Suzanne's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 27 Sep 2024 23:08:22 -0700 60 Suzanne's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Mind Over Money: The Psychology of Money and How to Use It]]> 26795322 The acclaimed author of Time Warped tackles the very latest research in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and biology to provide a fresh, fascinating, and thought-provoking look at our relationship with money—perfect for fans of Dan Ariely and Freakonomics.

We know we need money and we often want more of it, but we don’t always think about the way it affects our minds and our emotions, skews our perceptions and even changes the way we behave.

Award-winning BBC Radio 4 host Claudia Hammond delves into the surprising psychology of money to show us that our relationship with the stuff is more complex than we might think. Drawing on the latest research in psychology, neuroscience and behavioural economics, she draws an anatomy of the power it holds over us. She also reveals some simple and effective tricks that will help you use and save money better—from how being grumpy can stop you getting ripped off to why you should opt for the more expensive pain relief and why you should never offer to pay your friends for favours.

An eye-opening and entertaining investigation into the power money holds over us, Mind over Money will change the way you view the cash in your wallet and the figures in your bank account forever.

Mind over Money is an invaluable resource for anyone fascinated by the dynamics of money and for those wishing to learn how to maximize its power and greatest benefit.

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]]> 376 Claudia Hammond 0062317016 Suzanne 3 3.53 2016 Mind Over Money: The Psychology of Money and How to Use It
author: Claudia Hammond
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/17
date added: 2024/09/27
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]]> Dragon Springs Road 29938024
That night I dreamed that I had wandered out to Dragon Springs Road all on my own, when a dreadful knowledge seized me that my mother had gone away never to return . . .

In 1908, Jialing is only seven years old when she is abandoned in the courtyard of a once-lavish estate near Shanghai. Jialing is zazhong—Eurasian—and faces a lifetime of contempt from both Chinese and Europeans. Without her mother’s protection, she can survive only if the estate’s new owners, the Yang family, agree to take her in.

Jialing finds allies in Anjuin, the eldest Yang daughter, and Fox, an animal spirit who has lived in the haunted courtyard for centuries. But Jialing’s life as the Yangs� bondservant changes unexpectedly when she befriends a young English girl who then mysteriously vanishes.

Always hopeful of finding her long-lost mother, Jialing grows into womanhood during the tumultuous early years of the Chinese republic, guided by Fox and by her own strength of spirit, away from the shadows of her past. But she finds herself drawn into a murder at the periphery of political intrigue, a relationship that jeopardizes her friendship with Anjuin and a forbidden affair that brings danger to the man she loves.]]> 0 Janie Chang 0062388975 Suzanne 5 4.16 2017 Dragon Springs Road
author: Janie Chang
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/01
date added: 2024/09/21
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]]> The Foundling 45308037
Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London's Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst - that Clara has died in care - the last thing she expects to hear is that her daughter has already been reclaimed - by her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl - and why. Less than a mile from Bess' lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend - an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital - persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.

From the bestselling author of The Familiars, and set against the vibrant backdrop of Georgian London, The Foundling explores families, secrets, class, equality, power and the meaning of motherhood.]]> 288 Stacey Halls 1488055327 Suzanne 4 3.97 2020 The Foundling
author: Stacey Halls
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/12
date added: 2024/09/16
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]]> The Lost Daughter 38486710
Another penetrating Neapolitan story fromĚý New York Timesâ€� bestselling author ofĚý My Brilliant FriendĚý andĚý The Lying Life of Adults.

Leda, a middle-aged divorcée, is alone for the first time in years after her two adult daughters leave home to live with their father in Toronto. Enjoying an unexpected sense of liberty, she heads to the Ionian coast for a vacation. But she soon finds herself intrigued by Nina, a young mother on the beach, eventually striking up a conversation with her. After Nina confides a dark secret, one seemingly trivial occurrence leads to events that could destroy Nina’s family in this “arresting� novel by the author of the New York Times –bestselling Neapolitan Novels, which have sold millions of copies and been adapted into an HBO series ( Publishers Weekly ).
Ěý
“Although much of the drama takes place in [Leda’s] head, Ferrante’s gift for psychological horror renders it immediate and visceral.� � The New Yorker
Ěý
“Ferrante’s prose is stunningly candid, direct and unforgettable. From simple elements, she builds a powerful tale of hope and regret.� � Publishers Weekly]]> 148 Elena Ferrante Suzanne 0 currently-reading 3.60 2006 The Lost Daughter
author: Elena Ferrante
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Darker Than Amber (Travis McGee, #7)]]> 19028252 258 John D. MacDonald 0307826686 Suzanne 4 4.28 1966 Darker Than Amber (Travis McGee, #7)
author: John D. MacDonald
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1966
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/21
date added: 2024/04/21
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]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 17125 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]> 182 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Suzanne 4 3.98 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/03/15
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]]> Paris 44013366 Alternate cover edition can be found here

From the grand master of the historical novel comes a dazzling epic portrait of Paris that leaps through centuries as it weaves the tales of families whose fates are forever entwined with the City of Light.

As he did so brilliantly in London: The Novel and New York: The Novel, Edward Rutherfurd brings to life the most magical city in the world: Paris.

This breathtaking multigenerational saga takes readers on a journey through thousands of years of glorious Parisian history—from its founding under the Romans to the timeless love story of Abelard and Heloise against the backdrop of the building of Notre Dame; to the martyrdom of Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years War; to the dangerous manipulations of Cardinal Richelieu and the bloody religious conflicts between Catholics and Protestants; to the gilded glories of Versailles; to the horrors of the French Revolution and the conquests of Napoleon; to the beauty and optimism of the belle epoque when Impressionism swept the world; to the hotbed of cultural activity of the 1920s and '30s that included Picasso, Salvador Dali, Ernest Hemingway, and the writers of the Lost Generation; to the Nazi occupation and the incredible efforts of the French Resistance.

Even more richly detailed, thrilling, and romantic then anything Rutherfurd has written before, Paris: The Novel illuminates thousands of years in the City of Lights through intimate and vivid tales of characters both fictional and true, and with them, the sights, scents, and tastes of Paris come to sumptuous life.]]> 830 Edward Rutherfurd Suzanne 5 4.37 2013 Paris
author: Edward Rutherfurd
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2019/04/05
date added: 2023/12/25
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]]> Year of Wonders 4965
Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition.

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

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

Inspired by the true story of Eyam, a village in the rugged hill country of England, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. ]]> 304 Geraldine Brooks 0142001430 Suzanne 4 4.00 2001 Year of Wonders
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2001
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/11/11
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]]> The Shipping News 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Suzanne 5 3.88 1993 The Shipping News
author: Annie Proulx
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/10/31
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]]> Lady Chatterley's Lover 49583709
With her soft brown hair, lithe figure and big, wondering eyes, Constance Chatterley is possessed of a certain vitality. Yet she is deeply unhappy; married to an invalid, she is almost as inwardly paralyzed as her husband Clifford is paralyzed below the waist. It is not until she finds refuge in the arms of Mellors the game-keeper, a solitary man of a class apart, that she feels regenerated. Together they move from an outer world of chaos towards an inner world of fulfillment.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700Ěýtitles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theĚýseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-dateĚýtranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 400 D.H. Lawrence 014303961X Suzanne 3 3.48 1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover
author: D.H. Lawrence
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1928
rating: 3
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date added: 2023/10/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Life on the Mississippi, Part 12.]]> 19203078 60 Mark Twain Suzanne 0 currently-reading 4.33 2004 Life on the Mississippi, Part 12.
author: Mark Twain
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/17
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Night Watchman 184133865 Based on the extraordinary life of National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich’s grandfather who worked as a night watchman and carried the fight against Native dispossession from rural North Dakota all the way to Washington, D.C., this powerful novel explores themes of love and death with lightness and gravity and unfolds with the elegant prose, sly humor, and depth of feeling of a master craftsman.

Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipation� bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “termination� that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers run�?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.]]> 467 Louise Erdrich Suzanne 5 4.29 2020 The Night Watchman
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/12
date added: 2023/10/12
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]]> The Bluest Eye 11337 The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel, a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change—in painful, devastating ways.

With its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. The Bluest Eye remains one of Toni Morrison's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.]]> 216 Toni Morrison Suzanne 5 4.13 1970 The Bluest Eye
author: Toni Morrison
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1970
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/10/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting]]> 18868447
"The impressive collection of writers here have contributed essays that celebrate knitting and knitters. They share their knitting triumphs and disasters as well as their life triumphs and disasters.� These essays will break your heart. They will have you laughing out loud." —Ann Hood, from the introduction

Why does knitting occupy a place in the hearts of so many writers? What’s so magical and transformative about yarn and needles? How does knitting help us get through life-changing events and inspire joy? In Knitting Yarns, twenty-seven writers tell stories about how knitting healed, challenged, or helped them to grow. Barbara Kingsolver describes sheering a sheep for yarn. Elizabeth Berg writes about her frustration at failing to knit. Ann Patchett traces her life through her knitting, writing about the scarf that knits together the women she’s loved and lost. Knitting a Christmas gift for his blind aunt helped Andre Dubus III knit an understanding with his girlfriend. Kaylie Jones finds the woman who used knitting to help raise her in France and heals old wounds. Sue Grafton writes about her passion for knitting. Also included are five original knitting patterns created by Helen Bingham.

Poignant, funny, and moving, Knitting Yarns is sure to delight knitting enthusiasts and lovers of literature alike.]]> 305 Ann Hood 0393241440 Suzanne 0 currently-reading 3.97 2013 Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting
author: Ann Hood
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/06
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Rough Sleepers 62328661 In Rough Sleepers, Tracy Kidder shows how one person can make a difference, as he tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell, a man who invented ways to create a community of care for a city’s unhoused population, including those who sleep on the streets—the “rough sleepers.�

When Jim O’Connell graduated from Harvard Medical School and was nearing the end of his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, the chief of medicine made a proposal: Would he defer a prestigious fellowship and spend a year helping to create an organization to bring health care to homeless citizens? Jim took the job because he felt he couldn’t refuse. But that year turned into his life’s calling. Tracy Kidder spent five years following Dr. O’Connell and his colleagues as they served their thousands of homeless patients. In this book, we travel with O’Connell as he navigates the city, offering medical care, socks, soup, empathy, humor, and friendship to some of the city’s most vulnerable citizens. He emphasizes a style of medicine in which patients come first, joined with their providers in what he calls “a system of friends.”]]> 320 Tracy Kidder 1984801430 Suzanne 5 4.34 2023 Rough Sleepers
author: Tracy Kidder
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/06
date added: 2023/10/06
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]]> The Expatriates 25604689 From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Piano Teacher, a beautiful, transporting novel about motherhood, marriage, and friendship

Janice Y. K. Lee’s blockbuster hit debut novel The Piano Teacher was called “immensely satisfying� by People, “intensely readable� by O, The Oprah Magazine, and “a rare and exquisite story� by Elizabeth Gilbert. And now, in her long-awaited follow-up, Lee explores with devastating poignancy the emotions, identities, and relationships of three very different American women living in the same small expat community in Hong Kong.

Mercy is adrift. A recent Columbia graduate without a safety net, she can’t hold down a job—or a man. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her inability to conceive a child she believes could save her floundering marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret, ostensibly a happily married mother of three, questions her maternal identity in the wake of a shattering loss. As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives crash into one another in ways that could have devastating consequences for them all. Moving, atmospheric, and utterly compelling, The Expatriates confirms Lee as an exceptional talent and one of our keenest observers of women’s inner lives.]]> 336 Janice Y.K. Lee 0698404939 Suzanne 0 currently-reading 3.88 2016 The Expatriates
author: Janice Y.K. Lee
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/01
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Münster's Case: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (6) (Inspector Van Veeteren Series)]]> 19860516 For Waldemar Leverkuhn the day could not have begun more auspiciously. He and three of his friends, all retirees, have just won the lottery. It’s a modest sum when split four ways—certainly not enough to lift Waldemar out of the plain apartment he shares with his quiet, weary wife—but it’s enough for the old men to toast their good luck with a blowout at their favorite bar. The celebration ends, however, with Waldemar drunk, stumbling, belligerent, and eventually dead in his own bed, stabbed twenty-eight times in the chest with a carving knife.
Ěý
Taking charge of the case is Intendent Münster, Chief Inspector Van Veeteren’s longtime right-hand man, and his beguiling colleague Ewa Moreno. They seem to have a surefire lead with the disappearance of one of Waldemar’s friends on the same night as the murder, but after a cursory look into his whereabouts produces more questions than answers, the investigation suddenly seems to solve itself when Marie-Louise Leverkuhn, Waldemar’s wife, confesses to the crime and calmly resigns herself to her fate. The case is, but all accounts, closed. That is, until one of the Leverkuhns� neighbors in the same unassuming block of apartments goes missing and turns up—spectacularly, gruesomely—in pieces around the city.
Ěý
Thrown back into the fog and chasing after wisps of clues that tenuously but inextricably link the murders, Müenster and Moreno take center stage in Håkan Nesser’s haunting new addition to his acclaimed series.

]]> 321 HĂĄkan Nesser 0307907848 Suzanne 5 4.08 1998 MĂĽnster's Case: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery (6) (Inspector Van Veeteren Series)
author: HĂĄkan Nesser
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1998
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Executive Orders (Jack Ryan, #8; Jack Ryan Universe #9)]]> 6238021 Don't Miss the Original SeriesĚýTom Clancy's Jack RyanĚýStarring John Krasinski!The President is dead. Now, the weight of the world falls on Jack Ryan’s shoulders in this extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller from Tom Clancy.At the climax of Debt of Honor, the most devastating terrorist act in the history of the world left the President, the Joint Chiefs, the Supreme Court, and nearly all of Congress dead. Only Jack Ryan, confirmed Vice President mere minutes before, survived to take the reins of a shaken and leaderless country. Now he must rebuild a government, comfort a grieving nation, and become a true leader. Meanwhile, he is surrounded by enemies—both inside the White House and around the world—all of them plotting to destroy an untested President. And bring an already wounded country to its knees....]]> 1380 Tom Clancy 1101002352 Suzanne 0 currently-reading 4.48 1996 Executive Orders (Jack Ryan, #8; Jack Ryan Universe #9)
author: Tom Clancy
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/26
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]]> The Death of Vivek Oji 49110597 A dramatic and deeply moving novel of three generations coping with secrets, violence, and grief, against a backdrop of political and social unrest.

They burned down the market on the day Vivek Oji died.

One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover the lifeless body of her son wrapped in fabric on the welcome mat. The story of that child, Vivek Oji, is the story of two families from disparate cultures who came together in a time of upheaval, and of Vivek’s struggle to be true to a self whose spirit and longings defy conventional expectations. Raised by a privileged, distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suffers disorienting blackouts, fugue states that disrupt all connection between self and surroundings. As adolescence gives way to adulthood, Vivek finds solace in friendships with the warm, boisterous daughters of the Nigerwives, foreign-born women resettled in the area. But Vivek’s closest bond is with Osita, the worldly, high-spirited cousin whose teasing confidence masks a guarded private life. As their relationship deepens—and Osita struggles to understand his friend's escalating crisis—the mystery of Vivek’s behavior gives way to a heart-stopping act of violence in a moment of transcendent freedom.

Propulsively readable, teeming with vivid and unforgettable characters, The Death of Vivek Oji is a story of family and friendship that challenges expectations at every turn. It is a major step forward from a writer of rare insight into the porous barriers between body and identity, spirit, and self.]]> 256 Akwaeke Emezi 0525541616 Suzanne 4 4.16 2020 The Death of Vivek Oji
author: Akwaeke Emezi
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/26
date added: 2023/09/26
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]]> A Woman in Jerusalem: A Novel 19716915
At once profoundly serious and highly entertaining, A.B. Yehoshua astonishes us with his masterly, often unexpected turns in the story and with his ability to get under the skin and into the soul of Israel today.]]> 244 A.B. Yehoshua Suzanne 5 3.78 2004 A Woman in Jerusalem: A Novel
author: A.B. Yehoshua
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/21
date added: 2023/09/23
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]]> The Last Cuentista 58928779
But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children � among them Petra and her family � have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet � and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard � or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?]]> 336 Donna Barba Higuera 1646142187 Suzanne 5 4.26 2021 The Last Cuentista
author: Donna Barba Higuera
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/21
date added: 2023/09/21
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]]> A Passage to India 53534374 This award-winning novel about a conflict between a British woman and an Indian man amid the stirrings of rebellion against empire is “a revelationâ€� (The New York Times). ĚýOne of Time magazine’s 100 best English language novels published since 1923,one of the Modern Library’s 100 great works of twentieth-century English literature, and thewinner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize Ěý “By the time the great Edwardian novelist, in this last and best of his novels published in his lifetime, addressed himself to the British presence in India, his moral sense was more fully equipped than ever. Mindful of the imponderables of human conduct, alert to all the reciprocal misjudgments and the wearying false appraisals we make as a matter of course, he looked at empire and saw its weak foundations. Adela Quested is a British visitor to the Raj who is anxious to know â€the real India.â€� On a visit to the Malabar caves an assault of some kind does or does not happen to her, perhaps at the hands of Dr. Aziz, the solicitous Indian Muslim who has arranged the trip. Has she imagined things? Is he not what he seems? In his other great novel, Howards End, Forster directed us to â€only connect.â€� What he demonstrates here, in a story of the greatest and saddest subtleties—and comic subtleties, too—is how nearly impossible that is to do.â€� —Time]]> 365 E.M. Forster 1504061721 Suzanne 3 3.85 1924 A Passage to India
author: E.M. Forster
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1924
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/20
date added: 2023/09/20
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]]> What Philosophy Can Do 26132726
In What Philosophy Can Do, Gary Gutting takes a philosopher’s scalpel to modern life’s biggest questions and the most powerful forces in our society—politics, science, religion, education, and capitalism. Along the way, he introduces readers to powerful philosophical tools, from inductive and deductive logic to the Principle of Charity, which they can use to make better sense of current debates. Interweaving his discussion of contemporary issues with philosophical concepts from Aristotle to Michel Foucault and John Rawls, Gutting shows how philosophy can enrich public discussions about our most urgent issues.]]> 321 Gary Gutting 0393242285 Suzanne 0 currently-reading 3.60 2015 What Philosophy Can Do
author: Gary Gutting
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/12
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]]> The Taste of Sugar 53192170 los hambrientos, roam the parched countryside and dusty towns begging for food. Under the yoke of Spanish oppression, the Caribbean island is forced to prepare to wage war with the United States. Up in the mountainous coffee region of Utuado, Vicente Vega and Valentina Sanchez labor to keep their small farm from the creditors. When the Spanish-American War and the great San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899 bring devastating upheaval, the young couple is lured, along with thousands of other puertorriquenos, to the sugar plantations of Hawaii—another US territory—where they are confronted by the hollowness of America’s promises of prosperity. Writing in the tradition of great Latin American storytelling, Marisel Vera’s The Taste of Sugar is an unforgettable novel of love and endurance, and a timeless portrait of the reasons we leave home.
]]> 384 Marisel Vera 163149774X Suzanne 0 currently-reading 3.98 2020 The Taste of Sugar
author: Marisel Vera
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/12
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Evening: A Novel 54284812 Two sisters, lost youth, and youthful obsessions; organized by day as the family sits shiva, Evening unfolds the paradoxes of love, ambition, siblings, and the way the past continues to inflect the present, sometimes against our will.

In her thirties, Eve is summoned home by her distraught family to mourn the premature death of her sister, Tam, a return that becomes an unexpected encounter with the past. Eve bears the burden of a secret: Two weeks before Tam died, Eve and Tam argued so vehemently that they did not speak again. Her sister was famous, acclaimed for her career as a TV journalist and her devoted marriage. But Tam, too, had a secret, revealed the day after the funeral, one that inverts the story Eve has told herself since their childhood. In the aftermath, Eve is forced to revise her version of her fractured family, her sister’s accomplishments and vaunted marriage, and her own impeded ambition in work and love.

Day by day as the family sits shiva, the stories unfold, illuminating the past� to shape the present. Evening explores the dissonant love between sisters, the body in longing, the pride we take in sustaining our illusions, and the redemption that is possible only when they are dispelled.]]> 256 Nessa Rapoport 1640094091 Suzanne 0 currently-reading 3.76 2020 Evening: A Novel
author: Nessa Rapoport
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> Angel Falls 49976370 Ěý
Desperate to bring Mikaela back at any cost, Liam knows that he must turn to Julian for help. But will that choice cost Liam his wife, his family, and everything he holds dear? One of Kristin Hannah’s most moving novels, Angel Falls is a poignant and unforgettable portrait of marriage and commitment, of an ordinary man who dares to risk everything in the name of love.]]> 434 Kristin Hannah 0307756963 Suzanne 5 4.19 2000 Angel Falls
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/12
date added: 2023/09/12
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]]> Ordinary Grace 17560112 From New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger, a brilliant new novel about a young man, a small town, and murder in the summer of 1961.

“That was it. That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word.�

New Bremen, Minnesota, 1961. The Twins were playing their debut season, ice-cold root beers were selling out at the soda counter of Halderson’s Drugstore, and Hot Stuff comic books were a mainstay on every barbershop magazine rack. It was a time of innocence and hope for a country with a new, young president. But for thirteen-year-old Frank Drum it was a grim summer in which death visited frequently and assumed many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide. Murder.

Frank begins the season preoccupied with the concerns of any teenage boy, but when tragedy unexpectedly strikes his family� which includes his Methodist minister father; his passionate, artistic mother; Juilliard-bound older sister; and wise-beyond-his-years kid brother� he finds himself thrust into an adult world full of secrets, lies, adultery, and betrayal, suddenly called upon to demonstrate a maturity and gumption beyond his years.

Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.]]> 320 William Kent Krueger Suzanne 4 4.43 2013 Ordinary Grace
author: William Kent Krueger
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/10
date added: 2023/09/10
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]]> Euphoria 22032840 Inspired by the true story of a woman who changed the way we understand our world.

In 1933 three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes, her intelligent and aggressive husband Fen, and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange couple and becomes totally enthralled. Within months the trio are producing their best ever work, but soon a firestorm of fierce love and jealousy begins to burn out of control, threatening their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives...]]> 274 Lily King Suzanne 0 currently-reading 4.05 2014 Euphoria
author: Lily King
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/08
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Fortune 62066753
One drop of blood for a chance at a multimillion-dollar windfall. Is it a philanthropic gesture from a billionaire widow? Some suspect a darker motive behind the DNA lottery—one tied to the eighteen-year-old mystery of an infant’s unidentified remains that mars the history of idyllic Rosemary Hills, Iowa. Right after the blood lottery is announced, three local women fall under suspicion of knowing something about that night, and their carefully kept secrets threaten to spill out too.

Cleo is a divorced single mom forced to return to her hometown and accept a strange job reading to an invalid recluse; Jemma is a controversial state senator whose reelection campaign and teenage daughter have her on edge; and Alex, a divorce attorney, copes with a crumbling marriage of her own and the suffocating presence of a cold, overbearing mother.

Soon, unimaginable revelations of the past will collide with the present—and not just for Cleo, Jemma, and Alex. In this seemingly ordinary community, they aren’t the only ones with long-buried secrets.]]> 345 Ellen Won Steil 1662512112 Suzanne 4 3.70 2023 Fortune
author: Ellen Won Steil
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/08
date added: 2023/09/08
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]]> The King’s Cartographer 61052742
Lisbon, 1481 . On the backdrop of Catholicism's rise and the subsequent persecution of Europe's Jews, the Ben Avraham family have defied the odds and risen to fame as the King of Portugal’s most valued cartographers.

An avid explorer and passionate businessman himself, Isaac Ben Avraham dreams of the many discoveries still to be made across the vast expanses of the yet unknown world.

Motivated by his keen curiosity and the rising need to provide safety for his family, and supported by the King himself, Isaac carefully sets in motion the exploratory delegations that will ultimately lead to the greatest discoveries the world has ever seen.

The history of 15th century exploration comes to life in a riveting and exciting tale of maritime adventures and new-world discoveries to capture your heart and imagination.]]> 197 Jair Alcalay Suzanne 0 currently-reading 3.38 The King’s Cartographer
author: Jair Alcalay
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.38
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/07
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The Direction of the Wind 61120646 A heartfelt story that spans continents and generations, about a young woman who searches for answers about a mother she barely remembers.

Sophie Shah was six when she learned her mother, Nita, had died. For twenty-two years, she shouldered the burden of that loss. But when her father passes away, Sophie discovers a cache of hidden letters revealing a shattering her mother didn’t die. She left.

Nita Shah had everything most women dreamed of in her hometown of Ahmedabad, India—a loving husband, a doting daughter, financial security—but in her heart, she felt like she was living a lie. Fueled by her creative ambitions, Nita moved to Paris, the artists� capital of the world—even though it meant leaving her family behind. But once in Paris, Nita’s decision and its consequences would haunt her in ways she never expected.

Now that Sophie knows the truth, she’s determined to find the mother who abandoned her. Sophie jets off to Paris, even though the impulsive trip may risk her impending arranged marriage. In the City of Light, she chases lead after lead that help her piece together a startling portrait of her mother. Though Sophie goes to Paris to find Nita, she may just also discover parts of herself she never knew.]]> 318 Mansi Shah 1542035414 Suzanne 5 4.09 2023 The Direction of the Wind
author: Mansi Shah
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/04
date added: 2023/09/04
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]]> Morning in This Broken World 74898799 From the bestselling author of The Kindness of Strangers comes a poignant and life-affirming novel about our connections to the past, and the promise for the future during the least promising of times.

Grieving but feisty widow Vivian Laurent is at a late-in-life crossroads. The man she loved is gone. Their only daughter is estranged and missing. And the assisted-living facility where her husband died is going into quarantine. Living in lockdown with only heartache and memories is something Vivian can’t bear. Then comes a saving grace.

Luna, a compassionate nursing assistant and newly separated mother, is facing eviction. Vivian has a plan that could turn their lives around: return to her old home and invite Luna and her two children to move in with her. With the exuberant eleven-year-old Wren in her hot-pink motorized wheelchair and Wren’s troubled older brother, Cooper, the new housemates make for an unlikely pandemic pack, weathering the coming storm together.

Now it’s time to heal old wounds, make peace with the past, find hope and joy, and discover that the strongest bonds can get anyone through the worst of times.]]> 277 Katrina Kittle 1662510128 Suzanne 5 4.33 2023 Morning in This Broken World
author: Katrina Kittle
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/02
date added: 2023/09/02
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]]> Home Front 43313245 here.

The blockbuster bestselling author of Night Road and Firefly Lane delivers a masterful novel that explores the sacrifices of one American family and illuminates the true cost of honor, duty, and love.

From a distance, Michael and Joleen Zarkades seem to have it all: a solid marriage, two exciting careers, and children they adore.Ěý But after twelve years together, the couple has lost their way; they are unhappy and edging toward divorce.Ěý Then the Iraq war starts.Ěý An unexpected deployment will tear their already fragile family apart, sending one of them deep into harm’s way and leaving the other at home, waiting for news.ĚýĚý When the worst happens, each must face their darkest fear and fight for the future of their family.Ěý An intimate look at the inner landscape of a disintegrating marriage and a dramatic exploration of the price of war on a single American family, Kristin Hannah's HOME FRONT is a provocative and timely portrait of hope, honor, loss, forgiveness, and the elusive nature of love.]]> 397 Kristin Hannah Suzanne 5 4.56 2012 Home Front
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2023/09/01
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]]> Skyward 40984076 Be moved by this emotional story from New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe, author of The Beach House series.

E.R. nurse Ella Majors has seen all the misery that she can handle. Burned-out and unsure of her next step, she accepts the temporary position as caregiver to Marion Henderson, a frightened five-year-old who suffers from juvenile diabetes.

But Ella soon realizes there is more sorrow in the isolated home than the little girl’s illness can account for. Harris Henderson, a single father, seems better able to deal with the wild birds he rehabilitates in his birds-of-prey sanctuary than with his own daughter.

Then something magical begins to the timeless beauty of the South Carolina coast and the majestic grace of the wild birds weave a healing spell on the injured hearts at the sanctuary. But a troubled mother’s unexpected return will test the fragile bonds of trust and new love, and reveal the inherent risks and exhilarating beauty of flying free.

Originally published in 2003]]> 441 Mary Alice Monroe 1488039321 Suzanne 5 4.44 2003 Skyward
author: Mary Alice Monroe
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2023/09/01
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]]> Killing Commendatore 58450060
When a thirty-something portrait painter is abandoned by his wife, he secludes himself in the mountain home of a world famous artist. One day, the young painter hears a noise from the attic, and upon investigation, he discovers a previously unseen painting. By unearthing this hidden work of art, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances; and to close it, he must undertake a perilous journey into a netherworld that only Haruki Murakami could conjure.]]> 736 Haruki Murakami Suzanne 5 4.30 2017 Killing Commendatore
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2023/09/01
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]]> On Java Road 56690360 256 Lawrence Osborne 0593242335 Suzanne 4 3.98 2022 On Java Road
author: Lawrence Osborne
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/01
date added: 2023/09/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening]]> 61354671 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

â€�The Best Strangers in the World is a witty, poignant book that captures Ari Shapiro’s love for the unusual, his pursuit of the unexpected, and his delight at connection against the odds.”—Ronan Farrow,ĚýPulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and New York Times-bestselling author of Catch and Kill and War on Peace

From the beloved host of NPR's All Things Considered, a stirring memoir-in-essays that is also a lover letter to journalism.

In his first book, broadcaster Ari Shapiro takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad.

As the self-reinforcing bubbles we live in become more impenetrable, Ari Shapiro keeps seeking ways to help people listen to one another; to find connection and commonality with those who may seem different; to remind us that, before religion, or nationality, or politics, we are all human. The Best Strangers in the World is a testament to one journalist’s passion for Considering All Things—and sharing what he finds with the rest of us.]]> 254 Ari Shapiro 0063221365 Suzanne 5 4.27 2023 The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening
author: Ari Shapiro
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/15
date added: 2023/08/15
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]]> What Never Happened 59362274
But as Coco learns more about these deaths, she quickly realizes that the circumstances surrounding them are remarkably similar…and not natural. Then Coco receives a sinister threat in the mail: her own obituary.

As Coco begins to draw connections between a serial killer’s crimes and her own family tragedy, she fears that the secrets on Catalina Island might be too deep to survive. Because whoever is watching her is hell-bent on finally putting her past to rest.]]> 423 Rachel Howzell Hall 1662504144 Suzanne 0 currently-reading 3.63 2023 What Never Happened
author: Rachel Howzell Hall
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/12
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Pyre 60577737 176 Perumal Murugan 0802159346 Suzanne 2 3.57 2013 Pyre
author: Perumal Murugan
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2023/08/12
date added: 2023/08/12
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]]> Broadway Butterfly 64651182 432 Sara DiVello 1662510144 Suzanne 5 3.97 2023 Broadway Butterfly
author: Sara DiVello
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/11
date added: 2023/08/11
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]]> Memorial 51295290 A funny, sexy, profound dramedy about two young people at a crossroads in their relationship and the limits of love.

Benson and Mike are two young guys who live together in Houston. Mike is a Japanese American chef at a Mexican restaurant and Benson's a Black day care teacher, and they've been together for a few years -- good years -- but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. There's the sex, sure, and the meals Mike cooks for Benson, and, well, they love each other.

But when Mike finds out his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike's immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it.

Both men will change in ways that will either make them stronger together, or fracture everything they've ever known. And just maybe they'll all be okay in the end. Memorial is a funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms, joyful and hard-won vulnerability, becoming who you're supposed to be, and the limits of love.]]> 320 Bryan Washington 0593087291 Suzanne 5 3.65 2020 Memorial
author: Bryan Washington
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/09
date added: 2023/08/09
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]]> The Covenant of Water 63429926 From the New York Times–bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial new epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala and following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret.

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of Cutting for Stone. Published in 2009, Cutting for Stone became a literary phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies in the United States alone and remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years.

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. The family is part of a Christian community that traces itself to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi—literally “Big Mother”—will witness unthinkable changes at home and at large over the span of her extraordinary life. All of Verghese’s great gifts are on display in this new there are astonishing scenes of medical ingenuity, fantastic moments of humor, a surprising and deeply moving story, and characters imbued with the essence of life.

A shimmering evocation of a lost India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. It is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 802 Abraham Verghese Suzanne 5 4.58 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/06
date added: 2023/08/06
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]]> Two If By Sea 26836378
Just hours after his wife and her entire family perish in the Christmas Eve tsunami in Brisbane, American expat and former police officer Frank Mercy goes out to join his volunteer rescue unit and pulls a little boy from a submerged car, saving the child’s life with only seconds to spare. In that moment, Frank’s own life is transformed. Not quite knowing why, Frank sidesteps the law, when, instead of turning Ian over to the Red Cross, he takes the boy home to the Midwestern farm where he grew up. Not long into their journey, Frank begins to believe that Ian has an extraordinary, impossible telepathic gift; but his only wish is to protect the deeply frightened child. As Frank struggles to start over, training horses as his father and grandfather did before him, he meets Claudia, a champion equestrian and someone with whom he can share his life—and his fears for Ian. Both of them know that it will be impossible to keep Ian’s gift a secret forever. Already, ominous coincidences have put Frank’s police instincts on high alert, as strangers trespass the quiet life at the family farm.

The fight to keep Ian safe from a sinister group who want him back takes readers from the ravaged shores of Brisbane to the middle of America to a quaint English village. Even as Frank and Claudia dare to hope for new love, it becomes clear that they can never let Ian go, no matter what the cost. A suspenseful novel on a grand scale, Two If by Sea is about the best and worst in people, and the possibility of heroism and even magic in ordinary life.]]> 448 Jacquelyn Mitchard Suzanne 5 3.91 2016 Two If By Sea
author: Jacquelyn Mitchard
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/30
date added: 2023/07/30
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]]> Goat Mountain 18938751 In David Vann’s searing novel Goat Mountain, an 11-year-old boy at his family’s annual deer hunt is eager to make his first kill. His father discovers a poacher on the land, a 640-acre ranch in Northern California, and shows him to the boy through the scope of his rifle. With this simple gesture, tragedy erupts, shattering lives irrevocably.
Ěý
In prose devastating and beautiful in its precision, David Vann creates a haunting and provocative novel that explores our most primal urges and beliefs, the bonds of blood and religion that define and secure us, and the consequences of our actions—what we owe for what we’ve done.
Ěý
David Vann is the award-winning author of Legend of a Suicide, Caribou Island, A Mile Down, and Last Day on Earth.

]]> 261 David Vann 0062121111 Suzanne 4 3.21 2013 Goat Mountain
author: David Vann
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/20
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Small Animals Caught in Traps: A Novel]]> 74831168
By high school, Gray has become his apprentice guide, his sparring partner, and his pride and joy. Life in their small town is nothing short of challenging--there's a marauding bear roaming the streets, a rival guide trying to kill Lewis, and a poacher littering deer carcasses along the river--but he is closer to happiness than he ever thought possible. When tragedy strikes, Lewis can't break free of his past, leaving Gray to fight to save the only thing she has left: her family.]]> 342 C.B. Bernard Suzanne 4 4.48 Small Animals Caught in Traps: A Novel
author: C.B. Bernard
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.48
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/27
date added: 2023/07/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance]]> 61281793 The extraordinary story of how the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton's legendary lost ship, was found in the most hostile sea on Earth, told by the expedition's Director of Exploration.

On November 21, 1914, after sailing more than ten thousand miles from Norway to the Antarctic Ocean, the Endurance finally succumbed to the surrounding ice. Ernest Shackleton and his crew had navigated the 144-foot, three-masted wooden vessel to Antarctica to become the first to cross the barren continent, but early season pack ice trapped them in place offshore. They watched in silence as the ship's stern rose twenty feet in the air and disappeared into the frigid sea, then spent six harrowing months marooned on the ice in its wake. Seal meat was their only sustenance as Shackleton's expedition to push the limits of human strength took a new form: one of survival against the odds.

As this legendary story entered the annals of polar exploration, it inspired a new global race to find the wrecked Endurance, by all accounts "the world's most unreachable shipwreck." Several missions failed, thwarted, as Shackleton was, by the unpredictable Weddell Sea. Finally, a century to the day after Shackleton's death, renowned marine archeologist Mensun Bound and an elite team of explorers discovered the lost shipwreck. Nearly ten thousand feet below the ice lay a remarkably preserved Endurance, its name still emblazoned on the ship's stern.

The Ship Beneath the Ice chronicles two dramatic expeditions to what Shackleton called "the most hostile sea on Earth." Bound experienced failure and despair in his attempts to locate the wreck, and, like Shackleton before him, very nearly found his vessel frozen in ice.

Complete with captivating photos from the 1914 expedition and of the wreck as Bound and his team found it, this inspiring modern-day adventure narrative captures the intrepid spirit that joins two mariners across the centuries--both of whom accomplished the impossible.]]> 409 Mensun Bound 0063297426 Suzanne 5 4.10 2022 The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance
author: Mensun Bound
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/24
date added: 2023/07/24
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]]> Local Souls 17837422 Widow. This first work in a decade offers three novellas mirroring today’s face-lifted South, a zone revolutionized around freer sexuality, looser family ties, and superior telecommunications, yet it celebrates those locals who have chosen to stay local. In doing so, Local Souls uncovers certain old habits—adultery, incest, obsession—still very much alive in our New South, a "Winesburg, Ohio" with high-speed Internet.
Wells Tower says of Gurganus, "No living writer knows more about how humans matter to each other." Such ties of love produce hilarious, if wrenching, "Fear Not" gives us a banker's daughter seeking the child she was forced to surrender when barely fifteen, only to find an adult rescuer she might have invented. In "Saints Have Mothers," a beloved high school valedictorian disappears during a trip to Africa, granting her ambitious mother a postponed fame that turns against her. And in a dramatic "Decoy," the doctor-patient friendship between two married men breaks toward desire just as a biblical flood shatters their neighborhood and rearranges their fates.


Gurganus finds fresh pathos in ancient between marriage and Eros, parenthood and personal fulfillment. He writes about erotic hunger and social embarrassment with Twain's knife-edged glee. By loving Falls, Gurganus dramatizes the passing of Hawthorne’s small-town nation into those Twitter-nourished lives we now expect and relish.


Four decades ago, John Cheever pronounced Allan Gurganus "the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation." Local Souls confirms Cheever’s prescient faith. It deepens the luster of Gurganus’s reputation for compassion and laughter. His black comedy leaves us with lasting affection for his characters and the aching aftermath of human consequences. Here is a universal work about a village.]]> 352 Allan Gurganus 0871407272 Suzanne 3 3.73 2013 Local Souls
author: Allan Gurganus
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/15
date added: 2023/07/15
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]]> Justice 12485468 The author of Montana 1948 explores the early years of a powerful Western family in these "beautifully written" linked stories (USA Today).

Larry Watson's bestselling novel Montana 1948 was acclaimed as a "work of art," a prize-winning evocation of a time, a place, and a family (San Francisco Chronicle). Justice is the stunning prequel that illuminates the Hayden clan's early years, and the circumstances that led to the events of Montana 1948. With the precision of a master storyteller, Watson moves seamlessly through the decades and among the strong and hard-bitten characters that make up the Hayden family, and in the process opens an evocative window on the very heart of the American West.

"An engrossing story of love, familial relationships, and secrets . . . re-creates the vivid beauty of Big Sky country." --Booklist

"Filled with rugged prose sometimes as biting as a northern plains wind." --The Washington Post

"Surprises and scenes of dramatic power punctuate the narrative . . . Throughout, Watson writes with ruthless honesty about his characters' stunted dreams, unpredictable emotions and outbursts of senseless violence, showing once again that he understands not only the West but the untamed hearts that have roamed it." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)]]> 242 Larry Watson 157131847X Suzanne 3 3.93 1994 Justice
author: Larry Watson
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/06
date added: 2023/07/06
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]]> Skylight Confessions 6389335
Cool, practical, and deliberate, John is dreamy Arlyn's polar opposite. Yet the two are drawn powerfully together even when it is clear they are bound to bring each other grief. Their difficult marriage leads them and their children to a house made of glass in the ConnecticutĚýcountryside, to the avenues ofĚý Manhattan , and to the blue waters of Long Island Sound. Glass breaks, love hurts, and families make their own rules. Ultimately, it falls to their grandson, Will, to solve the emotional puzzle of his family and of his own identity.]]> 150 Alice Hoffman Suzanne 3 4.22 2007 Skylight Confessions
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/04
date added: 2023/07/04
shelves:
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]]> Lucy by the Sea (Amgash, #4) 60673295
Rich with empathy and emotion, Lucy by the Sea vividly captures the fear and struggles that come with isolation, as well as the hope, peace, and possibilities that those long, quiet days can inspire. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we're apart--the pain of a beloved daughter's suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.]]> 291 Elizabeth Strout 0593446070 Suzanne 4 4.15 2022 Lucy by the Sea (Amgash, #4)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/02
date added: 2023/07/02
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]]> The Heart's Invisible Furies 56936050 From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Boy In the Striped Pajamas, a sweeping, heartfelt saga about the course of one man's life, beginning and ending in post-war Ireland

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery -- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from - and over his many years, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more.

In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.]]> 582 John Boyne Suzanne 4 4.50 2017 The Heart's Invisible Furies
author: John Boyne
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/01
date added: 2023/07/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Girl Who Lived Twice (Millennium, #6)]]> 59119478
Mikael Blomkvist is trying to reach Lisbeth. He needs her help unraveling the identity of a man who lived and died on the streets in Stockholm--a man who does not exist in any official records and whose garbled last words hinted at possible damaging knowledge of people in the highest echelons of government and industry. In his pocket was a crumpled piece of paper with Blomkvist's phone number on it.

Once again, Salander and Blomkvist will come to each other's aid, moving in tandem toward the truths they each seek. In the end, it will be Blomkvist--in a moment of unimaginable self-sacrifice--who will make it possible for Lisbeth to face the most important battle of her life, and, finally, to put her past to rest.]]> 450 David Lagercrantz Suzanne 5 4.15 2019 The Girl Who Lived Twice (Millennium, #6)
author: David Lagercrantz
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/21
date added: 2023/06/21
shelves:
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]]> Be Frank With Me 33013893
When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away—as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noël Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth graders.

As she gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who his father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model� Xander fits into the Banning family equation—and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.

Full of heart and countless only-in-Hollywood moments, Be Frank With Me is a captivating and heartwarming story of an unusual mother and son, and the intrepid young woman who finds herself irresistibly pulled into their unforgettable world.]]> 309 Julia Claiborne Johnson Suzanne 4 4.14 2016 Be Frank With Me
author: Julia Claiborne Johnson
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/21
date added: 2023/06/21
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]]> Violeta 58202768 The epic story of Violeta del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century.

Violeta comes into the world on a stormy day in 1920, the first girl in a family of five boisterous sons. From the start, her life will be marked by extraordinary events, for the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, even as the Spanish flu arrives on the shores of her South American homeland almost at the moment of her birth.

Through her father's prescience, the family will come through that crisis unscathed, only to face a new one as the Great Depression transforms the genteel city life she has known. Her family loses all and is forced to retreat to a wild and beautiful but remote part of the country. There, she will come of age, and her first suitor will come calling. . . .

She tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others, recounting devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy. Her life will be shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics.

Told through the eyes of a woman whose unforgettable passion, determination, and sense of humor will carry her through a lifetime of upheaval, Isabel Allende once more brings us an epic that is both fiercely inspiring and deeply emotional.]]> 338 Isabel Allende 0593496213 Suzanne 5 4.22 2022 Violeta
author: Isabel Allende
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/25
date added: 2023/06/18
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]]> Pachinko 53331127 "There could only be a few winners, and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones."

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.]]> 496 Min Jin Lee Suzanne 5 4.43 2017 Pachinko
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/17
date added: 2023/06/17
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]]> Bloomsbury Girls 58818507
Bloomsbury Books is an old-fashioned new and rare book store that has persisted and resisted change for a hundred years, run by men and guided by the general manager's unbreakable fifty-one rules. But in 1950, the world is changing, especially the world of books and publishing, and at Bloomsbury Books, the girls in the shop have plans:

Vivien Lowry: Single since her aristocratic fiance was killed in action during World War II, the brilliant and stylish Vivien has a long list of grievances - most of them well justified and the biggest of which is Alec McDonough, the Head of Fiction.

Grace Perkins: Married with two sons, she's been working to support the family following her husband's breakdown in the aftermath of the war. Torn between duty to her family and dreams of her own.

Evie Stone: In the first class of female students from Cambridge permitted to earn a degree, Evie was denied an academic position in favor of her less accomplished male rival. Now she's working at Bloomsbury Books while she plans to remake her own future.

As they interact with various literary figures of the time - Daphne Du Maurier, Ellen Doubleday, Sonia Blair (widow of George Orwell), Samuel Beckett, Peggy Guggenheim, and others - these three women with their complex web of relationships, goals and dreams are all working to plot out a future that is richer and more rewarding than anything society will allow.]]> 304 Natalie Jenner 1250276705 Suzanne 5 4.20 2022 Bloomsbury Girls
author: Natalie Jenner
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/17
date added: 2023/06/17
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]]> The Thread Collectors 59644632
“A brilliant story brimming with unexpected friendships and family ties. Historically sound and beautifully stitched,Ěý The Thread Collectors will stay with you long after the last page is turned.â€� —Sadeqa Johnson, international bestselling author of Yellow Wife Ěý

1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician.

Meanwhile, in New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. Between abolitionist meetings, Lily rolls bandages and crafts quilts with her sewing circle for other soldiers, too, hoping for their safe return home. But when months go by without word from her husband, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him.

As these two women risk everything for love and freedom during the Ěý brutal Civil War, their paths converge in New Orleans, where an unexpected encounter leads them to discover that even the most delicate threads have the capacity to save us. Loosely inspired by the authors' family histories,Ěýthis stunning novel will stay with readers for a long time.]]> 336 Shaunna J. Edwards Suzanne 5 4.36 2022 The Thread Collectors
author: Shaunna J. Edwards
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/17
date added: 2023/06/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Murder at Waldenmere Lake (The Iris Woodmore Mysteries Book 2)]]> 75377066 A murder shocks the small town of Walden. And it’s only the beginning�

Walden, 1921. Local reporter Iris Woodmore is determined to save her beloved lake, Waldenmere, from destruction.

After a bloody and expensive war, the British Army can no longer afford to keep the lake � and a deadly battle for ownership begins.

Sir Henry Ballard of London and South Western Railway has the deepest pockets and plans to build a lakeside hotel where General Cheverton’s historic mansion stands.

When the popular General is found murdered in his home, the town of Walden is in turmoil. Little do the townsfolk know that far worse is to come.

A desperate Iris tries to take on the might of the railway company and find the killer. But it appears someone will stop at nothing to win the fight for Waldenmere�

An addictive cosy murder mystery with everyone's favourite amateur sleuth. Ideal for fans of Jacqueline Winspear, Claire Gradidge, Verity Bright, Emily Organ and Helena Dixon.

Readers are enjoying Murder at Waldenmere Lake

â€A cracking addition to the series â€� superbly writtenâ€� lots of drama, intrigue, twists and turnsâ€� Gingerbookgeek

�WOW!! Another fantastic addition to my favorite historical series by Michelle Salter� So many unexpected developments, twists, shocking revelations, my god!!� thebookdecoder

â€Ňµ have fallen head over heels for this seriesâ€� Booksbybindu

â€A terrific historical cozy mystery that will keep readers gripped …With plenty of tension, intrigue and suspense, Murder at Waldenmere Lake is an addictive historical cozy mystery â€� perfect for Anne Perry and Verity Bright fansâ€� bookishjottings

â€A real page turner and couldn't put it down. So much so that I stayed up until the early hours to find out what happened! Reader Review

�What a great book! I loved the characters and the ever deepening plot� Reader Review

â€A˛Ô incredibly well-written historical mystery â€� interspersed with fascinating tit-bits of information both about the suffragettes and their sister organisation, the suffrage societiesâ€� Reader Review

â€Starts well and then gets better! â€� Reader Review

â€Ňµ recommend this book to anyone who loves a twisty plot line that keeps you guessingâ€� Reader Review

â€As soon as I started reading, I knew that I was reading something special â€� Iris Woodmore â€� is such a fun, feisty and determined young ladyâ€� Reader Review

â€Excellent read â€� Brilliant storyline' Reader Review

â€The writer's attention to detail and historical fact was very good â€� The characters are well drawn and believableâ€� Reader Review

â€The characters are brilliantly written and swept me alongâ€� Reader Review

Praise for the Iris Woodmore Mysteries:

'The mystery itself is intriguing, with plenty of twists and unexpected developments. If you enjoy 1920s mysteries and learning about the suffragettes and all they stood for, then I highly recommend Death at Crookham Hall.' Verity Bright, author of The Lady Eleanor Swift Mysteries

'A fabulous, well-written, mystery that holds all the promise of much more to come... The Iris Woodmore mysteries are fast becoming some of my favourites.' M J Porter, author of King of Kings

'A joy to read! Such a well-researched mystery. I absolutely loved the unconventional heroine, 1920s setting, engaging characterisation and poignant ending, all of which provide a captivating start to the Iris Woodmore cosy mystery series.' Anita Davison, author of the Flora Maguire Mysteries

â€Death at Crookham Hall is a lovely, murder mystery by a gifted writer.â€� Helena Dixon, author of The Miss Underhay Mysteries]]> 322 Michelle Salter 1837510512 Suzanne 4 4.26 2023 Murder at Waldenmere Lake (The Iris Woodmore Mysteries Book 2)
author: Michelle Salter
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/30
date added: 2023/05/30
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]]> <![CDATA[100 Cats Who Changed Civilization: History's Most Influential Felines]]> 20410776 The ultimate gift for cat lovers everywhereâ€�100 illustrated and unbelievably true tales of the remarkable felines who made their mark on science, history, art, government, and religion. Ěý If you don’t believe that one cat has the power to alter civilization, then you’ve obviously never heard of Tibbles, the cat who single-handedly wiped out an entire species. Or Ahmedabad, a Siamese kitten who sparked riots throughout Pakistan. Or Snowball, the cat who helped to convict dozens of murderers and criminals. Or Felix, the first cat to explore outer space. Ěý These are just 4 of the 100 Cats Who Changed Civilization, and this book honors their extra-ordinary contributions to science, history, art, government, religion, and more. Here, you’ll also meet cats whoâ€� Ěý â€� filed a lawsuit •Ěýwere slapped with a restraining order •Ěýinspired great works of literature and classical music •Ěýtelephoned the police to save the life of their owner Ěý These beautifully illustrated true stories are a tribute to the intelligence, bravery, and loving nature of cats all over the world.]]> 182 Sam Stall 1594745889 Suzanne 5 4.18 2007 100 Cats Who Changed Civilization: History's Most Influential Felines
author: Sam Stall
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/26
date added: 2023/05/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks]]> 60305888 I, Maggie Banks, solemnly swear to uphold the rules of Cobblestone Books.

If only, I, Maggie Banks, believed in following the rules.

When Maggie Banks arrives in Bell River to run her best friend's struggling bookstore, she expects to sell bestsellers to her small-town clientele. But running a bookstore in a town with a famously bookish history isn't easy. Bell River's literary society insists on keeping the bookstore stuck in the past, and Maggie is banned from selling anything written this century. So, when a series of mishaps suddenly tip the bookstore toward ruin, Maggie will have to get creative to keep the shop afloat.

And in Maggie's world, book rules are made to be broken.

To help save the store, Maggie starts an underground book club, running a series of events celebrating the books readers actually love. But keeping the club quiet, selling forbidden books, and dodging the literary society is nearly impossible. Especially when Maggie unearths a town secret that could upend everything.

Maggie will have to decide what's more important: the books that formed a small town's history, or the stories poised to change it all.]]> 336 Shauna Robinson Suzanne 3 3.74 2022 The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
author: Shauna Robinson
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/25
date added: 2023/05/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket]]> 53930282 In the tradition of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma, an extraordinary investigation into the human lives at the heart of the American grocery store Ěý What does it take to run the American supermarket? How do products get to shelves? Who sets the price? And who suffers the consequences of increased convenience end efficiency? In this alarming exposĂ©, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on this highly secretive industry. Combining deep sourcing, immersive reporting, and compulsively readable prose, Lorr leads a wild investigation in which we •ĚýThe secrets of Trader Joe’s success from Trader Joe himself •ĚýWhy truckers call their job “sharecropping on wheelsâ€� •ĚýWhat it takes for a product to earn certification labels like “organicâ€� and “fair tradeâ€� •ĚýThe struggles entrepreneurs face as they fight for shelf space, including essential tips, tricks, and traps for any new food business •ĚýThe truth behind the alarming slave trade in the shrimp industry The result is a page-turning portrait of an industry in flux, filled with the passion, ingenuity, and exploitation required to make this everyday miracle continue to function. The product of five years of research and hundreds of interviews across every level of the industry, The Secret Life of Groceries delivers powerful social commentary on the inherently American quest for more and the social costs therein.]]> 336 Benjamin Lorr 0553459406 Suzanne 4 4.03 2020 The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket
author: Benjamin Lorr
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/23
date added: 2023/05/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 45416596 From the New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & the Six—an entrancing and “wildly addictive journey of a reclusive Hollywood starlet� (PopSugar) as she reflects on her relentless rise to the top and the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

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 near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

“Heartbreaking, yet beautiful� (Jamie Blynn, Us Weekly), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is “Tinseltown drama at its finest� (Redbook): a mesmerizing journey through the splendor of old Hollywood into the harsh realities of the present day as two women struggle with what it means—and what it costs—to face the truth.]]> 434 Taylor Jenkins Reid Suzanne 5 4.46 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/21
date added: 2023/05/21
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]]> Breasts and Eggs 53501914
Breasts and Eggs paints a portrait of contemporary womanhood in Japan and recounts the intimate journeys of three women as they confront oppressive mores and their own uncertainties on the road to finding peace and futures they can truly call their own.

It tells the story of three women: the thirty-year-old Natsu, her older sister, Makiko, and Makiko’s daughter, Midoriko. Makiko has traveled to Tokyo in search of an affordable breast enhancement procedure. She is accompanied by Midoriko, who has recently grown silent, finding herself unable to voice the vague yet overwhelming pressures associated with growing up. Her silence proves a catalyst for each woman to confront her fears and frustrations.

On another hot summer’s day ten years later, Natsu, on a journey back to her native city, struggles with her own indeterminate identity as she confronts anxieties about growing old alone and childless.]]> 366 Mieko Kawakami Suzanne 5 3.84 2008 Breasts and Eggs
author: Mieko Kawakami
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/20
date added: 2023/05/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Death at Crookham Hall (Iris Woodmore Mysteries #1)]]> 64665874 The start of a gripping 1920s cosy crime murder mystery series from author Michelle Salter

A fatal jump. A missing suffragette. An inexplicable murder.

London, 1920.Reporter Iris Woodmore lands a headline story when, for the first time, two women compete against each other in an election to become Britain’s next female MP.

But she’s forced to confront her past as the House of Commons is where her mother, Violet, died during a suffragette attack on Parliament in 1914.

Iris believed her mother died accidentally after falling into the River Thames � until a waterman tells her he witnessed what really happened. Violet Woodmore didn’t fall � she jumped.

Iris searches for the suffragette who was with her mother on that fateful day � only to find she disappeared from Crookham Hall six years earlier.

Desperate to know the truth behind that fatal jump, Iris discovers the ancestral home is hiding secrets and lies that inevitably lead to murder…]]> 319 Michelle Salter 1837510342 Suzanne 5 4.05 2021 Death at Crookham Hall (Iris Woodmore Mysteries #1)
author: Michelle Salter
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/15
date added: 2023/05/15
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]]> <![CDATA[One Day with You (One Day with You #1)]]> 62921771 It started like any other day in the picturesque village of Weirbridge.

Tress Walker waved her perfect husband Max off to work, with no idea that she was about to go into labour with their first child. And completely unaware that when she tried to track Max down, he wouldn’t be where he was supposed to be.

At the same time, Max’s best friend Noah Clark said goodbye to his wife, Mya, blissfully oblivious that he would soon discover the woman he adored had been lying to him for years.

And living alongside the two couples, their recently widowed friend, Nancy Jenkins, is getting ready to meet Eddie, her first true love at a school reunion. Will Nancy have the chance to rekindle an old flame, or will she choose to stay by Tress’s side when she needs her most?

One Day with You - two fateful goodbyes, two unexpected hellos, and 24 hours that change everything.]]> 310 Shari Low 1804268615 Suzanne 5 4.25 2023 One Day with You (One Day with You #1)
author: Shari Low
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/12
date added: 2023/05/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace]]> 11082386 In this “extraordinary family memoir,â€�* the National Book Award–winning author of The Future Is History reveals the story of her two grandmothers, who defied Fascism and Communism during a time when tyranny reigned. Ěý *The New York Times Book ReviewIn the 1930s, as waves of war and persecution were crashing over Europe, two young Jewish women began separate journeys of survival. Ester Goldberg was a rebel from Bialystok, Poland, where virtually the entire Jewish community would be sent to Hitler’s concentration camps. Ruzya Solodovnik was a Russian-born intellectual who would become a high-level censor under Stalin’s regime. At war’s end, both women found themselves in Moscow. Over the years each woman had to find her way in a country that aimed to make every citizen a cog in the wheel of murder and repression. One became a hero in her children’s and grandchildren’s eyes; the other became a collaborator. With grace, candor, and meticulous research, Masha Gessen, one of the most trenchant observers of Russia and its history today, peels back the layers of time to reveal her grandmothersâ€� lives—and to show that neither story is quite what it seems.Praise for Masha Gessen Ěý “One of the most important activists and journalists Russia has known in a generation.â€�—David Remnick, The New Yorker Ěý “Masha Gessen is humbly erudite, deftly unconventional, and courageously honest.â€�—Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny]]> 386 Masha Gessen Suzanne 4 4.25 2004 Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace
author: Masha Gessen
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/11
date added: 2023/05/11
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]]> The Painted Veil 56550997 A novel of love and betrayal set during a cholera epidemic from the acclaimed British author of Of Human Bondage, “a great artist, a geniusâ€� (Theodore Dreiser). Ěý “[Theodore Dreiser] is the modern writer who has influenced me the most.â€� —George Orwell Ěý Arriving in Hong Kong in the 1920s, newlywed Kitty Fane soon learns that being the wife of a British government bacteriologist gives her no particular social status. It only adds to her dissatisfaction with her life and her husband, Walter. Her marriage has been nothing but a mistake. But she soon embarks on an affair that transforms her very being. There is passion. There is hope. There is a future full of possibility. Ěý When Walter must go deep into mainland China to help treat the victims of a cholera epidemic, Kitty refuses to accompany him. To force her hand, Walter threatens to expose her affair. But Kitty, sure in her lover’s whispered promises, pushes for a divorce. Her impulsive decision will throw a stark light on the truth and her own desperate illusions, thrusting Kitty into unfamiliar territory—both in the world around her and the soul withinĚý.Ěý.Ěý. Ěý The inspiration for the film starring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton, “The Painted Veil with its sadness, its moral tension, its irony and compassion, its building evocations of lust and terror and remorse is a work of artâ€� (The Spectator). Ěý “Reveals many of Maugham’s an understanding of women, meticulous craftsmanship and raw emotion.â€� —Daily Mail Ěý “This short masterpiece tells of love, treachery, and a search for real substance in life.â€� —DigBooks]]> 168 W. Somerset Maugham 1504065409 Suzanne 5 4.22 1925 The Painted Veil
author: W. Somerset Maugham
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/06
date added: 2023/05/06
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]]> April in Spain (Quirke, #8) 56758340 *NATIONAL BESTSELLER*

Booker Prize winner John Banville returns with a dark and evocative new mystery set on the Spanish coast

Don't disturb the dead�

On the idyllic coast of San Sebastian, Spain, Dublin pathologist Quirke is struggling to relax, despite the beaches, cafés and the company of his disarmingly lovely wife. When he glimpses a familiar face in the twilight at Las Acadas bar, it's hard at first to tell whether his imagination is just running away with him.

Because this young woman can't be April Latimer. She was murdered by her brother, years ago—the conclusion to an unspeakable scandal that shook one of Ireland's foremost political dynasties.

Unable to ignore his instincts, Quirke makes a call back home to Ireland and soon Detective St. John Strafford is dispatched to Spain. But he's not the only one en route. A relentless hit man is on the hunt for his latest prey, and the next victim might be Quirke himself.

Sumptous, propulsive and utterly transporting, April in SpainĚýis the work of a master writer at the top of his game.

Don't miss John Banville's next novel, The Lock-up!

Other riveting mysteries from John Ěý
Snow

]]> 304 John Banville 0369705823 Suzanne 4 3.87 2021 April in Spain (Quirke, #8)
author: John Banville
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/03
date added: 2023/05/03
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]]> A Single Thread 43943459
Violet finds support and community in the group, fulfillment in the work they create, and even a growing friendship with the vivacious Gilda. But when forces threaten her new independence and another war appears on the horizon, Violet must fight to put down roots in a place where women aren't expected to grow. Told in Chevalier's glorious prose, A Single Thread is a timeless story of friendship, love, and a woman crafting her own life.]]> 336 Tracy Chevalier Suzanne 0 3.72 2019 A Single Thread
author: Tracy Chevalier
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2023/04/30
date added: 2023/04/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Miracle on Monhegan Island]]> 30151098

During Spark's absence, his young son Hally has been cared for by what remains of the Monahan Spark's gentle brother Hugh and their shrewd, fork-tongued father Pastor Ragnar. Pastor Ragnar has led them with an iron will and a unique religious ideology, while Hugh has been busy mending the scars of a tumultuous family history. Spark's reentry into the family is rocky; even as adolescent Hally warms to his father's flair for mischief, he struggles to define himself against this new paternal figure. Testing the limits with one dangerous prank after another, Hally suddenly stuns the entire island when he claims to have had a spiritual vision.


Though Spark remains permanently dubious about the alleged apparition, Pastor Ragnar pounces on the chance to revive his flagging church. Hally is shoved into the spotlight and, in the frenzy that follows, each man in the family fights for independence, understanding, and ultimately forgiveness against the tide of a phenomenon reaching far beyond the slippery slopes of their remote island home. Their unforgettable saga is narrated by the character best suited to sniff out the family's uneasy Spark’s charismatic, fiercely loyal dog, Ned. Never at a loss for a quip on the stormy affairs of the Monahan family, Ned tells their larger-than-life story with humor and love from his uniquely privileged perspective.


An uproarious tale of an eccentric family of fathers and sons, The Miracle of Monhegan Island is another delightful summer blockbuster from Elizabeth Kelly.]]> 331 Elizabeth Kelly 1631491806 Suzanne 5 3.83 2016 The Miracle on Monhegan Island
author: Elizabeth Kelly
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/25
date added: 2023/04/25
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]]> Rebecca 57568483 Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.]]> 449 Daphne du Maurier Suzanne 5 4.23 1938 Rebecca
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1938
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/19
date added: 2023/04/19
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]]> The Mayfair Bookshop 58596552
USA TodayĚýbestselling author Eliza Knight brings together a brilliant dual-narrative story about Nancy Mitford—one of 1930s London’s hottest socialites, authors, and a member of the scandalous Mitford Sisters—and a modern American desperate for change, connected through time by a little London bookshop.

“An absolute must-read!”—Madeline Martin, New York Times bestselling author The Last Bookshop in London

1938: She was one of the six sparkling Mitford sisters, known for her stinging quips, stylish dress, and bright green eyes. But Nancy Mitford’s seemingly dazzling life was really one of with a perpetually unfaithful and broke husband, two Nazi sympathizer sisters, and her hopes of motherhood dashed forever. With war imminent, Nancy finds respite by taking a job at the Heywood Hill Bookshop in Mayfair, hoping to make ends meet, and discovers a new life.

Present ĚýWhen book curator Lucy St. Clair lands a gig working at Heywood Hill she can’t get on the plane fast enough. Not only can she start the healing process from the loss of her mother, it’s a dream come true to set foot in the legendary store. Doubly she brings with her a first edition of Nancy’s work, one with a somewhat mysterious inscription from the author.ĚýSoon, she discovers her life and Nancy’s are intertwined, and it all comes back to the little London bookshop—a place that changes the lives of two women from different eras in the most surprising ways.Ěý]]> 432 Eliza Knight Suzanne 5 4.18 2022 The Mayfair Bookshop
author: Eliza Knight
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/14
date added: 2023/04/14
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]]> The Dressmaker’s Secret 59989770 384 Lorna Cook 0008532540 Suzanne 5 4.50 2022 The Dressmaker’s Secret
author: Lorna Cook
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/07
date added: 2023/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood]]> 36594400 240 Sy Montgomery Suzanne 0 4.40 2006 The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
author: Sy Montgomery
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2021/10/22
date added: 2023/03/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Who Moved My Goat Cheese? (Farm-to-Fork #1)]]> 35499688 Angie Turner hopes her new farm-to-table restaurant can be a fresh start in her old hometown in rural Idaho. But when a goat dairy farmer is murdered, Angie must turn the tables on a bleating black sheep . . .
Ěý
With three weeks until opening night for their restaurant, the County Seat, Angie and her best friend and business partner Felicia are scrambling to line up local vendors—from the farmer's market to the goat dairy farm of Old Man Moss. Fortunately, the cantankerous Moss takes a shine to Angie, as does his kid goat Precious. So when Angie hears the bloodcurdling news of foul play at the dairy farm, she jumps in to mind the man's livestock and help solve the murder. One thing's for sure, there's no whey Angie's going to let some killer get her goat . . .]]> 184 Lynn Cahoon 1516103815 Suzanne 5 3.92 2018 Who Moved My Goat Cheese? (Farm-to-Fork #1)
author: Lynn Cahoon
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/20
date added: 2023/03/20
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]]> The Cartographers 56224531
What is the purpose of a map?

Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field, and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn't seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.

But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable, and also exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence� because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.

But why?

To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret, and discover the true power that lies in maps...

Perfect for fans of Joe Hill and V.E. Schwab, The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.]]> 400 Peng Shepherd 0062910728 Suzanne 4 3.72 2022 The Cartographers
author: Peng Shepherd
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/19
date added: 2023/03/19
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]]> The Dutch Wife 37806955 403 Ellen Keith 1488098662 Suzanne 4 4.00 2018 The Dutch Wife
author: Ellen Keith
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/17
date added: 2023/03/17
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]]> A Spool of Blue Thread 23390430 Short-listed for the Man Booker PrizeĚýĚý

“It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon. . .� This is how Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The Whitshanks are one of those families that radiate an indefinable, enviable kind of specialness. But they are also like all families, in that the stories they tell themselves reveal only part of the picture. Abby and Red and their four grown children have accumulated not only tender moments, laughter, and celebrations, but also jealousies, disappointments, and carefully guarded secrets. From Red’s father and mother, newly arrived in Baltimore in the 1920s, to Abby and Red’s grandchildren carrying the family legacy boisterously into the twenty-first century, here are four generations of Whitshanks, their lives unfolding in and around the sprawling, lovingly worn Baltimore house that has always been their anchor.

Brimming with all the insight, humor, and generosity of spirit that are the hallmarks of Anne Tyler’s work, A Spool of Blue Thread tells a poignant yet unsentimental story in praise of family in all its emotional complexity. It is a novel to cherish.

This eBook edition includes a Reading Group Guide. Ěý]]> 466 Anne Tyler 1101874287 Suzanne 5 3.62 2015 A Spool of Blue Thread
author: Anne Tyler
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/19
date added: 2023/03/14
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]]> When the Apricots Bloom 53243442
At night, in Huda’s fragrant garden, a breeze sweeps in from the desert encircling Baghdad, rustling the leaves of her apricot trees and carrying warning of visitors at her gate. Huda, a secretary at the Australian embassy, lives in fear of the mukhabarat—the secret police who watch and listen for any scrap of information that can be used against America and its allies. They have ordered her to befriend Ally Wilson, the deputy ambassador’s wife. Huda has no wish to be an informant, but fears for her teenaged son, who may be forced to join a deadly militia. Nor does she know that Ally has dangerous secrets of her own.

Huda’s former friend, Rania, enjoyed a privileged upbringing as the daughter of a sheikh. Now her family’s wealth is gone, and Rania too is battling to keep her child safe and a roof over their heads. As the women’s lives intersect, their hidden pasts spill into the present. Facing possible betrayal at every turn, all three must trust in a fragile, newfound loyalty, even as they discover how much they are willing to sacrifice to protect their families.]]> 304 Gina Wilkinson 1496729366 Suzanne 4 4.11 2021 When the Apricots Bloom
author: Gina Wilkinson
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/12
date added: 2023/03/12
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]]> The Unsinkable Greta James 56360481 An indie musician reeling from tragedy reconnects with her estranged father on a week-long cruise in this tale of grief, fame, and love from bestselling author Jennifer E. Smith.

Greta James's meteoric rise to indie stardom was hard-won. Before she graced magazine covers and sold out venues, she spent her girlhood strumming her guitar in the family garage. Her first fan was her mother, Helen, whose face shone bright in the dusty downtown bars where she got her start--but not everyone encouraged Greta to follow her dreams. While many daydream about a crowd chanting their name, her father, Conrad, saw only a precarious life ahead for his daughter.

Greta has spent her life trying to prove him wrong, but three months after Helen's sudden death, and weeks before the launch of her high-stakes sophomore album, Greta has an onstage meltdown that goes viral. Attempting to outrun the humiliation and heartbreak, she reluctantly agrees to accompany her father on a week-long Alaskan cruise, the very one that her parents had booked to celebrate their fortieth anniversary.

This could be the James family's last chance to heal old wounds and will prove to be a voyage of discovery for them, as well as for Ben Wilder, a historian also struggling with a major upheaval in his life. Ben is on board to lecture about Jack London's The Call of the Wild, the adventure story Greta's mother adored, and he captures Greta's attention after her streak of dating hanger-ons. As Greta works to build up her confidence and heal, and Ben confronts his uncertain future, they must rely on one another to make sense of life’s difficult choices. In the end, Greta must make the most challenging decision of all: to listen to the song within her or make peace with those who love her.]]> 292 Jennifer E. Smith 0593358287 Suzanne 4 4.05 2022 The Unsinkable Greta James
author: Jennifer E. Smith
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/11
date added: 2023/03/11
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]]> Arabian Jazz 20182888 Reading group guide included.

]]> 305 Diana Abu-Jaber Suzanne 0 3.68 1993 Arabian Jazz
author: Diana Abu-Jaber
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at: 2023/03/09
date added: 2023/03/09
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]]> On a Quiet Street 58977601 A New York Times Book Review Summer Read andĚýEdgar Award nominee!ĚýDon’t miss this unputdownable psychological thriller! Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware!

When you really start to look beyond the airy open floor plans and marble counters, Brighton Hills is filled with secrets. Some big, some little, some deadly. And one by one, they’re about to be revealed� “A writer to watch.� �Publishers Weekly

The perfect neighborhood can be the perfect place to hide�

Who wouldn’t want to live in Brighton Hills? This exclusive community on the Oregon coast is the perfect mix of luxury and natural beauty. Stunning houses nestle beneath mighty Douglas firs, and lush backyards roll down to the lakefront. It’s the kind of place where neighbors look out for one another. Sometimes a little too closely�

Cora thinks her husband, Finn, is cheating—she just needs to catch him in the act. That’s where Paige comes in. Paige lost her son to a hit-and-run last year, and she’s drowning in the kind of grief that makes people do reckless things like spying on the locals, searching for proof that her son’s death was no accident…and agreeing to Cora’s plan to reveal what kind of man Finn really is. All the while, their reclusive new neighbor, Georgia, is acting more strangely every day. But what could such a lovely young mother possibly be hiding?

Don't miss Seraphina's upcoming novel, The Vanishing Hour. You won't be able to put it down!Ěý

Other thrillers from Seraphina to keep you up all
The Vanishing Hour Such a Good Wife Someone’s Listening

]]> 302 Seraphina Nova Glass 0369717058 Suzanne 0 currently-reading 4.13 2022 On a Quiet Street
author: Seraphina Nova Glass
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/03/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Women of Chateau Lafayette]]> 54425373 An epic saga from New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Dray based on the true story of an extraordinary castle in the heart of France and the remarkable women bound by its legacy in three of humanity's darkest hours

Most castles are protected by powerful men. This one by women...

A founding mother...
1774. Gently-bred noblewoman Adrienne Lafayette becomes her husband's political partner in the fight for American independence. But when their idealism sparks revolution in France and the guillotine threatens everything she holds dear, Adrienne must choose to renounce the complicated man she loves, or risk her life for a legacy that will inspire generations to come.

A daring visionary...
1914. Glittering New York socialite Beatrice Astor Chanler is a force of nature, daunted by nothing--not her humble beginnings, her crumbling marriage, or the outbreak of war. But after witnessing the devastation in France and delivering war-relief over dangerous seas, Beatrice takes on the challenge of a lifetime: convincing America to fight for what's right.

A reluctant resistor...
1940. French school-teacher and aspiring artist Marthe Simone has an orphan's self-reliance and wants nothing to do with war. But as the realities of Nazi occupation transform her life in the isolated castle where she came of age, she makes a discovery that calls into question who she is, and more importantly, who she is willing to become.

Intricately woven and beautifully told, The Women of Chateau Lafayette is a sweeping novel about duty and hope, love and courage, and the strength we find from standing together in honor of those who came before us.]]> 574 Stephanie Dray 1984802143 Suzanne 5 4.40 2021 The Women of Chateau Lafayette
author: Stephanie Dray
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/28
date added: 2023/02/28
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]]> Docherty (Canons) 21343504 Whitbread Award A Scottish miner fights for a better life for his son in this “intense, witty and beautifully wrought novel� (Daily Telegraph).At the dawn of the twentieth century, newborn Conn Docherty, raw as a fresh wound, lies between his parents in their tenement room, with no birthright but a life's labor in the pits of his small town on the coast of Scotland. But the world is changing, and, lying next to him, Conn's father, Tam, has decided that his son’s life will be different from his own� Gritty, dark and tender, Docherty is a modern classic, “a serious, considered and achingly sympathetic engagement with the people whose only trace in historical record is birth and dead notices� (Scotsman).“McIlvanney depicts the west of Scotland with a canny and ruthless insight.”—Scotsman “As a stylist Mr. McIlvanney leaves most of the competition far behind.”—The New York Times Book Review]]> 365 William McIlvanney Suzanne 4 4.39 1975 Docherty (Canons)
author: William McIlvanney
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/22
date added: 2023/02/22
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]]> Fruit of the Drunken Tree 36896544
The Santiago family lives in a gated community in Bogotá, safe from the political upheaval terrorizing the country. Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister Cassandra enjoy carefree lives thanks to this protective bubble, but the threat of kidnappings, car bombs, and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation.

When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways. But Petrona's unusual behavior belies more than shyness. She is a young woman crumbling under the burden of providing for her family as the rip tide of first love pulls her in the opposite direction. As both girls' families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal.

Inspired by the author's own life, and told through the alternating perspectives of the willful Chula and the achingly hopeful Petrona, Fruit of the Drunken Tree contrasts two very different, but inextricable coming-of-age stories. In lush prose, Rojas Contreras sheds light on the impossible choices women are often forced to make in the face of violence and the unexpected connections that can blossom out of desperation.]]> 320 Ingrid Rojas Contreras Suzanne 0 currently-reading 4.06 2018 Fruit of the Drunken Tree
author: Ingrid Rojas Contreras
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/16
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Quilter's Legacy (Elm Creek Quilts, #5)]]> 8476209 From the New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln'’s Dressmaker and the Elm Creek Quilts series comes a moving novel following a daughter’s search for her mother’s treasured heirlooms. When precious heirloom quilts hand-stitched by her mother turn up missing from the attic of Elm Creek Manor, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson resolves to find them. From scant resources—journal entries, receipts, and her own fading memories—she pieces together clues, then queries quilting friends from around the world. When dozens of leads arrive via the Internet, Sylvia and her fiancé embark on a nationwide investigation of antique shops and quilt museums. Sylvia’s quest leads her to unexpected places, where offers of assistance are not always what they seem. As the search continues, revelations surface about her mother, who died when Sylvia was only a child. As Sylvia recovers some of the missing quilts and accepts others as lost forever, she reflects on the woman her mother was, and mourns the woman she never knew. For every woman who has yearned to know the untold story of her mother’s life, and for every mother who has longed to be heard, The Quilter’s Legacy resonates with heartfelt honesty as it reveals what tenuous connections bind the generations, and celebrates the love that sustains them.]]> 338 Jennifer Chiaverini Suzanne 4 4.33 2003 The Quilter's Legacy (Elm Creek Quilts, #5)
author: Jennifer Chiaverini
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/16
date added: 2023/02/16
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]]> Gone So Long 40053623

Daniel Ahearn lives a quiet, solitary existence in a seaside New England town. Forty years ago, following a shocking act of impulsive violence on his part, his daughter, Susan, was ripped from his arms by police. Now in her forties, Susan still suffers from the trauma of a night she doesn’t remember, as she struggles to feel settled, to love a man and create something that lasts. Lois, her maternal grandmother who raised her, tries to find peace in her antique shop in a quaint Florida town but cannot escape her own anger, bitterness, and fear.


Cathartic, affirming, and steeped in the empathy and precise observations of character for which Dubus is celebrated, Gone So Long explores how the wounds of the past afflict the people we become, and probes the limits of recovery and absolution.]]> 460 Andre Dubus 0393244113 Suzanne 1 3.88 2019 Gone So Long
author: Andre Dubus
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2023/02/13
date added: 2023/02/13
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]]> The Promise of the Pelican 60625765 For fans of Harper Lee and Rita Mae Brown, Roy Hoffman's new novel is steeped in a sense of place--coastal Alabama--with its rich tapestry of characters caught in a web of justice not for all.

Early Praise for The Promise of the Pelican:

"Roy Hoffman has written a fast-paced, mesmerizing and incredibly moving contemporary novel about human and civil rights,"-- bestselling author Lee Smith

"A thrilling novel, with characters as memorable as those of Shakespearean tragedy...I could not put it down."Ěý--Sena JeterĚýNaslund, author ofĚýAhab's WifeĚýĚý

At once a literary crime novel and an intergenerational family drama, The Promise of the PelicanĚýis set in the multicultural South, where justice might dependĚýon the color of your skin and your immigration status.ĚýHank Weinberg is a modern day Atticus Finch, recently retired as a defense attorney in Mobile, Alabama,Ěýand a Holocaust survivor, who fled the Nazis as a young child. With his daughter in rehab, he's now taking care of his special needs grandson. Mourning his dead wife, spending mornings fishing on the pier with other octogenarians, he passes the rest of his days watching over his sweet grandson with the help of Lupita, a young Honduran babysitter. When her brother Julio, an undocumented immigrant, is accused of murder, Hank must return to the courtroom to defend him while also trying to save his daughter and grandson's life from spinning out of control.ĚýThe Promise of the PelicanĚýtakes its title from the legend that aĚýpelicanĚýwill pierce its own breast for blood to feed its starving chicks, a metaphor for one old man who risks all to save the vulnerable.

In a crispĚýprose style Harper Lee called "lean and clean," Hoffman writes from an enormous well of compassion. He fills his new novel with a cast of finely drawn characters of all ages and abilities facing life's harshest challenges and rising to meet them with dignity.
Ěý]]> 297 Roy Hoffman Suzanne 4 4.01 The Promise of the Pelican
author: Roy Hoffman
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/09
date added: 2023/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (The Jaipur Trilogy, #2)]]> 56162498 New York Times bestselling author Alka Joshi’s intriguing new novel, henna artist Lakshmi arranges for her protégé, Malik, to intern at the Jaipur Palace in this tale rich in character, atmosphere, and lavish storytelling.

It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education. At twenty, he has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace. Their latest project: a state-of-the-art cinema.

Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies.]]> 365 Alka Joshi Suzanne 5 4.36 2021 The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (The Jaipur Trilogy, #2)
author: Alka Joshi
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/05
date added: 2023/02/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Survivor In Death (In Death, #20)]]> 59114210 New York Times-bestselling In Death series featuring Lieutenant Eve Dallas and Roarke. Nora Roberts writing as J. D. Robb returns to the New York City of 2059--where Dallas will struggle to solve the murder of a seemingly ordinary family and to protect one small, terrified survivor. The members of the Swisher family were murdered in their beds with brutal, military precision. The state-of-the-art security was breached, and the killers used night-vision equipment to find their way through the cozy, middle-class house. Clearly, Dallas is dealing with pros. It seems the only mistake they made was to overlook the nine-year-old girl cowering in the darkened kitchen. Now Nixie Swisher is an orphan--and the sole eyewitness to a seemingly inexplicable crime. Kids are not Dallas's strong suit. But Nixie needs a safe place to stay, and Dallas needs to solve this case. With her partner, Peabody, back on the job-and her husband, Roarke, providing the kind of help that only he can give--Lieutenant Eve Dallas is running after shadows, and dead-set on finding out who's behind them.]]> 384 J.D. Robb Suzanne 4 4.66 2005 Survivor In Death (In Death, #20)
author: J.D. Robb
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/01
date added: 2023/02/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy, #3)]]> 18886735 Ken Follett's extraordinary historical epic, the Century Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, passionate conclusion.

In Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, Ken Follett followed the fortunes of five international families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—as they made their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the 1960s through the 1980s, from civil rights, assassinations, mass political movements, and Vietnam to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution—and rock and roll.

East German teacher Rebecca Hoffmann discovers she’s been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for the rest of their lives. . . . George Jakes, the child of a mixed-race couple, bypasses a corporate law career to join Robert F. Kennedy's Justice Department and finds himself in the middle of not only the seminal events of the civil rights battle but a much more personal battle of his own. . . . Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator, jumps at the chance to do some official and unofficial espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is a much more dangerous place than he'd imagined. . . . Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Nikita Khrushchev, becomes an agent both for good and for ill as the United States and the Soviet Union race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tanya, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw—and into history.]]> 1104 Ken Follett Suzanne 5 4.39 2014 Edge of Eternity (The Century Trilogy, #3)
author: Ken Follett
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/30
date added: 2023/01/30
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]]> The Black Prince 13486359 416 Iris Murdoch 1101495685 Suzanne 4 4.02 1973 The Black Prince
author: Iris Murdoch
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/01/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman]]> 11074790 Without Reservations we take time off with Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Steinbach as she explores the world and rediscovers what it means to be a woman on her own."In many ways, I was an independent woman," writes Alice Steinbach, a single working mother, in this captivating book. "For years I'd made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own snow, and had relationships that allowed for a lot of freedom on both sides." Slowly, however, she saw that she had become quite dependent in another "I had fallen into the habit . . . of defining myself in terms of who I was to other people and what they expected of me." Who am I, she wanted to know, away from the things that define me--my family, children, job, friends? Steinbach searches for the answer to this provocative question in some of the most exciting places in the Paris, where she finds a soul mate in a Japanese man; Oxford, where she takes a course on the English village; Milan, where she befriends a young woman about to be married. Beautifully illustrated with postcards Steinbach wrote home to herself to preserve her spontaneous impressions, this revealing and witty book will transport readers instantly into a fascinating inner and outer journey, an unforgettable voyage of discovery.]]> 322 Alice Steinbach 0307769828 Suzanne 5 4.04 2000 Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman
author: Alice Steinbach
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/01/29
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]]> Under the Influence 26809649 New York Times bestselling author of Labor Day and After Her returns with a poignant story about the true meaning—and the true price—of friendship.

Alcohol cost Helen her marriage and custody of David, her seven-year-old son. Though she once had aspirations to be an art photographer, she makes ends meet taking pictures of grade-school children and working society parties for a catering company. Recovering from her addiction, she spends her evenings checking out profiles on an online dating site; weekends, she has awkward visits with her son, but he seems to be drifting away from her, fast.

When she meets Ava and Swift Havilland, the vulnerable Helen is instantly enchanted. Wealthy, connected philanthropists, they have their own charity devoted to the care and welfare of dogs. Their home is filled with glamorous friends, edgy art, and fabulous parties.

As Helen increasingly falls under the Havillands� influence—running errands, doing random chores, cataloguing Ava’s art collection—Ava and Swift hire a good lawyer to help her regain custody of her son. But the debt Helen owes them is about to come due.

David witnesses an accident involving Swift, his grown son, Cooper, and the daughter of the Havillands� Guatemalan housekeeper. With David’s future in the balance, Helen must choose between the truth and the friends who have given her everything.]]> 341 Joyce Maynard Suzanne 5 4.11 2016 Under the Influence
author: Joyce Maynard
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/01/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II]]> 38196292 368 Vicki Constantine Croke Suzanne 5 4.53 2014 Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II
author: Vicki Constantine Croke
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/01/29
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]]> The Past Is Never 36644392
After years with no sign, no hope of ever finding Pansy alive, Bert and Willet have tried to move on. But as surely as their mother died of a broken heart, they can't let go. So when clues surface drawing them to the remote tip of Florida, they drop everything and drive south. Deep in the murky depths of the Florida Everglades they may find the answer to Pansy's mysterious disappearance . . . but truth, like the past, is sometimes better left where it lies.

Perfect for fans of Flannery O'Connor and Dorothy Allison, The Past Is Never is an atmospheric, haunting story of myths, legends, and the good and evil we carry in our hearts.]]> 304 Tiffany Quay Tyson 1510726837 Suzanne 4 4.22 2018 The Past Is Never
author: Tiffany Quay Tyson
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/01/29
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]]> The Boy Between Worlds 40537814
Waldemar is unique as a biracial young man in post WWII Netherlands—and his search for his own path in life is sure to engage even the hardest hearts.]]> 218 Annejet van der Zijl 1542090091 Suzanne 3 4.16 2004 The Boy Between Worlds
author: Annejet van der Zijl
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/29
date added: 2023/01/29
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]]> An Impossible Return 62913680
An epic love story set against a backdrop of injustice, devastating secrets, and the painful price of independence.

It’s 1967 in the Chagos archipelago—a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean—and life is peaceful and easy for hardworking Marie. Her fierce independence and love for her home are quickly apparent to Gabriel, the handsome and sophisticated Mauritian secretary to the archipelago’s administrator; it’s love at first sight. As these two lovers from neighboring islands welcome a new son, Joséphin, a bright future seems possible. But Gabriel is hiding a terrible secret. The Mauritian government is negotiating independence from Britain, and this deal with the devil will mean evacuating the Chagos, without warning or mercy—a betrayal that will put their love to the test.

Inspired by a shocking travesty of justice, the repercussions of which still reverberate more than fifty years later, bestselling Franco-Mauritian author Caroline Laurent paints a shimmering portrait of island life, a sensual paradise lost, and a gorgeous star-crossed love against all odds.]]> 350 Caroline Laurent 1542032342 Suzanne 0 currently-reading 4.16 2020 An Impossible Return
author: Caroline Laurent
name: Suzanne
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/09
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian]]> 8404459 Nominated for the Man Booker Prize“A charming comedy of eros . . . A ride that, despite the bumps and curves in the road, never feels anything less than jaunty.â€� â€�Los Angeles Times“Charming, poignantly funny.”Ěýâ€�The Washington Post Book World'Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.'Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must aside a lifetime of feuding to save their Ă©migrĂ© engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth.But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget . . .]]> 314 Marina Lewycka 1101201061 Suzanne 4 3.78 2005 A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
author: Marina Lewycka
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/08
date added: 2023/01/08
shelves:
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]]> Forbidden City 58621987 352 Vanessa Hua 039917883X Suzanne 5 3.92 2022 Forbidden City
author: Vanessa Hua
name: Suzanne
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/03
date added: 2023/01/03
shelves:
review:

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