Robinne's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 06 Jun 2025 01:59:33 -0700 60 Robinne's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Albion 221495396 A finely crafted, propulsive, and nuanced story of family, inheritance, and accountability that shakes the country house novel to its foundations from the internationally acclaimed author of Expectation.

The Brookes are gathering in their eighteenth-century ancestral home—twenty bedrooms of carved Sussex sandstone—to bury their patriarch, Philip. Father, grandfather, husband, landowner, one-time hippy, long-time philanderer, Philip was the blinding sun around which the family has orbited their entire lives.

Eldest daughter Frannie, inheritor of a thousand acres of English countryside, mother to a daughter whose future she fears for, dreams of rewilding and returning the estate to a last line of defense against the coming climate catastrophe. Her brother Milo envisages a treetop haven for the super-rich where, under the influence of psychedelic drugs, a new ruling class will be reborn to create a better world. Each believes their father has given them his blessing and are set on a collision course with the other.

Isa, Philip’s estranged youngest child, only hopes to reconnect with her childhood love who still lives on the estate, to discover if her feelings for him are creating the fault lines in her marriage. Grace, bruised and diminished after fifty years in a loveless marriage, is at a crossroads, wondering whether she may finally have the strength to choose between freedom and duty. And then there is Clara, who arrives from America, shrouded in secrets and bearing a truth that will fracture the dreams on which they’ve built their lives.

Beautifully layered and utterly compelling, Anna Hope’s multigenerational saga is a bold, brilliant, and deeply contemporary examination of family dynamics, colonial legacies, and class, set against the backdrop of the climate crisis.]]> 368 Anna Hope 006342715X Robinne 0 to-read 3.92 2025 Albion
author: Anna Hope
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Audition 216247518 One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. A mesmerizing Mobius strip of a novel that asks who we are to the people we love.

Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an elegant and accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, and young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In Audition, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day—partner, parent, creator, muse—and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us best.]]> 200 Katie Kitamura 059385232X Robinne 0 to-read 3.37 2025 Audition
author: Katie Kitamura
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Once Removed: Stories (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction)]]> 45214672
With depth and an acute sense of the fragility of intimate connection, Colette Sartor creates stories of women that resonate with emotional complexity. Some of these women possess the fierce natures and long, vengeful memories of expert grudge holders. Others avoid conflict at every turn, or so they tell themselves. For all of them, grief lies at the core of love.]]> 216 Colette Sartor 0820355690 Robinne 5 absolutely beautiful work.]]> 4.74 Once Removed: Stories (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction)
author: Colette Sartor
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.74
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
review:
Fabulous. Sartor is an exquisite craftsmen of short fiction. Each story haunting and memorable.
absolutely beautiful work.
]]> The Yiddish Policemen's Union 16703
But homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. He and his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Shemets, can't catch a break in any of their outstanding cases. Landsman's new supervisor is the love of his life—and also his worst nightmare. And in the cheap hotel where he has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under Landsman's nose. Out of habit, obligation, and a mysterious sense that it somehow offers him a shot at redeeming himself, Landsman begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy. But when word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, Landsman soon finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, hopefulness, evil, and salvation that are his heritage—and with the unfinished business of his marriage to Bina Gelbfish, the one person who understands his darkest fears.

At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.
(front flap)]]> 414 Michael Chabon 0007149824 Robinne 0 to-read 3.72 2007 The Yiddish Policemen's Union
author: Michael Chabon
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Colored Television 201102398 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593544372

A dark comedy about second acts, creative appropriation, and the racial identity–industrial complex

Jane has high hopes her life is about to turn around. After years of living precariously, she; her painter husband, Lenny; and their two kids have landed a stint as house sitters in a friend’s luxurious home in the hills above Los Angeles, a gig that coincides magically with Jane’s sabbatical. If she can just finish her latest novel, Nusu Nusu, the centuries-spanning epic Lenny refers to as her “mulatto War and Peace,� she’ll have tenure and some semblance of stability and success within her grasp.

But things don’t work out quite as hoped. In search of a plan B, like countless writers before her, Jane turns her desperate gaze to Hollywood. After she meets with a hot young producer to create “diverse content� for a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a “real writer.� She can create what he envisions as the greatest biracial comedy to ever hit the small screen. Things finally seem to be going right for Jane—until they go terribly wrong.]]> 277 Danzy Senna Robinne 0 to-read 3.52 2024 Colored Television
author: Danzy Senna
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Town That Started the Civil War: The True Story of the Community That Stood Up to Slavery--and Changed a Nation Forever]]> 349686 Before the War Between the States, there was the war between the U.S. government and Oberlin, Ohio. . . .

"A fascinating, gripping narrative."--James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom

On a crisp autumn day in Ohio, 1858, two Kentucky slave hunters were closing in on a runaway slave named John Price. Federal law said they had the right to bring the man back across state lines. But to the people of Oberlin, Ohio, the law was wrong--and they were willing to prove it with their sweat and blood.

In this fascinating, spirited telling of one of the most extraordinary confrontations in U.S. history, Nat Brandt gives a blow-by-blow account of how a small but passionate army of students, farmers, former slaves, a bookstore owner, a professor, a preacher, and a cobbler risked their lives to rescue a man they didn't know--and ignited a furious conflict with a wavering U.S. government. From its first blows to the controversial trials that followed, the Oberlin Rescue was an act of uncommon heroism and courage--and a true battle for the conscience of a land.]]> 315 Nat Brandt 0440503965 Robinne 0 to-read 3.81 1990 The Town That Started the Civil War: The True Story of the Community That Stood Up to Slavery--and Changed a Nation Forever
author: Nat Brandt
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We Would Never 214151513 A riveting literary page-turner that explores the extremes to which a family will go to protect their own—for fans of Miranda Cowley Heller and Laura Dave.

No one is more surprised than Hailey Gelman when she comes under suspicion for the murder of her soon-to-be ex-husband Jonah. Hailey—nicknamed Sunshine by her mother for her bright outlook and ever-present smile—is the peacemaker who has always tried to do what her family expects of her.

The months leading up to Jonah’s death have been fraught, including a bitter separation and a messy custody battle over their young daughter, Maya. When Hailey files a motion to relocate to Florida so she can be near her family, the divorce begins to escalate, drawing in all the members of Hailey’s family, who are determined to help her however they can.

Most invested is Sherry, Hailey’s mother who wants nothing more than to be close to her family. Then there’s Nate, Hailey’s devoted and protective older brother, as well as the patriarch, Solomon, who is keeping a secret of his own that threatens the stability and security Sherry has worked so hard to maintain. As the divorce spirals dangerously out of control, they are all forced to consider just how far they will go for each other.

Part gripping mystery, part compassionate family drama, We Would Never explores what people are capable of when they feel cornered, and how, in the absence of forgiveness, love and hate can intertwine and turn deadly.]]> 368 Tova Mirvis 1668061627 Robinne 0 to-read 3.38 2025 We Would Never
author: Tova Mirvis
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Atmosphere 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Robinne 0 to-read 4.49 2025 Atmosphere
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All This Could Be Different 59576064
But before long, trouble arrives. Painful secrets rear their heads; jobs go off the rails; evictions loom. Sneha struggles to be truly close and open with anybody, even as her friendships deepen, even as she throws herself headlong into a dizzying romance with Marina. It's then that Tig begins to draw up a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all.]]> 320 Sarah Thankam Mathews 0593489128 Robinne 0 currently-reading 3.82 2022 All This Could Be Different
author: Sarah Thankam Mathews
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Thank You for Listening 59314703
On her return home, Sewanee discovers one of the world’s most beloved romance novelists wanted her to perform her last book—with Brock McNight, the industry’s hottest, most secretive voice. Sewanee doesn’t buy what romance novels are selling—not after her own dreams were tragically cut short—and she stopped narrating them years ago. But her admiration of the late author, and the opportunity to get her grandmother more help, makes her decision for her.

As Sewanee begins work on the book, resurrecting her old romance pseudonym, she and Brock forge a real connection, hidden behind the comfort of anonymity. Soon, she is dreaming again, but secrets are revealed, and the realities of life come crashing down around her once more.

If she can learn to risk everything for desires she has long buried, she will discover a world of intimacy and acceptance she never believed would be hers.

From the author of My Oxford Year, Julia Whelan’s uplifting novel tells the story of a former actress turned successful audiobook narrator—who has lost sight of her dreams after a tragic accident—and her journey of self-discovery, love, and acceptance when she agrees to narrate one last romance novel.]]> 432 Julia Whelan 0063095564 Robinne 5 3.99 2022 Thank You for Listening
author: Julia Whelan
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Jacqueline in Paris 59949718 From the bestselling author of The Lost Vintage, a rare and dazzling portrait of Jacqueline Bouvier's college year abroad in postwar Paris, an intimate and electrifying story of love and betrayal, and the coming-of-age of an American icon - before the world knew her as Jackie.

In August 1949 Jacqueline Bouvier arrives in postwar Paris to begin her junior year abroad. She’s twenty years old, socially poised but financially precarious, and all too aware of her mother’s expectations that she make a brilliant match. Before relenting to family pressure, she has one year to herself far away from sleepy Vassar College and the rigid social circles of New York, a year to explore and absorb the luminous beauty of the City of Light. Jacqueline is immediately catapulted into an intoxicating new world of champagne and châteaux, art and avant-garde theater, cafés and jazz clubs. She strikes up a romance with a talented young writer who shares her love of literature and passion for culture � even though her mother would think him most unsuitable.

But beneath the glitter and rush, France is a fragile place still haunted by the Occupation. Jacqueline lives in a rambling apartment with a widowed countess and her daughters, all of whom suffered as part of the French Resistance just a few years before. In the aftermath of World War II, Paris has become a nest of spies, and suspicion, deception, and betrayal lurk around every corner. Jacqueline is stunned to watch the rise of communism � anathema in America, but an active movement in France � never guessing she is witnessing the beginning of the political environment that will shape the rest of her life—and that of her future husband.

Evocative, sensitive, and rich in historic detail, Jacqueline in Paris portrays the origin story of an American icon. Ann Mah brilliantly imagines the intellectual and aesthetic awakening of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, and illuminates how France would prove to be her one true love, and one of the greatest influences on her life.]]> 352 Ann Mah 0062997017 Robinne 5
Ann Mah has truly captured the spirit and beauty and magic (I hate that I keep using that word, but it is so apropos) of the City of Light. On reading those first few pages even, I could feel my heart swelling. I had to stop, take a moment to be emotional. Reread it. And then reread it again to my husband. I love when the choice and arrangement of words are so beautiful they make you ache. And as a writer, I just sit in awe. I did that a lot over the months that I read Jacqueline in Paris. I marveled at Mah's words, her extensive research, her ideas about Jackie - who has been an icon of mine for as long as I can remember -- her brilliant way of capturing the mystery and essence of Paris. I have often said that Paris is eternal. But reading Ann's perspective of Jacqueline's Paris in the 40's and seeing the similarities to my Paris in the 90's and the Paris of today was indescribable. A reminder that we are here but for a brief time, while some places take much longer to change. Her attention to detail and ability to share light on a time period I knew little about was wonderful. And so, I retraced many of Jacqueline's footsteps. Visited the apartment on Avenue Mozart. Wandered through Saint Germain des Près imagining her eating roasted chestnuts and drinking vin chaud. Visiting all the same sights, and smelling all the same smells... I did not want the experience of unfolding Jacqueline's story to end. And I am so glad I took my time with it. For two entire months I felt as if I was living in both the past and present. Which only made me appreciate my new home more.

Thank you, Ann, for an enchanted, memorable read.

]]> 3.62 2022 Jacqueline in Paris
author: Ann Mah
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/09
date added: 2022/12/27
shelves:
review:
I savored this book. I knew I would love it from the time I read the premise. I spent my junior year in Paris many, many moons ago, and it remains to this year the most magical year of my life. It was during that sojourn that I made a promise to myself that one day I would be back to live. It took me thirty years, but I did it. And discovering this book within a couple of months of my return was a gift.

Ann Mah has truly captured the spirit and beauty and magic (I hate that I keep using that word, but it is so apropos) of the City of Light. On reading those first few pages even, I could feel my heart swelling. I had to stop, take a moment to be emotional. Reread it. And then reread it again to my husband. I love when the choice and arrangement of words are so beautiful they make you ache. And as a writer, I just sit in awe. I did that a lot over the months that I read Jacqueline in Paris. I marveled at Mah's words, her extensive research, her ideas about Jackie - who has been an icon of mine for as long as I can remember -- her brilliant way of capturing the mystery and essence of Paris. I have often said that Paris is eternal. But reading Ann's perspective of Jacqueline's Paris in the 40's and seeing the similarities to my Paris in the 90's and the Paris of today was indescribable. A reminder that we are here but for a brief time, while some places take much longer to change. Her attention to detail and ability to share light on a time period I knew little about was wonderful. And so, I retraced many of Jacqueline's footsteps. Visited the apartment on Avenue Mozart. Wandered through Saint Germain des Près imagining her eating roasted chestnuts and drinking vin chaud. Visiting all the same sights, and smelling all the same smells... I did not want the experience of unfolding Jacqueline's story to end. And I am so glad I took my time with it. For two entire months I felt as if I was living in both the past and present. Which only made me appreciate my new home more.

Thank you, Ann, for an enchanted, memorable read.


]]> Romantic Comedy 62628727 A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamily handsome pop star flips the script on all her assumptions. Romantic Comedy is a hilarious, observant and deeply tender novel from New York Times–bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

Sally Milz is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," the late-night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she’s long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life.

But when Sally’s friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actor who guest-hosted the show, he joins the not-so-exclusive group of talented but average-looking and even dorky men at the show—and in society at large—who’ve gotten romantically involved with incredibly beautiful and accomplished women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this phenomenon while underscoring how unlikely it is that the reverse would ever happen for a woman.

Enter Noah Brewster, a pop music sensation with a reputation for dating models, who signed on as both host and musical guest for this week’s show. Dazzled by his charms, Sally hits it off with Noah instantly, and as they collaborate on one sketch after another, she begins to wonder whether there might actually be sparks flying. But this isn’t a romantic comedy; it’s real life. And in real life, someone like him would never date someone like her...right?

With her keen observations and trademark ability to bring complex women to life on the page, Sittenfeld explores the neurosis-inducing and heart-fluttering wonder of love, while slyly dissecting the social rituals of romance and gender relations in the modern age.]]> 309 Curtis Sittenfeld 0399590943 Robinne 5 3.59 2023 Romantic Comedy
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/27
date added: 2022/12/27
shelves:
review:
Oh, how I loved loved loved this book!!! Going to bask in my emotions for a bit. Longer review in which I gush at length about how utterly brilliant Curtis Sittenfeld is forthcoming.
]]> <![CDATA[Paris Revealed: The Secret Life of a City]]> 15727394 320 Stephen Clarke Robinne 5 3.78 2010 Paris Revealed: The Secret Life of a City
author: Stephen Clarke
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/24
date added: 2022/01/25
shelves:
review:
It might have taken me some time to get through it, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was the book I would read on my phone in the middle of the night when I was battling insomnia. And I loved it because it would put me back to sleep. Not because it was boring or dull, but because it was chock full of information and I would go on all these detours researching random facts about Paris and French history, etc., etc., and down so many delicious varied rabbit holes. I learned so much. So hats off to Stephen Clarke! Highly recommend for those of you wanting to know more about Paris --particularly the nitty gritty that you won't find in your basic travel guide.
]]> <![CDATA[In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)]]> 2459785
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.]]> 448 Tana French Robinne 0 to-read 3.82 2007 In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)
author: Tana French
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Seven Days in June 55648820
When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their past buried traumas, but the eyebrows of New York's Black literati. What no one knows is that twenty years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love. They may be pretending that everything is fine now, but they can't deny their chemistry - or the fact that they've been secretly writing to each other in their books ever since.

Over the next seven days in the middle of a steamy Brooklyn summer, Eva and Shane reconnect, but Eva's not sure how she can trust the man who broke her heart, and she needs to get him out of New York so that her life can return to normal. But before Shane disappears again, there are a few questions she needs answered...

With its keen observations of Black life and the condition of modern motherhood, as well as the consequences of motherless-ness, Seven Days in June is by turns humorous, warm and deeply sensual.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781538719107.]]> 336 Tia Williams Robinne 5 Review to come. 3.98 2021 Seven Days in June
author: Tia Williams
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/15
date added: 2021/10/14
shelves:
review:
Review to come.
]]> The Paper Palace 55994372
Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives.

As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593329825.]]> 400 Miranda Cowley Heller Robinne 5 3.73 2021 The Paper Palace
author: Miranda Cowley Heller
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/10/12
date added: 2021/10/14
shelves:
review:
An absolutely exquisite read. I love not knowing anything about a book or an author, going in completely blind, and being pleasantly surprised. From the very first page, I was swept off my feet and taken on a captivating, breathless, lyrical journey. What an extraordinary debut. Heartbreaking and revelatory and beautiful, in turns. I don't want to say too much about it, because unfolding the mystery was a huge part of what made this read so special. Highly recommend.
]]> Malibu Rising 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Robinne 5 Review forthcoming 4.02 2021 Malibu Rising
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/03
date added: 2021/06/05
shelves:
review:
Review forthcoming
]]> The Last Thing He Told Me 54981009
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a U.S. marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.]]> 307 Laura Dave 1501171348 Robinne 5 Review forthcoming... 3.78 2021 The Last Thing He Told Me
author: Laura Dave
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/29
date added: 2021/05/29
shelves:
review:
Review forthcoming...
]]> <![CDATA[American Runaway Black and Free in Paris in the Trump years]]> 55959767 293 Audrey Edwards Robinne 5 4.12 American Runaway Black and Free in Paris in the Trump years
author: Audrey Edwards
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/06
date added: 2021/04/07
shelves:
review:
Such an insightful, informative read! Highly recommend! The author is an engaging, entertaining character, and it was a joy to accompany her on her expat journey. Lots of great anecdotes about Parisian life, particularly as a Black American, which only fueled my passion more for the idea (and the reality) of living abroad. One day, one day...
]]> Seven Days in the Art World 8158989
The art market has been booming. Museum attendance is surging. More people than ever call themselves artists. Contemporary art has become a mass entertainment, a luxury good, a job description, and, for some, a kind of alternative religion.

In a series of beautifully paced narratives, Sarah Thornton investigates the drama of a Christie's auction, the workings in Takashi Murakami's studios, the elite at the Basel Art Fair, the eccentricities of Artforum magazine, the competition behind an important art prize, life in a notorious art-school seminar, and the wonderland of the Venice Biennale. She reveals the new dynamics of creativity, taste, status, money, and the search for meaning in life. A judicious and juicy account of the institutions that have the power to shape art history, based on hundreds of interviews with high-profile players, Thornton's entertaining ethnography will change the way you look at contemporary culture.]]> 305 Sarah Thornton Robinne 0 currently-reading 3.91 2008 Seven Days in the Art World
author: Sarah Thornton
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Better Luck Next Time 53175327 The eagerly anticipated second novel from the bestselling author of Be Frank with Me, a charming story of endings, new beginnings, and the complexities and complications of friendship and love, set in late 1930s Reno.

It’s 1938 and women seeking a quick, no-questions split from their husbands head to the “divorce capital of the world,â€� Reno, Nevada. There’s one catch: they have to wait six weeks to become “residents.â€� Many of these wealthy, soon-to-be divorcees flock to the Flying Leap, a dude ranch that caters to their every need.Ěý

Twenty-four-year-old Ward spent one year at Yale before his family lost everything in the Great Depression; now he’s earning an honest living as a ranch hand at the Flying Leap. Admired for his dashing good looks—“Cary Grant in cowboy boots”—Ward thinks he’s got the Flying Leap’s clients all figured out. But two new guests are about to upend everything he thinks he knows: Nina, a St Louis heiress and amateur pilot back for her third divorce, and Emily, whose bravest moment in life was leaving her cheating husband back in San Francisco and driving herself to Reno.

A novel about divorce, marriage, and everything that comes in between (money, class, ambition, and opportunity), Better Luck Next Time is a hilarious yet poignant examination of the ways friendship can save us, love can destroy us, and the family we create can be stronger than the family we come from.]]> 274 Julia Claiborne Johnson 006291636X Robinne 5 ]]> 3.56 2021 Better Luck Next Time
author: Julia Claiborne Johnson
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/06
date added: 2021/02/06
shelves:
review:
First book I've read from beginning to end in over 12 months. And what a lovely welcome back to the world of fiction! I was transported to Reno circa 1938, far far away from Covid and the insurrection and everything going on in our world right now. And I thoroughly enjoyed the diversion. Julia crafts a beautiful story with delicious detail and characters that will stay with you. Ward's voice is distinct and unique, giving this tale such a lovely regional flavor. He feels very much of that time and place, and he kind of just sweeps you up and takes you on this ride, and I loved every bit of it. Perfect pandemic escape.

]]> Have You Met Nora? 36350005 Ěý
What no one knows is that Nora is the biracial daughter of a Caribbean woman and a long-gone white father. Adopted—and abused—by her mother’s employer, then sent to an exclusive boarding school to buy her silence, Nora found that “passing� as a white woman could give her everything she never had.
Ěý
Now, an ex-classmate who Nora betrayed many years ago has returned to her life to even the score. Her machinations are turning Nora’s privilege into one gilded trap after another. Running out of choices, Nora must decide how far she will go to protect a lie or give up and finally face the truth. Praise for Have You Met Nora?
Ěý
“Nora is tender, courageous, and beautifully flawed.�
—Rosalind Noonan, New York Times bestselling author
Ěý
“A winding story full of secrets, betrayal, revenge, and love.”�
—Rena Olsen, author of The Girl Before
Ěý
“Blades has created a heroine both honorable and deceptive, both vulnerable and powerful, a heroine whose choices are at times shocking but arguably necessary.�
Ěý—Holly Chamberlin, author of The Season of Us

â€� This is aĚýdeft and searing commentary on identity and race.â€� —Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 320 Nicole Blades 1496704622 Robinne 0 currently-reading 3.33 2017 Have You Met Nora?
author: Nicole Blades
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/09/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Brothers Karamazov 19094117 The Brothers Karamazov is Dostoyevsky's largest, most expansive, most life-embracing work. Filled with human passions � lust, greed, love, jealousy, sorrow, and humor � the book is also infused with moral issues and the issue of collective guilt.

As in many of Dostoyevsky's novels, the plot centers on a murder. Three brothers, different in character but bound by their ancestry, are drawn into the crime's Dmitri, a young officer utterly unrestrained in love, hatred, jealousy, and generosity; Ivan, an intellectual capable of delivering impromptu disquisitions about good and evil, God, and the devil; and Alyosha, the youngest brother, preternaturally patient, kind, and loving. Part mystery, part profound philosophical and theological debate, The Brothers Karamazov represents the culmination of Dostoyevsky's life's work and ranks among the greatest novels of all time.]]> 736 Fyodor Dostoyevsky 0486114392 Robinne 0 currently-reading 4.37 1880 The Brothers Karamazov
author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1880
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Tiny Imperfections 51918673 The Wedding Date meets Class Mom in this delicious novel of love, money, and misbehaving parents.

All’s fair in love and kindergarten admissions.

At thirty-nine, Josie Bordelon’s modeling career as the “it� black beauty of the �90s is far behind her. Now director of admissions at San Francisco’s most sought after private school, she’s chic, single, and determined to keep her seventeen-year-old daughter, Etta, from making the same mistakes she did.

But Etta has plans of her own–and their beloved matriarch, Aunt Viv, has Etta’s back. If only Josie could manage Etta’s future as well as she manages the shenanigans of the over-anxious, over-eager parents at school–or her best friend’s attempts to coax Josie out of her sex sabbatical and back onto the dating scene.

As admissions season heats up, Josie discovers that when it comes to matters of the heart–and the office–the biggest surprises lie closest to home.]]> 322 Alli Frank 0593085027 Robinne 0 3.63 2020 Tiny Imperfections
author: Alli Frank
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/08/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The New Beyond Chocolate: Understanding Swiss Culture]]> 44764880 280 Margaret Oertig-Davidson Robinne 0 currently-reading 3.65 The New Beyond Chocolate: Understanding Swiss Culture
author: Margaret Oertig-Davidson
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/29
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Rodham 50253429 New York Times bestselling author of American Wife and Eligible, a novel that imagines a deeply compelling what-might-have-been: What if Hillary Rodham hadn’t married Bill Clinton?

In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise: Life magazine has covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she’s attending Yale Law School, and she’s on the forefront of student activism and the women’s rights movement. And then she meets Bill Clinton. A handsome, charismatic southerner and fellow law student, Bill is already planning his political career. In each other, the two find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced.

In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times; although she said no more than once, as we all know, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton.

But in Curtis Sittenfeld’s powerfully imagined tour-de-force of fiction, Hillary takes a different road. Feeling doubt about the prospective marriage, she endures their devastating breakup and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail—one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the tradeoffs all of us must make in building a life.

Brilliantly weaving a riveting fictional tale into actual historical events, Curtis Sittenfeld delivers an uncannily astute and witty story for our times. In exploring the loneliness, moral ambivalence, and iron determination that characterize the quest for political power, as well as both the exhilaration and painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world still run mostly by men, Rodham is a singular and unforgettable novel.]]> 420 Curtis Sittenfeld 0399590919 Robinne 0 to-read 3.81 2020 Rodham
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Glorious Boy 52956781 344 Aimee Liu 1597098892 Robinne 0 to-read 4.03 2020 Glorious Boy
author: Aimee Liu
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Wonder 25113325
I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER, now a #1 New York Times bestseller and included on the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

"Wonder is the best kids' book of the year," said Emily Bazelon, senior editor at Slate.com and author of Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. R.J. Palacio has called her debut novel “a meditation on kindness� —indeed, every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship. Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.

Join the conversation: #thewonderofwonder
--randomhouse.com]]> 412 R.J. Palacio Robinne 0 to-read 4.28 2012 Wonder
author: R.J. Palacio
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Flight 52652923 Two women. Two Flights. One last chance to disappear.

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move, making sure she's living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.

A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets � Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

The Last Flight is the story of two women â€� both alone, both scared â€� and one agonizing decision that will change theĚýtrajectory of both of their lives.]]> 320 Julie Clark 1728215722 Robinne 5 4.02 2020 The Last Flight
author: Julie Clark
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2019/05/05
date added: 2020/03/23
shelves:
review:
I loved, loved, loved this book!!! Such an intense, suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat read. Clark knocks it out of the park! Truly brilliant!
]]> The Real Thing 17914
The Real Thing was first performed at the Strand Theatre, London, on 16 November 1982.]]> 81 Tom Stoppard 0571125298 Robinne 0 to-read 3.92 1982 The Real Thing
author: Tom Stoppard
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> New People 33275357 Caucasia, a subversive and engrossing novel of race, class and manners in contemporary America.

As the twentieth century draws to a close, Maria is at the start of a life she never thought possible. She and Khalil, her college sweetheart, are planning their wedding. They are the perfect couple, "King and Queen of the Racially Nebulous Prom." Their skin is the same shade of beige. They live together in a black bohemian enclave in Brooklyn, where Khalil is riding the wave of the first dot-com boom and Maria is plugging away at her dissertation, on the Jonestown massacre. They've even landed a starring role in a documentary about "new people" like them, who are blurring the old boundaries as a brave new era dawns. Everything Maria knows she should want lies before her--yet she can't stop daydreaming about another man, a poet she barely knows. As fantasy escalates to fixation, it dredges up secrets from the past and threatens to unravel not only Maria's perfect new life but her very persona.

Heartbreaking and darkly comic, New People is a bold and unfettered page-turner that challenges our every assumption about how we define one another, and ourselves.]]> 240 Danzy Senna 159448709X Robinne 5 3.24 2017 New People
author: Danzy Senna
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/01/01
shelves:
review:
I read Senna's debut, "Caucasia" years ago and was blown away by her talent. It immediately joined my list of favorite books, ever...and she, my list of favorite writers. She writes about the intricacies of race so brilliantly -- even in satire, as she does here in "New People" -- that I am awed. This story and these characters were unexpected, surreal, intentionally off-putting, dark -- but they sucked me in and held on to me. Senna's observations are so incredibly astute, clever, sometimes painful, sometimes comical, sometimes surprising -- but always entertaining. And in this respect, "New People" delivers, again and again.
]]> Daisy Jones & The Six 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 Robinne 5
Taylor, you're a genius. I bow down.

*p.s. I know as one of the narrators you would think I'd read this entire novel a long time ago, but Taylor gave me an early manuscript in the middle of a busy time, and so I rushed through the first third and all of Simone's parts, and did not get around to actually devouring it in its entirety until just now. Plus, I really wanted the experience of holding a hardcover in my hands and enjoying its heft and smell. So much more fulfilling for me than scrolling through on my computer. Anyway, better late than never. Five stars. ]]> 4.20 2019 Daisy Jones & The Six
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/22
date added: 2019/12/22
shelves:
review:
This book. This book!!! You know when you finish a book and you just lie there thinking and crying for a bit, and you just know in your gut that these characters and this world are going to stay with you for a long time. That was this book for me.

Taylor, you're a genius. I bow down.

*p.s. I know as one of the narrators you would think I'd read this entire novel a long time ago, but Taylor gave me an early manuscript in the middle of a busy time, and so I rushed through the first third and all of Simone's parts, and did not get around to actually devouring it in its entirety until just now. Plus, I really wanted the experience of holding a hardcover in my hands and enjoying its heft and smell. So much more fulfilling for me than scrolling through on my computer. Anyway, better late than never. Five stars.
]]> How to Hack a Heartbreak 41887423 Swipe right for love. Swipe left for disaster.

By day, Mel Strickland is an underemployed helpdesk tech at a startup incubator, Hatch, where she helps entitled brogrammers�"Hatchlings"—who can't even fix their own laptops, but are apparently the next wave of startup geniuses. And by night, she goes on bad dates with misbehaving dudes she's matched with on the ubiquitous dating app, Fluttr.

But after one dick pic too many, Mel has had it. Using her brilliant coding skills, she designs an app of her own, one that allows users to log harrassers and abusers in online dating space. It's called JerkAlert, and it goes viral overnight.

Mel is suddenly in way over her head. Worse still, her almost-boyfriend, the dreamy Alex Hernandez—the only non-douchey guy at Hatch—has no idea she's the brains behind the app. Soon, Mel is faced with a terrible choice: one that could destroy her career, love life, and friendships, or change her life forever.]]> 352 Kristin Rockaway 1525834258 Robinne 5 3.39 2019 How to Hack a Heartbreak
author: Kristin Rockaway
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2019/09/20
date added: 2019/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> How Fiction Works 19287801 Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera's The Art of the Novel, How Fiction Works is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction--an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power. Here one of the most prominent and stylish critics of our time looks into the machinery of storytelling to ask some fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we "know" a fictional character? What constitutes a telling detail? When is a metaphor successful? Is Realism realistic? Why do some literary conventions become dated while others stay fresh?

James Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Make Way for Ducklings, from the Bible to John le Carré, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound, How Fiction Works will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone else interested in what happens on the page.]]> 300 James Wood Robinne 0 currently-reading 4.12 2008 How Fiction Works
author: James Wood
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/09/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Age of Light 39340193 She went to Paris to start over, to make art instead of being made into it.

A captivating debut novel by Whitney Scharer, The Age of Light tells the story of Vogue model turned renowned photographer Lee Miller, and her search to forge a new identity as an artist after a life spent as a muse.

"I'd rather take a photograph than be one," she declares after she arrives in Paris in 1929, where she soon catches the eye of the famous Surrealist Man Ray. Though he wants to use her only as a model, Lee convinces him to take her on as his assistant and teach her everything he knows. But Man Ray turns out to be an egotistical, charismatic force, and as they work together in the darkroom, their personal and professional lives become intimately entwined, changing the course of Lee's life forever.

Lee's journey takes us from the cabarets of bohemian Paris to the battlefields of war-torn Europe during WWII, from discovering radical new photography techniques to documenting the liberation of the concentration camps as one of the first female war correspondents. Through it all, Lee must grapple with the question of whether it's possible to reconcile romantic desire with artistic ambition-and what she will have to sacrifice to do so.

Told in interweaving timelines, this sensuous, richly detailed novel brings Lee Miller-a brilliant and pioneering artist-out of the shadows of a man's legacy and into the light.]]> 384 Whitney Scharer 0316524085 Robinne 0 3.54 2019 The Age of Light
author: Whitney Scharer
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2019/09/10
date added: 2019/09/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)]]> 27362503
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up � she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating� rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan � her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]> 386 Colleen Hoover 1668021048 Robinne 5 4.11 2016 It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/08
date added: 2019/09/10
shelves:
review:

]]> God-Shaped Hole 248103 Everyone said she was a fraud, that she was just making it up.
I'd really like to know why the hell a person would make up a thing like that.

Written with the snap, glitter and wit of The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, God-Shaped Hole is a memorable, poignant love story that will leave you weeping with laughter. It is told in the wry, vulnerable voice of Beatrice "Trixie" Jordan who replies to a personal ad, "If your intentions are pure I am seeking a friend for the end of the world."

In doing so, she meets Jacob Grace, a charming, effervescent thirty-something writer, a free spirit who is a passionate seeker of life. He possesses his own turn of phrase and ways of thinking and feeling that dissonantly harmonize with Trixie's off-center vision as they roller coaster through the joys and furies of their wrenching romance. Along the way they try to come to terms with the hurt brought about by their distant fathers who, in different ways, forsook them.

This story will prove so touching you will rush to share it with a friend or loved one or even a stranger.


]]> 329 Tiffanie DeBartolo 1570719586 Robinne 5
And yes, I cried. A good deal. But that's okay. I like an author who can paint a picture so clearly, that I can see and smell and hear the characters. That their triumphs and defeats become my own. I like stories that make me cry. Go figure. ]]> 4.02 2002 God-Shaped Hole
author: Tiffanie DeBartolo
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/30
date added: 2019/07/30
shelves:
review:
I'd like to come back and write a proper review of this book after I've let it sunk in for awhile. But just know that I really enjoyed this read. DeBartolo's voice was so strong and confident and assured, that even when I was not in love with Beatrice's perspective and all the choices she made, I never stopped loving DeBartolo's writing style. Jacob Grace will live with me for a very long time.

And yes, I cried. A good deal. But that's okay. I like an author who can paint a picture so clearly, that I can see and smell and hear the characters. That their triumphs and defeats become my own. I like stories that make me cry. Go figure.
]]> One Day in December 38255337 Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic... and then her bus drives away.

Certain they're fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn't find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.

What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780525574682.]]> 393 Josie Silver Robinne 0 3.80 2018 One Day in December
author: Josie Silver
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2019/07/19
date added: 2019/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[She's Got Game (Gamer Girls, #1)]]> 42969215 WINNER TAKES ALL

Travel blogger Gwen Williams is about to live the dream—competing in the annual American Board Game Championship. She’s up against some stiff competition, namely legendary gamer and four-time champ Cody McKay. The seriously buff hottie and shameless flirt is going all-out to seduce her. That’s when Gwen lays her cards on the She never, ever mixes gaming with romance . . . until resisting Cody becomes a losing proposition.

As Gwen gives in to temptation, everything’s in play for a major heartache. With the rounds heating up and players eliminated, she knows she’s gambling a lot more than a seat at the final table in Vegas. But Cody’s kisses promise more than a fleeting romance. If she plays her cards right, Gwen just might walk off with the championship and the man of her dreams.]]> 216 Laura Heffernan 1516108485 Robinne 0 to-read 3.56 2019 She's Got Game (Gamer Girls, #1)
author: Laura Heffernan
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dating by the Book 43170720 Is love just something you find in books?
Ěý
Six months ago, writer and bookstore owner Maddie Hanson was left at the altar. Since then, she’s had zero interest in romance—despite the fact that she runs a book club full of sexy eligible bachelors. But when her latest novel is panned by an anonymous blogger who goes by the name Silver Fox—and who accuses her of knowing nothing about passion—she decides to prove her nemesis wrong by seeking a romance hero in real life . . .
Ěý
There’s the smoldering rock musician, the bookish college professor, and her competitive childhood friend who may want to steal her bookstore more than her heart. Even Silver Fox is getting in on the action, sending Maddie alarmingly—and intoxicatingly—flirtatious emails. And that’s not all. Her ex wants her back.
Ěý
Now Maddie is about to discover that like any good story, life has twists and turns, and love can happen when you least expect it—with the person you least expect . . .Ěý]]> 270 Mary Ann Marlowe 1496718216 Robinne 5 3.41 2019 Dating by the Book
author: Mary Ann Marlowe
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2018/07/23
date added: 2019/05/28
shelves:
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]]> F*ck Love 28419871 Unwillingly. Unwittingly.
But not unprovoked.
Kit Isley is everything she’s not—unstructured, untethered,
and not even a little bit careful.
It could all be so beautiful � if he wasn’t dating her best friend.
Helena must defy her heart, do the right thing, and think of others.
Until she doesn’t.]]> 285 Tarryn Fisher Robinne 5 4.25 2015 F*ck Love
author: Tarryn Fisher
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2018/07/06
date added: 2019/05/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The French Girl 35235624
For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group's loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can't forgive, and there are some people you can't forget, like Severine, who was never seen again.

Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine's body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she's worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free.]]> 304 Lexie Elliott 0399586938 Robinne 5 3.51 2018 The French Girl
author: Lexie Elliott
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/05/16
date added: 2019/05/17
shelves:
review:
I very much enjoyed this read! I've become quite a fan of novels with British protagonists. I love the difference of perspective, the language, the terminology that feels foreign to an American ear. The observations of class and status... I could read a year of just Brits and never get tired. But stories with both British and French influences?? Those feel especially tailored to me! THE FRENCH GIRL was both a gorgeously written, character-driven novel and a suspenseful page-turner. There are delicious twists and turns and unexpected reveals. It's not quite as "edge-of-your-seat" as GIRL ON THE TRAIN. But the beautiful language and thoughtful musings make it a lovely journey, all the same.
]]> <![CDATA[Focus: The Secret, Sexy, Sometimes Sordid World of Fashion Photographers]]> 27274436 “This thoroughly absorbing narrative dazzles with the most profound investigation and research. Focus is an enthralling and riveting read.� —Tim Gunn“Smart, well-researched…engaging…canny� (New York Times Book Review), Focus is a “fast-paced—and clearly insider—look at the rarefied, sexy world of fashion photography� (Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada). New York Times bestselling author Michael Gross brings to life the wild genius, egos, passions, and antics of the men (and a few women) behind the camera, probing the lives, hang-ups, and artistic triumphs of more than a dozen of fashion photography’s greatest visionaries, including Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Bill King, Helmut Newton, Gilles Bensimon, Bruce Weber, Steven Meisel, and Bob and Terry Richardson. Tracing the highs and lows of fashion photography from the late 1940s to today, Focus takes you behind the scenes to reveal the revolutionary creative processes and fraught private passions of these visionary magicians, “delving deep into the fascinating rivalries� (The Daily News) between photographers, fashion editors, and publishers like Condé Nast and Hearst. Weaving together candid interviews, never-before-told insider anecdotes and insights born of his three decades of front-row and backstage reporting on modern fashion, Focus is “simply unrivaled…a sensation�.Gross is a modern-day Vasari, giving us The Lives of the Artists in no small measure� (CraveOnline).]]> 417 Michael Gross 1476763488 Robinne 0 to-read 3.41 Focus: The Secret, Sexy, Sometimes Sordid World of Fashion Photographers
author: Michael Gross
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.41
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/04/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel]]> 457839 320 Janice Dickinson 0060009462 Robinne 0 to-read 3.82 2002 No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel
author: Janice Dickinson
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women]]> 772597 560 Michael Gross 0060541636 Robinne 0 currently-reading 3.50 1995 Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women
author: Michael Gross
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/04/07
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> They All Fall Down 39863307 It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime.

Delighted by a surprise invitation, Miriam Macy sails off to a luxurious private island off the coast of Mexico, with six strangers—an ex-cop, a chef, a financial advisor, a nurse, a lawyer, a young widow.

Surrounded by miles of open water in the gloriously green Sea of Cortez, Miriam is shocked to discover that she and the rest of her companions have been brought to the remote island under false pretenses—and all seven strangers harbor a secret.

Danger lurks in the lush forest and in the halls and bedrooms of the lonely mansion. Sporadic cell-phone coverage and miles of ocean keeps the group trapped in paradise. And strange accidents keep them suspicious of each other, as one by one . . .

They all fall down]]> 320 Rachel Howzell Hall 0765398141 Robinne 0 to-read 2.84 2019 They All Fall Down
author: Rachel Howzell Hall
name: Robinne
average rating: 2.84
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/03/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> Bring Me Back (Forever, #1) 29411866
In person, Chris is sexy, charming, and infuriating. He’s not about to discuss the rumors he’s dodged for a decade. Claire tamps down her adolescent fantasies and earns his trust, unearthing the devastating secret behind his media silence. His heartbreaking story is her first priority when she returns home, a nearly impossible task when Christopher starts calling and flirting. There’s no denying his wit or his buttery British accent, and once she agrees to see him, it’s beyond anything her teenage brain ever imagined. But when Christopher’s painful past repeats itself, can Claire save the man she could never forget?]]> 324 Karen Booth Robinne 0 currently-reading 3.98 2013 Bring Me Back (Forever, #1)
author: Karen Booth
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/02/13
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Young Teacher 29754948 70 Bobbi Ruggiero Robinne 0 4.00 Young Teacher
author: Bobbi Ruggiero
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2019/02/13
date added: 2019/02/13
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]]> Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body 26074156 New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.

“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.�

In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,� Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.

With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.]]> 306 Roxane Gay 0062362593 Robinne 5 4.17 2017 Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
author: Roxane Gay
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/06/11
date added: 2018/12/12
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review:

]]> Mostly White 42078342 174 Alison Hart 1937226956 Robinne 0 to-read 4.25 2018 Mostly White
author: Alison Hart
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Tampa 18890583
In Alissa Nutting’s novel Tampa, Celeste Price, a smoldering 26-year-old middle-school teacher in Florida, unrepentantly recounts her elaborate and sociopathically determined seduction of a 14-year-old student.ĚýCeleste has chosen and lured the charmingly modest Jack Patrick into her web. Jack is enthralled and in awe of his eighth-grade teacher, and, most importantly, willing to accept Celeste’s terms for a secret relationship—car rides after dark, rendezvous at Jack’s house while his single father works the late shift, and body-slamming erotic encounters in Celeste’s empty classroom. In slaking her sexual thirst, Celeste Price is remorseless and deviously free of hesitation, a monstress of pure motivation. She deceives everyone, is close to no one, and cares little for anything but her pleasure.ĚýTampa is a sexually explicit, virtuosically satirical, American Psycho–esque rendering of a monstrously misplaced but undeterrable desire. Laced with black humor and crackling sexualized prose, Alissa Nutting’s Tampa is a grand, seriocomic examination of the want behind student / teacher affairs and a scorching literary debut.]]> 153 Alissa Nutting Robinne 5 3.23 2013 Tampa
author: Alissa Nutting
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2018/11/15
date added: 2018/11/15
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]]> Bonjour tristesse 61672
La villa est magnifique, l'été brûlant, la Méditerranée toute proche. Cécile a dix-sept ans. Elle ne connaît de l'amour que des baisers, des rendez-vous, des lassitudes. Pas pour longtemps. Son père, veuf, est un adepte joyeux des liaisons passagères et sans importance. Ils s'amusent, ils n'ont besoin de personne, ils sont heureux. La visite d'une femme de cœur, intelligente et calme, vient troubler ce délicieux désordre. Comment écarter la menace ? Dans la pinède embrasée, un jeu cruel se prépare.
C'était l'été 1954. On entendait pour la première fois la voix sèche et rapide d'un « charmant petit monstre » qui allait faire scandale. la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle commençait. Elle serait à l'image de cette adolescente déchirée entre le remords et le culte du plaisir.

Set against the translucent beauty of France in summer, Bonjour Tristesse is a bittersweet tale narrated by Cecile, a seventeen-year-old girl on the brink of womanhood, whose meddling in her father's love life leads to tragic consequences.

Endearing, self-absorbed, seventeen-year-old Cécile is the very essence of untroubled amorality. Freed from the stifling constraints of boarding school, she joins her father—a handsome, still-young widower with a wandering eye—for a carefree, two-month summer vacation in a beautiful villa outside of Paris with his latest mistress. Cécile cherishes the free-spirited moments she and her father share, while plotting her own sexual adventures with a "tall and almost beautiful" law student. But the arrival of her late mother's best friend intrudes upon a young girl's pleasures. And when a relationship begins to develop between the adults, Cécile and her lover set in motion a plan to keep them apart...with tragic, unexpected consequences.

The internationally beloved story of a precocious teenager's attempts to understand and control the world around her, Françoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse is a beautifully composed, wonderfully ambiguous celebration of sexual liberation, at once sympathetic and powerfully unsparing.]]> 154 Françoise Sagan 2266127748 Robinne 4 3.77 1954 Bonjour tristesse
author: Françoise Sagan
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2018/09/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course]]> 13014984 305 Jerry Cleaver Robinne 0 to-read 4.19 2002 Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course
author: Jerry Cleaver
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Atheists Who Kneel and Pray 35671052 327 Tarryn Fisher Robinne 0 to-read 4.42 2017 Atheists Who Kneel and Pray
author: Tarryn Fisher
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/09/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Anna Karenina 37552479
Although at first glance she seems to have it all in life, Anna yearns for love and affection- something her cold diplomatic husband cannot provide. She grows discontent of their loveless relationship, and is tired of the façade she has been putting up in order to sustain a positive social image. A chance encounter with the charming and irresistibly handsome Vronsky sparks Anna’s desire for love and consequently results in her entering the waters of infidelity. However, the honey moon stage of their relationship comes to an end, and things take an unsuspected turn of events, as the inescapable consequences of their affair come to surface. Scorn, exile, jealousy, isolation and suspicion are just some of the issues Anna must face in day to day life. Similarly her acquaintance, Levin, who is an independent and somewhat social misfit, is also struggling to find his place in society as he neither identifies himself as an intellectual, bureaucrat, rebel, nor socialite. He too is on the hunt for the promised fruits of life and individual happiness. His up and down union with Kitty and their inconsistent feelings towards each other acts as a contrast to the evolving relationship between Vronsky and Anna.

Tolstoy’s classic depicts a clash between individual fulfillment and a respectable place in society. Despite remaining consistent in their search for happiness and self gratification, none of the characters are immune to the inevitable obstacles life can cruelly serve up. The clarification of mankind’s inexhaustible question on the true meaning of life, and the individual perception of happiness between the characters are what make Anna Karenina such a captivating novel. Its story of passion, adultery, betrayal, and self-discovery leaves readers mesmerized long after its conclusion.Leo Tolstoy’s psychological novel Anna Karenina follows the life of the enchanting and rebellious Anna who seeks to break free from the shackles of society. Set in late 19th century Russia, Anna is portrayed as an ideal, cultivated aristocratic wife, mother and model for women alike.

Although at first glance she seems to have it all in life, Anna yearns for love and affection- something her cold diplomatic husband cannot provide. She grows discontent of their loveless relationship, and is tired of the façade she has been putting up in order to sustain a positive social image. A chance encounter with the charming and irresistibly handsome Vronsky sparks Anna’s desire for love and consequently results in her entering the waters of infidelity. However, the honey moon stage of their relationship comes to an end, and things take an unsuspected turn of events, as the inescapable consequences of their affair come to surface. Scorn, exile, jealousy, isolation and suspicion are just some of the issues Anna must face in day to day life. Similarly her acquaintance, Levin, who is an independent and somewhat social misfit, is also struggling to find his place in society as he neither identifies himself as an intellectual, bureaucrat, rebel, nor socialite. He too is on the hunt for the promised fruits of life and individual happiness. His up and down union with Kitty and their inconsistent feelings towards each other acts as a contrast to the evolving relationship between Vronsky and Anna.

Tolstoy’s classic depicts a clash between individual fulfillment and a respectable place in society. Despite remaining consistent in their search for happiness and self gratification, none of the characters are immune to the inevitable obstacles life can cruelly serve up.]]> 585 Leo Tolstoy Robinne 0 currently-reading 4.15 1878 Anna Karenina
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1878
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/08/25
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On]]> 26565818 16 Khadijah Queen Robinne 0 to-read 4.50 2013 I'm So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On
author: Khadijah Queen
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/06/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> My Oxford Year 35068830
American Ella Durran has had the same plan for her life since she was thirteen: Study at Oxford. At 24, she’s finally made it to England on a Rhodes Scholarship when she’s offered an unbelievable position in a rising political star’s presidential campaign. With the promise that she’ll work remotely and return to DC at the end of her Oxford year, she’s free to enjoy her Once in a Lifetime Experience. That is until a smart-mouthed local who is too quick with his tongue and his car ruins her shirt and her first day.

When Ella discovers that her English literature course will be taught by none other than that same local, Jamie Davenport, she thinks for the first time that Oxford might not be all she’s envisioned. But a late-night drink reveals a connection she wasn’t anticipating finding and what begins as a casual fling soon develops into something much more when Ella learns Jamie has a life-changing secret.

Immediately, Ella is faced with a seemingly impossible decision: turn her back on the man she’s falling in love with to follow her political dreams or be there for him during a trial neither are truly prepared for. As the end of her year in Oxford rapidly approaches, Ella must decide if the dreams she’s always wanted are the same ones she’s now yearning for.]]> 352 Julia Whelan 0062740652 Robinne 5 3.85 2018 My Oxford Year
author: Julia Whelan
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2017/10/01
date added: 2018/05/17
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice]]> 25852870
Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's fortieth birthday fast approaches.

Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend, neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . . And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.]]> 492 Curtis Sittenfeld 1400068320 Robinne 5
This was an interesting, modern take on Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and a reminder of how far we’ve come as women. Because while I never questioned the Bennet sisters� idle lives in Austen’s narrative, I found myself completely infuriated with Elizabeth’s sisters lazing around their parents� home doing much of nothing in Sittenfeld’s novel. And reading it at a time when our culture seems to finally becoming aware of white privilege, was especially frustrating. But Sittenfeld, brilliant as she is, turned that all on its head and introduced various plotlines and characters that altered the narrative in such an unexpected way, it was a joy to watch it unfold.

I do think one of her greatest strengths is writing about class and identity in America and all its complexities. And I love that here she doesn’t shy away from the roles of race, gender, and politics, as well.

Also, what a lovely introduction to Cincinatti!!

Strongly recommend!]]> 3.58 2016 Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2018/04/05
date added: 2018/05/16
shelves:
review:
Full disclosure: I’m a huge Curtis Sittenfeld fan. I rank PREP among my favorite reads of all time, so it follows that I would enjoy anything she writes immensely. And while it took me longer to get into the world of ELIGIBLE than let’s say AN AMERICAN WIFE or PREP, I devoured the last two-thirds rather quickly.

This was an interesting, modern take on Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and a reminder of how far we’ve come as women. Because while I never questioned the Bennet sisters� idle lives in Austen’s narrative, I found myself completely infuriated with Elizabeth’s sisters lazing around their parents� home doing much of nothing in Sittenfeld’s novel. And reading it at a time when our culture seems to finally becoming aware of white privilege, was especially frustrating. But Sittenfeld, brilliant as she is, turned that all on its head and introduced various plotlines and characters that altered the narrative in such an unexpected way, it was a joy to watch it unfold.

I do think one of her greatest strengths is writing about class and identity in America and all its complexities. And I love that here she doesn’t shy away from the roles of race, gender, and politics, as well.

Also, what a lovely introduction to Cincinatti!!

Strongly recommend!
]]> Between Me and You 30964544 When their paths first cross, Ben Livingston is a fledgling screenwriter on the brink of success; Tatum Connelly is a struggling actress tending bar in a New York City dive. They fall in love, they marry, they become parents, and they think only of the future. But as the years go by, Tatum’s stardom rises while Ben’s fades. In a marriage that bears the fallout of ambition and fame, Ben and Tatum are at a crossroads. Now all they can do is think back�

A life of passion, joy, tragedy, and loss—once shared—becomes one as shifting and unpredictable as a memory. And as they explore the ways love can bend and break, they recount their individual versions of the story, Ben’s moving backward and Tatum’s moving forward, each wondering what they can do now to make it all right.

]]> 358 Allison Winn Scotch 1503996239 Robinne 5 3.66 2018 Between Me and You
author: Allison Winn Scotch
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/05/03
date added: 2018/05/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Education of Margot Sánchez]]> 26594801 Pretty in Pink comes to the South Bronx in this bold and romantic coming-of-age novel about dysfunctional families, good and bad choices, and finding the courage to question everything you ever thought you wanted—from debut author Lilliam Rivera.


THINGS/PEOPLE MARGOT HATES:

Mami, for destroying my social life
Papi, for allowing Junior to become a Neanderthal
Junior, for becoming a Neanderthal
This supermarket
Everyone else

After “borrowing� her father's credit card to finance a more stylish wardrobe, Margot
Sánchez suddenly finds herself grounded. And by grounded, she means working as an indentured servant in her family’s struggling grocery store to pay off her debts.

With each order of deli meat she slices, Margot can feel her carefully cultivated prep school reputation slipping through her fingers, and she’s willing to do anything to get out of this punishment. Lie, cheat, and maybe even steal�

Margot’s invitation to the ultimate beach party is within reach and she has no intention of letting her family’s drama or Moisés—the admittedly good looking but outspoken boy from the neighborhood—keep her from her goal.]]> 296 Lilliam Rivera 1481472119 Robinne 0 to-read 3.61 2017 The Education of Margot Sánchez
author: Lilliam Rivera
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/12/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Tell the Wolves I'm Home 12875258
1987. There's only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that's her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into June's life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

At Finn's funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn's apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she's not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.

An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I'm Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.]]> 360 Carol Rifka Brunt 0679644199 Robinne 0 to-read 4.01 2012 Tell the Wolves I'm Home
author: Carol Rifka Brunt
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Annie John 386336
An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived an idyllic life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful presence, who is the very center of the little girl's existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother's benign shadow. Looking back on her childhood, she reflects, "It was in such a paradise that I lived." When she turns twelve, however, Annie's life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her. She begins to question the cultural assumptions of her island world; at school she instinctively rebels against authority; and most frighteningly, her mother, seeing Annie as a "young lady," ceases to be the source of unconditional adoration and takes on the new and unfamiliar guise of adversary. At the end of her school years, Annie decides to leave Antigua and her family, but not without a measure of sorrow, especially for the mother she once knew and never ceases to mourn. "For I could not be sure," she reflects, "whether for the rest of my life I would be able to tell when it was really my mother and when it was really her shadow standing between me and the rest of the world."]]> 160 Jamaica Kincaid 0374525102 Robinne 0 to-read 3.73 1985 Annie John
author: Jamaica Kincaid
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bee Season 251762
Myla Goldberg's keen eye for detail brings Eliza's journey to three-dimensional life. As she rises from classroom obscurity to the blinding lights and outsized expectations of the National Bee, Eliza's small pains and large joys are finely wrought and deeply felt.

Not merely a coming-of-age story, Goldberg's first novel delicately examines the unraveling fabric of one family. The outcome of this tale is as startling and unconventional as her prose, which wields its metaphors sharply and rings with maturity. The work of a lyrical and gifted storyteller, Bee Season marks the arrival of an extraordinarily talented new writer.]]> 275 Myla Goldberg 0385498802 Robinne 0 to-read 3.57 2000 Bee Season
author: Myla Goldberg
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/12/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned � from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren � an enigmatic artist and single mother � who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town � and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]> 338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 Robinne 0 to-read 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/12/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Secret Life of Bees 37435 The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.]]> 302 Sue Monk Kidd 0142001740 Robinne 0 to-read 4.10 2001 The Secret Life of Bees
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/12/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Never Let Me Go 6334 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Robinne 0 to-read 3.85 2005 Never Let Me Go
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> We're Going to Need More Wine 34884359 A powerful collection of essays about gender, sexuality, race, beauty, Hollywood, and what it means to be a modern woman.

One month before the release of the highly anticipated film The Birth of a Nation, actress Gabrielle Union shook the world with a vulnerable and impassioned editorial in which she urged our society to have compassion for victims of sexual violence. In the wake of rape allegations made against director and actor Nate Parker, Union—a forty-four-year-old actress who launched her career with roles in iconic �90s movies—instantly became the insightful, outspoken actress that Hollywood has been desperately awaiting. With honesty and heartbreaking wisdom, she revealed her own trauma as a victim of sexual assault: "It is for you that I am speaking. This is real. We are real."

In this moving collection of thought provoking essays infused with her unique wisdom and deep humor, Union uses that same fearlessness to tell astonishingly personal and true stories about power, color, gender, feminism, and fame. Union tackles a range of experiences, including bullying, beauty standards, and competition between women in Hollywood, growing up in white California suburbia and then spending summers with her black relatives in Nebraska, coping with crushes, puberty, and the divorce of her parents. Genuine and perceptive, Union bravely lays herself bare, uncovering a complex and courageous life of self-doubt and self-discovery with incredible poise and brutal honesty. Throughout, she compels us to be ethical and empathetic, and reminds us of the importance of confidence, self-awareness, and the power of sharing truth, laughter, and support.

]]> 272 Gabrielle Union Robinne 5 4.18 2017 We're Going to Need More Wine
author: Gabrielle Union
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/10/19
date added: 2017/10/19
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Youth (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading Book 240)]]> 33553140
About the Swati Pandey is a communications professional and previously was a freelance writer and editor. Swati’s writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and the LA Weekly among other publications. She currently resides in Los Angeles and is working on a novel, from which “Youth� is excerpted.

About the Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction.]]> 25 Swati Pandey Robinne 5 4.00 Youth (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading Book 240)
author: Swati Pandey
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/10/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ram (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading Book 241)]]> 35355211
About the Swati Pandey is a communications professional and previously was a freelance writer and editor. Swati’s writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and the LA Weekly among other publications. She currently resides in Los Angeles and is working on a novel, from which “Youth� is excerpted.

About the Electric Literature is an independent publisher amplifying the power of storytelling through digital innovation. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction.]]> 29 Swati Pandey Robinne 5 5.00 Ram (Electric Literature's Recommended Reading Book 241)
author: Swati Pandey
name: Robinne
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/10/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Snowy Day (Peter, #1) 310258 Winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal!

No book has captured the magic and sense of possibility of the first snowfall better than The Snowy Day. Universal in its appeal, the story has become a favorite of millions, as it reveals a child's wonder at a new world, and the hope of capturing and keeping that wonder forever.

The adventures of a little boy in the city on a very snowy day.

"Keats's sparse collage illustrations capture the wonder and beauty a snowy day can bring to a small child."�Barnes & Noble

"Ezra Jack Keats's classic The Snowy Day, winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal, pays homage to the wonder and pure pleasure a child experiences when the world is blanketed in snow."�Publisher's Weekly

"The book is notable not only for its lovely artwork and tone, but also for its importance as a trailblazer. According toĚýHorn BookĚýmagazine,ĚýThe Snowy DayĚýwas "the very first full-color picture book to feature a small black hero"—yet another reason to add this classic to your shelves. It's as unique and special as a snowflake."—Amazon.com]]> 32 Ezra Jack Keats 0140501827 Robinne 5 4.20 1962 The Snowy Day (Peter, #1)
author: Ezra Jack Keats
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/10/01
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bridget Jones’s Diary (Bridget Jones, #1)]]> 227443 a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise

"129 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

"Bridget Jones' Diary" is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement � a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult - and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and � like millions of readers the world round � you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!"]]> 288 Helen Fielding 014028009X Robinne 5 3.81 1996 Bridget Jones’s Diary (Bridget Jones, #1)
author: Helen Fielding
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/10/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Some Kind of Magic (Flirting with Fame, #1)]]> 30214948 the Adam Copeland international rock god and object of lust for a million women. Make that a million and one. By the time she learns the truth, she s already spent the (amazing, incredible) night in his bed.

Suddenly Eden, who's more accustomed to being set up on disastrous dates by her mom, is going out with a gorgeous celebrity who loves how down-to-earth and honest she is. But for once, Eden isn't being honest. She can't bear to reveal that this overpowering attraction could be nothing more than seduction by science. And the only way to know how Adam truly feels is to ditch the perfume—and risk being ditched in turn . . .]]> 304 Mary Ann Marlowe 1496708067 Robinne 5
Marlowe is a deft, compelling writer with a modern, confident voice. I got swept up completely in Eden’s journey, her love affair with Adam, her anxieties, fears, insecurities, all of it. Through the layering of detail and humanity, Marlowe manages to take a seemingly outlandish premise and make it real. If only for these 300 pages. Her knowledge of the music industry comes across clearly and Adam’s world is well drawn and specific, which is very much appreciated by those of us familiar with this business. Marlowe paints the sometimes ugly side of celebrity, the unglamorous reality of life on the road, the grungy underbelly of backstage and tour buses and dressing rooms. And through it all she weaves a beautiful love story that you can’t help but champion! A smartly-written, entertaining debut!!
]]> 3.58 2017 Some Kind of Magic (Flirting with Fame, #1)
author: Mary Ann Marlowe
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/08/28
date added: 2017/10/01
shelves:
review:
When I first read the description for Mary Ann Marlowe’s “Some Kind of Magic� my heart skipped a beat. A love story? With a beautiful, sweet, seemingly perfect guy in a very famous band? I’d just spent a couple of years writing the exact same thing, and here, we had debut novels being released within months of each other! So I knew I would not be able to resist reading it once I could clear my schedule and give it the proper attention, and it was so worth the wait!

Marlowe is a deft, compelling writer with a modern, confident voice. I got swept up completely in Eden’s journey, her love affair with Adam, her anxieties, fears, insecurities, all of it. Through the layering of detail and humanity, Marlowe manages to take a seemingly outlandish premise and make it real. If only for these 300 pages. Her knowledge of the music industry comes across clearly and Adam’s world is well drawn and specific, which is very much appreciated by those of us familiar with this business. Marlowe paints the sometimes ugly side of celebrity, the unglamorous reality of life on the road, the grungy underbelly of backstage and tour buses and dressing rooms. And through it all she weaves a beautiful love story that you can’t help but champion! A smartly-written, entertaining debut!!

]]> Tell Me How This Ends Well 31159252 Why is tonight different from all other nights?

Tonight we kill dad.

In 2022, American Jews face an increasingly unsafe and anti-Semitic landscape at home. Against this backdrop, the Jacobson family gathers for Passover in Los Angeles. But their immediate problems are more personal than political, with the three adult children, Mo, Edith, and Jacob, in various states of crisis, the result, each claims, of a lifetime of mistreatment by their father, Julian. The siblings have begun to suspect that Julian is hastening their mother Roz's demise, and years of resentment boil over as they debate whether to go through with the real reason for their reunion: an ill-considered plot to end their father's iron rule for good. That is, if they can put their bickering, grudges, festering relationships, and distrust of one another aside long enough to act.

And God help them if their mother finds out . . .

Tell Me How This Ends Well presents a blistering and prescient vision of the near future, turning the exploits of one very funny, very troubled family into a rare and compelling exploration of the state of America, and what it could become.]]> 416 David Samuel Levinson 0451496884 Robinne 0 to-read 3.49 2017 Tell Me How This Ends Well
author: David Samuel Levinson
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/09/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> Some Kind of Magic 31206700 the Adam Copeland international rock god and object of lust for a million women. Make that a million and one. By the time she learns the truth, she s already spent the (amazing, incredible) night in his bed.

Suddenly Eden, who's more accustomed to being set up on disastrous dates by her mom, is going out with a gorgeous celebrity who loves how down-to-earth and honest she is. But for once, Eden isn't being honest. She can't bear to reveal that this overpowering attraction could be nothing more than seduction by science. And the only way to know how Adam truly feels is to ditch the perfume—and risk being ditched in turn]]> 304 Mary Ann Marlowe 1496708075 Robinne 5 3.71 2017 Some Kind of Magic
author: Mary Ann Marlowe
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/08/28
date added: 2017/08/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wild Woman's Guide to Traveling the World]]> 32470130
Objectively, Sophie is a she's got a coveted job at a top consulting firm, a Manhattan apartment, and a passport full of stamps. It isn't quite what she dreamed of when she was a teenager dog-earing pages in exotic travel guides, but it's secure. Then her best friend bails just hours after they arrive in Hong Kong for a girls' trip, and Sophie falls for Carson, a free spirited, globetrotting American artist. He begs her to join him on his haphazard journey, but she chooses responsibility and her five-year plan.

Back in New York, that plan feels less and less appealing. As Sophie recalls the dreams she's suppressed, the brief international jaunts she sneaks in between business trips no longer feel like enough. Carson isn't ready to let her go either, but as they try to figure out their relationship, Sophie realizes she may have to pursue her passions with or without him.]]> 243 Kristin Rockaway 1455597546 Robinne 5 4.00 2017 The Wild Woman's Guide to Traveling the World
author: Kristin Rockaway
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/08/09
date added: 2017/08/16
shelves:
review:
I am fairly certain I am not the target audience for this book and yet still I found it utterly charming. Rockaway writes confidently about twenty-something angst and figuring out one’s life purpose amidst an enchanting backdrop of travel and food and first love. Sophie’s journey from frustrated IT consultant to budding tour guide is hard fought and laced with lovely discoveries about self and duty and happiness. It is an age-old tale, but with an international backdrop, and a very likeable artist/trust fund backpacker as romantic hero, Rockaway manages to give it a new spin. What perhaps stands out most is her adept skill at food and travel writing. The scents and sounds and tastes of Hong Kong and New York simply fly off the page bestowing the reader with a very visceral experience. All in all an engaging, enjoyable read…just begging to be paired with a bowl of spicy noodles and a cold beer.
]]> Another Brooklyn 27213163
But beneath the hopeful veneer, there was another Brooklyn, a dangerous place where grown men reached for innocent girls in dark hallways, where ghosts haunted the night, where mothers disappeared. A world where madness was just a sunset away and fathers found hope in religion.]]> 192 Jacqueline Woodson 0062359983 Robinne 0 to-read 3.86 2016 Another Brooklyn
author: Jacqueline Woodson
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Here Comes the Sun 26530351
At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school. Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman.

As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves must confront long-hidden scars. From a much-heralded new writer, Here Comes the Sun offers a dramatic glimpse into a vibrant, passionate world most outsiders see simply as paradise.]]> 352 Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn 1631491768 Robinne 0 currently-reading 3.85 2016 Here Comes the Sun
author: Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Perfect Find 28512489
Jenna Jones, former It-girl fashion editor, is broke and desperate for a second chance. When she’s dumped by her longtime fiancé and fired from Darling magazine, she begs for a job at StyleZine.com from her old arch nemesis, Darcy Vale. But Jenna soon realizes she’s in over her head. She’s working with digital-savvy millennials half her age, has never even “Twittered,� and pretends to still be a Fashion Somebody while living a style lie (she sold her designer wardrobe to afford her sketched-out studio, and now quietly wears Walmart’s finest). Worse? The twenty-two-year-old videographer assigned to shoot her web series is driving her crazy. Wildly sexy with a smile Jenna feels in her thighs, Eric Combs is way off-limits � but almost too delicious to resist.

Written by the bestselling author of The Accidental Diva, The Perfect Find is a scandalously sexy, laugh-out-loud saga of star-crossed love and starting over.]]> 363 Tia Williams Robinne 5
The story is complex and tense and relevant and sexy (Oh so sexy!) and everything a smart women’s fiction/romance should be. Williams� characters leap off the page � multi-layered and dynamic with identifiable voices. Jenna became so real to me. Eric was an absolute dream. Each was so unique and authentic and likable, you could not help but root for them. Individually and together. The secondary characters � Jenna’s friends and colleagues, Eric’s best friend � were all so wonderfully and clearly painted. It was easy to imagine yourself moving through this cast of diverse eccentrics. Listening to their brilliant banter, laughing out loud, and loving it. And it really, really made me miss living in New York.

What an absolute joy it was to get lost in this world! Kudos, Tia! The Perfect Find, indeed!
]]> 3.95 2016 The Perfect Find
author: Tia Williams
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2017/07/26
date added: 2017/07/27
shelves:
review:
I cannot say enough great things about this book! As someone who has always appreciated a good older woman/younger man love story, this one seemed like a no-brainer to me. But I was thoroughly surprised by just how much I enjoyed this ride. I could have read this novel in one or two days, but Williams� writing was so sharp, observant, insightful and full of wit, I had to take my time and savor it. I found myself highlighting passage after passage, line after line, brilliant dialogue and hilarious observations about love, sex, fashion, publishing, getting older, dating younger, the intricacies of social status, life in New York � all of it. It was so rich and laden with so many priceless gems. I relished every page.

The story is complex and tense and relevant and sexy (Oh so sexy!) and everything a smart women’s fiction/romance should be. Williams� characters leap off the page � multi-layered and dynamic with identifiable voices. Jenna became so real to me. Eric was an absolute dream. Each was so unique and authentic and likable, you could not help but root for them. Individually and together. The secondary characters � Jenna’s friends and colleagues, Eric’s best friend � were all so wonderfully and clearly painted. It was easy to imagine yourself moving through this cast of diverse eccentrics. Listening to their brilliant banter, laughing out loud, and loving it. And it really, really made me miss living in New York.

What an absolute joy it was to get lost in this world! Kudos, Tia! The Perfect Find, indeed!

]]> <![CDATA[Black Tie Optional (Wild Wedding, #1)]]> 29482911 416 Ann Marie Walker Robinne 0 to-read 3.82 Black Tie Optional (Wild Wedding, #1)
author: Ann Marie Walker
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.82
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Second Chance in Laguna (Finding Forever in Laguna, #1)]]> 34032139
Sophie’s new landlord, Nicholas Morgan, is a gorgeous, successful architect with a player reputation. He makes it tough for Sophie to remember that she’s sworn to be single. Nick’s avoided the intimacy of a long-term relationship--until Sophie’s independence, courage, and beauty touch his guarded heart. Both Sophie and Nick are terrified of being hurt again, but can they resist the pull of true love?]]> 214 Claire Marti Robinne 0 to-read 3.81 Second Chance in Laguna (Finding Forever in Laguna, #1)
author: Claire Marti
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Brief History of Seven Killings]]> 20893314
Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters—assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and even ghosts�A Brief History of Seven Killings is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath, from the streets and slums of Kingston in the 70s, to the crack wars in 80s New York, to a radically altered Jamaica in the 90s. Brilliantly inventive and stunningly ambitious, this novel is a revealing modern epic that will secure Marlon James� place among the great literary talents of his generation.]]> 688 Marlon James 159448600X Robinne 0 to-read 3.91 2014 A Brief History of Seven Killings
author: Marlon James
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Spring/Summer 2017 St. Martin's First Sampler]]> 33519233
Find out who is next . . . with St. Martin's First!
The Book of Summer by Michelle Gable, Some Bright Morning, I'll Fly Away by Alice Anderson, The Atlas of Forgotten Places by Jenny D. Williams, The Wardrobe Mistress by Meghan Masterson, The Idea of You by Robinne Lee, The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka, The Inevitable Collision of Birdie & Bash by Candace Ganger, According to A Source by Abby Stern, Stars Over Clear Lake by Loretta Ellsworth.]]> 147 Michelle Gable 125015166X Robinne 5 currently-reading 4.07 Spring/Summer 2017 St. Martin's First Sampler
author: Michelle Gable
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.07
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/07/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Crazy Kind of Love (Flirting with Fame, #2)]]> 34570039 seriously hot. Only later does Jo learn that he's also Micah Sinclair � one of rock's notorious bad boys...

Soon Jo is on the verge of getting fired for missing a Micah Sinclair exclusive. Until she's suddenly being pursued by the heartthrob himself. But how can she be sure the musician's mind-blowing kisses are the real deal? Her colleagues claim he's a media whore, gambling on some free PR. But something has Jo hoping Micah's feeling the same powerful pull that she does. A pull so strong, she can't resist becoming his latest love, even if it means she might become the media's latest victim...]]> 278 Mary Ann Marlowe 1496708083 Robinne 0 to-read 3.49 2017 A Crazy Kind of Love (Flirting with Fame, #2)
author: Mary Ann Marlowe
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/07/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple]]> 20430998
Cameron West was in his thirties, a successful businessman, happily married and the father of a young son when he spoke these words. The “voice� he heard belonged to Davy, the first of twenty-four distinct alter personalities to emerge over a period of several months as West began to recall memories of horrific abuse he’d repressed since childhood. Along with Davy, there was eight-year-old Clay, tense and stuttering, twelve-year-old Dusty, gentle and kind, but disappointed to find herself in a man’s body, Bart, lighthearted with a sense of humor, Lief, focused and driven, who got things done, but often overwhelmed West with his intensity, and nineteen other personalities, all with distinct characteristics, mannerisms, and memories, created by West to protect his psyche from the trauma of repeated sexual abuse at the hands of family members.

In the classic New York Times Bestseller, FIRST PERSON PLURAL, West offers a poignant account of his efforts to understand the workings of his fragmented mind and to heal his damage spirit as he desperately hangs on to the slender thread that connects him to his wife, Rikki, his son Kyle, and some semblance of a regular life.

In addition to a spellbinding story, West provides rare and unprecedented insight into the fascinating condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, the working of the mind of a multiple, and his alters� coexistence with one another and with the world “outside.� Heartwrenching, humorous, and ultimately hopeful, FIRST PERSON PLURAL is a story that will make you stand in awe of the power of the mind to protect itself and cheer for West as he struggles to gain control of his life.

Accolades for First Person Plural:
New York Times Bestseller
Publishers Weekly Bestseller
USA Today Bestseller
#1 Amazon.com
#1 Barnesandnoble.com
Published in twenty-two foreign countries

Personal appearances by Cameron and Rikki West:
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Today Show
Extra
20/20
Entertainment Tonight
Leeza
Maurio Costanza (Italy)

Featured in USA Today, TIME, and People

“A page-turning journey through hell.� Entertainment Weekly
“For those who found Sybil or The Three Faces of Eve believable and engrossing, this account will be even more so.� Kirkus Reviews
“First Person Plural is an honest, courageous account that demystifies the lives of those who struggle with Dissociative Identity Disorder.� Ellen Bass author of The Courage to Heal
“First Person Plural is an incredibly important book. It is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit.� Marlene E. Hunter, MD, FCFP, President International Society for the Study of Dissociation






]]> 372 Cameron West Robinne 0 currently-reading 4.35 1999 First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple
author: Cameron West
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Paris Mon Amour 29079371 The first time I caused terrible harm to the people I love it was an accident. The second is the reason I'm here.

When Alexandra discovers that her husband Philippe is having an affair, she can’t believe he’d risk losing the love that has transformed both their lives.

Still in shock, Alexandra finds herself powerfully attracted to a much younger man. Jean-Luc Malavoine is twenty-three, intense and magnetic. He’s also the son of Philippe’s best friend. With every increasingly passionate liaison, Alexandra is pulled deeper into a situation that threatens everyone she holds dear.

Beautifully told through the boulevards and arrondissements of the City of Light, Paris Mon Amour is a sensual novel about inescapable desire and devastating betrayals. It is the story of one woman and two men, and what happens when there is no way out.]]> 393 Isabel Costello Robinne 0 to-read 3.95 Paris Mon Amour
author: Isabel Costello
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> Swing Time 28390369
Dazzlingly energetic and deeply human, Swing Time is a story about friendship and music and stubborn roots, about how we are shaped by these things and how we can survive them. Moving from northwest London to West Africa, it is an exuberant dance to the music of time.]]> 453 Zadie Smith 0241144159 Robinne 0 to-read 3.55 2016 Swing Time
author: Zadie Smith
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Grounded Hearts 34948186
Still, something compels Nan to take in “flyboy� Dutch Whitney, an RAF pilot whose bomber has just crashed over County Clare. While she tends to his wounds and gives him a secret place of refuge, the two begin to form a mutual affection—and an unbreakable bond.

But Nan has another secret, one that has racked her with guilt since her husband’s death and made her question ever loving again. As Nan and Dutch plan his escape, can he help restore her faith?]]> 350 Jeanne M. Dickson 1542095530 Robinne 0 to-read 4.15 2017 Grounded Hearts
author: Jeanne M. Dickson
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Me Before You (Me Before You, #1)]]> 17557750 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation and perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?]]> 385 Jojo Moyes Robinne 5 4.39 2012 Me Before You (Me Before You, #1)
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2015/09/01
date added: 2017/05/31
shelves:
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]]> Middlesex 2187 Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.]]> 529 Jeffrey Eugenides 0312422156 Robinne 5 4.03 2002 Middlesex
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2004/01/01
date added: 2017/05/31
shelves:
review:

]]> The Lovely Bones 536 327 Alice Sebold Robinne 4 3.58 2002 The Lovely Bones
author: Alice Sebold
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/05/31
shelves:
review:

]]> Scrappy Little Nobody 29868610 Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect.

Even before she made a name for herself on the silver screen starring in films like Pitch Perfect, Up in the Air, Twilight, and Into the Woods, Anna Kendrick was unusually small, weird, and �10 percent defiant.�

At the ripe age of thirteen, she had already resolved to “keep the crazy inside my head where it belonged. Forever. But here’s the thing about crazy: It. Wants. Out.� In Scrappy Little Nobody, she invites readers inside her brain, sharing extraordinary and charmingly ordinary stories with candor and winningly wry observations.

With her razor-sharp wit, Anna recounts the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture as only she can—from her unusual path to the performing arts (Vanilla Ice and baggy neon pants may have played a role) to her double life as a middle-school student who also starred on Broadway to her initial “dating experiments� (including only liking boys who didn’t like her back) to reviewing a binder full of butt doubles to her struggle to live like an adult woman instead of a perpetual “man-child.�

Enter Anna’s world and follow her rise from “scrappy little nobody� to somebody who dazzles on the stage, the screen, and now the page—with an electric, singular voice, at once familiar and surprising, sharp and sweet, funny and serious (well, not that serious).]]> 275 Anna Kendrick 1501117203 Robinne 0 to-read 3.84 2016 Scrappy Little Nobody
author: Anna Kendrick
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> You (You, #1) 20821614
There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance� meeting.

As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

A terrifying exploration of how vulnerable we all are to stalking and manipulation.]]> 424 Caroline Kepnes 1476785597 Robinne 0 to-read 3.86 2014 You (You, #1)
author: Caroline Kepnes
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Idea of You 31450913
What begins as a series of clandestine trysts quickly evolves into a passionate and genuine relationship. It is a journey that spans continents as Solène and Hayes navigate each other’s worlds: from stadium tours to international art fairs to secluded hideaways in Paris and Miami. For Solène, it is a reclaiming of self, as well as a rediscovery of happiness and love. When Solène and Hayes� romance becomes a viral sensation, and both she and her daughter become the target of rabid fans and an insatiable media, Solène must face how her romantic life has impacted the lives of those she cares about most.]]> 372 Robinne Lee 1250125901 Robinne 5 3.67 2017 The Idea of You
author: Robinne Lee
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2015/10/14
date added: 2017/05/28
shelves:
review:
So, it appears this is indeed really happening. Just pinching myself. And perhaps freaking out a little. Yikes!!
]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 Robinne 5
Evelyn Hugo is a complex and dynamic protagonist who pulls us into her saga and reveals much about what it takes for a woman to remain in the limelight for four-decades in an often manipulative, duplicitous, sexist, ageist, ugly business. All while holding on to a secret that could easily undo her. It’s a journey that unfolds with unexpected and delicious twists and turns.

And kudos to Reid for taking on racially and ethnically different characters whose stories we don’t often get to see! And doing so with nuance and humanity. This book was a fascinating, entertaining ride � right up to the very end!
]]> 4.39 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/05/28
date added: 2017/05/28
shelves:
review:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It came at a time when I needed to get out of my own head and dive into a story that took me on a sweeping journey of passion and glamour and intrigue and love. And THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO had all of that. And then some. Reid writes deftly and with confidence about Hollywood in its heyday. About breaking down barriers and overcoming obstacles and being tenacious and assertive, and goodness, I wish I’d had this when I first came to this town to pursue my acting dreams!

Evelyn Hugo is a complex and dynamic protagonist who pulls us into her saga and reveals much about what it takes for a woman to remain in the limelight for four-decades in an often manipulative, duplicitous, sexist, ageist, ugly business. All while holding on to a secret that could easily undo her. It’s a journey that unfolds with unexpected and delicious twists and turns.

And kudos to Reid for taking on racially and ethnically different characters whose stories we don’t often get to see! And doing so with nuance and humanity. This book was a fascinating, entertaining ride � right up to the very end!

]]> Public Relations 31930490
As the faux-mance begins to rehabilitate Archie's faltering career, Rose finds his herself having unexpected, inconvenient and definitely unprofessional feelings for the crooner. But do late night texts and impromptu burrito binges mean he feels the same? In the end, Rose will have to decide whether to let her fantasy crush go, or to risk her reputation to be with the charming, handsome, scoundrel-y but sweet pop star she's grown to love.]]> 368 Katie Heaney Robinne 0 to-read 3.60 2017 Public Relations
author: Katie Heaney
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Grace and the Fever 30171404 Rainbow Rowell s Fangirl meets Jenny Han s The Summer I Turned Pretty in this contemporary YA about what it means to be a fan and what it means to be a friend when your whole world is in flux.

In middle school, everyone was a Fever Dream fan. Now, a few weeks after her high school graduation, Grace Thomas sometimes feels like the only one who never moved on. She can t imagine what she d do without the community of online fans that share her obsession. Or what her IRL friends would say if they ever found out about it.
Then, one summer night, the unthinkable Grace meets her idol, Jes. What starts out as an elusive glimpse of Fever Dream s world turns into an unlikely romance, and leads her to confront dark, complex truths about herself and the realities of stardom.
From the author of A Song to Take the World Apart, Grace and the Fever is a heart-clutching reminder of what it s like to fall in love whether it s with a boy or a boy band and how difficult it is to figure out who you are after you ve fallen out of love again."]]> 352 Zan Romanoff 1524720860 Robinne 0 to-read 3.69 2017 Grace and the Fever
author: Zan Romanoff
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)]]> 2429135
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.]]> 480 Stieg Larsson 0670069019 Robinne 0 4.17 2005 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium, #1)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Robinne
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Vanity in Dust (Crowns & Ash #1)]]> 35110909
Vaun Dray Fen never knew that world. Born a prince without a purpose in a Realm ruled by lavish indulgence, unrelenting greed, and vicious hierarchy, he never knew a time before the Queen’s dust drugged the city. Everything is poisoned to distract and dull the senses, even the tea and pastries. And yet, after more than a century, his own magic is beginning to wake. The beautiful veneer of the Realm is cracking. Those who would defy the Queen turn their eyes to Vaun, and the dust saturating the Realm.

From the carnivorous pixies in the shadows to the wolves in the streets, Vaun thought he knew all the dangers of his city. But when whispers of treason bring down the fury of the Queen, he'll have to race to save the lives and souls of those he loves.]]> 384 Cheryl Low Robinne 0 to-read 3.86 2017 Vanity in Dust (Crowns & Ash #1)
author: Cheryl Low
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Thunder Beneath Us 28814309 James, girlfriend of a gorgeous up-and-coming actor, and friend to New York City’s fabulous. Then there’s the other Best, the one who has chosen to recast herself as an only child rather than confront the truth.

Ten years ago, on Christmas Eve, Best and her two older brothers took a shortcut over a frozen lake. When the ice cracked, all three went in. Only Best came out. People said she was lucky, but that kind of luck is nothing but a burden. Because Best knows what she had to do to survive. And after years of covering up the past, her guilt is detonating through every facet of her seemingly charmed life. It’s all unraveling so fast: her new boss is undermining and deceitful, her boyfriend is recovering from a breakdown, and a recent investigative story has led to a secret affair with the magazine’s wealthy publisher.

Best is quick-witted and headstrong, but how do you find a way to happiness when you’re sure you haven’t earned it—or embrace a future you feel you don’t deserve? Evocative and emotional, The Thunder Beneath Us is a gripping novel about learning to carry loss without breaking, and to heal and forgive—not least of all, ourselves.]]> 352 Nicole Blades 1496704606 Robinne 0 to-read 3.40 The Thunder Beneath Us
author: Nicole Blades
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong]]> 27584 The French...

-Smoke, drink and eat more fat than anyone in the world, yet live longer and have fewer heart problems than Americans

-Work 35-hour weeks, and take seven weeks of paid holidays per year, but are still the world's fourth-biggest economic power

So what makes the French so different?

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong is a journey into the French heart, mind and soul. Decrypting French ideas about land, privacy and language, Nadeau and Barlow weave together the threads of French society--from centralization and the Napoleonic Code to elite education and even street protests--giving us, for the first time, a complete picture of the French.

]]> 368 Jean-Benoît Nadeau 1402200455 Robinne 0 to-read 3.73 2003 Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong
author: Jean-Benoît Nadeau
name: Robinne
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/05/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>