Lindsay 1910449741 Tara 0 to-read 3.63 2016
author: Douglas Lindsay
name: Tara
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2016
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]]> 38212113

Journeying back to their remote village, Inara comes to know Ausma and her trauma as an exile to Siberia under Stalin, while reconstructing Livija’s survival through her years as a refugee. In uniting their stories, Inara honors both sisters in a haunting and luminous account of loss, survival, resilience, and love.


A New York Times Book Review Editors� Choice.]]> 288 Inara Verzemnieks 0393356191 Tara 0 to-read 4.24 2017
author: Inara Verzemnieks
name: Tara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> 61287784
Whisked away to his crumbling manor, Liska soon discovers the sinister roots of their bargain. And if she wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her host’s spool of secrets and face the ghosts of his past.

Those who enter the wood do not always return…]]> 336 A.B. Poranek Tara 0 to-read 4.05 2024
author: A.B. Poranek
name: Tara
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 42833003
The period under the rule of the USSR brought several changes to their societies and cultures. Individuals and institutions dealing with folklore―archives, university departments, and folklorists―came under special control, attack, and surveillance. Some of the pioneer folklorists escaped to other countries, but many others witnessed their institutions and the meaning of folklore studies transformed. The USSR did not stop folklore studies but led the field to new methods. In spite of all the pressure, folklore continued to be a matter of identity, and folksongs became the marching songs of crowds resisting Soviet control in the late 1980s. Since independence in 1991, folklore scholars and institutions revamped and reconstituted folkloristics. Today all three countries have many active scholars and institutions.

Sadhana Naithani recounts this resilient arc through an intermedial and interdisciplinary methodology of research. She combines the study of written works, archival documents, life-stories, and conversations with folklorists, ethnologists, archivists, and historians in Tartu, Riga, and Vilnius. She recorded conversations on video, creating current reflections on issues of the recent past. Based on the study of life-stories and oral history projects, Naithani juxtaposes the history of folkloristics and the life of the folk in the Soviet period of the Baltic countries. The result is this dramatic, first-ever history of Baltic folkloristics.]]> 128 Sadhana Naithani 1496823567 Tara 0 to-read 4.00
author: Sadhana Naithani
name: Tara
average rating: 4.00
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]]> 7673318 176 Michael G. Aamodt 0495603716 Tara 0 to-read 4.63 2006
author: Michael G. Aamodt
name: Tara
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> 79330048 Discover how to provide feedback that’s human, energizing, and effective.

You’ve probably experienced the discomfort of receiving or giving feedback. It’s no surprise that research confirms traditional feedback models are broken, often causing more harm than good. If you’re a leader, coach, or leadership development professional feeling stuck on how to best retain and develop talent, Feedback Reimagined will show you the way. Inside these pages, executive coaches Pete Berridge and Jen Ostrich invite you to reimagine a new way of experiencing feedback that creates more empowered and engaged workforces.

Grounded in the science of positive psychology and social support, the Shift Positive® Method will teach you how

Discern what makes your current approach to feedback ineffective and why
Engage in transparent feedback that is psychologically safe
Use the science of positive psychology and social support for better results
Build a culture of two-way accountability and allyship
Create a shift in mindset that positively impacts employee engagement across the entire organization]]> 204 Peter Berridge 1951692306 Tara 0 to-read 4.06
author: Peter Berridge
name: Tara
average rating: 4.06
book published:
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]]> 789142 632 Michael G. Aamodt 0495093068 Tara 0 to-read 3.93 1990
author: Michael G. Aamodt
name: Tara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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]]> 101162068 A revolutionary guide that will transform your relationship with failure, from the pioneering researcher of psychological safety and award-winning Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson.

We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures�: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often. The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well.

After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely. Outlining the three archetypes of failure—simple, complex, and intelligent—Amy showcases how to minimize unproductive failure while maximizing what we gain from flubs of all stripes. She illustrates how we and our organizations can embrace our human fallibility, learn exactly when failure is our friend, and prevent most of it when it is not. This is the key to pursuing smart risks and preventing avoidable harm.

With vivid, real-life stories from business, pop culture, history, and more, Edmondson gives us specifically tailored practices, skills, and mindsets to help us replace shame and blame with curiosity, vulnerability, and personal growth. You’ll never look at failure the same way again.]]> 368 Amy C. Edmondson 1982195061 Tara 0 to-read 3.89 2023
author: Amy C. Edmondson
name: Tara
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
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]]> 55835660 AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

[Moore's] careful balance of the hard-bitten with the heartfelt is what elevates Long Bright River from entertaining page-turner to a book that makes you want to call someone you love." - The New York Times Book Review

This is police procedural and a thriller par excellence, one in which the city of Philadelphia itself is a character (think Boston and Mystic River). But it's also a literary tale narrated by a strong woman with a richly drawn personal life - powerful and genre-defying." - People

A thoughtful, powerful novel by a writer who displays enormous compassion for her characters. Long Bright River is an outstanding crime novel... I absolutely loved it.
--Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then one of them goes missing.

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit--and her sister--before it's too late.

Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.]]> 497 Liz Moore 0525540687 Tara 0 to-read 4.15 2020
author: Liz Moore
name: Tara
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X Tara 0 to-read 4.52 2007
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Tara
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 15801967 New York Times bestseller and named Best Marketing Book of 2014 by the American Marketing Association

What makes things popular? Why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

If you said advertising, think again. People don't listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? Why are some stories and rumors more infectious? And what makes online content go viral?

Wharton marketing professor Jonah Berger has spent the last decade answering these questions. He's studied why New York Times articles make the paper's own Most E-mailed List, why products get word of mouth, and how social influence shapes everything from the cars we buy to the clothes we wear to the names we give our children. In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.

Contagious combines groundbreaking research with powerful stories. Learn how a luxury steakhouse found popularity through the lowly cheese-steak, why anti-drug commercials might have actually increased drug use, and why more than 200 million consumers shared a video about one of the seemingly most boring products there is: a blender. If you've wondered why certain stories get shared, e-mails get forwarded, or videos go viral, Contagious explains why, and shows how to leverage these concepts to craft contagious content. This book provides a set of specific, actionable techniques for helping information spread - for designing messages, advertisements, and information that people will share. Whether you're a manager at a big company, a small business owner trying to boost awareness, a politician running for office, or a health official trying to get the word out, Contagious will show you how to make your product or idea catch on.]]> 210 Jonah Berger 1451686579 Tara 4 read-in-25 3.97 2013
author: Jonah Berger
name: Tara
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: read-in-25
review:

]]> 218624103 448 T. Kingfisher 1250400228 Tara 0 to-read 4.08 2018
author: T. Kingfisher
name: Tara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

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

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Tara 0 to-read 4.46 2022
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Tara
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 21412400 No One Belongs Here More Than You, a spectacular debut novel that is so heartbreaking, so dirty, so tender, so funny � so Miranda July � readers will be blown away.

Here is Cheryl, a tightly-wound, vulnerable woman who lives alone, with a perpetual lump in her throat. She is haunted by a baby boy she met when she was six, who sometimes recurs as other people's babies. Cheryl is also obsessed with Phillip, a philandering board member at the women's self-defense non-profit where she works. She believes they've been making love for many lifetimes, though they have yet to consummate in this one.

When Cheryl's bosses ask if their twenty-one-year-old daughter Clee can move into her house for a little while, Cheryl's eccentrically-ordered world explodes. And yet it is Clee � the selfish, cruel blond bombshell � who bullies Cheryl into reality and, unexpectedly, provides her the love of a lifetime.

Tender, gripping, slyly hilarious, infused with raging sexual fantasies and fierce maternal love, Miranda July's first novel confirms her as a spectacularly original, iconic and important voice today, and a writer for all time. The First Bad Man is dazzling, disorienting, and unforgettable.]]> 288 Miranda July 1439172560 Tara 0 to-read 3.67 2015
author: Miranda July
name: Tara
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53093060
Kate Rees, a young American markswoman, has been recruited by British intelligence to drop into Paris with a dangerous assassinate the Führer. Wrecked by grief after a Luftwaffe bombing killed her husband and infant daughter, she is armed with a rifle, a vendetta, and a fierce resolve. But other than rushed and rudimentary instruction, she has no formal spy training. Thrust into the red-hot center of the war, a country girl from rural Oregon finds herself holding the fate of the world in her hands. When Kate misses her mark and the plan unravels, Kate is on the run for her life—all the time wrestling with the suspicion that the whole operation was a set-up.

New York Times bestselling author Cara Black is at her best as she brings Occupation-era France to vivid life in this masterful, pulse-pounding story about one young woman with the temerity—and drive—to take on Hitler himself.

*Features an illustrated map of 1940s Paris as full color endpapers.]]> 350 Cara Black 1641290412 Tara 0 to-read 3.76 2020
author: Cara Black
name: Tara
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 221473209 The first book in Maggie Stiefvater'sĚý#1 NYT bestselling series The Raven Cycle, now gorgeously illustrated as a graphic novel!

Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics. Only, she has never had the same clairvoyant abilities they had and has always felt too ordinary within the magic that surrounded her. Enter Gansey, a rich student from Aglionby, the town’s all-boys private school teeming with wealth, privilege, and trouble. Blue's always made it a point to stay away from its students, the Raven Boys.

But when Gansey asks her to join him and three other Raven Boys on his quest to find a long-forgotten Welsh king rumored to be sleeping beneath the mountains of their quiet Virginia town, Blue doesn’t hesitate. She jumps at the chance to finally be a part of something real and full of magic, a world she was born into yet one that always stood just out of reach. Soon enough, she’s swept into a strange and shifting world woven into theirs, one far more dangerous than anything they could have dreamt up.

Now reimagined as a stunning full-color graphic novel adapted by Stephanie Williams and illustrated by Sas Milledge, The Raven Boys unravels a thrilling plot around a cast of characters impossible to forget.]]> 256 Stephanie Williams 0593621182 Tara 0 to-read 4.32 2025
author: Stephanie Williams
name: Tara
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 11266880 PennySaver, the iconic classifieds booklet that reached everywhere and seemed to come from nowhere. Who was the person selling the “Large leather Jacket, $10�? It seemed important to find out—or at least it was a great distraction from the screenplay.

Accompanied by photographer Brigitte Sire, July crisscrossed Los Angeles to meet a random selection of PennySaver sellers, glimpsing thirteen surprisingly moving and profoundly specific realities, along the way shaping her film, and herself, in unexpected ways.

Elegantly blending narrative, interviews, and photographs with July’s off-kilter honesty and deadpan humor, this is a story of procrastination and inspiration, isolation and connection, and grabbing hold of the invisible world.]]> 218 Miranda July 1936365014 Tara 0 to-read 3.98 2011
author: Miranda July
name: Tara
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 197798168
A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.

Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, All Fours tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, All Fours transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]> 336 Miranda July 0593190262 Tara 4 read-in-25
It was breathtakingly pretentious. Was it supposed to be? It also kept me guessing but in ways that sometimes seemed for shock value and others seemed like something I shouldn't be shouldn't be shocked by.

It will keep me thinking about some things for a while.]]> 3.52 2024
author: Miranda July
name: Tara
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: read-in-25
review:
I have so many conflicting feelings on this one.

It was breathtakingly pretentious. Was it supposed to be? It also kept me guessing but in ways that sometimes seemed for shock value and others seemed like something I shouldn't be shouldn't be shocked by.

It will keep me thinking about some things for a while.
]]> 1046472 304 Grace Tiffany 0425196380 Tara 0 to-read 3.65 2003
author: Grace Tiffany
name: Tara
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 213674516 104 Jack Skelley Tara 0 to-read 4.42
author: Jack Skelley
name: Tara
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1239144 154 Jacob Rabinowitz 157027035X Tara 0 to-read 3.94 1996
author: Jacob Rabinowitz
name: Tara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 45300567
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.]]> 337 Alex Michaelides 1250304458 Tara 0 to-read 3.61 2021
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Tara
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 214504702 Ursula K. Le Guin’s timeless and revered A Wizard of Earthsea is reimagined in a richly expansive graphic novel by acclaimed artist Fred Fordham, creator of stunning adaptations To Kill a Mockingbird and Brave New World.

"The magic of Earthsea is primal; the lessons of Earthsea remain as potent, as wise, and as necessary as anyone could dream." —Neil Gaiman

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long-held secrets and unleashed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tumultuous tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.

Experience the bestselling first adventure of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea Cycle as a masterly crafted graphic novel. Fred Fordham brings new life to Le Guin's iconic fantasy classic with his breathtaking illustrations and thoughtful text adaptation.]]> 288 Fred Fordham 0063285762 Tara 0 to-read 4.08 2025
author: Fred Fordham
name: Tara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
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]]> 49535227
Part breathless confession, part lucid critique, Acts of Desperation renders a consciousness split between rebellion and submission, between escaping degradation and eroticizing it, between loving and being lovable. With unsettling, electric precision, Nolan dissects one of life’s most elusive mysteries: Why do we want what we want, and how do we want it?

Heralding the arrival of a stunning new literary talent, Acts of Desperation interrogates the nature of fantasy, desire, and power, challenging us to reckon honestly with our own insatiability.]]> 288 Megan Nolan Tara 0 to-read 3.71 2021
author: Megan Nolan
name: Tara
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 27191530 192 Elizabeth Limbach 0794843700 Tara 0 to-read 5.00 2015
author: Elizabeth Limbach
name: Tara
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>