Malinda's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 18:05:56 -0700 60 Malinda's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing]]> 59641216
So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.

In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all.

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.]]> 250 Matthew Perry 1250866448 Malinda 0 currently-reading 3.89 2022 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
author: Matthew Perry
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Malinda 0 currently-reading 4.62 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games, #0.5)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> A Very Punchable Face 48989372
From growing up in a family of firefighters on Staten Island to commuting three hours a day to high school and “seeing the sights� (like watching a Russian woman throw a stroller off the back of a ferry), to attending Harvard while Facebook was created, Jost shares how he has navigated the world like a slightly smarter Forrest Gump.

You’ll also discover things about Jost that will surprise and confuse you, like how Jimmy Buffett saved his life, how Czech teenagers attacked him with potato salad, how an insect laid eggs inside his legs, and how he competed in a twenty-five-man match at WrestleMania (and almost won). You’ll go behind the scenes at SNL and Weekend Update (where he’s written some of the most memorable sketches and jokes of the past fifteen years). And you’ll experience the life of a touring stand-up comedian—from performing in rural college cafeterias at noon to opening for Dave Chappelle at Radio City Music Hall.

For every accomplishment (hosting the Emmys), there is a setback (hosting the Emmys). And for every absurd moment (watching paramedics give CPR to a raccoon), there is an honest, emotional one (recounting his mother’s experience on the scene of the Twin Towers� collapse on 9/11). Told with a healthy dose of self-deprecation, A Very Punchable Face reveals the brilliant mind behind some of the dumbest sketches on television, and lays bare the heart and humor of a hardworking guy—with a face you can’t help but want to punch.]]> 312 Colin Jost 1101906324 Malinda 4 4.20 2020 A Very Punchable Face
author: Colin Jost
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fifty Feminist Mantras: A Yearlong Practice for Cultivating Feminist Consciousness]]> 50898133
Fifty Feminist Mantras Ěýbegan as a weekly blog post and blossomed into a year-long project with the purpose of helping readers embrace feminism and themselves as feminists. Inside are fifty mantras—memorable phrases or words—arranged by week and season. Each mantra is paired with guided reflections and writing prompts, along with journal pages for readers to fill.

Sample

Grow
As we consider soft power, I invite you to experiment with growing softer. How might this make you more powerful?
Ěý
Enact Your
Which of your emotions lead you toward other people and into action with them? (Does being angry rile you up the most? Being hurt? Falling in love? Feeling scammed?) How you can express those emotions with purpose?
Ěý]]> 192 Amelia Hruby 152485882X Malinda 0 to-read 4.30 Fifty Feminist Mantras: A Yearlong Practice for Cultivating Feminist Consciousness
author: Amelia Hruby
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.30
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Frozen River 112975658 A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

Clever, layered, and subversive, Ariel Lawhon’s newest offering introduces an unsung heroine who refused to accept anything less than justice at a time when women were considered best seen and not heard. The Frozen River is a thrilling, tense, and tender story about a remarkable woman who left an unparalleled legacy yet remains nearly forgotten to this day.]]> 432 Ariel Lawhon 0385546874 Malinda 0 currently-reading 4.37 2023 The Frozen River
author: Ariel Lawhon
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> The God of the Woods 199698485 When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide

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

As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.]]> 490 Liz Moore Malinda 5 4.15 2024 The God of the Woods
author: Liz Moore
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne]]> 211025396
On a cold winter day in 1832, Sarah Cornell was found hanging in a barn, four months pregnant, after a disgraceful liaison with a charismatic Methodist minister, Reverend Ephraim Avery. Some (Avery’s lawyers) claimed her death was suicide…but others weren’t so sure. Determined to uncover the real story, intrepid Victorian writer Catharine Williams threw herself into the investigation and wrote what many claim is the first American true-crime narrative, Fall River. The case and Williams� book became a sensation—one that divided the country and inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. But the reverend was not convicted, and questions linger to this day about what really led to Sarah Cornell’s death. Until now.

In The Sinners All Bow, acclaimed true-crime historian Kate Winkler Dawson travels back in time to 19th century small town America, emboldened to finish the work Williams started nearly two centuries before. Using modern investigative advancements—such as “forensic knot analysis� to determine cause of death, the prosecutor’s notes from 1833, and criminal profiling which was invented 55 years later with Jack the Ripper—Dawson fills in the gaps of Williams� research to find the truth. Along the way she also examines how society decides who is the “right kind� of crime victim and how America’s long history of religious evangelism may have clouded the facts both in the 1830s and today. Ultimately, The Sinners All Bow brings justice to an unsettling mystery that speaks to our past as well as our present, anchored by three women who subverted the script they were given.]]> 320 Kate Winkler Dawson 0593713613 Malinda 4 3.51 2025 The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne
author: Kate Winkler Dawson
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/03/09
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]]> <![CDATA[More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew]]> 61913613
John Blake grew up in a notorious Black neighborhood in inner-city Baltimore that became the setting for the HBO series The Wire. There he became a self-described “closeted biracial person,� hostile toward white people while hiding the truth of his mother’s race. The son of a Black man and a white woman who met when interracial marriage was still illegal, Blake knew this much about his mother: She vanished from his life not long after his birth, and her family rejected him because of his race.

But at the age of seventeen, Blake had a surprise encounter that uncovered a disturbing family secret. This launched him on a quest to reconcile with his white family. His search centered on two “Where is my mother?� and “Where do I belong?� More Than I Imagined is Blake’s propulsive true story about how he answered those questions with the help of an interracial church, a loving caregiver’s sacrifice, and an inexplicable childhood encounter that taught him the importance of forgiveness.

Blake covered some of the biggest stories about race in America for twenty-five years before realizing that “facts don’t change people, relationships do.� He owes this discovery to “radical integration,� which was the only way forward for him and his family—and is the only way forward for America as a multiracial democracy. More Than I Imagined is a hopeful story for our difficult times.]]> 240 John K. Blake 0593443047 Malinda 0 to-read 4.25 More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew
author: John K. Blake
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Vaster Wilds 62952130
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.

Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.]]> 272 Lauren Groff 0593418395 Malinda 0 to-read 3.73 2016 The Vaster Wilds
author: Lauren Groff
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Mountain in the Sea 59808603 Humankind discovers intelligent life in an octopus species with its own language and culture, and sets off a high-stakes global competition to dominate the future.

Rumors begin to spread of a species of hyperintelligent, dangerous octopus that may have developed its own language and culture. Marine biologist Dr. Ha Nguyen, who has spent her life researching cephalopod intelligence, will do anything for the chance to study them.

The transnational tech corporation DIANIMA has sealed the remote Con Dao Archipelago, where the octopuses were discovered, off from the world. Dr. Nguyen joins DIANIMA’s team on the islands: a battle-scarred security agent and the world’s first android.

The octopuses hold the key to unprecedented breakthroughs in extrahuman intelligence. The stakes are high: there are vast fortunes to be made by whoever can take advantage of the octopuses� advancements, and as Dr. Nguyen struggles to communicate with the newly discovered species, forces larger than DIANIMA close in to seize the octopuses for themselves.

But no one has yet asked the octopuses what they think. And what they might do about it.

A near-future thriller about the nature of consciousness, Ray Nayler’s The Mountain in the Sea is a dazzling literary debut and a mind-blowing dive into the treasure and wreckage of humankind’s legacy.]]> 456 Ray Nayler 0374605955 Malinda 0 to-read 3.87 2022 The Mountain in the Sea
author: Ray Nayler
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> Swan Song (Nantucket, #4) 200484931 In the grand finale of "queen of the beach read" Elin Hilderbrand's beloved Nantucket novels, there's a new couple in town... and they instantly shake things up. Amid the extravagant parties on land and sea, there's trouble on the island, forcing Chief of Police Ed Kapanesh to postpone his retirement and changing the fabric of life on the picturesque island forever...

After thirty-five years serving as the Chief of Police on the island of Nantucket, Ed Kapenash's heart can no longer take the stress. But his plans to retire are thwarted when, with only three days left to serve, he receives a phone call. A 22-million-dollar summer home, recently purchased by the flashy new couple in town, the Richardsons, has burned to the ground. The Richardsons are far from hurt—in fact, they're out on the water, throwing a lavish party on their yacht—but when news of the fire reaches them, they discover that their personal assistant has vanished. The Chief is well-acquainted with the Richardsons, and his daughter is best friends with the now-missing girl, leaving him no choice but to postpone his retirement and take on the double case.

On a small island like Nantucket, the Richardsons shook things up from the second they stepped on to the scene, throwing luxurious parties and doing whatever they could to gain admittance to the coveted lunches at the Field & Oar Club (with increasing desperation). They instantly captured the attention of local real estate agent Fast Eddie, and the town gossip Blond Sharon, both dealing with their own personal dramas. Blond Sharon is going through a divorce, and in order to avoid becoming a cliché, she's enrolled in a creative writing class, putting her natural affinity for scandal towards a more noble purpose. To solve the case of the fire and track down his daughter's best friend, the Chief will have to string together the pieces of the lives of all of these characters and more, rallying his strength for his final act of service to the tight-knit community he knows and loves.

The last of Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling Nantucket novels, Swan Song is a propulsive medley of glittering gatherings, sun-soaked drama, wisdom and heart, featuring the return of some of her most beloved characters, including, most importantly, the beautiful and timeless island of Nantucket itself.]]> 384 Elin Hilderbrand 0316258873 Malinda 4 3.98 2024 Swan Song (Nantucket, #4)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[From Here to the Great Unknown]]> 204905217
A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words, never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved.

Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, laid in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland, about the unconditional love she felt from her father, about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, about being married to Michael Jackson, what they shared in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief. Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world.

To make her mother known.

This extraordinary book is written in both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating—from this world to the one beyond—as they try to heal each other. Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other—the last words of the only child of an American icon.]]> 304 Lisa Marie Presley 0593733878 Malinda 5 4.26 2024 From Here to the Great Unknown
author: Lisa Marie Presley
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/10
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
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]]> We Used to Live Here 199898250
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 320 Marcus Kliewer Malinda 3 3.77 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/15
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Here One Moment 208894791 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.
Ěý
Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.
Ěý
How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�
Ěý
Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.
Ěý
A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.
Ěý
If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?
Ěý
Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintainĚýcertainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 505 Liane Moriarty 0593798619 Malinda 5 4.18 2024 Here One Moment
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
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]]> <![CDATA[Savage Love from A to Z: Advice on Sex and Relationships, Dating and Mating, Exes and Extras]]> 56824153 America's premier sex advice columnist takes on edgier-than-ever sex-positive topics with his signature candor in his first illustrated collection of adults-only essays, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Savage Love column.ĚýDan Savage has been talking frankly about sex and relationships for 30 years, and has built an international following thanks to his sex-positive Savage Love column and podcast. To celebrate this milestone comes Savage Love from A to Z, an illustrated collection of 26 never-before-published essays that provides a thoughtful, frank dive into Savage's trademark phrases and philosophies. This hardcover book is for anyone who's had sex, is currently having sex, or hopes to have sex!Essays cover a variety of Is for BoredomF Is for Fuck FirstG Is for GGG (Good Giving Game)M Is for MonogamishWhether he's talking about issues like compatibility or specific sex acts, you can be sure he's giving it to you straight. Short excerpts from his classic columns kick off each essay and cheeky illustrations by his longtime collaborator Joe Newton complement the topic at hand. Savage has moved the needle toward a more open discourse around sex, relationships, and intimacy, and this book will both inspire and inform his legions of fans. An ideal stocking stuffer!]]> 162 Dan Savage 1632173832 Malinda 4 4.19 Savage Love from A to Z: Advice on Sex and Relationships, Dating and Mating, Exes and Extras
author: Dan Savage
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/13
date added: 2024/09/28
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]]> The Last Housewife 59349100 From the author of the acclaimed In My Dreams I Hold a Knife comes a pitch-black thriller about a woman determined to destroy a powerful cult and avenge the deaths of the women taken in by it, no matter the cost.

While in college in upstate New York, Shay Evans and her best friends met a captivating man who seduced them with a web of lies about the way the world works, bringing them under his thrall. By senior year, Shay and her friend Laurel were the only ones who managed to escape. Now, eight years later, Shay's built a new life in a tiny Texas suburb. But when she hears the horrifying news of Laurel's death—delivered, of all ways, by her favorite true-crime podcast crusader—she begins to suspect that the past she thought she buried is still very much alive, and the predators more dangerous than ever.

Recruiting the help of the podcast host, Shay goes back to the place she vowed never to return to in search of answers. As she follows the threads of her friend's life, she's pulled into a dark, seductive world, where wealth and privilege shield brutal philosophies that feel all too familiar. When Shay's obsession with uncovering the truth becomes so consuming she can no longer separate her desire for justice from darker desires newly reawakened, she must confront the depths of her own complicity and conditioning. But in a world built for men to rule it—both inside the cult and outside of it—is justice even possible, and if so, how far will Shay go to get it?]]> 385 Ashley Winstead 172822991X Malinda 0 to-read 3.68 2022 The Last Housewife
author: Ashley Winstead
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naĂŻve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—TłÜ°ů˛Ô±đ»ĺ
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Malinda 0 to-read 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> Winter Storms (Winter, #3) 28962891 Gather under the mistletoe for one last round of caroling with the Quinn family in this heartwarming conclusion to Elin Hilderbrand's bestselling Winter Street Trilogy.

Some of the stormy weather of the past few seasons seems to have finally lifted for the Quinns. After a year apart, and an ill-fated affair with the Winter Street Inn's old Santa Claus, Mitzi has returned to rule the roost; Patrick is about to be released from prison; Kevin has a successful new business and is finally ready to tie the knot with Isabelle; and best of all, there's hopeful news about Bart, who has been captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan.

That doesn't mean there aren't a few dark clouds on the horizon. Kelley has recently survived a health scare; Jennifer can't quite shake her addiction to the drugs she used as a crutch while Patrick was in jail; and Ava still can't decide between the two lovers that she's been juggling with limited success. However, if there's one holiday that brings the Quinn family together to give thanks for the good times, it's Christmas. And this year promises to be a celebration unlike any other as the Quinns prepare to host Kevin and Isabelle's wedding at the inn. But as the special day approaches, a historic once-in-a-century blizzard bears down on Nantucket, threatening to keep the Quinns away from the place--and the people--they love most. Before the snow clears, the Quinns will have to survive enough upheavals to send anyone running for the spiked eggnog, in this touching novel that proves that when the holidays roll around, you can always go home again.]]> 246 Elin Hilderbrand 0316261173 Malinda 3 3.85 2016 Winter Storms (Winter, #3)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2021/11/20
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> Winter Stroll (Winter, #2) 24819476 "Happy Holidays 2015! It has been a rough year for the Quinns, but I would like to start by saying thank you for all of the well wishes and positive missives sent our way."

Another Christmas on Nantucket finds Winter Street Inn owner Kelley Quinn reflecting on the past year as he writes a holiday letter to friends and family. Though the year has had its share of misfortune and worry, the Quinns have much to celebrate. Kelley, now single, at least is on better terms with his first wife Margaret, who is using her celebrity to lure customers to the inn in record numbers. Their son Kevin has a beautiful new baby, Genevieve, with the Inn's French housekeeper, Isabelle; and their daughter, Ava, is finally dating a nice guy--her devoted colleague, Scott.

Now the Quinns are looking forward to celebrating Genevieve's baptism, welcoming Isabelle to the family, and enjoying the cheer of Nantucket's traditional Christmas Stroll. But just when a peaceful family gathering seems within reach, Kelley's estranged second wife, Mitzi, shows up on the island after souring on her relationship with the inn's former Santa Claus. Soon Kelley isn't the only Quinn entertaining a surprise guest from Christmases past as lovers old and new gather beneath the mistletoe. With jealousy, passion, and eggnog consumption at an all-time high, it's going to take a whole lot more than a Christmas miracle to get the Quinns--and the inn--through the holidays intact.]]> 263 Elin Hilderbrand 0316261130 Malinda 4 3.79 2015 Winter Stroll (Winter, #2)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm (True Crime)]]> 56975818 176 Mark Sebastian Jordan 1467146188 Malinda 0 to-read 3.81 The Ceely Rose Murders at Malabar Farm (True Crime)
author: Mark Sebastian Jordan
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Summer People 675905
Beth invites Marcus, the son of Arch's final and most challenging client, to spend the summer with her and her teenage twins Winnie and Garrett, who have mixed reactions to sharing their special summer place with this stranger. Always a place of peace before, Nantucket becomes the scene of roiling emotions and turbulent passions as Marcus, Winnie, and Garrett learn about loss, first love, and betrayal. And when they stumble upon a shocking secret from Beth's past, they must keep it from destroying the family they've been trying so hard to heal.]]> 352 Elin Hilderbrand 0312997191 Malinda 2 3.85 2003 Summer People
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves:
review:
I've been a big fan of Hildebrand's books. This one was tough for me to get through. Her writing from the perspective of a young black man was difficult to digest and too much of the book was written from the perspective of the teen protagonists for my taste (it started to feel like. YA novel). It was interesting to see how much her writing had grown and matured, though.
]]> The Four Winds 53138081 Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Great Alone comes an epic novel of love and heroism and hope, set against the backdrop of one of America’s most defining eras—the Great Depression.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250178602]]> 464 Kristin Hannah 1250178606 Malinda 4 4.27 2021 The Four Winds
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/07/12
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review:

]]> The Favorite Sister 45029561 * * * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * * * Brett and Kelly have always toed the line between supportive sisters and bitter rivals. Growing up, Brett was the problem child, in the shadow of the brilliant and beautiful Kelly. In adulthood, all that has changed. Kelly is a struggling single mother and Brett has skyrocketed to such meteoric success, which has been chronicled on a reality TV show called Goal Diggers.

When Kelly manipulates herself onto the show and into Brett’s world, Brett is right to be threatened. Kelly, and only Kelly, knows her younger sister's appalling secret, and it could ruin her.

Still, when the truth comes out in the explosive final weekend of filming, neither of them ever expected that the season would end in murder.]]> 400 Jessica Knoll 150115320X Malinda 0 to-read 3.08 2018 The Favorite Sister
author: Jessica Knoll
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pageboy 60473073 Pageboy is a groundbreaking coming-of-age memoir from the Academy Award-nominated actor Elliot Page. A generation-defining actor and one of the most famous trans advocates of our time, Elliot will now be known as an uncommon literary talent, as he shares never-before-heard details and intimate interrogations on gender, love, mental health, relationships, and Hollywood.]]> 271 Elliot Page Malinda 4 3.72 2023 Pageboy
author: Elliot Page
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/12
date added: 2024/07/12
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]]> I'll See You in Paris 25663810
Thirty years later, Laurel’s daughter Annie is newly engaged and an old question resurfaces: who is Annie’s father and what happened to him? Laurel has always been vague about the details and Annie’s told herself it doesn’t matter. But with her impending marriage, Annie has to know everything. Why won’t Laurel tell her the truth?

The key to unlocking Laurel’s secrets starts with a mysterious book about an infamous woman known as the Duchess of Marlborough. Annie’s quest to understand the Duchess, and therefore her own history, takes her from a charming hamlet in the English countryside, to a decaying estate kept behind barbed wire, and ultimately to Paris where answers will be found at last.]]> 385 Michelle Gable 1250070635 Malinda 0 to-read 3.61 2016 I'll See You in Paris
author: Michelle Gable
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Malinda 5 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/17
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]]> Nantucket Nights 284195 The ties between women can run as deep as the ocean-but so can the secrets.

For 20 years, Kayla, Antoinette and Val have performed their own special summer ritual. Once a year, the old friends put aside their daily, separate lives to drink champagne, swap stories and swim naked under the Nantucket stars. But on one of those bonding nights, one of their trio swims out from the shore and doesn't return. After the surviving friends emerge from their grief, they realize that the repercussions of their loss go far beyond their little circle, and they begin to uncover layers of secrets--and their connections to each other--that were never revealed on the beach. What has made their friendship strong now has the power to destroy--their marriages, families, even themselves, in Elin Hilderbrand's Nantucket Nights.]]> 326 Elin Hilderbrand 0312989768 Malinda 1 3.47 2002 Nantucket Nights
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at: 2024/04/01
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Palestine 769712 Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995—Joe Sacco's breakthrough novel of graphic journalism—the acclaimed author was best known for Palestine, a two-volume graphic novel that won an American Book Award in 1996.

Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present the first single-volume collection of this landmark of journalism and the art form of comics.

Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism. Like Safe Area Gorazde, Palestine has been favorably compared to Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus for its ability to brilliantly navigate such socially and politically sensitive subject matter within the confines of the comic book medium.

Sacco has often been called the first comic book journalist, and he is certainly the best. This edition of Palestine also features an introduction from renowned author, critic, and historian Edward Said (Peace and Its Discontents and The Question of Palestine), one of the world's most respected authorities on the Middle Eastern conflict.

]]> 288 Joe Sacco 156097432X Malinda 0 to-read 4.23 1996 Palestine
author: Joe Sacco
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Stories I Only Tell My Friends]]> 10211494 320 Rob Lowe 080509329X Malinda 4 3.85 2011 Stories I Only Tell My Friends
author: Rob Lowe
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/26
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]]> Mother-Daughter Murder Night 65646968
A lighthearted whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio of amateur sleuths. Gilmore Girls , but with murder.

High-poweredĚýbusinesswomanĚýLana RubiconĚýhas a lot to beĚýproud her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and theĚýL.A. real estate empire she’s built.ĚýBut when she finds herself trapped 300 milesĚýnorth of the city,ĚýconvalescingĚýin aĚýsleepy Ěý coastal town with her adult daughterĚýBethĚýand teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuckĚýcounting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.Ěý

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. SheĚýquicklyĚýbecomes a suspect inĚýtheĚýhomicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. BethĚýthinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana hasĚýa better idea. She’ll pull on her wig,Ěýfind the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power. With Jack andĚýBeth’sĚýhelp, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath theĚýsurfaceĚýof a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But asĚýtheir amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory,ĚýtheĚýheadstrong Rubicon womenĚýmust learn to do the one thing they’ve always depend on each other.]]> 357 Nina Simon 0063315041 Malinda 4 3.52 2023 Mother-Daughter Murder Night
author: Nina Simon
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/05
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves:
review:
By the end, I couldn't put this book down, but in the middle, I struggled a bit. I may have needed a little more action. I put the book down for a bit but was glad I came back.
]]> <![CDATA[On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft]]> 10569 (back cover)]]> 320 Stephen King 0743455967 Malinda 5 4.33 2000 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
author: Stephen King
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/04
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Five-Star Weekend (Sommer in Nantucket, #1)]]> 62873996
Hollis Shaw’s life seems picture-perfect. She’s the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis’s perfect life—her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline—grow deeper.

So when Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend”—one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her twenties, her thirties, and midlife—she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend on Nantucket. But the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie.

The husband of Hollis’s childhood friend Tatum arranges for Hollis’s first love, Jack Finigan, to spend time with them, stirring up old feelings. Meanwhile, Tatum is forced to play nice with abrasive and elitist Dru-Ann, Hollis’s best friend from UNC Chapel Hill. Dru-Ann’s career as a prominent Chicago sports agent is on the line after her comments about a client’s mental health issues are misconstrued online. Brooke, Hollis’s friend from their thirties, has just discovered that her husband is having an inappropriate relationship with a woman at work. Again! And then there’s Gigi, a stranger to everyone (including Hollis) who reached out to Hollis through her blog. Gigi embodies an unusual grace and, as it hap- pens, has many secrets.

The Five-Star Weekend is a surprising and captivating story about friendship, love, and self-discovery set on Nantucket. It will be a weekend like no other.]]> 384 Elin Hilderbrand 0316258776 Malinda 4 3.95 2023 The Five-Star Weekend (Sommer in Nantucket, #1)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/15
date added: 2024/03/04
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]]> Open Book 41571753 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

Jessica tells of growing up in 1980s Texas where she was sexually abused by the daughter of a family friend, and of unsuccessfully auditioning for the Mickey Mouse Club at age 13 with Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling before going on to sign a record deal with Columbia and marrying 98 Degrees member Nick Lachey.

Along the way, she details the struggles in her life, such as the pressure to support her family as a teenager, divorcing Lachey, enduring what she describes as an emotionally abusive relationship with musician John Mayer, being body-shamed in an overly appearance-centered industry, and going through bouts of heavy drinking. But Simpson ends on a positive note, discussing her billion-dollar apparel line and marriage with professional football star Eric Johnson, with whom she has three children.]]> 416 Jessica Simpson Malinda 5 4.08 2020 Open Book
author: Jessica Simpson
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/01
date added: 2024/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories]]> 128677757 256 Danny Pellegrino 172827821X Malinda 4 4.08 2023 The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories
author: Danny Pellegrino
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2024/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 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 Malinda 0 to-read 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Good Girl 18812405 I've been following her for the past few days. I know where she buys her groceries, where she works. I don't know the color of her eyes or what they look like when she's scared. But I will.

One night, Mia Dennett enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn't show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. At first Colin Thatcher seems like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia's life.

When Colin decides to hide Mia in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota instead of delivering her to his employers, Mia's mother, Eve, and detective Gabe Hoffman will stop at nothing to find them. But no one could have predicted the emotional entanglements that eventually cause this family's world to shatter.]]> 352 Mary Kubica 0778316556 Malinda 1 3.78 2014 The Good Girl
author: Mary Kubica
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
rating: 1
read at: 2023/09/27
date added: 2023/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI]]> 29496076 Ěý
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,� roamed � virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.

In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. The book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward Native Americans that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly riveting, but also emotionally devastating.]]> 359 David Grann 0385534256 Malinda 4 4.12 2017 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
author: David Grann
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/22
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance, #3)]]> 53529219 Ěý
In what may be the most personal and accomplished legal thriller of John Grisham’s storied career, we deepen our acquaintance with the iconic Southern town of Clanton and the vivid cast of characters that so many readers know and cherish. The result is a richly rewarding novel that is both timely and timeless, full of wit, drama, and—most of all—heart.
Ěý
Bursting with all the courthouse scheming, small-town intrigue, and stunning plot twists that have become the hallmarks of the master of the legal thriller, A Time for Mercy is John Grisham’s most powerful courtroom drama yet.
Ěý
There is a time to kill and a time for justice. Now comes A Time for Mercy .

Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE AFTER THE FIRM, coming soon!]]> 480 John Grisham 0385545975 Malinda 4 4.31 2020 A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance, #3)
author: John Grisham
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/18
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mitford Murders (Mitford Murders, #1)]]> 34612673
Louisa's salvation is a position within the Mitford household at Asthall Manor, in the Oxfordshire countryside. There she will become nursery maid, chaperone and confidante to the Mitford sisters, especially sixteen-year-old Nancy - an acerbic, bright young woman in love with stories.

But then a nurse - Florence Nightingale Shore, goddaughter of her famous namesake - is killed on a train in broad daylight, and Louisa and Nancy find themselves entangled in the crimes of a murderer who will do anything to hide their secret . . .]]> 421 Jessica Fellowes 0751567159 Malinda 0 to-read 3.48 2017 The Mitford Murders (Mitford Murders, #1)
author: Jessica Fellowes
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> Brideshead Revisited 30933 Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.]]> 351 Evelyn Waugh 0316926345 Malinda 0 to-read 4.01 1945 Brideshead Revisited
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1945
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Remains of the Day 28921 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0571225381 here.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.]]> 258 Kazuo Ishiguro Malinda 0 to-read 4.14 1989 The Remains of the Day
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> The American Heiress 9999107
Be careful what you wish for. Traveling abroad with her mother at the turn of the twentieth century to seek a titled husband, beautiful, vivacious Cora Cash, whose family mansion in Newport dwarfs the Vanderbilts', suddenly finds herself Duchess of Wareham, married to Ivo, the most eligible bachelor in England. Nothing is quite as it seems, however: Ivo is withdrawn and secretive, and the English social scene is full of traps and betrayals. Money, Cora soon learns, cannot buy everything, as she must decide what is truly worth the price in her life and her marriage.

Witty, moving, and brilliantly entertaining, Cora's story marks the debut of a glorious storyteller who brings a fresh new spirit to the world of Edith Wharton and Henry James.]]> 468 Daisy Goodwin 0312658656 Malinda 0 to-read 3.44 2010 The American Heiress
author: Daisy Goodwin
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rutherford Park (Rutherford Park #1)]]> 15808532 Snow had fallen in the night, and now the great house, standing at the head of the valley, seemed like a five-hundred-year old ship sailing in a white ocean�

For the Cavendish family, Rutherford Park is much more than a place to call home. It is a way of life marked by rigid rules and lavish rewards, governed by unspoken desires�
Ěý
Lady of the house Octavia Cavendish lives like a bird in a gilded cage. With her family’s fortune, her husband, William, has made significant additions to the estate, but he too feels bound—by the obligations of his title as well as his vows. Their son, Harry, is expected to follow in his footsteps, but the boy has dreams of his own, like pursuing the new adventure of aerial flight. Meanwhile, below stairs, a housemaid named Emily holds a secret that could undo the Cavendish name.
Ěý
On Christmas Eve 1913, Octavia catches a glimpse of her husband in an intimate moment with his beautiful and scandalous distant cousin. She then spies the housemaid Emily out in the snow, walking toward the river, about to make her own secret known to the world. As the clouds of war gather on the horizon, an epic tale of longing and betrayal is about to unfold at Rutherford Park…]]> 336 Elizabeth Cooke 0425262588 Malinda 0 to-read 3.35 2013 Rutherford Park (Rutherford Park #1)
author: Elizabeth Cooke
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention� and How to Think Deeply Again]]> 57933306 Our ability to pay attention is collapsing. From the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections comes a groundbreaking examination of why this is happening--and how to get our attention back.

In the United States, teenagers can focus on one task for only sixty-five seconds at a time, and office workers average only three minutes. Like so many of us, Johann Hari was finding that constantly switching from device to device and tab to tab was a diminishing and depressing way to live. He tried all sorts of self-help solutions--even abandoning his phone for three months--but nothing seemed to work. So Hari went on an epic journey across the world to interview the leading experts on human attention--and he discovered that everything we think we know about this crisis is wrong.

We think our inability to focus is a personal failure to exert enough willpower over our devices. The truth is even more disturbing: our focus has been stolen by powerful external forces that have left us uniquely vulnerable to corporations determined to raid our attention for profit. Hari found that there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, from the decline of mind-wandering to rising pollution, all of which have robbed some of our attention. In Stolen Focus, he introduces readers to Silicon Valley dissidents who learned to hack human attention, and veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD. He explores a favela in Rio de Janeiro where everyone lost their attention in a particularly surreal way, and an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore workers' productivity.

Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus--as individuals, and as a society--if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.]]> 357 Johann Hari 0593138511 Malinda 5 4.22 2022 Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again
author: Johann Hari
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/04
date added: 2023/09/04
shelves:
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]]> The Beach Club 1239882 320 Elin Hilderbrand 031226125X Malinda 3 3.68 2000 The Beach Club
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/03
date added: 2023/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Blue Bistro 8377676
Adrienne Dealey has spent the past six years working for hotels in exotic resort towns. This summer she has decided to make Nantucket home. Left flat broke by her ex-boyfriend, she is desperate to earn some fast money. When the desirable Thatcher Smith, owner of Nantucket's hottest restaurant, is the only one to offer her a job, she wonders if she can get by with no restaurant experience. Thatcher gives Adrienne a crash course in the business...and they share an instant attraction. But there is a mystery about their what is it about Fiona, the Blue Bistro's chef, that captures Thatcher's attention again and again? And why does such a successful restaurant seem to be in its final season before closing its doors for good? Despite her uncertainty, Adrienne must decide whether to open her heart for the first time, or move on, as she always does.

Infused with intimate Nantucket detail and filled with the warmth of passion and the breeze of doubt, The Blue Bistro is perfect summer reading.]]> 428 Elin Hilderbrand 1429905492 Malinda 4 4.15 2005 The Blue Bistro
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2023/02/07
date added: 2023/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16]]> 11569862
When he was a young boy, Kasher's mother took him on a vacation to the West Coast. Well it was more like an abduction. Only not officially. She stole them away from their father and they moved to Oakland , California. That's where the real fun begins, in the war zone of Oakland Public Schools. He was more than just out of control-his mother walked him around on a leash, which he chewed through and ran away.

Those early years read like part Augusten Burroughs, part David Sedaris, with a touch of Jim Carrol...but a lot more Jewish. In fact, Kasher later spends time in a Brooklyn Hasidic community. Then came addiction...

Brutally honest and laugh-out-loud funny, Kasher's first literary endeavor finds humor in even the most horrifying situations.]]> 303 Moshe Kasher 0446584266 Malinda 0 to-read 3.74 2012 Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient, and Then Turned 16
author: Moshe Kasher
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Ghost Club 123522827
For more than a century, some of the world’s most important thinkers and leaders—men like Arthur Conan Doyle and William Butler Yeats—gathered once a month and discussed the supernatural at The Ghost Club in London. In the early 1900s the club's chairman was Harry Price, the world’s most well-known ghost hunter. He and other members, like Harry Houdini, sought to debunk the charlatans who preyed on vulnerable people with fake seances, tarot readings, and spiritual encounters.

Price went to war with other researchers, as well as fake mediums, like the “witch� Helen Duncan. Price’s dramatic confrontation with Duncan during one of her seances ended with her arrest—she would be the last person in Europe ever tried under the Witch Act.

But Price’s best-known case, and largest experiment, was the year he spent living in the Borley Rectory in southeast England. Price was determined to prove (or disprove) the existence of poltergeists in the famed rectory using gadgets that many looked at with mistrust. Price’s conclusions would solidify both his reputation as the world’s greatest ghost hunter, as well as the Borley Rectory’s designation as the most haunted house in England.

The legends of The Ghost Club and the Borley Rectory still endure one hundred years later, ripe for fresh investigation.

©2023 Kate Winkler Dawson (P)2023 Penguin Audio]]> Kate Winkler Dawson Malinda 5 3.23 The Ghost Club
author: Kate Winkler Dawson
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.23
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/03
date added: 2023/07/03
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]]> Gone Girl 19288043 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 415 Gillian Flynn 0307588378 Malinda 4 4.22 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/21
date added: 2023/06/21
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]]> <![CDATA[A Summer Affair (Nantucket, #1)]]> 2285777
Hearts break and emotions stretch to the point of snapping in this in-depth look at one woman's attempt to deal with loves past and present, raise a family, run a business, and pull of a charity event unlike any the island of Nantucket has ever seen. Claire discovers that doing good and being bad are not mutually exclusive—and that nothing is ever as simple as it seems.]]> 416 Elin Hilderbrand 0316018600 Malinda 4 3.51 2008 A Summer Affair (Nantucket, #1)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/31
date added: 2023/05/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism]]> 55338982
What makes “cults� so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.� But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.

Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,� revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish� everywhere.]]> 309 Amanda Montell 0062993151 Malinda 3 3.82 2021 Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
author: Amanda Montell
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/05/24
date added: 2023/05/24
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]]> The Things They Carried 133518
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three.

Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.]]> 246 Tim O'Brien 0767902890 Malinda 5 4.14 1990 The Things They Carried
author: Tim O'Brien
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/02
date added: 2023/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle]]> 40033006
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.

We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

Understood? Then let's begin . . .

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others . . .

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.]]> 482 Stuart Turton Malinda 2 3.78 2018 The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
author: Stuart Turton
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2021/06/15
date added: 2023/04/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret]]> 37732
But none of them can believe Margaret doesn’t have religion, and that she isn’t going to the Y or the Jewish Community Center. What they don’t know is Margaret has her own very special relationship with God. She can talk to God about everything—family, friends, even Moose Freed, her secret crush.

Margaret is funny and real, and her thoughts and feelings are oh-so-relatable—you’ll feel like she’s talking right to you, sharing her secrets with a friend.]]> 149 Judy Blume 0689841582 Malinda 5 3.93 1970 Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
author: Judy Blume
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/16
date added: 2023/04/16
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]]> The Witches Are Coming 38362811 In this wickedly funny cultural critique, the author of the critically acclaimed memoir and Hulu series Shrill exposes misogyny in the #MeToo era.

THIS IS A WITCH HUNT.
WE’RE WITCHES,
AND WE’RE HUNTING YOU.

From the moment powerful men started falling to the #MeToo movement, the lamentations began: this is feminism gone too far, this is injustice, this is a witch hunt. In The Witches Are Coming, firebrand author of the New York Times bestselling memoir and now critically acclaimed Hulu TV series Shrill, Lindy West, turns that refrain on its head. You think this is a witch hunt? Fine. You’ve got one.

In a laugh-out-loud, incisive cultural critique, West extolls the world-changing magic of truth, urging readers to reckon with dark lies in the heart of the American mythos, and unpacking the complicated, and sometimes tragic, politics of not being a white man in the twenty-first century. She tracks the misogyny and propaganda hidden (or not so hidden) in the media she and her peers devoured growing up, a buffet of distortions, delusions, prejudice, and outright bullsh*t that has allowed white male mediocrity to maintain a death grip on American culture and politics-and that delivered us to this precarious, disorienting moment in history.

West writes, “We were just a hair’s breadth from electing America’s first female president to succeed America’s first black president. We weren’t done, but we were doing it. And then, true to form—like the Balrog’s whip catching Gandalf by his little gray bootie, like the husband in a Lifetime movie hissing, â€If I can’t have you, no one can’—white American voters shoved an incompetent, racist con man into the White House.â€�

We cannot understand how we got here-how the land of the free became Trump’s America—without examining the chasm between who we are and who we think we are, without fact—checking the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and each other. The truth can transform us; there is witchcraft in it. Lindy West turns on the light.]]> 260 Lindy West 0316449881 Malinda 0 to-read 4.10 2019 The Witches Are Coming
author: Lindy West
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Stories I Only Tell My Friends]]> 12040634
A wryly funny and surprisingly moving account of an extraordinary life lived almost entirely in the public eye. A teen idol at 15, an international icon and founder of the Brat Pack at 20, and one of Hollywood's top stars to this day, Rob Lowe chronicles his experiences as a painfully misunderstood child actor in Ohio who was uprooted to the wild counterculture of mid-70s Malibu, where he embarked on his unrelenting pursuit of a career in Hollywood. The Outsiders placed Lowe at the birth of the modern youth movement in the entertainment industry. During his time on The West Wing, he witnessed the surreal nexus of show business and politics, both on the set and in the actual White House. And in between are deft and humorous stories of the wild excesses that marked the 80s, leading to his quest for family and sobriety.

Never mean-spirited or salacious, Lowe delivers unexpected glimpses into his successes, disappointments, relationships, and one-of-a-kind encounters with people who shaped our world over the last 25 years. These stories are as entertaining as they are unforgettable.

©2011 Robert Lowe (P)2011 Macmillan Audio]]> 9 Rob Lowe Malinda 0 to-read 4.06 2011 Stories I Only Tell My Friends
author: Rob Lowe
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> The Rumor 23341607
And rumor has it...

...that Madeline, a novelist, is battling writer's block, with a deadline looming, bills piling up, and blank pages driving her to desperation--and a desperately bad decision;

...that Grace, hard at work to transform her backyard into a garden paradise, has been collaborating a bit more closely than necessary with her ruggedly handsome landscape architect;

...that Grace's husband, successful island real estate developer "Fast Eddie" Pancik, has embarked on quite an unusual side project;

...that the storybook romance between Madeline's son, Brick, and Grace's daughter Allegra is on the rocks, heading for disaster.

As the gossip escalates, and they face the possible loss of the happy lives they've worked so hard to create, Grace and Madeline try mightily to set the record straight--but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it.
]]> 370 Elin Hilderbrand 0316334529 Malinda 4 3.71 2015 The Rumor
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/01
date added: 2023/04/08
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]]> Barefoot 6484834 From marriage, infidelity, and the mayhem of motherhood to scandal, tragedy, and illness—three women seek peace and comfort in Nantucket as they cope with life's challenges.

Three women—burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues—tumble onto the Nantucket airport tarmac one hot June day. Vicki is trying to sort through the news that she has a serious illness. Her sister, Brenda, has just left her job after being caught in an affair with a student. And their friend Melanie, after seven failed in vitro attempts, is pregnant at last—but only after learning that her husband is having an affair. They have come to escape, enjoy the sun, and relax in Nantucket's calming air. But into the house, into their world, steps twenty-two-year-old Josh Flynn.​Barefoot weaves these four lives together in a story with enthralling sweep and scope—a novel that is as fun and memorable and bittersweet as that one perfect day of summer.]]> 417 Elin Hilderbrand Malinda 4 4.11 2007 Barefoot
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand | Summary & Analysis]]> 25910733 The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand | Summary & Analysis ĚýThe Rumor, by Elin Hilderbrand takes place during the summer in Nantucket, a hot bed of rumor, passion, friendship, and excitement, a seemingly sleepy town that is full of secrets and scandal. At the heart of things is Grace, her husband, Eddie, her best friend, Madeline, and Madeline’s husband, Trevorâ€�

Ěý

This companion to The Rumor Summary of the book Character Analysis A Discussion on Themes and much more!]]> 20 Eureka Books Malinda 0 to-read 4.10 2015 The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand | Summary & Analysis
author: Eureka Books
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[An Eye for an Eye (Detective Kate Young, #1)]]> 53624264 A killer running rings around the police. A detective spiralling out of control.

DI Kate Young is on leave. She’s the force’s best detective, but her bosses know she’s under pressure, on medication and overcoming trauma. So after her bad judgement call leads to a narrowly averted public disaster, they’re sure all she needs is a rest.

But when Staffordshire Police summon her back to work on a murder case, it’s a harder, more suspicious Kate Young who returns. With a new ruthlessness, she sets about tracking down a clinical, calculating serial killer who is torturing victims and leaving clues to taunt the police. Spurred on by her reporter husband, Young begins to suspect that the murderer might be closer than she ever imagined.

As she works to uncover the truth, Young unravels a network of secrets and lies, with even those closest to her having something to hide. But with her own competence—and her grip on reality—called into question, can she unmask the killer before they strike again?]]> 426 Carol Wyer Malinda 3 4.15 2021 An Eye for an Eye (Detective Kate Young, #1)
author: Carol Wyer
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/23
date added: 2023/03/23
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]]> The Stillwater Girls 40258215 The Thinnest Air.

Ignorant of civilization and cautioned against its evils, nineteen-year-old Wren and her two sisters, Sage and Evie, were raised in off-the-grid isolation in a primitive cabin in upstate New York. When the youngest grows gravely ill, their mother leaves with the child to get help from a nearby town. And they never return.

As months pass, hope vanishes. Supplies are low. Livestock are dying. A brutal winter is bearing down. Then comes the stranger. He claims to be looking for the girls� mother, and he’s not leaving without them.

To escape, Wren and her sister must break the rule they’ve grown up with: never go beyond the forest.

Past the thicket of dread, they come upon a house on the other side of the pines. This is where Wren and Sage must confront something more chilling than the unknowable. They’ll discover what’s been hidden from them, what they’re running from, and the secrets that have left them in the dark their entire lives.]]> 273 Minka Kent 1542090105 Malinda 2 4.14 2019 The Stillwater Girls
author: Minka Kent
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2023/02/19
date added: 2023/02/20
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]]> Spare 62296528
For Harry, this is that story at last.

Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight.

At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love.

Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . .

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.]]> 410 Prince Harry 0593593804 Malinda 5 3.78 2023 Spare
author: Prince Harry
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/09
date added: 2023/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage]]> 55510928 From the New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls comesĚýthe never-before-told story of a small cadre of influential female spies in the precarious early days of the CIA—women who helped create the template for cutting-edge espionage (and blazed new paths for equality in the workplace) in the treacherous post-WWII era.

In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals� by their male colleagues because of their sharp sense of humor and even quicker intelligence, were not the stereotypical femme fatale of spy novels. They were smart, courageous, and groundbreaking agents at the top of their class, instrumental in both developing innovative tools for intelligence gathering—and insisting (in their own unique ways) that they receive the credit and pay their expertise deserved.
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýThroughout the Cold War era, each woman had a vital role to play on the international stage. AdelaideĚýrose through the ranks,Ěýdeveloping new cryptosystems that advanced how spiesĚýcommunicate with each other.Ěý Mary worked overseas in Europe and Asia, building partnerships and allegiances that would last decades. Elizabeth would risk her life in the Middle East in order to gain intelligence on deadly SovietĚýweaponry. Eloise would wield influence on scientific and technical operations worldwide, ultimately exposing global terrorism threats.ĚýThrough their friendship and shared sense of purpose, they rose to positions of power and were able to make real change in a traditionally “male, pale, and Yaleâ€� organization—but not without some tragic losses and real heartache along the way. ĚýĚý
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýMeticulously researched and beautifully told, Holt uses firsthand interviews with past and present officials and declassified government documents to uncover the stories of these four inspirational women.ĚýWise GalsĚýsheds a light on the untold history of the women whose daring foreign intrigues, domestic persistence, and fighting spirit have been and continue to be instrumental to our country’s security.]]> 400 Nathalia Holt 0593328485 Malinda 0 to-read 3.86 2022 Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage
author: Nathalia Holt
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World]]> 53138220 The remarkable, little-known story of two trailblazing women in the Early Middle Ages who wielded immense power, only to be vilified for daring to rule.

Brunhild was a Spanish princess, raised to be married off for the sake of alliance-building. Her sister-in-law Fredegund started out as a lowly palace slave. And yet—in the 6th-century Merovingian Empire, where women were excluded from noble succession and royal politics was a blood sport—these two iron-willed strategists reigned over vast realms for decades, changing the face of Europe.

The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a years-long civil war—against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne’s empire. Yet after Brunhild and Fredegund’s deaths—one gentle, the other horrific—their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend.

In The Dark Queens, award-winning writer Shelley Puhak sets the record straight. She resurrects two very real women in all their complexity, painting a richly detailed portrait of an unfamiliar time and striking at the roots of some of our culture’s stubbornest myths about female power. The Dark Queens offers proof that the relationships between women can transform the world.]]> 384 Shelley Puhak 1635574919 Malinda 0 to-read 4.09 2022 The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World
author: Shelley Puhak
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> The Maidens 45300567
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

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

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.]]> 337 Alex Michaelides 1250304458 Malinda 0 to-read 3.61 2021 The Maidens
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie]]> 58502662 A riveting, inspiring memoir of one woman's escape from an extremist religious sect and an extraordinary rise from housewife to shoe designer, to CEO and co-owner of the modeling agency Elite World Group

Ever since she was a child, every aspect of Julia Haart's life--what she wore, what she ate, what she thought--was controlled by the dictates of ultra-orthodox Judaism. At nineteen, after a lifetime spent caring for her seven younger siblings, she was married off to a man she barely knew. For the next twenty-three years, he would rule her life. Eventually, when Julia's youngest daughter Miriam started to question why she wasn't allowed to sing, run, or ride a bike, Julia reached a breaking point. She knew that if she didn't find a way to leave, her daughters would be forced into the same unending servitude that had imprisoned her.

So Julia created a double life. When no one was looking, she'd sneak looks at fashion magazines and sketch designs for the clothes she dreamed about wearing in the world beyond her orthodox suburb. In the ultra-orthodox world, clothing has one purpose: to cover the body, head to toe. Giving any thought to one's appearance beyond that is considered sinful, an affront to God. She started clandestinely selling life insurance to save her "freedom" money. At the age of forty-two, she finally mustered the courage to flee the fundamentalist life that was strangling her soul.

Within a week of her escape, Julia started a shoe brand, and within nine months she was at Paris for fashion week. A year later, she became creative director of La Perla, the world-leading lingerie brand. And now, she is the co-owner and CEO of Elite World Group, and one of the most powerful people in the fashion industry.

Propulsive and unforgettable, Julia's story is the journey from a world of "no" to a world of "yes," and an inspiration for women everywhere to find their freedom, their purpose, and their voice.]]> 416 Julia Haart 0593239164 Malinda 4 3.52 2022 Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie
author: Julia Haart
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/24
date added: 2023/01/24
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]]> The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1) 55196813
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly's orderly life is upended the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself dead in his bed. Before she knows what's happening, Molly's unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect. She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it's too late?

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]> 304 Nita Prose 0593356152 Malinda 3 3.71 2022 The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1)
author: Nita Prose
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/20
date added: 2023/01/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)]]> 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 Malinda 0 4.31 2022 The Housemaid (The Housemaid, #1)
author: Freida McFadden
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2022/12/25
date added: 2022/12/25
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]]> Carrie Soto Is Back 60435878 Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular.

By the time Carrie retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Slam titles. And if you ask her, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father as her coach.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked the 'Battle-Axe' anyway. Even if her body doesn't move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells a story about the cost of greatness and a legendary athlete attempting a comeback.]]> 384 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158687 Malinda 0 4.19 2022 Carrie Soto Is Back
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> Carrie Soto Is Back 60437824 In this powerful novel about the cost of greatness, a legendary athlete attempts a comeback when the world considers her past her prime—from the New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising.

Carrie Soto is fierce, and her determination to win at any cost has not made her popular. But by the time she retires from tennis, she is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. She sacrificed nearly everything to become the best, with her father, Javier, as her coach. A former champion himself, Javier has trained her since the age of two.

But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan.

At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement and be coached by her father for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked “the Battle-Axe� anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley. Like her, he has something to prove before he gives up the game forever.

In spite of it all, Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. In this riveting and unforgettable novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells her most vulnerable, emotional story yet.]]> 371 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158695 Malinda 0 4.28 2022 Carrie Soto Is Back
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2022/12/23
date added: 2022/12/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up]]> 59452407
Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape.

Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, devasting memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood, and, finally, the surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair’s Mean Baby is a deeply human memoir and a true literary achievement.


.]]> 320 Selma Blair 0525659498 Malinda 0 to-read 3.92 2022 Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up
author: Selma Blair
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> In a Holidaze 50892287 Alternate cover edition can be found here

One Christmas wish, two brothers, and a lifetime of hope are on the line for hapless Maelyn Jones in In a Holidaze, the quintessential holiday romantic novel by Christina Lauren, the New York Times bestselling author of The Unhoneymooners..

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…but not for Maelyn Jones. She’s living with her parents, hates her going-nowhere job, and has just made a romantic error of epic proportions.

But perhaps worst of all, this is the last Christmas Mae will be at her favorite place in the world—the snowy Utah cabin where she and her family have spent every holiday since she was born, along with two other beloved families. Mentally melting down as she drives away from the cabin for the final time, Mae throws out what she thinks is a simple plea to the universe: Please. Show me what will make me happy.

The next thing she knows, tires screech and metal collides, everything goes black. But when Mae gasps awake…she’s on an airplane bound for Utah, where she begins the same holiday all over again. With one hilarious disaster after another sending her back to the plane, Mae must figure out how to break free of the strange time loop—and finally get her true love under the mistletoe.

Jam-packed with yuletide cheer, an unforgettable cast of characters, and Christina Lauren’s trademark hijinks, this swoon-worthy romantic read will make you believe in the power of wishes and the magic of the holidays.
]]> 307 Christina Lauren 198212394X Malinda 0 to-read 3.65 2020 In a Holidaze
author: Christina Lauren
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Redbird Christmas 199532 193 Fannie Flagg 0345480260 Malinda 0 to-read 3.89 2004 A Redbird Christmas
author: Fannie Flagg
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Christmas Bookshop (The Christmas Bookshop, #1)]]> 56922701
Sofia har ærlig talt heller ikke lyst til at byde Carmen velkommen. Hendes søster har altid været sarkastisk og umedgørlig. Men Sofia venter sig igen, boghandlen mangler hænder, og deres mors største ønske er, at de to søstre kommer bedre ud af det med hinanden. Måske skulle hun give Carmen en chance?

På Sofias foranledning hvirvles Carmen snart ind i den gamle boghandels daglige trummerum. Det viser sig dog, at det vil kræve et sandt julemirakel at få den på rette kurs igen. Kan Carmen mon overraske dem alle denne jul? Og kan hun klinke skårene med de vigtigste mennesker i hendes liv: sin familie?]]> 310 Jenny Colgan 0063141671 Malinda 0 to-read 3.61 2021 The Christmas Bookshop (The Christmas Bookshop, #1)
author: Jenny Colgan
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Behind Closed Doors 29437949
But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.

Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.

Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed.]]> 293 B.A. Paris 1250121000 Malinda 2 3.96 2016 Behind Closed Doors
author: B.A. Paris
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2022/11/10
date added: 2022/11/14
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]]> The Last Thing He Told Me 54981009
As Hannah’s increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, as the FBI arrests Owen’s boss, as a U.S. marshal and federal agents arrive at her Sausalito home unannounced, Hannah quickly realizes her husband isn’t who he said he was. Bailey just may hold the key to figuring out Owen’s true identity—and why he really disappeared.]]> 307 Laura Dave 1501171348 Malinda 3 3.78 2021 The Last Thing He Told Me
author: Laura Dave
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/01/18
date added: 2022/11/14
shelves:
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]]> Lessons in Chemistry 58065033 390 Bonnie Garmus Malinda 4 4.23 2022 Lessons in Chemistry
author: Bonnie Garmus
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/10/29
date added: 2022/10/29
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]]> The Address 33607640 354 Fiona Davis 152474199X Malinda 2 3.90 2017 The Address
author: Fiona Davis
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2021/03/02
date added: 2022/09/09
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]]> Golden Girl 55643278 In this #1 bestselling page-turner a Nantucket novelist has one final summer to protect her secrets while her loved ones on earth learn to live without their golden girl.

On a perfect June day, Vivian Howe, author of thirteenĚýbeach novels and mother of three nearly grown children, is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket. She ascends to the Beyond where she's assigned to a Person named Martha, who allows Vivi to watch what happens below for one last summer. Vivi also is granted three “nudgesâ€� to change the outcome of events on earth, and with her daughter Willa on her third miscarriage, Carson partying until all hours, and Leo currently “off againâ€� with his high-maintenance girlfriend, she’ll have to think carefully where to use them.

From the Beyond, Vivi watches “The Chief� Ed Kapenash investigate her death, but her greatest worry is her final book, which contains a secret from her own youth that could be disastrous for her reputation. But when hidden truths come to light, Vivi’s family will have to sort out their past and present mistakes—with or without a nudge of help from above—while Vivi finally lets them grow without her.

With all of Elin’s trademark beach scenes, mouth-watering meals, and picture-perfect homes, plus a heartfelt message—the people we lose never really leave us�Golden Girl is a beach book unlike any other.]]> 384 Elin Hilderbrand 0316420085 Malinda 4 4.09 2021 Golden Girl
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/09
date added: 2022/09/09
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]]> I'm Glad My Mom Died 60763786
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 Malinda 5 4.50 2022 I'm Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/08/28
date added: 2022/08/28
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]]> All That Is Wicked 60097427 Kate Winkler Dawson tells the story of Edward Rulloff--a serial murderer who was called "too intelligent to be killed"--and the array of 19th century investigators who were convinced his brain held the key to finally understanding the criminal mind.

Edward Rulloff was a brilliant yet utterly amoral murderer--some have called him a "Victorian-era Hannibal Lecter"--whose crimes spanned decades and whose victims were chosen out of revenge, out of envy, and sometimes out of necessity. From his humble beginnings in upstate New York to the dazzling salons and social life he established in New York City, at every turn Rulloff used his intelligence and regal bearing to evade detection and avoid punishment. He could talk his way out of any crime...until one day, Rulloff's luck ran out.

By 1871 Rulloff sat chained in his cell--a psychopath holding court while curious 19th-century mind hunters tried to understand what made him tick. From alienists (early psychiatrists who tried to analyze the source of his madness) to neurologists (who wanted to dissect his brain) to phrenologists (who analyzed the bumps on his head to determine his character), each one thought he held the key to understanding the essential question: is evil born or made? Eventually, Rulloff's brain would be placed in a jar at Cornell University as the prize specimen of their anatomy collection...where it still sits today, slowly moldering in a dusty jar. But his story--and its implications for the emerging field of criminal psychology--were just beginning.

Expanded from season one of her podcast on the Exactly Right network, in All That Is Wicked Kate Winkler Dawson draws on hundreds of source materials and never-before-shared historical documents to present one of the first glimpses into the mind of a serial killer--a century before the term was coined--through the scientists whose work would come to influence criminal justice for decades to come.]]> 320 Kate Winkler Dawson 0593420063 Malinda 0 to-read 3.59 2022 All That Is Wicked
author: Kate Winkler Dawson
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City]]> 34219897
In winter 1952, London automobiles and thousands of coal-burning hearths belched particulate matter into the air. But the smog that descended on December 5th of 1952 was different; it was a type that held the city hostage for five long days. Mass transit ground to a halt, criminals roamed the streets, and 12,000 people died. That same month, there was another killer at large in London: John Reginald Christie, who murdered at least six women. In a braided narrative that draws on extensive interviews, never-before-published material, and archival research, Dawson captivatingly recounts the intersecting stories of the these two killers and their longstanding impact on modern history.]]> 352 Kate Winkler Dawson 0316506869 Malinda 4 3.59 2017 Death in the Air: The True Story of a Serial Killer, the Great London Smog, and the Strangling of a City
author: Kate Winkler Dawson
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/21
date added: 2022/08/18
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]]> Greenlights 52838315 From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.�

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights - and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.]]> 289 Matthew McConaughey 0593139135 Malinda 5 4.21 2020 Greenlights
author: Matthew McConaughey
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2022/03/28
date added: 2022/08/18
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]]> Local Woman Missing 54737068 People don’t just disappear without a trace....

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find....

In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times best-selling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.]]> 356 Mary Kubica 0778389448 Malinda 4 4.12 2021 Local Woman Missing
author: Mary Kubica
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/04
date added: 2022/08/18
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]]> After I Do 22663501 Forever, Interrupted—hailed by Sarah Jio as “moving, gorgeous, and at times heart-wrenching”—comes a breathtaking new novel about modern marriage, the depth of family ties, and the year that one remarkable heroine spends exploring both.

When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.]]> 350 Taylor Jenkins Reid Malinda 3 4.09 2014 After I Do
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/18
date added: 2022/08/18
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]]> The Hotel Nantucket 60114458 “The queen of beach readsâ€� (New York Magazine) and #1ĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author delivers an immensely satisfying page-turner in this tale about a summer of scandal at a storied Nantucket hotel.

Fresh off a bad breakup with a longtime boyfriend, Nantucket sweetheart Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a second act. When she’s named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a once Gilded Age gem turned abandoned eyesore, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can win the favor of their new London billionaire owner, Xavier Darling, as well as that of Shelly Carpenter, the wildly popular Instagram tastemaker who can help put them back on the map. And while the Hotel Nantucket appears to be a blissful paradise, complete with a celebrity chef-run restaurant and an idyllic wellness center, there’s a lot of drama behind closed doors. The staff (and guests) have complicated pasts, and the hotel can’t seem to overcome the bad reputation it earned in 1922 when a tragic fire killed nineteen-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley. With Grace gleefully haunting the halls, a staff harboring all kinds of secrets, and Lizbet’s own romantic uncertainty, is the Hotel Nantucket destined for success or doom? Ěý

Filled with the emotional depth and multiple points of view that characterize Hilderbrand’s novels (The Blue Bistro, Golden Girl) as well as an added dash of Roaring Twenties history, The Hotel Nantucket offers something for everyone in this compelling summer drama.Ěý]]> 417 Elin Hilderbrand 031625908X Malinda 0 4.21 2022 The Hotel Nantucket
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2022/06/30
date added: 2022/06/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)]]> 968 The da Vinci Code, The da Vinci Code, The da Vinci Code, and The da Vinci Code

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

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

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

The Da Vinci Code heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion.]]> 489 Dan Brown Malinda 0 3.92 2003 The da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)
author: Dan Brown
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2004/01/01
date added: 2022/06/28
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]]> The Night Sister 24040551
Now adult, Piper and Margot have tried to forget what they found that fateful summer, but their lives are upended when Piper receives a panicked midnight call from Margot, with news of a horrific crime for which Amy stands accused. Suddenly, Margot and Piper are forced to relive the time that they found the suitcase that once belonged to Silvie Slater, the aunt that Amy claimed had run away to Hollywood to live out her dream of becoming Hitchcock's next blonde bombshell leading lady. As Margot and Piper investigate, a cleverly woven plot unfolds—revealing the story of Sylvie and Rose, two other sisters who lived at the motel during its 1950s heyday. Each believed the other to be something truly monstrous, but only one carries the secret that would haunt the generations to come.]]> 322 Jennifer McMahon 0385538510 Malinda 0 to-read 3.69 2015 The Night Sister
author: Jennifer McMahon
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Invited 40065317 A chilling ghost story with a twist: the New York Times bestselling author of The Winter People returns to the woods of Vermont to tell the story of a husband and wife who don't simply move into a haunted house--they build one. . . .

In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on forty-four acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house--a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse--objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.]]> 353 Jennifer McMahon 0385541384 Malinda 0 to-read 3.78 2019 The Invited
author: Jennifer McMahon
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Winter People 18007535
Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she's not the only person looking for someone that they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.]]> 317 Jennifer McMahon 0385538499 Malinda 4 3.80 2014 The Winter People
author: Jennifer McMahon
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/28
date added: 2022/06/28
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]]> People We Meet on Vacation 54985743 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806750 Malinda 4 3.85 2021 People We Meet on Vacation
author: Emily Henry
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/27
date added: 2022/06/27
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]]> <![CDATA[There She Was: The Secret History of Miss America]]> 56898104
A Washington Post Style editor’s fascinating and irresistible look back on the Miss America pageant as it approaches its 100th anniversary.

The sash. The tears. The glittering crown. And of course, that soaring song. For all of its pomp and kitsch, the Miss America pageant is indelibly written into the American story of the past century. From its giddy origins as a summer’s-end tourist draw in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, it blossomed into a televised extravaganza that drew tens of millions of viewers in its heyday and was once considered the highest honor that a young woman could achieve.

For two years, Washington Post reporter and editor Amy Argetsinger visited pageants and interviewed former winners and contestants to unveil the hidden world of this iconic institution. There She Was spotlights how the pageant survived decades of social and cultural change, collided with a women’s liberation movement that sought to abolish it, and redefined itself alongside evolving ideas about feminism.

For its superstars—Phyllis George, Vanessa Williams, Gretchen Carlson—and for those who never became household names, Miss America was a platform for women to exercise their ambitions and learn brutal lessons about the culture of fame. Spirited and revelatory, There She Was charts the evolution of the American woman, from the Miss America catapulted into advocacy after she was exposed as a survivor of domestic violence to the one who used her crown to launch a congressional campaign; from a 1930s winner who ran away on the night of her crowning to a present-day rock guitarist carving out her place in this world. Argetsinger dissects the scandals and financial turmoil that have repeatedly threatened to kill the pageant—and highlights the unexpected sisterhood of Miss Americas fighting to keep it alive.]]> 384 Amy Argetsinger 1982123397 Malinda 0 to-read 3.47 2021 There She Was: The Secret History of Miss America
author: Amy Argetsinger
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> Ma Rainey's Black Bottom 516792
Waiting for her are her black musician sidemen, the white owner of the record company, and her white manager. What goes down in the session to come is more than music. It is a riveting portrayal of black rage ... of racism, of the self-hate that racism breeds, and of racial exploitation ...]]> 111 August Wilson 0452261139 Malinda 0 to-read 3.99 1984 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
author: August Wilson
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Fences (The Century Cycle, #6)]]> 539282
From August Wilson, author of The Piano Lesson and the 1984-85 Broadway season's best play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, is another powerful, stunning dramatic work that has won him numerous critical acclaim including the 1987 Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. The protagonist of Fences (part of Wilson's ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle plays), Troy Maxson, is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less.]]> 101 August Wilson 0452264014 Malinda 0 to-read 3.88 1986 Fences (The Century Cycle, #6)
author: August Wilson
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Laugh (The Initial Insult, #2)]]> 58353344 In the dark and stunning sequel to The Initial Insult, award-winning author Mindy McGinnis concludes this suspenseful YA duology as long-held family secrets finally come to light . . . changing Amontillado forevermore.

Tress Montor murdered Felicity Turnado—but she might not have to live with the guilt for long. With an infected arm held together by duct tape, the panther who clawed her open on the loose, and the whole town on the hunt for the lost homecoming queen, the odds are stacked against Tress. As her mind slides deeper into delirium, Tress is haunted by the growing sound of Felicity’s heartbeat pulsing from the “best friend� charm around her fevered neck.

Ribbit Usher has been a punchline his whole life—from his nickname to his latest turn as the unwitting star of a humiliating viral video. In the past he’s willingly played the fool, but now it’s time to fulfill his destiny. That means saving the girl, so that Felicity can take her place at his side and Ribbit can exact revenge on all who have done him wrong—which includes his cousin, Tress. Ribbit is held by a pact he made with his mother long ago, a pact that must be delivered upon in four days.

With time ticking down and an enemy she considers a friend lurking in the shadows, Tress’s grip on reality is failing. Can she keep both mind and body together long enough to finally find out what happened to her parents?]]> 384 Mindy McGinnis 0062982451 Malinda 0 to-read 4.09 2022 The Last Laugh (The Initial Insult, #2)
author: Mindy McGinnis
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt]]> 54817567 The Unfit HeiressĚýchronicles the fight for inheritance, both genetic and monetary, between Ann Cooper Hewitt and her mother Maryon.

In 1934, aided by a California eugenics law, the socialite Maryon Cooper Hewitt had her "promiscuous" daughter declared feebleminded and sterilized without her knowledge. She did this to deprive Ann of millions of dollars from her father's estate, which contained a child-bearing stipulation. When a sensational court case ensued, the American public was captivated. So were eugenicists, who saw an opportunity to restrict reproductive rights in America for decades to come.]]> 304 Audrey Clare Farley 1538753359 Malinda 3 3.61 2021 The Unfit Heiress: The Tragic Life and Scandalous Sterilization of Ann Cooper Hewitt
author: Audrey Clare Farley
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/20
date added: 2022/06/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Golden Boy: A Murder Among the Manhattan Elite]]> 54860378 In Golden Boy, New York Times bestselling author John Glatt tells the true story of Thomas Gilbert Jr., the handsome and charming New York socialite accused of murdering his father, a Manhattan millionaire and hedge fund founder.

By all accounts, Thomas Gilbert Jr. led a charmed life. The son of a wealthy financier, he grew up surrounded by a loving family and all the luxury an Upper East Side childhood could provide: education at the elite Buckley School and Deerfield Academy, summers in a sprawling seaside mansion in the Hamptons. With his striking good lucks, he moved with ease through glittering social circles and followed in his father's footsteps to Princeton.

But Tommy always felt different. The cracks in his façade began to show in warning signs of OCD, increasing paranoia, and--most troubling--an inexplicable hatred of his father. As his parents begged him to seek psychiatric help, Tommy pushed back by self-medicating with drugs and escalating violence. When a fire destroyed his former best friend's Hamptons home, Tommy was the prime suspect--but he was never charged. Just months later, he arrived at his parents' apartment, calmly asked his mother to leave, and shot his father point-blank in the head.

Journalist John Glatt takes an in-depth look at the devastating crime that rocked Manhattan's upper class. With exclusive access to sources close to Tommy, including his own mother, Glatt constructs the agonizing spiral of mental illness that led Thomas Gilbert Jr. to the ultimate unspeakable act.]]> 320 John Glatt 1250271029 Malinda 0 to-read 3.58 2021 Golden Boy: A Murder Among the Manhattan Elite
author: John Glatt
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History]]> 58340993
The definitive social history of tuberculosis, from its origins as a haunting mystery to its modern reemergence that now threatens populations around the world.

It killed novelist George Orwell, Eleanor Roosevelt, and millions of others â€� rich and poor. Desmond Tutu, Amitabh Bachchan, and Nelson Mandela survived it, just.Ěý For centuries, tuberculosis has ravaged cities and plagued the human body.Ěý

InĚý Phantom Plague , Vidya Krishnan, traces the history of tuberculosis from the slums of 19th-century New York to modern Mumbai. In a narrative spanning century, Krishnan shows how superstition and folk-remedies, made way for scientific understanding of TB, such that it was controlled and cured in the West.Ěý

The cure was never available to black and brown nations. And the tuberculosis bacillus showed a remarkable ability to adapt � so that at the very moment it could have been extinguished as a threat to humanity, it found a way back, aided by authoritarian government, toxic kindness of philanthropists, science denialism and medical apartheid.

Krishnan’s original reporting paints a granular portrait of the post-antibiotic era as a new, aggressive, drug resistant strain of TB takes over. Phantom Plague is an urgent, riveting and fascinating narrative that deftly exposes the weakest links in our battle against this ancient foe.Ěý]]> 320 Vidya Krishnan 1541768469 Malinda 0 to-read 3.89 2022 The Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History
author: Vidya Krishnan
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer]]> 54457917 Harold Schechter, Amazon Charts bestselling author of Hell’s Princess, unearths a nearly forgotten true crime of obsession and revenge, and one of the first—and worst—mass murders in American history.

In 1927, while the majority of the township of Bath, Michigan, was celebrating a new primary school—one of the most modern in the Midwest—Andrew P. Kehoe had other plans. The local farmer and school board treasurer was educated, respected, and an accommodating neighbor and friend. But behind his ordinary demeanor was a narcissistic sadist seething with rage, resentment, and paranoia. On May 18 he detonated a set of rigged explosives with the sole purpose of destroying the school and everyone in it. Thirty-eight children and six adults were murdered that morning, culminating in the deadliest school massacre in US history.

Maniac is Harold Schechter’s gripping, definitive, exhaustively researched chronicle of a town forced to comprehend unprecedented carnage and the triggering of a “human time bomb� whose act of apocalyptic violence would foreshadow the terrors of the current age.]]> 227 Harold Schechter 1542000076 Malinda 4 3.76 2021 Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Killer
author: Harold Schechter
name: Malinda
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/06/09
date added: 2022/06/09
shelves:
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]]> Malibu Rising 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

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

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

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

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

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

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Malinda 5 4.02 2021 Malibu Rising
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Malinda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2022/06/03
date added: 2022/06/03
shelves:
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