en-US Sat, 08 Mar 2025 06:55:00 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 58916535 414 K.R. Meera Rhea 0 3.50
author: K.R. Meera
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 45032 488 Jane Austen Rhea 0 3.86 1814
author: Jane Austen
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 49083140
Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol, and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina’s relationship with her obsessive best friend, and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention�

Boy Parts is the incendiary debut novel from Eliza Clark, a pitch-black comedy both shocking and hilarious, fearlessly exploring the taboo regions of sexuality and gender roles in the twenty-first century.]]> 304 Eliza Clark 1910312649 Rhea 0 to-read 3.74 2020
author: Eliza Clark
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38359036 °ŐäłŮ´Ç·Éľ±±đ°ů±đ°ů (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.]]> 272 Heather Morris 006287067X Rhea 0 4.32 2018
author: Heather Morris
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/24
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 22738563 We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently-argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed TEDx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.

With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness. She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination, but also the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics. Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the U.S., in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful for women and men, alike.

Argued in the same observant, witty and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author’s exploration of what it means to be a woman today—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.]]> 52 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Rhea 0 4.42 2012
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/24
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Rhea 5 3.81 2018
author: Sally Rooney
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/24
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves:
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 Rhea 3 3.87 2017
author: Dan Brown
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/04/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 18514068 It is significant that the only character in Hindu mythology, a king at that, to be given the title of ekam-patni-vrata, devoted to a single wife, is associated with the most unjust act of abandoning her in the forest to protect family reputation. This seems a deliberate souring of an uplifting narrative. Rams refusal to remarry to produce a royal heir adds to the complexity. The intention seems to be to provoke thought on notions of fidelity, property and self-image.

And so the mythologist and illustrator Devdutt Pattanaik retells the Ramayana, drawing attention to the many oral, visual and written retellings composed in different times, in different places, by different poets, each one trying to solve the puzzle in its own unique way.

This book approaches Ram by speculating on Sita: her childhood with her father, Janaka, who hosted sages mentioned in the Upanishads; her stay in the forest with her husband, who had to be a celibate ascetic while she was in the prime of her youth; her interactions with the women of Lanka, recipes she exchanged, emotions they shared; her connection with the earth, her mother, and with the trees, her sisters; her role as the Goddess, the untamed Kali as well as the demure Gauri, in transforming the stoic prince of Ayodhya into God.]]> 328 Devdutt Pattanaik 0143064320 Rhea 0 to-read 4.07 2013
author: Devdutt Pattanaik
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3086194 360 Devdutt Pattanaik Rhea 0 to-read 3.82 2008
author: Devdutt Pattanaik
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38357895
A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.]]> 163 Sayaka Murata Rhea 0 to-read 3.70 2016
author: Sayaka Murata
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Rhea 0 to-read 3.81 1952
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 25489025
Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.]]> 188 Han Kang 0553448188 Rhea 0 to-read 3.61 2007
author: Han Kang
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38819868
My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water...]]> 226 Oyinkan Braithwaite 0385544235 Rhea 0 to-read 3.64 2018
author: Oyinkan Braithwaite
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56060300 Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. The bestselling LGBTQ+ graphic novel about life, love, and everything that happens in between: this is the fourth volume of HEARTSTOPPER, for fans of The Art of Being Normal, Holly Bourne and Love, Simon.

Charlie didn't think Nick could ever like him back, but now they're officially boyfriends. Charlie's beginning to feel ready to say those three little words: I love you.

Nick's been feeling the same, but he's got a lot on his mind - not least coming out to his dad, and the fact that Charlie might have an eating disorder.

As summer turns to autumn and a new school year begins, Charlie and Nick are about to learn a lot about what love means.

Heartstopper is about love, friendship, loyalty and mental illness. It encompasses all the small stories of Nick and Charlie's lives that together make up something larger, which speaks to all of us.

This is the fourth volume of Heartstopper, which has now been optioned for television by See-Saw Films.]]> 384 Alice Oseman 1338617567 Rhea 5 4.57 2021
author: Alice Oseman
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/16
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Rhea 0 to-read 4.34 2023
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43969859
In Coming Out as Dalit, Dutt recounts the exhausting burden of living with the secret and how she was terrified of being found out. She talks about the tremendous feeling of empowerment she experienced when she finally stood up for herself and her community and shrugged off the fake upper-caste identity she’d had to construct for herself. As she began to understand the inequities of the caste system, she also had to deal with the crushing guilt of denying her history and the struggles of her grandparents and the many Dalit reformers who fought for equal rights.

In this personal memoir that is also a narrative of the Dalits, she writes about the journey of coming to terms with her identity and takes us through the history of the Dalit movement; the consequences of her community’s lack of access to education and culture; the need for reservation; the paucity of Dalit voices in mainstream media; Dalit women’s movements and their ongoing contributions; and attempts to answer crucial questions about caste and privilege. Woven from personal narratives from her own life as well as that of other Dalits, this book forces us to confront the injustices of caste and also serves as a call to action.

Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar Award 2020.]]> 223 Yashica Dutt 9388292413 Rhea 0 currently-reading 4.24 2019
author: Yashica Dutt
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 1202
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
(front flap)]]> 268 Steven D. Levitt 0061234001 Rhea 5 4.01 2005
author: Steven D. Levitt
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 59057886
Bobbing along in this stream of multiple lives for more than a decade-from Manju's boredom in 'rurban' Rampur and Gold's anger at having to compete with Western women for male attention in Delhi's nightclubs, to Zahira's break from domestic abuse in Ahmedabad-Bhattacharya gleans the details on what Indian women think about men, money, movies, beauty, helplessness, agency and love. A most unusual and compelling book on the female gaze, this is the story of how women have experienced post-liberalization India.]]> 384 Shrayana Bhattacharya Rhea 0 currently-reading 4.28 2021
author: Shrayana Bhattacharya
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 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 Rhea 4 3.96 2020
author: Matt Haig
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/29
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 52420147 256 Gitanjali Kolanad 9353451094 Rhea 0 to-read 3.87
author: Gitanjali Kolanad
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.87
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60784812
A taut, enthralling first novel about grief, sisterhood, and a young athlete’s struggle to transcend herself.

Eleven-year-old Gopi has been playing squash since she was old enough to hold a racket. When her mother dies, her father enlists her in a quietly brutal training regimen, and the game becomes her world. Slowly, she grows apart from her sisters. Her life is reduced to the sport, guided by its the serve, the volley, the drive, the shot and its echo.

But on the court, she is not alone. She is with her pa. She is with Ged, a thirteen-year-old boy with his own formidable talent. She is with the players who have come before her. She is in awe.

An indelible coming-of-age story, Chetna Maroo’s first novel captures the ordinary and annihilates it with beauty. Western Lane is a valentine to innocence, to the closeness of sisterhood, to the strange ways we come to know ourselves and each other.]]> 160 Chetna Maroo 0374607494 Rhea 0 to-read 3.50 2023
author: Chetna Maroo
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 158875813
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

How far will she go to save her family? And what � or who � is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.]]> 259 Paul Lynch Rhea 0 to-read 4.03 2023
author: Paul Lynch
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57032570 Notes on Grief is an exquisite work of meditation, remembrance, and hope, written in the wake of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's beloved father’s death in the summer of 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged around the world, and kept Adichie and her family members separated from one another, her father succumbed unexpectedly to complications of kidney failure.

Expanding on her original New Yorker piece, Adichie shares how this loss shook her to her core. She writes about being one of the millions of people grieving this year; about the familial and cultural dimensions of grief and also about the loneliness and anger that are unavoidable in it. With signature precision of language, and glittering, devastating detail on the page--and never without touches of rich, honest humor--Adichie weaves together her own experience of her father’s death with threads of his life story, from his remarkable survival during the Biafran war, through a long career as a statistics professor, into the days of the pandemic in which he’d stay connected with his children and grandchildren over video chat from the family home in Abba, Nigeria. In the compact format of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, Adichie delivers a gem of a book--a book that fundamentally connects us to one another as it probes one of the most universal human experiences. Notes on Grief is a book for this moment—a work readers will treasure and share now more than ever--and yet will prove durable and timeless, an indispensable addition to Adichie's canon.]]> 86 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 0593320808 Rhea 0 currently-reading 4.26 2021
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 40916679
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.

But she can't shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?

Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn't want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.]]> 433 Holly Jackson 1405293187 Rhea 4 4.30 2019
author: Holly Jackson
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/21
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Rhea 5 4.13 2021
author: Claire Keegan
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/06
date added: 2023/11/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 35959740
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.]]> 393 Madeline Miller 0316556343 Rhea 5 4.22 2018
author: Madeline Miller
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/16
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 58891551
As they fall in love, they dream of finding somewhere they belong, while Mungo works hard to hide his true self from all those around him, especially from his big brother Hamish, a local gang leader with a brutal reputation to uphold. And when several months later Mungo's mother sends him on a fishing trip to a loch in Western Scotland with two strange men whose drunken banter belies murky pasts, he will need to summon all his inner strength and courage to try to get back to a place of safety, a place where he and James might still have a future.

Imbuing the everyday world of its characters with rich lyricism and giving full voice to people rarely acknowledged in the literary world, Young Mungo is a gripping and revealing story about the bounds of masculinity, the divisions of sectarianism, the violence faced by many queer people, and the dangers of loving someone too much.]]> 390 Douglas Stuart 0802159559 Rhea 0 currently-reading 4.38 2022
author: Douglas Stuart
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 61718053
They broke up six months ago. And still haven’t told their best friends.

Which is how they find themselves sharing the largest bedroom at the Maine cottage that has been their friend group’s yearly getaway for the last decade. Their annual respite from the world, where for one vibrant, blue week they leave behind their daily lives; have copious amounts of cheese, wine, and seafood; and soak up the salty coastal air with the people who understand them most.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth while trying not to notice how desperately they still want each other. Because the cottage is for sale and this is the last week they’ll all have together in this place. They can’t stand to break their friends� hearts, and so they’ll play their parts. Harriet will be the driven surgical resident who never starts a fight, and Wyn will be the laid-back charmer who never lets the cracks show. It’s a flawless plan (if you look at it from a great distance and through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses). After years of being in love, how hard can it be to fake it for one week� in front of those who know you best?

A couple who broke up months ago make a pact to pretend to still be together for their annual weeklong vacation with their best friends in this glittering and wise new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441273 Rhea 0 to-read 3.95 2023
author: Emily Henry
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6900
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.]]> 210 Mitch Albom Rhea 0 to-read 4.19 1997
author: Mitch Albom
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Rhea 4 3.66 2015
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/10
date added: 2023/06/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 61771675
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano Rhea 0 to-read 4.14 2023
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 8143909
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.]]> 89 Claire Keegan 0571255655 Rhea 0 to-read 4.32 2010
author: Claire Keegan
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 75651263
Before my world came crashing down, I had it all. The successful career I dreamed of. The beautiful red-brick home where I could relax in front of the fire. The handsome, devoted husband whose blue eyes and charming smile always made me feel safe.

As I call time of death, my voice is steady. My colleagues stand hushed around me, their eyes on me, confused, concerned.

I have never lost a patient until today.

My hands tremble inside their gloves. I slide down the cold tiled walls, my heart racing in my chest.

I have never hated a patient until today.

But what choice did I have, once I recognized him?

And what will I do to protect myself, if someone learns the truth?]]> 290 Leslie Wolfe 1837902704 Rhea 0 to-read 3.89 2023
author: Leslie Wolfe
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50269327
Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, and dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?]]> 247 Sayaka Murata 1783785675 Rhea 0 to-read 3.59 2018
author: Sayaka Murata
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60053521
A hypnotic novella by K.R. Meera, deftly translated by Nisha Susan, Qabar echoes with the dizzying knowledge that verdicts are not solutions.]]> 111 K.R. Meera 9391234518 Rhea 0 to-read 3.97 2020
author: K.R. Meera
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1120649 224 Carl Muller 0140230319 Rhea 0 to-read 3.69 1993
author: Carl Muller
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/03/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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 Rhea 3 3.82 2020
author: Lucy Foley
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/03/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 52276782
For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents� murder-suicide…Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.

Bree knows how explosive the line between love and hate can be, yet the evidence against her troubled brother-in-law isn’t adding up. Teaming up with Justin’s old friend, former sheriff’s investigator and K-9 handler Matt Flynn, Bree vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death, as she promised Erin’s children. But as her investigation unfolds, the danger hits close to home. Once again, Bree’s family is caught in a death grip. And this time, it could be fatal for her.]]> 327 Melinda Leigh 1542015480 Rhea 0 to-read 4.31 2020
author: Melinda Leigh
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56213354
Look what you started.]]> 307 Paula Hawkins 073521123X Rhea 0 currently-reading 3.45 2021
author: Paula Hawkins
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 13153370
But Tom has another life, another equally overpowering claim on his affections. Patrick, a curator at the Brighton Museum, is also besotted with his policeman, and opens Tom's eyes to a world previously unknown to him. But in an age when those of 'minority status' were condemned by society and the law, it is safer for this policeman to marry his teacher. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.

Unfolding through the dual narratives of Marion and Patrick, both writing about the man at the centre of their lives, this beautifully-told, painful, tragic story is revealed.It is a tale of wasted years, misguided love and thwarted hope, of how at a time when the country was on the verge of change so much was still impossible.

Bethan Roberts has produced an intense and exquisitely raw yet tender novel, which proves her to be one of our most exciting young writers.]]> 352 Bethan Roberts 0701185848 Rhea 5 4.00 2012
author: Bethan Roberts
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/02/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.ĚýYet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Rhea 5 heart-breaking 4.28 2015
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/01
date added: 2023/02/01
shelves: heart-breaking
review:

]]> 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus Rhea 0 to-read 4.23 2022
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50365 A Suitable Boy takes us into the richly imagined world of four large extended families and spins a compulsively readable tale of their lives and loves. A sweeping panoramic portrait of a complex, multiethnic society in flux, A Suitable Boy remains the story of ordinary people caught up in a web of love and ambition, humor and sadness, prejudice and reconciliation, the most delicate social etiquette and the most appalling violence.]]> 1474 Vikram Seth 0060786523 Rhea 0 to-read 4.11 1993
author: Vikram Seth
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58885796 From the New York Times -bestselling author of Exit West , a story of love, loss, and rediscovery in a time of unsettling change.

One morning, a man wakes up to find himself transformed. Overnight, Anders’s skin has turned dark, and the reflection in the mirror seems a stranger to him. At first he shares his secret only with Oona, an old friend turned new lover. Soon, reports of similar events begin to surface. Across the land, people are awakening in new incarnations, uncertain how their neighbors, friends, and family will greet them. Some see the transformations as the long-dreaded overturning of the established order that must be resisted to a bitter end. In many, like Anders’s father and Oona’s mother, a sense of profound loss and unease wars with profound love. As the bond between Anders and Oona deepens, change takes on a different a chance at a kind of rebirth--an opportunity to see ourselves, face to face, anew.
Ěý
In Mohsin Hamid’s lyrical and urgent prose, The Last White Man powerfully uplifts our capacity for empathy and the transcendence over bigotry, fear, and anger it can achieve.]]> 192 Mohsin Hamid 0593538811 Rhea 0 to-read 3.43 2022
author: Mohsin Hamid
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 34842610 A beautiful, arresting short story by Toni Morrison—the only one she ever wrote—about race and the relationships that shape us through life, with an introduction by Zadie Smith.

Twyla and Roberta have known each other since they were eight years old and spent four months together as roommates in the St. Bonaventure shelter. Inseparable at the time, they lose touch as they grow older, only to find each other later at a diner, then at a grocery store, and again at a protest. Seemingly at opposite ends of every problem, and in disagreement each time they meet, the two women still cannot deny the deep bond their shared experience has forged between them.

Written in 1980 and anthologized in a number of collections, this is the first time Recitatif is being published as a stand-alone hardcover. In the story, Twyla's and Roberta's races remain ambiguous. We know that one is white and one is black, but which is which? And who is right about the race of the woman the girls tormented at the orphanage?

Morrison herself described this story as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial." Recitatif is a remarkable look into what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, and about how perceptions are made tangible by reality.]]> 19 Toni Morrison Rhea 5 4.31 1983
author: Toni Morrison
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/19
date added: 2023/01/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 18077400 156 Punathil Kunjabdulla 8126419296 Rhea 4 4.23 2008
author: Punathil Kunjabdulla
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 29216557 315 Joseph K. Jose 9352066537 Rhea 0 3.98 2016
author: Joseph K. Jose
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naĂŻve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]> 208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Rhea 0 currently-reading 4.41 2016
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 38746485
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.]]> 426 Michelle Obama 1524763136 Rhea 0 to-read 4.42 2018
author: Michelle Obama
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 233093 Have a ball with Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat in this classic picture book...but don't forget to clean up your mess!

Then he said That is that.
And then he was gone
With a tip of his hat.

A dreary day turns into a wild romp when this beloved story introduces readers to the Cat in the Hat and his troublemaking friends, Thing 1 and Thing 2 � And don't forget Fish! A favorite among kids, parents and teachers, this story uses simple words and basic rhyme to encourage and delight beginning readers.

Originally created by Dr. Seuss himself, Beginner Books are fun, funny, and easy to read. These unjacketed hardcover early readers encourage children to read all on their own, using simple words and illustrations. Smaller than the classic large format Seuss picture books like The Lorax and Oh, The Places You'll Go!, these portable packages are perfect for practicing readers ages 3-7, and lucky parents too!]]> 61 Dr. Seuss 039480001X Rhea 0 4.19 1957
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1957
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 36336078 Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents' cliff-side mansion on the Italian Riviera. Unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, at first each feigns indifference. But during the restless summer weeks that follow, unrelenting buried currents of obsession and fear, fascination and desire, intensify their passion as they test the charged ground between them. What grows from the depths of their spirits is a romance of scarcely six weeks' duration and an experience that marks them for a lifetime. For what the two discover on the Riviera and during a sultry evening in Rome is the one thing both already fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy.

The psychological maneuvers that accompany attraction have seldom been more shrewdly captured than in André Aciman's frank, unsentimental, heartrending elegy to human passion. Call Me by Your Name is clear-eyed, bare-knuckled, and ultimately unforgettable.]]> 248 André Aciman 1786495252 Rhea 0 to-read 4.08 2007
author: André Aciman
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 12000020
But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other—and the power of their friendship—can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.]]> 390 Benjamin Alire Sáenz 1442408928 Rhea 0 to-read 4.29 2012
author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 131359
Who is also on board? Christie's great detective Hercule Poirot is on holiday. He recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: �I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.� Despite the exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…]]> 352 Agatha Christie Rhea 0 4.13 1937
author: Agatha Christie
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 16328
The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of Veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells� before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.

Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920; 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923; 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; 4) The Big Four, 1927; 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928; 6) Peril at End House, 1932; 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933; 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935; 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935; 11) The A.B.C. Murders, 1936; 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936; 13) Cards on the Table, 1936; 14) Dumb Witness, 1937; and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937. These are just the novels; Poirot also appears in this period in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937. Each novel, play and short story has its own entry on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ.]]> 288 Agatha Christie 1579126278 Rhea 0 currently-reading 4.26 1926
author: Agatha Christie
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1926
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 59808228 With Behind Closed Doors, B.A. Paris takes the psychological thriller to shocking new heights. Now she'll hold you captive with this stunning new thriller about one woman wed into a family with deadly intentions.

THEN
Amelie has always been a survivor, from losing her parents as a child in Paris to making it on her own in London. As she builds a life for herself, she is swept up into a glamorous lifestyle where she married the handsome billionaire Ned Hawthorne.

NOW
But then, Amelie wakes up in a pitch-black room, not knowing where she is. Why has she been taken? Who are her mysterious captors? And why does she soon feel safer here, imprisoned, than she had begun to feel with her husband Ned?

In true B.A. Paris style, The Prisoner is a gripping survival story, a twisted tale of love and at its dark heart a thriller to keep you up all night.]]> 298 B.A. Paris 1250274141 Rhea 0 to-read 3.54 2022
author: B.A. Paris
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 343 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.

In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity.]]> 263 Patrick Süskind Rhea 0 to-read 4.05 1985
author: Patrick SĂĽskind
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 32187419 A sharply intelligent novel about two college students and the strange, unexpected connection they forge with a married couple.

Frances is twenty-one years old, cool-headed, and darkly observant. A college student and aspiring writer, she devotes herself to a life of the mind--and to the beautiful and endlessly self-possessed Bobbi, her best friend and comrade-in-arms. Lovers at school, the two young women now perform spoken-word poetry together in Dublin, where a journalist named Melissa spots their potential. Drawn into Melissa's orbit, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband. Private property, Frances believes, is a cultural evil--and Nick, a bored actor who never quite lived up to his potential, looks like patriarchy made flesh. But however amusing their flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy neither of them expect. As Frances tries to keep her life in check, her relationships increasingly resist her control: with Nick, with her difficult and unhappy father, and finally even with Bobbi. Desperate to reconcile herself to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances's intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.

Written with gem-like precision and probing intelligence, Conversations With Friends is wonderfully alive to the pleasures and dangers of youth."]]> 304 Sally Rooney 0451499077 Rhea 0 to-read 3.74 2017
author: Sally Rooney
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

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

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

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

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 Rhea 0 to-read 4.20 2019
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 10917 New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age 13 she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged ... until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.]]> 423 Jodi Picoult 0743454537 Rhea 0 to-read 4.10 2004
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7896527 Meet Celaena Sardothien.

Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, Celaena, an assassin, is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the king’s champion.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass—and it’s there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena’s fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, and a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.]]> 406 Sarah J. Maas Rhea 0 4.19 2012
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 61846327
BUT CAN LIGHT ENDURE?

INDIA, 3400 BCE.

Greed. Rage. Grief. Love. Smouldering tinder, waiting to trigger a war.

But this war is different. This one is for Dharma. This war is for the greatest Goddess of them all.

Sita has been kidnapped. Defiantly, she dares Raavan to kill her - she'd rather die than allow Ram to surrender.

Ram is beside himself with grief and rage. He prepares for war. Fury is his fuel. Calm focus, his guide.

Raavan thought he was invincible. He thought he'd negotiate and force a surrender. Little did he know ...

The first three books of the second-fastest-selling book series in Indian publishing history - the Ram Chandra Series - explore the individual journeys of Ram, Sita and Raavan. In this, the epic fourth book of the series, their narrative strands crash into each other, and explode in a slaughterous war.

Will Ram defeat the ruthless and fiendish Raavan, constrained as he is by the laws of Dharma? Will Lanka burn to a cinder or fight back like a cornered tiger? Will the terrible costs of war be worth the victory?

Most importantly, will the Vishnu rise? And will the real enemies of the land fear the Vishnu? For fear is the mother of love.]]> 500 Amish Tripathi 9356291527 Rhea 0 to-read 3.54
author: Amish Tripathi
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.54
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40948565
4000 years ago, He was just a man.

The hunt is on. The sinister Naga warrior has killed his friend Brahaspati and now stalks his wife Sati. Shiva, the Tibetan immigrant who is the prophesied destroyer of evil, will not rest till he finds his demonic adversary. His vengeance and the path to evil will lead him to the door of the Nagas, the serpent people. Of that he is certain.

The evidence of the malevolent rise of evil is everywhere. A kingdom is dying as it is held to ransom for a miracle drug. A crown prince is murdered. The Vasudevs Shivas philosopher guides betray his unquestioning faith as they take the aid of the dark side. Even the perfect empire, Meluha is riddled with a terrible secret in Maika, the city of births. Unknown to Shiva, a master puppeteer is playing a grand game.

In a journey that will take him across the length and breadth of ancient India, Shiva searches for the truth in a land of deadly mysteries only to find that nothing is what it seems.

Fierce battles will be fought. Surprising alliances will be forged. Unbelievable secrets will be revealed in this second book of the Shiva Trilogy, the sequel to the #1 national bestseller, The Immortals of Meluha.]]> 398 Amish Tripathi Rhea 4 4.31 2011
author: Amish Tripathi
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 22615594 Anna Adams 1311105220 Rhea 0 4.27 2014
author: Anna Adams
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 21466802 Between balls, concerts, and navigating in the French elite, Maude has to prove she’s cut out to become a professional opera singer in a world where pop music is regarded with disdain.
Though she fights it, her past catches up with her when she meets an English teacher who takes her down an unusual musical journey where the risk is great and the reward uncertain and forces her to see a world beyond the safety of the Academy. When a chain of events bring her and Matt back in the same town, Maude will learn that music can bring people closer or tear them apart forever.]]> Anna Adams Rhea 0 4.23 2014
author: Anna Adams
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 18948067
But when scandal strikes, Maude must part ways with Matt and watch Soulville Records fall into the hands of an ambitious Alan Lewis, who will stop at nothing to turn Maude into an unparalleled star.

Between glamorous parties, an unauthorized tell-all book, a web of lies, new revelations about her French past, and her rivalry with Lindsey Linton attaining a whole new level, Maude must fight for her voice to be heard and decide if being a star is more important than her love for music.]]> 249 Anna Adams Rhea 0 4.26 2013
author: Anna Adams
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 21750448 362 Anna Adams 1301560774 Rhea 0 3.91 2012
author: Anna Adams
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 25132578 "There's a fire growing inside of me. It's not the harmful kind that can kill a girl like Olivia. It's the kind that can save her."

CRYSTAL FROST tells herself she isn't crazy, but sane people don't see ghosts. As her psychic abilities manifest, Crystal discovers she can see into the future, witness the past, and speak with the dead. Add blackmail to the list of things she never thought would happen to her, and you basically have her sophomore year covered. After spotting her first ghost, secrets from her family, friends, and classmates begin to surface. Uncovering secrets can be dangerous, but giving up means someone will get hurt. Again.]]> 246 Alicia Rades 0991469348 Rhea 3 3.82 2015
author: Alicia Rades
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 21847057
When she’s upset, she can hear what other people are thinking. And when she’s overwhelmed, things explode.

A move to Clearwater, Michigan, gives her the chance to reinvent herself, but a fresh start is further away than she realizes. Her abilities magnify—making her a target for Crystal Jamison and the town’s circle of witches.

Even with new friends at her side, Krissa can’t ignore the witches� magnetic pull—especially when a strange illness rips through the town.

If Krissa doesn’t push her fears aside, she could lose more than control. Learning to wield magic could consume her. Ignoring her gift could destroy the world.]]> 241 Madeline Freeman Rhea 3 3.94 2014
author: Madeline Freeman
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 18950609 The middle of nowhere just got a lot more interesting!

Nerdy astronomy geek Marsha, M to her few friends, has never been anybody special. Orphaned as an infant and reluctantly raised by an overly-strict "aunt," she's not even sure who she is. M's dream of someday escaping tiny Jewel, Indiana and making her mark in the world seems impossibly distant until hot new quarterback Rigel inexplicably befriends her. As Rigel turns his back on fawning cheerleaders to spend time with M, strange things start to happen: her acne clears up, her eyesight improves to the point she can ditch her thick glasses, and when they touch, sparks fly--literally! When M digs for a reason, she discovers deep secrets that will change her formerly mundane life forever... and expose her to perils she never dreamed of.
Ěý
Book 1 of the award-winning Starstruck series, where teen romance blends with science fiction to open a whole new world of action, adventure and discovery.]]> 329 Brenda Hiatt 1940618010 Rhea 3 3.96 2013
author: Brenda Hiatt
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 13014758 മലയാളത്തിന്റ� അഭിമാനമാ� എം.ടി വാസ�ദേവന്� നായര�ട� മറ്റൊര� മനോഹരസ�ഷ്ട�, അസ�രവിത്ത്�.]]> 274 M.T. Vasudevan Nair 8171303315 Rhea 4 3.90 1962
author: M.T. Vasudevan Nair
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 49110165
Martha told Patrick before they got married that she didn't want to have children. He said he didn't mind either way because he has loved her since he was fourteen and making her happy is all that matters, although he does not seem able to do it.

By the time Martha finds out what is wrong, it doesn't really matter anymore. It is too late to get the only thing she has ever wanted. Or maybe it will turn out that you can stop loving someone and start again from nothing - if you can find something else to want.]]> 352 Meg Mason Rhea 0 to-read 4.08 2020
author: Meg Mason
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 54814676
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band � and meeting the man who would become her husband � her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 243 Michelle Zauner 0525657746 Rhea 0 to-read 4.25 2021
author: Michelle Zauner
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60064252
"My pen is the wing of a bird; it will tell you those thoughts we are not allowed to think, those dreams we are not allowed to dream"

A woman's fortitude saves her village from disaster. A teenager explores their identity in a moment of quiet. A petition writer reflects on his life as a dog lies nursing her puppies. A tormented girl tries to find love through a horrific act. A headmaster makes his way to work, treading the fine line between life and death.

"A precious collection of work, the first and maybe the last of its kind. My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird is a huge accomplishment" MONIQUE ROFFEY, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch

My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird is a landmark collection: the first anthology of short fiction by Afghan women. Eighteen writers tell stories that are both unique and universal - stories of family, work, childhood, friendship, war, gender identity and cultural traditions.

"This book reminds us that everyone has a story. Stories matter; so too the storytellers. Afghan women writers, informed and inspired by their own personal experiences, are best placed to bring us these powerful insights into the lives of Afghans and, most of all, the lives of women. Women's lives, in their own words - they matter." Lyse Doucet in her Introduction

This collection introduces extraordinary voices from the country's two main linguistic groups (Pashto and Dari) with original, vital and unexpected stories to tell, developed over two years through UNTOLD's Write Afghanistan project. My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird comes at a pivotal moment in Afghanistan's history, when these voices must be heard.

With an Introduction by BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet and an Afterword by Lucy Hannah

ABOUT UNTOLD

UNTOLD is a writer development programme for marginalised writers in areas of conflict and post-conflict. Afghanistan has millions of Pashto and Dari speakers with little or no local support for creative writing, literary translation, or literary editing. Support for writers has been hampered by cultural norms, free expression issues, chronic instability, and internal displacement. UNTOLD has been working one-to-one with women on their short stories, with English-speaking literary editors and translators working with the writers to realise the potential of their stories for publication both locally and globally in translation.]]> 253 Lyse Doucet 1529422213 Rhea 0 to-read 4.25 2022
author: Lyse Doucet
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58725016
Clytemnestra
The sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon - her hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris. Her husband raises a great army against them, and determines to win, whatever the cost.

Cassandra
Princess of Troy, and cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. She is powerless in her knowledge that the city will fall.

Elektra
The youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin. But, can she escape the curse, or is her own destiny also bound by violence?]]> 291 Jennifer Saint 125077361X Rhea 0 to-read 3.64 2022
author: Jennifer Saint
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58107511 “Cłó´Çł¦´Ç±ô˛ąłŮâ€� soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Man’s Land.

Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isn’t a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend?

Peppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop's At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a man’s descent into madness.

Selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens, David Diop’s English-language, historical fiction debut At Night All Blood is Black is a “powerful, hypnotic, and dark novel� (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War.]]> 145 David Diop 1782277536 Rhea 0 to-read 3.79 2018
author: David Diop
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55835966 Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma, and resilience from the celebrated collaborator on Beyoncé's Lemonade and Black Is King, award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire.

Mama, I made it
out of your home,
alive, raised by the
voices in my head.

With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own stumbling way towards womanhood. Drawing from her own life and the lives of loved ones, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women, and teenage girls. In Shire's hands, lives spring into fullness. This is noisy life: full of music and weeping and surahs and sirens and birds. This is fragrant life: full of blood and perfume and shisha smoke and jasmine and incense. This is polychrome life: full of henna and moonlight and lipstick and turmeric and kohl.

The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets, this book is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of resilience and survival. Each reader will come away changed.]]> 86 Warsan Shire 0593134354 Rhea 0 to-read 4.21 2022
author: Warsan Shire
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57809811
Bringing us her truth in an arresting, unsparing Trinidadian voice, Alethea unravels memories repressed since childhood and begins to understand the person she has become.

Her next step is to decide the woman she wants to be.

This is an engrossing and atmospheric novel with a strong feminist message at the heart of its page-turning plot. It explores an abusive love-affair with searing honesty, and skilfully tackles the issue of gender violence and racism against the lush and heady backdrop of the national festival, and the music that feeds it. It’s impossible not to root for Alethea � she is an unforgettable heroine, trapped in ways she is only just beginning to understand but shining with strength, resolve and, ultimately, self-determination.]]> 277 Lisa Allen-Agostini 1912408988 Rhea 0 to-read 3.99 2021
author: Lisa Allen-Agostini
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56802275 A unique tale that interweaves crime fiction with intimate tales of morality and search for individual freedom.

After Rita is found dead in the bell tower of the church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.]]> 143 Claudia Piñeiro Rhea 0 to-read 4.09 2007
author: Claudia Piñeiro
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57224204
Ten years after his prize-winning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors, Shehan Karunatilaka is back with a “thrilling satire� (Economist) and rip-roaring state-of-the-nation epic that offers equal parts mordant wit and disturbing, profound truths.]]> 386 Shehan Karunatilaka 1908745908 Rhea 0 to-read 3.89 2022
author: Shehan Karunatilaka
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 55410610
But at night, Panenka suffers crippling headaches that he calls his Iron Mask. Faced with losing everything, he meets Esther, a woman who has come to live in the town to escape her own disappointments. Together, they find resonance in each other’s experiences and learn new ways to let love into their broken lives.]]> 164 Ronan Hession 1910422673 Rhea 0 to-read 3.98 2021
author: Ronan Hession
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 33970903
Orphaned at a young age and wrenched away from her foster family, Sivagami is waiting for the day she can avenge the death of her beloved father, cruelly branded a traitor. Her enemy? None other than the king of Mahishmathi. With unflinching belief in her father’s innocence, the fiery young orphan is driven to clear his name and destroy the empire of Mahishmathi against all odds. How far can she go in her audacious journey?

From the pen of masterful storyteller and bestselling author Anand Neelakantan, comes The Rise of Sivagami, the first book in the series Baahubali: Before the Beginning. A tale of intrigue and power, revenge and betrayal, the revelations in The Rise of Sivagami will grip the reader and not let go.]]> 474 Anand Neelakantan 9386224445 Rhea 0 3.72 2017
author: Anand Neelakantan
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 18684615
CROSSWORD AWARD 2014 SHORTLISTED

THE MAHABHARATA ENDURES AS THE GREAT EPIC OF INDIA. But while Jaya is the story of the Pandavas, told from the perspective of the victors of Kurukshetra; Ajaya is the narrative of the �unconquerable� Kauravas, who were decimated to the last man.

***
At the heart of India’s most powerful empire, a revolution is brewing. Bhishma, the noble patriarch of Hastinapura, is struggling to maintain the unity of his empire. On the throne sits Dhritarashtra, the blind King, and his foreign-born Queen � Gandhari. In the shadow of the throne stands Kunti, the Dowager-Queen, burning with ambition to see her firstborn become the ruler, acknowledged by all.

And in the wings:
* Parashurama, the enigmatic Guru of the powerful Southern Confederate, bides his time to take over and impose his will from mountains to ocean.
* Ekalavya, a young Nishada, yearns to break free of caste restrictions and become a warrior.
* Karna, son of a humble charioteer, travels to the South to study under the foremost Guru of the day and become the greatest archer in the land.
* Balarama, the charismatic leader of the Yadavas, dreams of building the perfect city by the sea and seeing his people prosperous and proud once more.
* Takshaka, guerilla leader of the Nagas, foments a revolution by the downtrodden as he lies in wait in the jungles of India, where survival is the only dharma.
* Jara, the beggar, and his blind dog Dharma, walk the dusty streets of India, witness to people and events far greater than they, as the Pandavas and the Kauravas confront their searing destinies.

Amidst the chaos, Prince Suyodhana, heir of Hastinapura, stands tall, determined to claim his birthright and act according to his conscience. He is the maker of his own destiny � or so he believes. While in the corridors of the Hastinapura palace, a foreign Prince plots to destroy India. And the dice falls…]]> 456 Anand Neelakantan 9381576033 Rhea 0 4.03 2013
author: Anand Neelakantan
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 785454 “In the summer of 1947, when the creation of the state of Pakistan was formally announced, ten million people—Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs—were in flight. By the time the monsoon broke, almost a million of them were dead, and all of northern India was in arms, in terror, or in hiding. The only remaining oases of peace were a scatter of little villages lost in the remote reaches of the frontier. One of these villages was Mano Majra.�

It is a place, Khushwant Singh goes on to tell us at the beginning of this classic novel, where Sikhs and Muslims have lived together in peace for hundreds of years. Then one day, at the end of the summer, the “ghost train� arrives, a silent, incredible funeral train loaded with the bodies of thousands of refugees, bringing the village its first taste of the horrors of the civil war. Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.

Introduction by Arthur Lall]]> 181 Khushwant Singh 0802132219 Rhea 0 3.92 1956
author: Khushwant Singh
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 60556912
Every day I clean the Winchesters� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

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�

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Rhea 4 4.31 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/13
date added: 2023/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 25384844
This book is everything� this book is for all who are breathing and for all who are no longer here.

This book is for you.]]> 272 Robert M. Drake 0986262749 Rhea 0 to-read 4.05 2015
author: Robert M. Drake
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 406235 178 James Baldwin Rhea 0 to-read 4.40 1956
author: James Baldwin
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 49977811 Set in early 1980s Poland against the violent decline of communism,Ěýa tender and passionate story of first love between two young men who eventually find themselves on opposite sides of the political divide—a stunningly poetic and heartrending literary debut for fans of Andre Aciman, Garth Greenwell, and Alan Hollinghurst.

When university student Ludwik meets Janusz at a summer agricultural camp, he is fascinated yet wary of this handsome, carefree stranger. But a chance meeting by the river soon becomes an intense, exhilarating, and all-consuming affair. After their camp duties are fulfilled, the pair spend a dreamlike few weeks camping in the countryside, bonding over an illicit copy of James Baldwin’sĚýGiovanni’s Room. Inhabiting a beautiful natural world removed from society and its constraints, Ludwik and Janusz fall deeply in love. But in their repressive communist and Catholic society, the passion they share is utterly unthinkable.

Once they return to Warsaw, the charismatic Janusz quickly rises in the political ranks of the party and is rewarded with a highly-coveted position in the ministry. Ludwik is drawn toward impulsive acts of protest, unable to ignore rising food prices and the stark economic disparity around them. Their secret love and personal and political differences slowly begin to tear them apart as both men struggle to survive in a regime on the brink of collapse.

Shifting from the intoxication of first love to the quiet melancholy of growing up and growing apart,ĚýSwimming in the DarkĚýis a potent blend of romance, post-war politics, intrigue, and history. Lyrical and sensual, immersive and intense, Tomasz Jedrowski has crafted an indelible and thought-provoking literary debut that explores freedom and love in all its incarnations.]]> 191 Tomasz Jedrowski 006289000X Rhea 0 to-read 4.25 2020
author: Tomasz Jedrowski
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 40539136 The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress/writer Molly Ringwald.

We drive at high speed along back roads, through woods, vineyards, and oat fields. The bike smells like gasoline and makes a lot of noise, and sometimes I’m frightened when the wheels slip on the gravel on the dirt road, but the only thing that matters is that I’m holding on to him, that I’m holding on to him outside.

Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.

Dazzlingly rendered in English by Ringwald in her first-ever translation, Besson’s powerfully moving coming-of-age story captures the eroticism and tenderness of first love—and the heartbreaking passage of time.]]> 149 Philippe Besson 1501197878 Rhea 0 to-read 4.25 2017
author: Philippe Besson
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44890081
2000. Bright, ambitious, and yearning for adulthood, fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye becomes entangled in an affair with Jacob Strane, her magnetic and guileful forty-two-year-old English teacher.

2017. Amid the rising wave of allegations against powerful men, a reckoning is coming due. Strane has been accused of sexual abuse by a former student, who reaches out to Vanessa, and now Vanessa suddenly finds herself facing an impossible choice: remain silent, firm in the belief that her teenage self willingly engaged in this relationship, or redefine herself and the events of her past. But how can Vanessa reject her first love, the man who fundamentally transformed her and has been a persistent presence in her life? Is it possible that the man she loved as a teenager—and who professed to worship only her—may be far different from what she has always believed?

Alternating between Vanessa’s present and her past, My Dark Vanessa juxtaposes memory and trauma with the breathless excitement of a teenage girl discovering the power her own body can wield. Thought-provoking and impossible to put down, this is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions that raises vital questions about agency, consent, complicity, and victimhood. Written with the haunting intimacy of The Girls and the creeping intensity of Room, My Dark Vanessa is an era-defining novel that brilliantly captures and reflects the shifting cultural mores transforming our relationships and society itself.]]> 373 Kate Elizabeth Russell 006294150X Rhea 0 to-read 4.09 2020
author: Kate Elizabeth Russell
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57773248
Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him.

Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the homicide detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.]]> 306 Danya Kukafka 0063052733 Rhea 0 to-read 4.04 2022
author: Danya Kukafka
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
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 Rhea 0 to-read 4.17 2022
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
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 Rhea 0 to-read 4.12 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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 Rhea 0 to-read 4.45 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58678518
If sex is a truth-teller, Eve--a young, queer woman in Brooklyn--is looking for answers. On an evening when she is feeling particularly impulsive, she posts some nude photos of herself online. This is how Eve meets Olivia, and through Olivia, the charismatic Nathan--and soon the three begin a relationship that disturbs Eve as much as it delights her. As each act of the affair unfolds, Eve is left to ask: to whom is she responsible? And to what extent do our desires determine who we are?

In the way that only great fiction can, Acts of Service takes between its teeth the contradictions written all over our ideas of sex and sexuality. As incisive as it is exhilarating, this novel asks us to face our ideas about desire and power: what sex means to us, the forces that shape it, and how we find--or lose--ourselves in intimacy. At once juicy and intellectually challenging, sacred and profane, it might be the most thought-provoking book you read all year.]]> 240 Lillian Fishman 0593243765 Rhea 0 to-read 3.08 2022
author: Lillian Fishman
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57693262 For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.

Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.

Each compulsively readable chapter explores the lives of Cleo, Frank, and an unforgettable cast of their closest friends and family as they grow up and grow older. Whether it's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender queerness in the wake of Cleo's marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates to support herself after being cut off, or Cleo and Frank themselves as they discover the trials of marriage and mental illness, each character is as absorbing, and painfully relatable, as the last.

As hilarious as it is heartbreaking, entertaining as it is deeply moving, Cleopatra and Frankenstein marks the entry of a brilliant and bold new talent.]]> 368 Coco Mellors 1635576814 Rhea 0 to-read 3.70 2022
author: Coco Mellors
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 53414230
At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential British debut of recent years.]]> 145 Caleb Azumah Nelson 0241448778 Rhea 0 to-read 4.03 2021
author: Caleb Azumah Nelson
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50196744
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.

Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.]]> 384 Chanel Miller 0735223718 Rhea 0 to-read 4.69 2019
author: Chanel Miller
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 11339 232 Pablo Neruda 0292760280 Rhea 0 to-read 4.42 1959
author: Pablo Neruda
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 51042792 368 Phoebe Waller-Bridge 1529394805 Rhea 0 to-read 4.88 2019
author: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
name: Rhea
average rating: 4.88
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 32283133
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. Following a trail illuminated 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]]> 461 Dan Brown 0385514239 Rhea 3 3.81 2017
author: Dan Brown
name: Rhea
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves:
review:

]]>