en-US Thu, 01 May 2025 01:27:13 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 11564
As night falls, Trisha has only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, and only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fears. For solace, she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox baseball games and follows the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio's reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her - protecting her from an all-too-real enemy who has left a trail of slaughtered animals and mangled trees in the dense, dark woods...]]> 264 Stephen King 1416524290 Michael 0 to-read 3.65 1999
author: Stephen King
name: Michael
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 222361642 From New York Times bestselling author of the Empire of the Vampire and Empire of the Damned, Jay Kristoff, comes the epic conclusion to the #1 internationally bestselling series.

From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hand sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs� sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.

Gabriel de León has lost his family, his faith, and his last hope of ending the endless night—the Holy Grail, Dior. With no desire left but vengeance, he and a band of loyal brothers journey into the war-torn heart of the Augustin Empire to claim the life of the Forever King.

Unbeknownst to the Last Silversaint, the Grail still lives—speeding towards Augustin’s besieged capital in the frail hope of ending Daysdeath forever. But deadly treachery awaits within the halls of power, and the Forever King’s legions march ever closer. Gabriel and Dior will be drawn into a final battle that will shape the very fate of the Empire, but as the sun sets for what may be the last time, there will be no-one left for them to trust.

Not even each other.]]> Jay Kristoff 1250245389 Michael 0 to-read 4.88 2025
author: Jay Kristoff
name: Michael
average rating: 4.88
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
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]]> 9216051 The most famous and controversial novel from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century tells the story of Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze."The conjunction of a sense of humor with a sense of horror [results in] satire of a very special kind." �The New YorkerAwe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsession for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love—love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.]]> 376 Vladimir Nabokov Michael 0 to-read 3.85 1955
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Michael
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/21
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review:

]]> 123841334 With three kingdoms on the brink of war, Batman is in hiding, recovering from an attack and a shocking betrayal.

But Batman finds he’s not the only unfortunate soul to be taken in by his surprise rescuers-strange, magical youngsters have been given sanctuary alongside the bastard prince, Bruce Wayne. Will these teen outcasts change everything Batman believes in? Or will they perish at the hands of a demon?

DC Dark Knights of Steel Vol. 2 picks up where Vol. 1 left off, collecting Dark Knights of Steel #7-12, Dark Knights of Steel: Tales from the Three Kingdoms #1!]]> 208 Tom Taylor 1779520794 Michael 4 3.64 2023
author: Tom Taylor
name: Michael
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 60681279 Swords! Sorcery! Superheroes! A brand-new DC Universe is born from writer Tom Taylor (DCeased, Nightwing) and artist Yasmine Putri.

An entire medieval world will be forever changed when a spaceship crash-lands from a doomed planet. Years later the El Kingdom reins and Jefferson Pierce, the head of the Kingdom of Storms sees their family as a threat and gathers allies to challenge them. Monarchs will die, kingdoms will rise, and what seemed like the end of the world for many…was only the beginning! An epic high-fantasy story set in a DC Universe where nothing is what it seems…]]> 176 Tom Taylor 1779516754 Michael 4 4.00 2022
author: Tom Taylor
name: Michael
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
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]]> 13569581 “The Sixth Order wields the sword of justice and smites the enemies of the Faith and the Realm.�

Vaelin Al Sorna was only a child of ten when his father left him at the iron gate of the Sixth Order. The Brothers of the Sixth Order are devoted to battle, and Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate, and dangerous life of a Warrior of the Faith. He has no family now save the Order.

Vaelin’s father was Battle Lord to King Janus, ruler of the unified realm. Vaelin’s rage at being deprived of his birthright and dropped at the doorstep of the Sixth Order like a foundling knows no bounds. He cherishes the memory of his mother, and what he will come to learn of her at the Order will confound him. His father, too, has motives that Vaelin will come to understand. But one truth overpowers all the rest: Vaelin Al Sorna is destined for a future he has yet to comprehend. A future that will alter not only the realm, but the world.]]> 591 Anthony Ryan 1466085665 Michael 5 physical-tbr 4.42 2011
author: Anthony Ryan
name: Michael
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: physical-tbr
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]]> 20814989 "You will have a powerful Gift, but it’s how you use it that will show you to be good or bad."

In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, seventeen-year-old Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most powerful and violent witch. Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted. Now, Nathan has come into his own unique magical Gift, and he's on the run--but the Hunters are close behind, and they will stop at nothing until they have captured Nathan and destroyed his father.]]> 432 Sally Green 0670017132 Michael 5 I hated some parts of the ending though :( ]]> 3.98 2015
author: Sally Green
name: Michael
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2021/12/14
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
review:
Amazing book! I’m in love with this series.
I hated some parts of the ending though :(
]]> 219066619 À 31 ans, Marc Marquez est une légende du Moto GP. Huit fois champion du monde, vainqueur de 64 Grands Prix, Marc Marquez a été dès ses débuts un pilote prodige, capable de rattraper sa moto dans des situations désespérées. En penchant son corps entier en dehors de la selle, il parvient à atteindre des angles d'inclinaison dans les virages que même les mathématiques n'arrivent pas à calculer. Son record d'angle d'inclinaison, à 70,8°, ne permet plus, en principe, à sa moto d'adhérer encore au bitume.
Cette biographie autorisée, rédigée par l'expert français du MotoGP, Michel Turco, décrypte cet ovni du pilotage, mais revient aussi sur tous les pans de sa formation et son extraordinaire lutte avec Valentino Rossi. Elle détaille également son année 2024, celle de son retour au premier plan avec son arrivée chez Ducati après 13 ans passé chez Honda.]]> 352 Michel Turco 2263188533 Michael 3 4.20
author: Michel Turco
name: Michael
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
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]]> 58724816 Leah is changed. A marine biologist, she left for a routine expedition months earlier, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife, Miri, knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was the crew was supposed to be studying before they were stranded, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp.

By turns elegiac and furious, wry and heartbreaking, Our Wives Under the Sea is an exploration of the unknowable depths within each of us and the love that compels us, nevertheless, toward one another. Fathomlessly inventive and original, Julia Armfield’s debut novel is a portrait of marriage as we’ve never seen it before.]]> 228 Julia Armfield 1250229898 Michael 3 Beautiful writing style, especially for a debut novel
Compelling intrigue
Dual pov really works

-
I couldn’t really connect with Miri whose chapters are only about why she loves Leah.
Quite a few questions left unanswered, which I guess is the goal but is still mildly frustrating.
It feels rather incomplete to me]]> 3.68 2022
author: Julia Armfield
name: Michael
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves:
review:
+
Beautiful writing style, especially for a debut novel
Compelling intrigue
Dual pov really works

-
I couldn’t really connect with Miri whose chapters are only about why she loves Leah.
Quite a few questions left unanswered, which I guess is the goal but is still mildly frustrating.
It feels rather incomplete to me
]]> 61941245 239 Joseph Delaney 0241568471 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.06
author: Joseph Delaney
name: Michael
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
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]]> 217045858 The Dark Knights of Steel saga, placing DC's heroes in the realm of epic fantasy, continues with a standalone tale starring Deathstroke in a deadly frozen wasteland!

The snow falls thick, blood runs black, and color itself is only a distant memory. The legendary assassin Deathstroke stalks a frozen wasteland, killing for coin among a nation of ever-warring jarls.

But when our murderer for hire finds himself cast in the role of reluctant guardian, will he fight to end the icy curse destroying his land or be consumed by the sins of his own dark past?

The red-hot Dark Knights of Steel epic, which reimagines DC's heroes in a medieval fantasy world, expands into bone-chilling new territories with new surprises in store, with a story written by Jay Kristoff, with striking images from rising star artist Tirso!

Plus, this volume includes a story by Dark Knights of Steel architect Tom Taylor and The Fellspyre Chronicles artist Riccardo Federici, detailing an all-new origin of Aquaman!]]> 224 Jay Kristoff 1799500799 Michael 5 3.32 2025
author: Jay Kristoff
name: Michael
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves:
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]]> 18079804 394 Sally Green 0670016780 Michael 5 3.79 2014
author: Sally Green
name: Michael
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
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]]> 41245242 The heart-pounding conclusion to the daring Smoke Thieves trilogy.

In this conclusion to the epic Smoke Thieves trilogy, the world has erupted into all-out war. King Aloysius is mining powerful demon smoke and using it to fuel an unstoppable army of children. March, now banished for treason, has joined up with this boy army. Forbidden from ever seeing Edyon again, and overwhelmed by his own betrayal, March no longer cares if he lives or dies.

Catherine--now queen of Pitoria--must find a way to defeat the boy army, while also grappling with her own troubles: her secret demon smoke addiction, and unresolved tension with her former lover, Ambrose. Catherine seeks military support from Calidor by reaching out to her illegitimate cousin Edyon, who has been proclaimed heir to the Calidorian throne. But Edyon has almost no power as he's entangled in the unfamiliar machinations and manipulations of the royal court, finding that being the claimed son of a prince may be no easier than being a bastard.

With Catherine, his love, now married off and moving on, and his brother and sister tortured and executed before him, Ambrose doesn't know what his role in this world is any more. He leads an expedition into the demon world, hoping to destroy the boy army's stores of demon smoke. In this underground world, he runs into Tash, whom everyone had believed dead. She has survived in this new world using magical abilities that, prior to now, only demons had.

Aloysius will send his demon smoke-powered boy army to kill them all, if he can. But what nobody knows is that there is more to the smoke than meets the eye...]]> 400 Sally Green 0425290298 Michael 0 to-read 3.85 2020
author: Sally Green
name: Michael
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
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]]> 40643751 The epic, magical saga of royalty, romance, and violence continues.

A princess. A soldier. A servant. A demon hunter. A thief. When we last saw them, this unlikely group was heading into the Northern Territory of the kingdom of Pitoria, on the run from the sadistic and power-hungry King Aloysius of Brigant. The Smoke Thieves have discovered that demon smoke is not only an illegal drug used for pleasure, but in fact, when taken by children, demon smoke briefly gives its users super-human strength. Aloysius' plan is simple and kill the demons for their smoke, and use that smoke to build an unstoppable army of children to take over Pitoria, Calidor, and then the rest of the world. The Smoke Thieves are the only ones who understand this plan--but can they stop it? Catherine, Aloysius' daughter, is seen as a traitor from all sides; Tash is heartbroken after the loss of her one friend and sees nothing left for her in the human world; Edyon is wanted for murder; March is carrying the secret of his betrayal of his new love; Ambrose is out for revenge--and all the while, the demons have plans of their own...]]> 464 Sally Green 0425290263 Michael 0 to-read 3.82 2019
author: Sally Green
name: Michael
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 34508382
In Brigant, Princess Catherine prepares for a loveless political marriage arranged by her brutal and ambitious father. In Calidor, downtrodden servant March seeks revenge on the prince who betrayed his people. In Pitoria, feckless Edyon steals cheap baubles for cheaper thrills as he drifts from town to town. And in the barren northern territories, thirteen-year-old Tash is running for her life as she plays bait for the gruff demon hunter Gravell.

As alliances shift and shatter, and old certainties are overturned, our four heroes find their past lives transformed and their futures inextricably linked by the unpredictable tides of magic and war. Who will rise and who will fall? And who will claim the ultimate prize?]]> 538 Sally Green 0425290239 Michael 0 to-read 3.73 2018
author: Sally Green
name: Michael
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 26197298 Half Truths follows Gabriel’s story from the time he arrives Switzerland, seeking help in recovering his magical powers from the conniving Black Witch Mercury, and goes up until the moment when he first meets Nathan and their paths become forever intertwined.

For the new reader, this is the perfect bite-sized introduction to the world of Half Bad, where witches and humans live alongside one another. And for the returning reader, this story sheds new light on one of the trilogy’s most beloved characters.]]> 78 Sally Green 0425287246 Michael 0 to-read 3.73 2015
author: Sally Green
name: Michael
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 23361016
Their mother was brutally murdered. Their father drowns his pain at the bottom of a bottle.

They begin a new life in Florida, where Michele meets a White Witch boy, but the divide between Black and White Witches is as dangerous as ever. Soon Michele is caught between love and loyalty, truth and lies.

Could falling in love be the deadliest mistake she's ever made?]]> 72 Sally Green 0698198395 Michael 0 to-read 3.79 2014
author: Sally Green
name: Michael
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55523693
Sweden, 1942 - Two old friends meet. They are cousins. One is Prince George, Duke of Kent, brother of the King of England. The other is Prince Philipp von Hesse, a committed Nazi and close friend of Adolf Hitler.

Days later, the Prince George is killed in a plane crash in the north of Scotland. The official story is that it was an accident - but not everyone is convinced.

There is even a suggestion that the Duke's plane was sabotaged, but with no evidence, Cambridge spy Tom Wilde is sent north to discover the truth . . .

Dramatic, intelligent, and brilliantly compelling, A PRINCE AND A SPY is Rory's best WWII thriller yet - perfect for readers of Robert Harris, C J Sansom and Joseph Kanon.]]> 361 Rory Clements 1838773371 Michael 0 physical-tbr 4.19 2021
author: Rory Clements
name: Michael
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: physical-tbr
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]]> 11607
Ben Richards is out of work and out of luck. His eighteen-month-old daughter is sick, and neither Ben nor his wife can afford to take her to a doctor. For a man from the poor side of town with no cash and no hope, there's only one thing to do: become a contestant on one of the Network's Games, shows where you can win more money than you've ever dreamed of—or die trying. Now Ben's going prime-time on the Network's highest-rated viewer participation show. And he's about to become a prey for the masses...]]> 317 Stephen King 0451197968 Michael 4 physical-tbr 3.90 1982
author: Stephen King
name: Michael
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: physical-tbr
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]]> 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Michael 2 physical-tbr 3.96 2020
author: Matt Haig
name: Michael
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
shelves: physical-tbr
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]]> 52694527 Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga from bestselling author John Gwynne.

After the gods warred and drove themselves to extinction, the cataclysm of their fall shattered the land of VigriĂ°.

Now a new world is rising, where power-hungry jarls feud and monsters stalk the woods and mountains. A world where the bones of the dead gods still hold great power for those brave - or desperate - enough to seek them out.

Now, as whispers of war echo across the mountains and fjords, fate follows in the footsteps of three people: a huntress on a dangerous quest, a noblewoman who has rejected privilege in pursuit of battle fame, and a thrall who seeks vengeance among the famed mercenaries known as the Bloodsworn.

All three will shape the fate of the world as it once more falls under the shadow of the gods . . .]]> 480 John Gwynne 0356514188 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.18 2021
author: John Gwynne
name: Michael
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> 55585849 Acclaimed author Jennifer A. Nielsen brings her signature twists and high-stakes action to the fifth installment of the New York Times bestselling Ascendance Series!

King Jaron has outwitted the Prozarians and returned to his own kingdom with one secret in his pocket that not even his friends know about. He's hoping that secret will help him finally bring stability to Carthya.

But a surprise attack on his own land -- on the castle itself -- reminds Jaron that nothing is easy. The Prozarian Monarch threatens to crumble Jaron's entire kingdom. And that's not the only thing in danger: With old enemies and new rumors circling around him, even Jaron's relationship with Imogen is uncertain.

This former False Prince will need his best tricks and many allies at his side to hold Carthya together.]]> 332 Jennifer A. Nielsen 1338275917 Michael 5 physical-tbr 4.28 2021
author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
name: Michael
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/20
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: physical-tbr
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]]> 49663931 Jennifer A. Nielsen returns to the world of The False Prince in this fourth book of the Ascendance Series!

In a peaceful Carthya, Jaron leads as the Ascendant King with Imogen beside him -- but the peace he fought so long for is not destined to last.

On a routine sea voyage, Jaron's ship is brutally attacked, and he is taken hostage. The mysterious captors and their leader, Jane Strick, accuse Jaron of unthinkable acts. They are also in possession of some shocking items -- including the crown and sword that belonged to Jaron's older brother, Darius. The items unearth a past Jaron thought he had put behind him.

Though it seems impossible, Jaron must consider: Could Darius be alive? And what does Strick want from Jaron? Against his will, Jaron will be pulled back into a fight for the throne -- and a battle to save his kingdom.]]> 374 Jennifer A. Nielsen 1338551086 Michael 5 physical-tbr 4.13 2020
author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
name: Michael
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/19
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 5396570 272 Michael Ford 0747593876 Michael 0 to-read 4.16 2008
author: Michael Ford
name: Michael
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 6068616 They quickly discover that the locals will not be easily beaten. In the midst of battle Lysander finds himself in front of the great statue in the main square, and is shocked to see that the figure is wearing the Fire of Ares. Is this Lysander's ancestor? He must find out his connection to this town and its people, and in so doing reveal more of his mysterious heritage, hidden from him for so long.]]> 297 Michael Ford 0802798446 Michael 0 to-read 4.04 2009
author: Michael Ford
name: Michael
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 1372179
This action packed tale of honor, glory and epic battles in Ancient Greece will appeal to even the most reluctant readers, and Lysander's rise from slave to Spartan warrior will leave them thirsting for more.]]> 256 Michael Ford 080279744X Michael 0 to-read 3.96 2008
author: Michael Ford
name: Michael
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 18775247
Months later, an ex-cop named Bill Hodges, still haunted by the unsolved crime, contemplates suicide. When he gets a crazed letter from "the perk," claiming credit for the murders, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, fearing another even more diabolical attack and hell-bent on preventing it.

Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of eccentric and mismatched allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady's next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.

Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.
--front flap]]> 437 Stephen King 1476754454 Michael 3 4.01 2014
author: Stephen King
name: Michael
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
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]]> 50623864
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.

But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.]]> 448 V.E. Schwab 0765387565 Michael 0 to-read 4.16 2020
author: V.E. Schwab
name: Michael
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 52656911
The bride � The plus one � The best man � The wedding planner � The bridesmaid � The body

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 319 Lucy Foley Michael 0 to-read 3.81 2020
author: Lucy Foley
name: Michael
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

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

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

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

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

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

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Michael 0 to-read 4.02 2021
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Michael
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Michael 0 to-read 4.12 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Michael
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
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]]> 59364173
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,� eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?� She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly , she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!�), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 320 Jennette McCurdy Michael 0 to-read 4.45 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Michael
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 52439531
To receive her inheritance, Avery must move into sprawling, secret passage-filled Hawthorne House, where every room bears the old man's touch -- and his love of puzzles, riddles, and codes. Unfortunately for Avery, Hawthorne House is also occupied by the family that Tobias Hawthorne just dispossessed. This includes the four Hawthorne grandsons: dangerous, magnetic, brilliant boys who grew up with every expectation that one day, they would inherit billions. Heir apparent Grayson Hawthorne is convinced that Avery must be a conwoman, and he's determined to take her down. His brother, Jameson, views her as their grandfather's last hurrah: a twisted riddle, a puzzle to be solved. Caught in a world of wealth and privilege, with danger around every turn, Avery will have to play the game herself just to survive.]]> 386 Jennifer Lynn Barnes 1368052401 Michael 0 to-read 4.13 2020
author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
name: Michael
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Michael 0 to-read 4.36 2020
author: T.J. Klune
name: Michael
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 53450790 Would you defend your husband if he was accused of killing his mistress?

Sarah Morgan is a successful and powerful defense attorney in Washington D.C. At 33 years old, she is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned.

The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.

Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers.

Then, one morning everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home.

Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress.

But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?]]> 337 Jeneva Rose 1913419657 Michael 0 to-read 3.90 2020
author: Jeneva Rose
name: Michael
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
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]]> 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang 000853277X Michael 0 to-read 3.69 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Michael
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 49127718 A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined

Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix up their own marriage. There's a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.

Includes short story - The Last Round of Golf]]> 336 Fredrik Backman 198216963X Michael 0 to-read 4.17 2019
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 199235727 A twisting, pulse-pounding thriller from Freida McFadden, the New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid and The Coworker.

"You must be our new neighbors!" Mrs. Lowell gushes and waves across the picket fence. I clutch my daughter's hand and smile back: but the second Mrs. Lowell sees my husband a strange expression crosses her face. In that moment I make a promise. We finally have a family home. My past is far, far behind us. And I'll do anything to keep it that way�

I used to clean other people's houses―now, I can't believe this home is actually mine. The charming kitchen, the quiet cul-de-sac, the huge yard where my kids can play. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve.

Even though I'm wary of our new neighbor Mrs. Lowell, when she invites us over for dinner it's our chance to make friends. Her maid opens the door wearing a white apron, her hair in a tight bun. I know exactly what it's like to be in her shoes. But her cold stare gives me chills�

The Lowells' maid isn't the only strange thing on our street. I'm sure I see a shadowy figure watching us. My husband leaves the house late at night. And when I meet a woman who lives across the way, her words chill me to the bone: Be careful of your neighbors.

Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here?

I thought I'd left my darkest secrets behind. But could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all?

From New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Freida McFadden comes the next instalment of the unbelievably twisty, tension-packed and globally bestselling Housemaid series. This book can be enjoyed as a standalone read: and once you start, it will have you up all night racing through the pages until the final explosive twist.]]> 364 Freida McFadden 1464223319 Michael 0 to-read 3.79 2024
author: Freida McFadden
name: Michael
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 220921867 The Housemaid’s Wedding is a winter-themed short story meant to fill in the long gap between Book 2 of the Housemaid series (The Housemaid’s Secret) and Book 3 (The Housemaid is Watching). It can be read either between Book 2 and Book 3, or after Book 3.

Today is supposed to be the happiest day of my life.

I'm engaged to the man of my dreams, and in a few short hours, I'm going to stand before a judge, who will declare us husband and wife, till death does us part. Despite some bumps in the road, this day is everything I dreamed it would be.

There's only one problem:

Someone out there doesn't want me to live long enough to say my vows.

And if I'm not careful, they may very well get their wish.]]> 76 Freida McFadden Michael 0 to-read 3.40 2024
author: Freida McFadden
name: Michael
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62848145 As he continues showing me their incredible penthouse apartment, I have a terrible feeling about the woman behind closed doors. But I can't risk losing this job � not if I want to keep my darkest secret safe . . .

It's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want. It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I'm doing laundry. And one day I can't help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything...

That's when I make a promise. After all, I've done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe. Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It's simply a question of how far I'm willing to go...]]> 318 Freida McFadden 1837901317 Michael 0 to-read 4.21 2023
author: Freida McFadden
name: Michael
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 60556912
I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of…]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Michael 0 to-read 4.31 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Michael
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62334530
A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix’s children’s school. Josie has been listening to Alix’s podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life.

Josie’s life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can’t quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix’s life—and into her home.

But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family’s lives under mortal threat.

Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?]]> 390 Lisa Jewell 1982179007 Michael 0 to-read 4.08 2023
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Michael
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 62080187
But when they visit the remote manor that once belonged to Dr. Adrienne Hale, a renowned psychiatrist who vanished without a trace four years earlier, a violent winter storm traps them at the estate� with no chance of escape until the blizzard comes to an end.

In search of a book to keep her entertained until the snow abates, Tricia happens upon a secret room. One that contains audio transcripts from every single patient Dr. Hale has ever interviewed. As Tricia listens to the cassette tapes, she learns about the terrifying chain of events leading up to Dr. Hale’s mysterious disappearance.

Tricia plays the tapes one by one, late into the night. With each one, another shocking piece of the puzzle falls into place, and Dr. Adrienne Hale’s web of lies slowly unravels.

And then Tricia reaches the final cassette.

The one that reveals the entire horrifying truth.]]> 286 Freida McFadden Michael 0 to-read 4.09 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Michael
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58468990 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List comes a new locked room mystery, set in a Paris apartment building in which every resident has something to hide�

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up � to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? � he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite � The nice guy � The alcoholic � The girl on the verge � The concierge

Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.]]> 360 Lucy Foley 0063003058 Michael 0 to-read 3.62 2022
author: Lucy Foley
name: Michael
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 50093704 Where do you see yourself in five years?

When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Kohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend's marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.

But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.

After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.

That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.

Brimming with joy and heartbreak, In Five Years is an unforgettable love story that reminds us of the power of loyalty, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of destiny.]]> 272 Rebecca Serle 1982137444 Michael 0 to-read 3.74 2020
author: Rebecca Serle
name: Michael
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 60194162 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063251922.

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

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

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver Michael 0 to-read 4.46 2022
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Michael
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 45032 488 Jane Austen Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 3.86 1814
author: Jane Austen
name: Michael
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 17822757 96 Tom Palmer 178112227X Michael 4 3.70 2013
author: Tom Palmer
name: Michael
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves:
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]]> 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Michael 3 physical-tbr 4.17 2019
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Michael
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/12
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 391724
The tale centers on two matters, a black cat and the deterioration of a man. The man is one who enjoyed family life with his wife and numerous pets, but then he changed radically for the worse. The story is often compared to "The Tell-Tale Heart" because of the profound psychological elements these two works share. "The Black Cat" is a story you will never forget.

Librarian's note: this entry relates to the story "The Black Cat." Collections and other short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ.]]> 24 Edgar Allan Poe 1594561753 Michael 3 All I want now is to kiss my cats. I hate this fictional man and hopes he’s getting tortured by cats in the afterlife, if there is such a thing.]]> 4.07 1843
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Michael
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1843
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/11
shelves:
review:
call me basic, call me over sensitive idk, but fuck this drunken asshole (narrator). the story gets three stars because of the great writing and the loathing I actually felt while reading. But fuck this, really.
All I want now is to kiss my cats. I hate this fictional man and hopes he’s getting tortured by cats in the afterlife, if there is such a thing.
]]> 175516
Usher pokazuje mu swoje obrazy oraz przedstawia własne kompozycje muzyczne, które robią na gościu duże wrażenie. Chory stwierdza również, że w jego domu dzieje się coś dziwnego. Staje się to dostrzegalne niedługo później, gdy Usher informuje przyjaciela o śmierci siostry�

Opowiadanie Poego Zagłada domu Usherów zostało po raz pierwszy opublikowane w 1839 roku na łamach „Burton's Gentleman's Magazine�. Jest interesujące ze względu na doskonałą sieć powiązań pomiędzy kolejnymi elementami, ale również jako studium hipochondrii i szaleństwa.

Edgar Allan Poe to amerykański pisarz epoki romantyzmu, przedstawiciel nurtu gotyckiego. Zasłynał przede wszystkim jako autor fantastyki i horroru.]]> 36 Edgar Allan Poe 1594561796 Michael 5 3.90 1839
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Michael
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1839
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves:
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]]> 57755184
Five contestants must sit tight through the night in dark and dangerous Umber Gorge caves, haunted by a ghost called the Puckered Maiden. But is it the malevolent spirit they should fear ... or each other?

As the production crew ramps up the frights, secrets start to be revealed. These teenagers have hidden motives for taking part in It's Behind You! and could some of them be ... murder?

It's 'Most Haunted' meets 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here' for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen McManus.]]> 352 Kathryn Foxfield 0702302775 Michael 2
+
The story itself is interesting and well thought out, some aspects are predictable but others are rather unexpected
The writing is overall very good

-
The characters are stereotypical and predictable, most of them are very annoying and one dimensional
The ending feels incomplete and rushed
The epilogue ruins a certain character’s development imo]]> 3.63 2021
author: Kathryn Foxfield
name: Michael
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves:
review:
it’s� ok I guess?

+
The story itself is interesting and well thought out, some aspects are predictable but others are rather unexpected
The writing is overall very good

-
The characters are stereotypical and predictable, most of them are very annoying and one dimensional
The ending feels incomplete and rushed
The epilogue ruins a certain character’s development imo
]]> 17667561 One war.
Too many deadly battles.
Can a king save his kingdom, when his own survival seems unlikely?

War has come to Carthya. It knocks at every door and window in the land. And when Jaron learns that King Vargan of Avenia has kidnapped Imogen in a plot to bring Carthya to its knees, Jaron knows it is up to him to embark on a daring rescue mission. But everything that can go wrong does.

His friends are flung far and wide across Carthya and its neighbouring lands. In a last-ditch effort to stave off what looks to be a devastating loss for the kingdom, Jaron undertakes what may be his last journey to save everything and everyone he loves. But even with his lightning-quick wit, Jaron cannot forestall the terrible danger that descends on him and his country. Along the way, will he lose what matters most? And in the end, who will sit on Carthya's throne?

Rousing and affecting, Jaron's adventures have thrilled and moved readers in The False Prince and The Runaway King. Journey once again with the Ascendant King of Carthya, as New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen brings his story to a stunning conclusion with The Shadow Throne.]]> 336 Jennifer A. Nielsen 0545633796 Michael 5 physical-tbr 4.26 2014
author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
name: Michael
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 7818881
Vlad’s running out of time. The Elysian Council has given him weeks to live, and that’s if the Slayer Society doesn’t kill him � along with all the citizens of Bathory � first. Then there’s the issue of Vlad’s father, who may or may not still be alive after all these years, and oh yeah, that tiny little detail in the Pravus prophecy about Vlad enslaving Vampirekind and the human race. So much for college applications.

In this epic finale to Heather Brewer’s heart-stopping Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, dark secrets will be revealed, old friends will become enemies, and warm blood will run cold. Just be careful it isn’t yours.]]> 325 Heather Brewer 0525422242 Michael 0 to-read 4.33 2010
author: Heather Brewer
name: Michael
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6681333
Watch a Video]]> 309 Heather Brewer 0525422439 Michael 0 to-read 4.29 2010
author: Heather Brewer
name: Michael
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6178065 292 Heather Brewer 0525421351 Michael 0 to-read 4.23 2009
author: Heather Brewer
name: Michael
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2272813 278 Heather Brewer 0525478922 Michael 0 to-read 4.14 2008
author: Heather Brewer
name: Michael
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 530848
Watch a QuickTime trailer for this book.]]> 182 Heather Brewer 0525478116 Michael 0 to-read 3.94 2007
author: Heather Brewer
name: Michael
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15703770 Just weeks after Jaron has taken the throne, an assassination attempt forces him into a deadly situation. Rumors of a coming war are winding their way between the castle walls, and Jaron feels the pressure quietly mounting within Carthya. Soon, it becomes clear that deserting the kingdom may be his only hope of saving it. But the further Jaron is forced to run from his identity, the more he wonders if it is possible to go too far. Will he ever be able to return home again? Or will he have to sacrifice his own life in order to save his kingdom?
The stunning second installment of The Ascendance Trilogy takes readers on a roller coaster ride of treason and murder, thrills and peril, as they journey with the Runaway King.]]> 331 Jennifer A. Nielsen 0545284155 Michael 5 physical-tbr 4.24 2013
author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
name: Michael
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 12432220
As Sage moves from a rundown orphanage to Conner's sumptuous palace, layer upon layer of treachery and deceit unfold, until finally, a truth is revealed that, in the end, may very well prove more dangerous than all of the lies taken together.]]> 342 Jennifer A. Nielsen 0545284139 Michael 5 physical-tbr 4.24 2012
author: Jennifer A. Nielsen
name: Michael
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/07
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 754713 242 Arthur Conan Doyle 0755334434 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.26 1917
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Michael
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1917
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 23280198 Family is power. The Original Vampire family swore it to each other a thousand years ago. They pledged to remain together always and forever. But even when you're immortal, promises are hard to keep.

Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah Mikaelson had won it all, only to lose it again by 1788. Control of New Orleans is split between the vampires and the werewolves, much to Klaus's displeasure. In a dangerous attempt to reclaim his home, Klaus decides to build a vampire army to take out the werewolves once and for all. If he can't have love, then he'll settle for power. Elijah lets his brother take the reins as he turns his attentions to a beautiful and mysterious woman. But Rebekah has had enough of her brothers' love of bloodshed and begins a journey to find her first home and the key to her family's immortality. As the battle rages on, the siblings must come together and fight for what they believe in family.]]> 320 Julie Plec 0373788916 Michael 4 4.10
author: Julie Plec
name: Michael
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/24
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 10628
This is the horror of ordinary people and everyday objects that become strangely altered; a world where nothing is ever quite what it seems, where the familiar and the friendly lure and deceive. A world where madness and blind panic become the only reality.

Listening Length: 10 hours and 33 minutes]]> 409 Stephen King Michael 4 physical-tbr 4.04 1978
author: Stephen King
name: Michael
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 29044 559 Donna Tartt 1400031702 Michael 2 physical-tbr 4.16 1992
author: Donna Tartt
name: Michael
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1992
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/30
date added: 2024/07/30
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 32307358 This an alternate cover for B01LY7FD0D

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement--the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever." The evening's host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon's first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough . . . one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence.

As the event begins, Langdon and several hundred guests find themselves captivated by an utterly original presentation, which Langdon realizes will be far more controversial than he ever imagined. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch's precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever. Reeling and facing an imminent threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao. With him is Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director who worked with Kirsch to stage the provocative event. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch's secret.

Navigating the dark corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade a tormented enemy whose all-knowing power seems to emanate from Spain's Royal Palace itself . . . and who will stop at nothing to silence Edmond Kirsch. On a trail marked by modern art and enigmatic symbols, Langdon and Vidal uncover clues that ultimately bring them face-to-face with Kirsch's shocking discovery . . . and the breathtaking truth that has long eluded us. Origin is stunningly inventive--Dan Brown's most brilliant and entertaining novel to date]]> 482 Dan Brown Michael 0 to-read 3.87 2017
author: Dan Brown
name: Michael
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 17212231 �Seek and ye shall find.�

With these words echoing in his head, eminent Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon awakes in a hospital bed with no recollection of where he is or how he got there. Nor can he explain the origin of the macabre object that is found hidden in his belongings.

A threat to his life will propel him and a young doctor, Sienna Brooks, into a breakneck chase across the city of Florence. Only Langdon’s knowledge of hidden passageways and ancient secrets that lie behind its historic facade can save them from the clutches of their unknown pursuers.

With only a few lines from Dante’s dark and epic masterpiece, The Inferno, to guide them, they must decipher a sequence of codes buried deep within some of the most celebrated artefacts of the Renaissance � sculptures, paintings, buildings � to find the answers to a puzzle which may, or may not, help them save the world from a terrifying threat�

Set against an extraordinary landscape inspired by one of history’s most ominous literary classics, Inferno is Dan Brown’s most compelling and thought-provoking novel yet, a breathless race-against-time thriller that will grab you from page one and not let you go until you close the book.]]> 463 Dan Brown 0385537859 Michael 0 to-read 3.88 2013
author: Dan Brown
name: Michael
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 968 The da Vinci Code, The da Vinci Code, The da Vinci Code, and The da Vinci Code

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci -- clues visible for all to see -- yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion -- an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret -- and an explosive historical truth -- will be lost forever.

The Da Vinci Code heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion.]]> 489 Dan Brown Michael 0 to-read 3.92 2003
author: Dan Brown
name: Michael
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 6411961
Washington DC: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned at the last minute to deliver an evening lecture in the Capitol Building. Within moments of his arrival, however, a disturbing object - gruesomely encoded with five symbols - is discovered at the epicentre of the Rotunda. It is, he recognises, an ancient invitation, meant to beckon its recipient towards a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's revered mentor, Peter Solomon - philanthropist and prominent mason - is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes that his only hope of saving his friend's life is to accept this mysterious summons and follow wherever it leads him.

Langdon finds himself quickly swept behind the facade of America's most historic city into the unseen chambers, temples and tunnels which exist there. All that was familiar is transformed into a shadowy, clandestine world of an artfully concealed past in which Masonic secrets and never-before-seen revelations seem to be leading him to a single impossible and inconceivable truth.

A brilliantly composed tapestry of veiled histories, arcane icons and enigmatic codes, The Lost Symbol is an intelligent, lightning-paced thriller that offers surprises at every turn. For, as Robert Langdon will discover, there is nothing more extraordinary or shocking than the secret which hides in plain sight...]]> 509 Dan Brown 0385504225 Michael 0 to-read 3.75 2009
author: Dan Brown
name: Michael
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 960
A devastating new weapon of destruction.
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy -- the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller, Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.]]> 736 Dan Brown 1416524797 Michael 0 to-read 3.95 2000
author: Dan Brown
name: Michael
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 23456351 40 Stephen King Michael 5
Loved this short story, I was thrilled to dive back into the world of “Salem’s Lot� in such an immersive way! 4.5/5]]> 4.08 2000
author: Stephen King
name: Michael
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:
“and the dark about us seemed to press like wool, as if jealous of the light which had temporarily deposed it after so many years of undisputed dominion.�

Loved this short story, I was thrilled to dive back into the world of “Salem’s Lot� in such an immersive way! 4.5/5
]]> 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]> 343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Michael 4 physical-tbr 4.11 2020
author: Brit Bennett
name: Michael
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/27
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 43798285
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King's gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good versus evil in a world where the good guys don't always win.
--front flap]]> 561 Stephen King Michael 4 physical-tbr 4.17 2019
author: Stephen King
name: Michael
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 199687078
Secret hideouts. Prehistoric monsters. Lost cities. Impossible missions. Being the hero of your own film should feel like fun. But as the cliffhanger scenes they’re pitched into become ever more perilous, Lucas and his friends start to wonder if these movies are really make believe. Can they save the day before the end credits roll? The fate of the world might just depend on it…]]> 256 Christopher Edge 1839942738 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 3.75 2024
author: Christopher Edge
name: Michael
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 39943621
Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen—the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria—took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire and Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.

What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why did it become so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What is the origin of Daenerys’s three dragon eggs? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel and featuring more than eighty all-new black-and-white illustrations by artist Doug Wheatley. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.

With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire and Blood is the ultimate game of thrones, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.]]> 706 George R.R. Martin 152479628X Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.03 2018
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Michael
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.25 1960
author: Harper Lee
name: Michael
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/20
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 123200829
After turning his back on his silversaint brothers once and for all, Gabriel and the Grail set out to learn the truth of how Daysdeath might finally be undone.

But the last silversaint faces peril, within and without. Pursued by children of the Forever King, drawn into wars and webs centuries in the weaving, and ravaged by his own rising bloodlust, Gabriel may not survive to see the truth of the Grail revealed.

A truth that may be too awful for any to imagine.]]> 654 Jay Kristoff 0008350515 Michael 5 that’s it, that’s my review, 5 f**king stars and lots of emotional trauma!]]> 4.61 2024
author: Jay Kristoff
name: Michael
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/13
date added: 2024/06/13
shelves:
review:
akdfjfhdhsksla!!!!
that’s it, that’s my review, 5 f**king stars and lots of emotional trauma!
]]> 30894 Trevanian 304 Trevanian 1400098289 Michael 0 to-read 3.83 1973
author: Trevanian
name: Michael
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 30893 336 Trevanian Michael 0 to-read 4.07 1972
author: Trevanian
name: Michael
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1972
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 125162502 On a distant Earth colony, an orphaned survivor of an alien invasion discovers that the greatest world-ending dangers aren’t behind her.

It’s been eight years since an alien invasion drove a small surviving group of settlers to seek refuge in an underground shelter. Cut off from the rest of humanity, the ragtag band has maintained a narrowly functioning colony due to communal effort and salvage runs. Alex Archer has her own duties as a dog handler. While this off-world colony may be harsh, Ash, Alex’s black shepherd raised to sense threats, makes living in it a little nicer.

But the tenuous hide-and-seek with the monstrous species known as the Lankies is about to come to an end for Alex and her close-knit crew of soldiers, techs, and friends. When a salvage operation goes catastrophically wrong, the Lankies home in on the humans.

With hopes of a rescue long faded, all Alex has left is will—and the fear that there’s so much more to lose.]]> 283 Marko Kloos 1542035503 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.12 2024
author: Marko Kloos
name: Michael
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 161219731
Six people find a thick cream envelope on their doorstep. Inside is an invitation to spend 24 hours in a crumbling manor house and be in with the chance to win a portion of one million dollars. The Beechwood Castle was the site of one of the most horrific murders in modern history.

The smell of blood, decay and death still hangs heavy in the air.

Six people walk into the house. One of them is an imposter, all of them are traitors, which of them will survive the night?

See what early readers are saying about The �A classic locked room mystery� �����

�I was so wrapped up in the drama that I didn’t guess the killer until the end� �����

�Heart-pounding� pay attention, discount no detail and don’t read it in the dark� �����

�Kept me guessing� �����

�Good twists, an amazing location and good storytelling� ����

�Tremendous fun� ����]]> 270 Carissa Ann Lynch 0008643938 Michael 3 physical-tbr 3.50 2024
author: Carissa Ann Lynch
name: Michael
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 30075662 From the internationally bestselling authors of THE ILLUMINAE FILES comes an epic new science fiction adventure.

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch�

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic. ]]> 473 Amie Kaufman 1524720968 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.08 2019
author: Amie Kaufman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/26
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 133456605 0 Todd Strasser Michael 4 physical-tbr 3.67 1981
author: Todd Strasser
name: Michael
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1981
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/08
date added: 2024/03/08
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 128880069 Perfect for fans of The Loney and Devil's Day.

1897.
James Harringley is summoned home from London to his rambling family mansion in the north of England. His father is sick, deranged, and James must return, confronting the horrors he tried to the labyrinthine house, the madness and secrets which poison their bloodline and, most frightening of all, the spectre of the tall man � an eerie visage who promises to whisk children away and make them royalty in the land of Faery.

James returns to the house and finds his father and brother at war, and the nebulous substance of his childhood brought into unbearable relief. He remembers the whispers about the tall man. But can he trust his own memories?

Then the groundskeeper Janey has had her baby kidnapped, one of many child disappearances connected with the house and the nearby village. There are those who blame the tall man, while others believe a more earthly culprit is responsible.
James must sift through the ramblings of his father, the scepticism of his power-hungry brother and the uncertain fabric of his own memories to discover the truth.]]> 307 Tom Carlisle 1803360739 Michael 4 3.18 2023
author: Tom Carlisle
name: Michael
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves:
review:

]]> 40874032 A masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers.

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.]]> 402 V.E. Schwab Michael 0 physical-tbr, to-read 4.17 2013
author: V.E. Schwab
name: Michael
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/18
shelves: physical-tbr, to-read
review:

]]> 61714633 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.]]> 331 David Grann 0385534264 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.14 2023
author: David Grann
name: Michael
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
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]]> 5129 Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine� (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New Worldd likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune]]> 268 Aldous Huxley 0060929871 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 3.99 1932
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Michael
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1932
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Michael 0 to-read, physical-tbr 4.16 2022
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Michael
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves: to-read, physical-tbr
review:

]]> 58505730 If you loved The Haunting of Hill House, welcome to Thistlecrook�

It’s 1923 and at Thistlecrook House, a forbidding home on the Scottish border, the roaring twenties seem not to have arrived. But Simon Christie has � a young man who can’t believe his luck when he gets a job cataloguing the infamous art collection of the Mordrake family. Yet from the moment he gets off the train at the deserted village station he can’t shift a headache and a sense that there’s more to the House and its gruesome selection of pictures.

Simon’s host is glad of his company, but he gets the feeling the house is not so welcoming. As his questions about the Mordrakes grow, he finds answers in surprising places. But someone is not pleased that old secrets are stirring.

As night falls each evening, and a growing sense of unease roils in the shifting shadows around him, Simon must decide what he can trust and ask if he can believe what he sees in the dusk or if his mind is poisoned by what has happened before in this place between lands, between light and dark.]]> 304 Mathew West 0008472939 Michael 3 physical-tbr 3.20 2022
author: Mathew West
name: Michael
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/08
date added: 2024/02/08
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 26114463
Daughter of an executed traitor, Mia Corvere is barely able to escape her father’s failed rebellion with her life. Alone and friendless, she hides in a city built from the bones of a dead god, hunted by the Senate and her father’s former comrades. But her gift for speaking with the shadows leads her to the door of a retired killer, and a future she never imagined.

Now, Mia is apprenticed to the deadliest flock of assassins in the entire Republic—the Red Church. If she bests her fellow students in contests of steel, poison and the subtle arts, she’ll be inducted among the Blades of the Lady of Blessed Murder, and one step closer to the vengeance she desires. But a killer is loose within the Church’s halls, the bloody secrets of Mia’s past return to haunt her, and a plot to bring down the entire congregation is unfolding in the shadows she so loves.

Will she even survive to initiation, let alone have her revenge?]]> 427 Jay Kristoff 1250073022 Michael 4 physical-tbr 4.19 2016
author: Jay Kristoff
name: Michael
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/31
date added: 2024/01/31
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 8948 240 Darren Shan 0316156299 Michael 2 4.21 2002
author: Darren Shan
name: Michael
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/19
date added: 2024/01/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 8949
Plagued by nightmares of what the future seems to hold, Darren feels uneasy revisiting the place where he was re-born as a child of the night, as though the universe (as though destiny) is plotting to throw something very nasty at him on the streets of his old home.]]> 220 Darren Shan 0316156280 Michael 5 4.23 2005
author: Darren Shan
name: Michael
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/17
date added: 2024/01/17
shelves:
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]]> 8951
Darren and Harkat face monstrous obstacles on their desperate quest to the Lake of Souls. Will they survive the savage journey? And what awaits them in the murky waters of the dead? Be careful what you fish for...]]> 273 Darren Shan 0316016659 Michael 5 4.19 2002
author: Darren Shan
name: Michael
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/15
date added: 2024/01/15
shelves:
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]]> 66370 131 Richard Bachman 0451076451 Michael 3 physical-tbr 3.72 1977
author: Richard Bachman
name: Michael
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/09
date added: 2024/01/10
shelves: physical-tbr
review:

]]> 16173578 136 Robert Kirkman 1607066874 Michael 5 4.22 2013
author: Robert Kirkman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/09
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves:
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]]> 15720319
Crossing Negan will lead to serious, dire consequences for the group; it seems that for the first time since the Governor's reign of terror that Rick may have Something to Fear.

Collects The Walking Dead #97-102.]]> 132 Robert Kirkman 1607066157 Michael 5 4.33 2012
author: Robert Kirkman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/06
date added: 2024/01/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 13581999
Reprinting issues #91-96 of the Eisner Award-winning series, The Walking Dead.]]> 136 Robert Kirkman 1607065592 Michael 5 4.15 2012
author: Robert Kirkman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/05
date added: 2024/01/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 8952 206 Darren Shan 0316016667 Michael 5 4.23 2003
author: Darren Shan
name: Michael
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/05
date added: 2024/01/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 12305515
In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living. The events of No Way Out have affected everyone in the Community, and not everyone has survived to pick up the pieces. Reprinting issues #85-90 of the Eisner Award-winning series, The Walking Dead.]]> 132 Robert Kirkman 1607064405 Michael 5 4.12 2011
author: Robert Kirkman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/02
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves:
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]]> 10822174 The Walking Dead proves again—no one is safe.]]> 136 Robert Kirkman 1607063921 Michael 5 4.32 2011
author: Robert Kirkman
name: Michael
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 996088 255 Fatou Diome 225310907X Michael 2 3.82 2003
author: Fatou Diome
name: Michael
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>