Minal's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 02 Jan 2025 17:08:26 -0800 60 Minal's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology]]> 75293507
Norris Black, Amber Blaeser-Wardzala, Phoenix Boudreau, Cherie Dimaline, Carson Faust, Kelli Jo Ford, Kate Hart, Shane Hawk, Brandon Hobson, Darcie Little Badger, Conley Lyons, Nick Medina, Tiffany Morris, Tommy Orange, Mona Susan Power, Marcie R. Rendon, Waubgeshig Rice, Rebecca Roanhorse, Andrea L. Rogers, Morgan Talty, D.H. Trujillo, Theodore C. Van Alst Jr., Richard Van Camp, David Heska, Wanbli Weiden, Royce Young, Wolf Mathilda Zeller.

Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms: for instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear—and even follow you home.

These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce listeners to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds, and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples� survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things an ill-advised whistle might summon.]]> 400 Shane Hawk 0593468465 Minal 0 to-read 3.89 2023 Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
author: Shane Hawk
name: Minal
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches]]> 60018635 A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a quirky new family--and a new love--changes the course of her life.

As one of the few witches in Britain, Mika Moon knows she has to hide her magic, keep her head down, and stay away from other witches so their powers don't mingle and draw attention. And as an orphan who lost her parents at a young age and was raised by strangers, she's used to being alone and she follows the rules...with one exception: an online account, where she posts videos pretending to be a witch. She thinks no one will take it seriously.

But someone does. An unexpected message arrives, begging her to travel to the remote and mysterious Nowhere House to teach three young witches how to control their magic. It breaks all of the rules, but Mika goes anyway, and is immediately tangled up in the lives and secrets of not only her three charges, but also an absent archaeologist, a retired actor, two long-suffering caretakers, and...Jamie. The handsome and prickly librarian of Nowhere House would do anything to protect the children, and as far as he's concerned, a stranger like Mika is a threat. An irritatingly appealing threat.

As Mika begins to find her place at Nowhere House, the thought of belonging somewhere begins to feel like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world, and when a threat comes knocking at their door, Mika will need to decide whether to risk everything to protect a found family she didn't know she was looking for....
]]> 318 Sangu Mandanna 059343935X Minal 4 4.04 2022 The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
author: Sangu Mandanna
name: Minal
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Legacy of Orïsha, #3)]]> 68310983 🎧Listening Length = 10 hrs and 2 mins

Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award winner Cynthia Erivo narrates Tomi Adeyemi’s long-awaited conclusion to the #1 NYT Legacy of Orïsha series. Featuring gorgeous spray-painted and stenciled edges, dazzling metallic foil designs on the jacket and case, and an exclusive endpaper map that reveals new unexplored territories, Tomi Adeyemi’s #1 New York Times-bestselling Legacy of Orïsha series comes to an earth-shaking conclusion.

New allies rise.
The Blood Moon nears.
Zélie faces her final enemy.
The king who hunts her heart.

When Zelie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland.

Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her. Baldyr’s quest to harness Zélie’s strength sends Zélie, Amari, and Tzain searching for allies in unknown lands.

But as Baldyr closes in, catastrophe charges Orïsha’s shores. It will take everything Zélie has to face her final enemy and save her people before the Skulls annihilate them for good.

The Complete Legacy of Orïsha Series:

Children of Blood and Bone (Book 1)
Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Book 2)
Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Book 3)]]> 358 Tomi Adeyemi 1432872575 Minal 3 3.36 2024 Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Legacy of Orïsha, #3)
author: Tomi Adeyemi
name: Minal
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen]]> 209615830 From visionary director Jon M. Chu comes a powerful, inspiring memoir of belonging, creativity, and learning to see who you really are.
Long before he directed Wicked, In The Heights, or the groundbreaking film Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu was a movie-obsessed first-generation Chinese American, helping at his parents� Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley and forever facing the cultural identity crisis endemic to children of immigrants. Growing up on the cutting edge of twenty-first-century technology gave Chu the tools he needed to make his mark at USC film school, and to be discovered by Steven Spielberg, but he soon found himself struggling to understand who he was. In this book, for the first time, Chu turns the lens on his own life and work, telling the universal story of questioning what it means when your dreams collide with your circumstances, and showing how it’s possible to succeed even when the world changes beyond all recognition.With striking candor and unrivaled insights, Chu offers a firsthand account of the collision of Silicon Valley and Hollywood—what it’s been like to watch his old world shatter and reshape his new one. Ultimately, Viewfinder is about reckoning with your own story, becoming your most creative self, and finding a path all your own.]]> 304 Jon M. Chu 0593448944 Minal 0 to-read 4.25 Viewfinder: A Memoir of Seeing and Being Seen
author: Jon M. Chu
name: Minal
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Minal 0 to-read 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Minal
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Story Collector 205899692 In a quiet village in Ireland, a mysterious local myth is about to change everything�

One hundred years ago, Anna, a young farm girl, volunteers to help an intriguing American visitor translate fairy stories from Irish to English. But all is not as it seems and Anna soon finds herself at the heart of a mystery that threatens her very way of life.

In New York in the present day, Sarah Harper boards a plane bound for the West Coast of Ireland. But once there, she finds she has unearthed dark secrets � secrets that tread the line between the everyday and the otherworldly, the seen and the unseen.

With a taste for the magical in everyday life, Evie Woods's latest novel is full of ordinary characters with extraordinary tales to tell.]]> 358 Evie Gaughan 0008706662 Minal 3 4.02 2018 The Story Collector
author: Evie Gaughan
name: Minal
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
shelves:
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]]> Pelican Girls 173955779 The Son and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and inspired by a true story, this stunning US literary debut captures the never-before-told journey of the Baleine Brides: a ship full of young women plucked from a Paris asylum and sent to marry settlers in North America's rough Louisiana Territory.

Paris, 1720. La Salpêtrière hospital is in crisis: too many occupants, not enough beds. Halfway across the world, France's colony in the wilds of North America has space to spare and needs families to fill it. So the director of the hospital rounds up nearly a hundred female “volunteers� of childbearing age—orphans, prisoners, and mental patients—to be shipped to New Orleans.

Among this group are three unlikely friends: a sharp-tongued twelve-year old orphan, a mute ‘madwoman,� and an accused abortionist. Charlotte, Pétronille, and Geneviève, along with the dozens of other women aboard La Baleine, have no knowledge of what lies ahead and no control over their futures. Strangers brought together by fate, these brave and fierce young women will face extraordinary adversity—pirates, slavedrivers, sickness, war—but also the private trauma of heartbreak and unrequited love, children born and lost, cruelty and unexpected pleasure, and a friendship forged in fire that will sustain through the years.

At once a gorgeously written work of startling depth and emotion and a gripping drama marrying high-seas adventure with pioneer grit, Pelican Girls is a powerful, thought-provoking novel about female friendship and desire and the daunting compromises women are forced to make to survive.]]> 368 Julia Malye 0063299755 Minal 0 to-read 3.18 2024 Pelican Girls
author: Julia Malye
name: Minal
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/14
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]]> The Snow Child 33597976 423 Eowyn Ivey Minal 5 4.10 2012 The Snow Child
author: Eowyn Ivey
name: Minal
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
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]]> Misshelved Magic 216624589
Leon is a mage in his final year at the college who needs to write something impressive for his final thesis. But when he meets the charming Adelina, and she confides her discovery to him, Leon’s world turns upside down. He’s forced to try to mediate between the mysterious creature and the power-hungry magi who surround him, all while trying to pursue his favorite librarian.

Can Adelina and Leon protect the cervara from the world—and the world from the dangers of the library? Or will both sides be destroyed by the secrets they hide and the greed that drives them to seek forbidden knowledge?]]> S.R. Crickard Minal 2 3.97 Misshelved Magic
author: S.R. Crickard
name: Minal
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/12/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dragon Riders of Pern (4 book box set) ]]> 2571877 Anne McCaffrey Minal 0 to-read 4.52 1988 The Dragon Riders of Pern (4 book box set)
author: Anne McCaffrey
name: Minal
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Lost Bookshop 65137920 The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,� she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.�

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found�

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder� where nothing is as it seems.]]> 432 Evie Woods 0008609209 Minal 5 4.02 2023 The Lost Bookshop
author: Evie Woods
name: Minal
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
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]]> The Color Purple 52892857 Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

𲹻徱Բ The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.� —Tayari Jones

�The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.� —Kiese Laymon]]> 287 Alice Walker 0143135694 Minal 3 4.40 1982 The Color Purple
author: Alice Walker
name: Minal
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store]]> 65678550
Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town’s establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community—heaven and earth—that ultimately sustain us.]]> 385 James McBride 0593422945 Minal 4 3.83 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Minal
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle, #5)]]> 123206298 Master storyteller and internationally bestselling author Christopher Paolini returns to the World of Eragon in this stunning epic fantasy set a year after the events of the Inheritance Cycle. Join Dragon Rider—and fan favorite—Murtagh and his dragon as they confront a perilous new enemy!

The world is no longer safe for the Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. An evil king has been toppled, and they are left to face the consequences of the reluctant role they played in his reign of terror. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society.

Throughout the land, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air—and Murtagh senses that something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So begins an epic journey into lands both familiar and untraveled, where Murtagh and Thorn must use every weapon in their arsenal, from brains to brawn, to find and outwit a mysterious witch. A witch who is much more than she seems.

In this gripping novel starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, a Dragon Rider must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. Murtagh is the perfect book to enter the World of Eragon for the first time . . . or to joyfully return.]]> 688 Christopher Paolini 1774882965 Minal 3 4.09 2023 Murtagh (The Inheritance Cycle, #5)
author: Christopher Paolini
name: Minal
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Inheritance (The Inheritance Cycle, #4)]]> 7664041 Eragon... It ends with Inheritance.

Not so very long ago, Eragon � Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider � was nothing more than a poor farm boy, and his dragon, Saphira, only a blue stone in the forest. Now the fate of an entire civilization rests on their shoulders.

Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be strong enough to defeat him. And if they cannot, no one can. There will be no second chance.

The Rider and his dragon have come further than anyone dared to hope. But can they topple the evil king and restore justice to Alagaësia? And if so, at what cost?

This is the spellbinding conclusion to Christopher Paolini's worldwide bestselling Inheritance cycle.

]]> 849 Christopher Paolini 0375856110 Minal 5 4.14 2011 Inheritance (The Inheritance Cycle, #4)
author: Christopher Paolini
name: Minal
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/19
date added: 2024/10/19
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]]> Night of the Living Rez 56648158 How do the living come back to life?

Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy.

In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty—with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight—breathes life into tales of family and community bonds as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family’s unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s projects the past onto her grandson, and thinks he is her dead brother come back to life; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs.

In a collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of a Native community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction.

Burn
In a jar
Get me some medicine
Food for the common cold
In a field of stray caterpillars
The blessing tobacco
Safe harbor
Smokes last
Half-life
Earth, speak
Night of the living rez
The name means thunder]]> 285 Morgan Talty 195353418X Minal 0 currently-reading 3.89 2022 Night of the Living Rez
author: Morgan Talty
name: Minal
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution]]> 55660735
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A #1 ABA INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE BESTSELLER

Few in history can match the revolutionary career of the Marquis de Lafayette. Over fifty incredible years at the heart of the Age of Revolution, he fought courageously on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a soldier, statesman, idealist, philanthropist, and abolitionist.

As a teenager, Lafayette ran away from France to join the American Revolution. Returning home a national hero, he helped launch the French Revolution, eventually spending five years locked in dungeon prisons. After his release, Lafayette sparred with Napoleon, joined an underground conspiracy to overthrow King Louis XVIII, and became an international symbol of liberty. Finally, as a revered elder statesman, he was instrumental in the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in the Revolution of 1830.

From enthusiastic youth to world-weary old age, from the pinnacle of glory to the depths of despair, Lafayette never stopped fighting for the rights of all mankind. His remarkable life is the story of where we come from, and an inspiration to defend the ideals he held dear.]]> 512 Mike Duncan 154173033X Minal 4 4.50 2021 Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution
author: Mike Duncan
name: Minal
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/14
date added: 2024/10/14
shelves:
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]]> The Once and Future Witches 49504061
But when the Eastwood sisters--James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna--join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote-and perhaps not even to live-the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.]]> 517 Alix E. Harrow 0316422045 Minal 5 4.01 2020 The Once and Future Witches
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Minal
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Out of My Mind (Out of My Mind, #1)]]> 6609765 295 Sharon M. Draper 141697170X Minal 0 to-read 4.34 2010 Out of My Mind (Out of My Mind, #1)
author: Sharon M. Draper
name: Minal
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Eldest (The Inheritance Cycle, #2)]]> 45978
Darkness falls…despair abounds…evil reigns�

Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the mighty forces of King Galbatorix, cruel ruler of the Empire. Now Eragon must travel to Ellesmera, land of the elves, for further training in the skills of the Dragon Rider: magic and swordsmanship. Soon he is on the journey of a lifetime, his eyes open to awe-inspring new places and people, his days filled with fresh adventure. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and nothing is what it seems. Before long, Eragon doesn't know whom he can trust.

Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must fight a new battle–one that might put Eragon in even graver danger.

Will the king's dark hand strangle all resistance? Eragon may not escape with even his life. . . .]]> 704 Christopher Paolini 0375840400 Minal 5 4.04 2005 Eldest (The Inheritance Cycle, #2)
author: Christopher Paolini
name: Minal
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/10/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Brisingr (The Inheritance Cycle, #3)]]> 2248573
It's been only months since Eragon first uttered "brisingr", an ancient language term for fire. Since then, he's not only learned to create magic with words � he's been challenged to his very core. Following the colossal battle against the Empires warriors on the Burning Plains, Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have narrowly escaped with their lives. Still, there is more adventure at hand for the Rider and his dragon, as Eragon finds himself bound by a tangle of promises he may not be able to keep.

First is Eragon's oath to his cousin, Roran: to help rescue Roran's beloved from King Galbatorix's clutches. But Eragon owes his loyalty to others, too. The Varden are in desperate need of his talents and strength � as are the elves and dwarves. When unrest claims the rebels and danger strikes from every corner, Eragon must make choices � choices that will take him across the Empire and beyond, choices that may lead to unimagined sacrifice.

Eragon is the greatest hope to rid the land of tyranny. Can this once simple farm boy unite the rebel forces and defeat the king?

]]> 748 Christopher Paolini 0375826726 Minal 5 4.10 2008 Brisingr (The Inheritance Cycle, #3)
author: Christopher Paolini
name: Minal
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
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]]> Weyward 127280850
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 392 Emilia Hart 1250842727 Minal 0 to-read 4.02 2023 Weyward
author: Emilia Hart
name: Minal
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World]]> 208840291 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass, a bold and inspiring vision for how to orient our lives around gratitude, reciprocity, and community, based on the lessons of the natural world.

As indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love.

Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.”]]> 112 Robin Wall Kimmerer 1668072246 Minal 0 to-read 4.37 2024 The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World
author: Robin Wall Kimmerer
name: Minal
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Coleman Hill 129527470
In 1916, Celia Coleman and Lucy Grimes flee the racism and poverty of their homes in the post–Civil War South for the “Promised Land� of the North. But soon they learn that even in Vauxhall, New Jersey, black women are mainly hired for domestic work, money is scarce, children don’t progress in school, and black men die young. Within a few short years, both women’s husbands are dead. Left to navigate this unwelcoming place alone, Celia and Lucy turn to one another for support in raising their children far from home. They become one another’s closest confidantes and, encouraged by their mothers� friendship, their children’s lives become enmeshed as well. However, with this closeness comes complication. As the children grow into adolescence, two are caught in an impulsive act of impropriety, and Celia and Lucy find themselves at irreconcilable odds over who’s to blame. The ensuing fallout has dire consequences that reverberate through the next two generations of their families. A stunning biomythography—a word coined by the late great writer Audre Lorde� Coleman Hill draws from the author’s own family legend, historical record, and fervent imagination to create an unforgettable new history.]]> 320 Kim Coleman Foote 1638931143 Minal 4 3.77 2023 Coleman Hill
author: Kim Coleman Foote
name: Minal
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/12
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]]> Anxious People 49127718 A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined

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

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

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

Includes short story - The Last Round of Golf]]> 336 Fredrik Backman 198216963X Minal 0 4.17 2019 Anxious People
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Minal
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/04
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]]> Masters of Death 38311338 From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six comes Masters of Death, a story about vampires, ghosts, and death itself!

Viola Marek is a struggling real estate agent, and a vampire. But her biggest problem currently is that the house she needs to sell is haunted. The ghost haunting the house has been murdered, and until he can solve the mystery of how he died, he refuses to move on.

Fox D’Mora is a medium, and though is also most-definitely a shameless fraud, he isn’t entirely without his uses—seeing as he’s actually the godson of Death.

When Viola seeks out Fox to help her with her ghost-infested mansion, he becomes inextricably involved in a quest that neither he nor Vi expects (or wants). But with the help of an unruly poltergeist, a demonic personal trainer, a sharp-voiced angel, a love-stricken reaper, and a few high-functioning creatures, Vi and Fox soon discover the difference between a mysterious lost love and an annoying dead body isn’t nearly as distinct as they thought.]]> 406 Olivie Blake Minal 0 to-read 3.64 2018 Masters of Death
author: Olivie Blake
name: Minal
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/04
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]]> Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]> 623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Minal 3 4.33 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Minal
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2024/09/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]> 517 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 Minal 3 4.56 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Minal
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/30
date added: 2024/08/30
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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 Minal 3 3.97 2024 Swan Song (Nantucket, #4)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Minal
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/25
date added: 2024/08/25
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]]> <![CDATA[It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)]]> 27362503
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up � she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

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

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan � her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]> 386 Colleen Hoover 1668021048 Minal 5 4.11 2016 It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1)
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Minal
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir]]> 195660437
Newly arrived in the Sonoran Desert, eleven-year-old Zoë’s world is one of giant beetles, thundering javelinas, and gnarled paloverde trees. With the family’s move to Cactus Country RV Park, Zoë has been given a fresh start and a new, shorter haircut. Although Zoë doesn’t have the words to express it, he experiences life as a trans boy—and in Cactus Country, others begin to see him as a boy, too. Here, Zoë spends hot days chasing shade and freight trains with an ever-rotating pack of sunburned desert kids, and nights fending off his own questions about the body underneath his baggy clothes.

As Zoë enters adolescence, he must reckon with the sexism, racism, substance abuse, and violence endemic to the working class Cactus Country men he’s grown close to, whose hard masculinity seems as embedded in the desert landscape as the cacti sprouting from parched earth. In response, Zoë adopts an androgynous style and new pronouns, but still cannot escape what it means to live in a gendered body, particularly when a fraught first love destabilizes their sense of self. But beauty flowers in this desert, too. Zoë persists in searching for answers that can’t be found in Cactus Country, dreaming of a day they might leave the park behind to embrace whatever awaits beyond.

Equal parts harsh and tender, Cactus Country is an invitation for readers to consider how we find our place in a world that insists on stark binaries, and a precisely rendered journey of self-determination that will resonate with anyone who’s ever had to fight to be themself]]> 272 Zoë Bossiere 1419773186 Minal 5 4.32 2024 Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir
author: Zoë Bossiere
name: Minal
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz]]> 51187948
On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold the country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally-and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London.

Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports-some released only recently-Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the cadre of close advisers who comprised Churchill's "Secret Circle," including his lovestruck private secretary, John Colville; newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook; and the Rasputin-like Frederick Lindemann.

The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today's political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when-in the face of unrelenting horror-Churchill's eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together."--]]> 546 Erik Larson 038534872X Minal 0 to-read 4.30 2020 The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
author: Erik Larson
name: Minal
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine]]> 66087028 Legacy is an illuminating and stirring journey of a book.� —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times- bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist

The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system

Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives.

What Dr. Uché Blackstock did not understand as a child—or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother’s footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school—were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women; the racist practices and policies that ensure Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country; and the flawed system that endangers the well-being of communities like theirs. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face.

Legacy is a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock’s odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician—to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.]]> 304 Uché Blackstock 0593491289 Minal 0 to-read 4.43 2024 Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
author: Uché Blackstock
name: Minal
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft]]> 3217221 168 Joe Hill 1600102379 Minal 4 4.14 2008 Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft
author: Joe Hill
name: Minal
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/16
date added: 2024/07/16
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]]> <![CDATA[After the Crash: How to Keep Your Job, Stay in School, and Live Life After a Brain Injury]]> 63330317
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can change your life instantly and leave you feeling as if you’re living with a stranger in your head. You’ve survived a cataclysmic event, but living a normal life again seems impossible. How can you thrive in your day-to-day when healing is a battle?

Neurology nurse practitioner Kelly Tuttle—also a TBI survivor—offers help and hope in her guide, After the Crash. Based on her own recovery experiences, Kelly shares strategic steps that will help you keep working, learning, and living life as your brain and body heal. She also provides tips to prevent your livelihood from being devastated by a TBI.

You’ll discover:
- Surprising strategies and other tools you can use to support brain healing while working and studying.
- Medical symptoms to expect as you recover, including dizziness, fatigue, memory loss, and vision changes.
- How to choose a health care provider or specialist for help with head injury symptoms.
- Six lifestyle tips to promote and sustain brain healing and cognitive function, like getting plenty of sleep and exercise, choosing brain-healthy nutrition, and practicing mindfulness.
- Six steps to help you start living life to the fullest after sustaining a head injury, such as redefining core values.

After the Crash is a must-read if you’ve survived a TBI and plan to continue working and studying despite daily emotional, physical, and cognitive challenges. Get it today, and begin to understand your new brain and learn to love the new person you’re becoming.]]> 220 Kelly Tuttle Minal 0 to-read 4.57 After the Crash: How to Keep Your Job, Stay in School, and Live Life After a Brain Injury
author: Kelly Tuttle
name: Minal
average rating: 4.57
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rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/13
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]]> <![CDATA[The Atlas Paradox (The Atlas, #2)]]> 57912066 Five are now members of the Society.
Two paths lie before them.

All must pick a side.

Alliances will be tested, hearts will be broken, and The Society of Alexandrians will be revealed for what it is: a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already under way.]]> 560 Olivie Blake 1250855128 Minal 4 3.50 2022 The Atlas Paradox (The Atlas, #2)
author: Olivie Blake
name: Minal
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2024/07/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Oil and Ice: A Story of Arctic Disaster and the Rise and Fall of America's Last Whaling Dynas ty]]> 8890447 "Peter Nichols has crafted a terrifyingly relevant historical narrative...A terrific read." -Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In The Heart of the Sea In 1871, America's last fleet of whaling ships was destroyed in an arctic ice storm. Miraculously, 1,218 men, women and children survived, but the disaster was catastrophic at home. Oil and Ice is the story of one fateful whaling season that illuminates the unprecedented rise and devastating fall of America's first oil economy, and the fate of today's petroleum industry.]]> 306 Peter Nichols 1101460954 Minal 0 to-read 3.70 2010 Oil and Ice: A Story of Arctic Disaster and the Rise and Fall of America's Last Whaling Dynas ty
author: Peter Nichols
name: Minal
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Moon of the Turning Leaves (Moon, #2)]]> 167067538
For the past twelve years, a community of Anishinaabe people have made the Northern Ontario bush their home in the wake of the infrastructural power failure that brought about governmental and societal collapse. Hunters and harvesters, they have survived and thrived the way their ancestors once did, but their natural food resources are dwindling, and the time has come to find a new home.
Evan Whitesky volunteers to lead a dangerous mission south to explore the possibility of moving back to their ancestral home, the “land where the birch trees grow by the big water� in the Great Lakes region.

Accompanied by five others, including his daughter Nangohns, a great archer and hunter, Evan begins a journey that will take him through the reserve where the Anishinaabe were once settled, the devastated city of Gibson, and a land now being reclaimed by nature. But it isn’t just the wilderness that poses a threat as they encounter other survivors. Those who, like the Anishinaabe, live in harmony with the land. And those who use violence to fulfill their needs. . .]]> 307 Waubgeshig Rice 0358673259 Minal 0 to-read 4.21 2023 Moon of the Turning Leaves (Moon, #2)
author: Waubgeshig Rice
name: Minal
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Practical Magic (Practical Magic, #1)]]> 22896 Alternate cover for ISBN 9780425190371 (currently here).

The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman.

For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape.

One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic...
]]> 286 Alice Hoffman Minal 1 3.70 1995 Practical Magic (Practical Magic, #1)
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Minal
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1995
rating: 1
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
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]]> The Midnight Library 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

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

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Minal 3 3.96 2020 The Midnight Library
author: Matt Haig
name: Minal
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/21
date added: 2024/06/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Five-Star Weekend (Sommer in Nantucket, #1)]]> 62873996 After tragedy strikes, Hollis Shaw gathers four friends from different stages in her life to spend an unforgettable weekend on Nantucket.

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 Minal 2 3.95 2023 The Five-Star Weekend (Sommer in Nantucket, #1)
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Minal
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/03
date added: 2024/06/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility]]> 34540062 Trap Door grapples with these contradictions. The essays, conversations, and dossiers gathered here delve into themes as wide-ranging yet interconnected as beauty, performativity, activism, and police brutality. Collectively, they attest to how trans people are frequently offered “doors”—entrances to visibility and recognition—that are actually “traps� accommodating trans bodies and communities only insofar as they cooperate with dominant norms. The volume speculates about a third term, perhaps uniquely suited for our time: the trapdoor, neither entrance nor exit, but a secret passageway leading elsewhere. Trap Door begins a conversation that extends through and beyond trans culture, showing how these issues have relevance for anyone invested in the ethics of visual culture.]]> 544 Reina Gossett 0262036606 Minal 0 to-read 4.49 2017 Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility
author: Reina Gossett
name: Minal
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/22
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]]> The Overstory 40180098 The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.]]> 502 Richard Powers 039335668X Minal 0 to-read 4.10 2018 The Overstory
author: Richard Powers
name: Minal
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War]]> 195607632
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Fort Sumter.

Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.�

At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.

Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.]]> 559 Erik Larson 0385348754 Minal 0 to-read 4.37 2024 The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
author: Erik Larson
name: Minal
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/22
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]]> <![CDATA[How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures]]> 60769830 How Far the Light Reaches is a book that invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.]]> 263 Sabrina Imbler 0316540536 Minal 0 to-read 4.10 2022 How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures
author: Sabrina Imbler
name: Minal
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction]]> 49755834
This is a sequel to the popular anthology, Love Beyond Body Space and Time (2019 AILA Youth Honor Book), and features several of the same authors returning, along with new voices!]]> 120 Joshua Whitehead Minal 0 to-read 4.20 2019 Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction
author: Joshua Whitehead
name: Minal
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/20
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]]> Starling House 65213595 A grim and gothic new tale from author Alix E. Harrow about a small town haunted by secrets that can't stay buried and the sinister house that sits at the crossroads of it all.

Eden, Kentucky, is just another dying, bad-luck town, known only for the legend of E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth-century author and illustrator who wrote The Underland--and disappeared. Before she vanished, Starling House appeared. But everyone agrees that it’s best to let the uncanny house―and its last lonely heir, Arthur Starling―go to rot.

Opal knows better than to mess with haunted houses or brooding men, but an unexpected job offer might be a chance to get her brother out of Eden. Too quickly, though, Starling House starts to feel dangerously like something she’s never had: a home.

As sinister forces converge on Starling House, Opal and Arthur are going to have to make a dire choice to dig up the buried secrets of the past and confront their own fears, or let Eden be taken over by literal nightmares.

If Opal wants a home, she’ll have to fight for it.]]> 320 Alix E. Harrow 1250799058 Minal 5 3.76 2023 Starling House
author: Alix E. Harrow
name: Minal
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/17
date added: 2024/05/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Three Sisters (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #3)]]> 56269187 A promise to stay together.
An unbreakable bond.
A fierce will to survive.

From international bestselling author Heather Morris comes the breathtaking conclusion to The Tattooist of Auschwitz trilogy.

When they are girls, Cibi, Magda and Livia make a promise to their father - that they will stay together, no matter what.

Years later, at just 15 years old, Livia is ordered to Auschwitz by the Nazis. Cibi, only 19 herself, remembers their promise and follows Livia, determined to protect her sister, or die with her.

In their hometown in Slovakia, 17-year-old Magda hides, desperate to evade the barbaric Nazi forces. But it is not long before she is captured and condemned to Auschwitz.

In the horror of the death camp, these three beautiful sisters are reunited. Though traumatised by their experiences, they are together.

They make another promise: that they will live. Their fight for survival takes them from the hell of Auschwitz, to a death march across war-torn Europe and eventually home to Slovakia, now under iron Communist rule. Determined to begin again, they embark on a voyage of renewal, to the new Jewish homeland, Israel.

Rich in vivid detail, and beautifully told, Three Sisters will break your heart, but leave you amazed and uplifted by the courage and fierce love of three sisters, whose promise to each other kept them alive. Two of the sisters are in Israel today, surrounded by family and friends. They have chosen Heather Morris to reimagine their story in her astonishing new novel, Three Sisters.]]> 416 Heather Morris 1250276896 Minal 0 to-read 4.34 2021 Three Sisters (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #3)
author: Heather Morris
name: Minal
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Cilka's Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #2)]]> 45033931 The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the author tells the story, based on a true one, of a woman who survives Auschwitz, only to find herself locked away again.

Cilka Klein is 18 years old when Auschwitz-Birkenau is liberated by Soviet soldiers. But Cilka is one of the many women who is sentenced to a labor camp on charges of having helped the Nazis--with no consideration of the circumstances Cilka and women like her found themselves in as they struggled to survive. Once at the Vorkuta gulag in Sibera, where she is to serve her 15-year sentence, Cilka uses her wits, charm, and beauty to survive.]]> 352 Heather Morris 1250265703 Minal 0 to-read 4.38 2019 Cilka's Journey (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #2)
author: Heather Morris
name: Minal
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck]]> 68057408
Do you ever feel strange, gross, chaotic, underappreciated, or like you don’t quite fit in? Great news: you might be a goblin! That means your imperfections and idiosyncrasies are the most awesome things about you, and you can build a more balanced, comfortable, harmonious life by accepting and honoring them—taking inspiration from the frogs, fungus, moss, rocks, and dirt that goblins love.

Can a mushroom give you fashion tips? Can a snail teach you to be a better person? You bet they can—and in this book you’ll also learn to:
Build a moss garden for your lair
Grow and use medicinal plants
Forage for berries (even in the city)
Mend your cozy sweaters
Display your cool rock collection
And more!

Anyone can be a goblin, and Goblin Mode includes life advice for celebrating physical and mental diversity, rejecting prejudice, and generally hanging on to a little joy.

Featuring 25 whimsical illustrations by Marian Churchland, Goblin Mode will help you rethink your relationship with your body, your home, your community, and the earth.]]> 208 McKayla Coyle Minal 5 3.40 2023 Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck
author: McKayla Coyle
name: Minal
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/11
date added: 2024/05/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Moon of the Crusted Snow (Moon, #1)]]> 39082248
The community leadership loses its grip on power as the visitors manipulate the tired and hungry to take control of the reserve. Tensions rise and, as the months pass, so does the death toll due to sickness and despair. Frustrated by the building chaos, a group of young friends and their families turn to the land and Anishinaabe tradition in hopes of helping their community thrive again. Guided through the chaos by an unlikely leader named Evan Whitesky, they endeavor to restore order while grappling with a grave decision.

Blending action and allegory, Moon of the Crusted Snow upends our expectations. Out of catastrophe comes resilience. And as one society collapses, another is reborn.]]> 213 Waubgeshig Rice 1770414002 Minal 4 3.83 2018 Moon of the Crusted Snow (Moon, #1)
author: Waubgeshig Rice
name: Minal
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/13
date added: 2024/05/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Healing the Broken Brain: Leading Experts Answer 100 Questions About Stroke Recovery]]> 34972467 Dr. Mike Dow is a best-selling author, psychotherapist, and relationship expert. So why is he writing a book about stroke?

Well, what you probably don’t know about Dr. Mike is that his younger brother, David, is a stroke survivor. What’s more, David’s stroke happened when he only 10 years old. This means most of Dr. Mike’s teenage years were spent witnessing what his family was dealing with trying to find the best treatments for David. He struggled to know what to do to help his brother. He watched helplessly as his brother wrestled with depression, trying to find the motivation to recover on top of the challenges of adolescence. He mourned the loss of what could have been—and he was angry.

How his family would have loved to sit down with top experts in stroke to find out what they should be doing and have their questions answered. Now Dr. Mike has the ability to do just that, and he’s doing it so that others in his family’s position don’t have the same struggle.

Armed with questions from stroke survivors and their loved ones, Dr. Mike talks with the best clinicians across the country to get over 100 answers you need to know to maximize your recovery.

]]> 258 Mike Dow 1401952666 Minal 3 4.33 Healing the Broken Brain: Leading Experts Answer 100 Questions About Stroke Recovery
author: Mike Dow
name: Minal
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/10
date added: 2024/05/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Red Scrolls of Magic (The Eldest Curses, #1)]]> 30295312
All Magnus Bane wanted was a vacation—a lavish trip across Europe with Alec Lightwood, the Shadowhunter who against all odds is finally his boyfriend. But as soon as the pair settles in Paris, an old friend arrives with news about a demon-worshipping cult called the Crimson Hand that is bent on causing chaos around the world. A cult that was apparently founded by Magnus himself. Years ago. As a joke.

Now Magnus and Alec must race across Europe to track down the Crimson Hand and its elusive new leader before the cult can cause any more damage. As if it wasn’t bad enough that their romantic getaway has been sidetracked, demons are now dogging their every step, and it is becoming harder to tell friend from foe. As their quest for answers becomes increasingly dire, Magnus and Alec will have to trust each other more than ever—even if it means revealing the secrets they’ve both been keeping.]]> 368 Cassandra Clare 1471162141 Minal 2 4.10 2019 The Red Scrolls of Magic (The Eldest Curses, #1)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/06
date added: 2024/05/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Where Is the Mango Princess?: A Journey Back from Brain Injury]]> 129867
When her husband Alan is injured in a speedboat accident, Cathy Crimmins reluctantly assumes the role of caregiver and learns to cope with the person he has become. No longer the man who loved obscure Japanese cinema and wry humor, Crimmins' husband has emerged from the accident a childlike and unpredictable replica of his former self with a short attention span and a penchant for inane cartoons. Where Is the Mango Princess? is a breathtaking account that explores the very nature of personality-and the complexities of the heart.]]> 272 Cathy Crimmins 0375704426 Minal 0 to-read 4.08 2000 Where Is the Mango Princess?: A Journey Back from Brain Injury
author: Cathy Crimmins
name: Minal
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> Allegiant (Divergent, #3) 18710190
But Tris's new reality is even more alarming than the one she left behind. Old discoveries are quickly rendered meaningless. Explosive new truths change the hearts of those she loves. And once again, Tris must battle to comprehend to complexities of human nature - and of herself - while facing impossible choices about courage, allegiance, sacrifice, and love.

Told from a riveting dual perspective, ALLEGIANT, by #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, brings the DIVERGENT series to a powerful conclusion while revealing the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in DIVERGENT and INSURGENT.]]> 531 Veronica Roth 0007524277 Minal 2 3.59 2013 Allegiant (Divergent, #3)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Minal
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/28
date added: 2024/04/28
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]]> <![CDATA[What You Are Looking For Is in the Library]]> 91274427 For fans of The Midnight Library and Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this charming Japanese novel shows how the perfect book recommendation can change a reader's life.

What are you looking for?

This is the famous question routinely asked by Tokyo’s most enigmatic librarian, Sayuri Komachi. Like most librarians, Komachi has read every book lining her shelves—but she also has the unique ability to read the souls of her library guests. For anyone who walks through her door, Komachi can sense exactly what they’re looking for in life and provide just the book recommendation they never knew they needed to help them find it.

Each visitor comes to her library from a different juncture in their careers and dreams, from the restless sales attendant who feels stuck at her job to the struggling working mother who longs to be a magazineeditor. The conversation that they have with Sayuri Komachi—and the surprise book she lends each of them—will have life-altering consequences.

With heartwarming charm and wisdom, What You Are Looking For Is in the Library is a paean to the magic of libraries, friendship and community, perfect for anyone who has ever found themselves at an impasse in their life and in need of a little inspiration.]]> 304 Michiko Aoyama 1335005625 Minal 3 4.06 2020 What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
author: Michiko Aoyama
name: Minal
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/22
date added: 2024/04/22
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]]> Insurgent (Divergent, #2) 11735983
Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian DIVERGENT series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.]]> 525 Veronica Roth 0007442912 Minal 2 3.96 2012 Insurgent (Divergent, #2)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Minal
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/19
date added: 2024/04/19
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]]> Divergent (Divergent, #1) 13335037
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.]]> 487 Veronica Roth 0062024035 Minal 3 4.13 2011 Divergent (Divergent, #1)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Minal
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2024/04/19
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)]]> 43763
Louis and Claudia travel Europe, eventually coming to Paris and the ragingly successful Theatre des Vampires--a theatre of vampires pretending to be mortals pretending to be vampires. Here they meet the magnetic and ethereal Armand, who brings them into a whole society of vampires. But Louis and Claudia find that finding others like themselves provides no easy answers and in fact presents dangers they scarcely imagined.

Originally begun as a short story, the book took off as Anne wrote it, spinning the tragic and triumphant life experiences of a soul. As well as the struggles of its characters, Interview captures the political and social changes of two continents. The novel also introduces Lestat, Anne's most enduring character, a heady mixture of attraction and revulsion. The book, full of lush description, centers on the themes of immortality, change, loss, sexuality, and power.
source: annerice.com]]> 346 Anne Rice 0345476875 Minal 0 to-read 4.04 1976 Interview with the Vampire (The Vampire Chronicles, #1)
author: Anne Rice
name: Minal
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices, #2)]]> 10025305
With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a long-ago tragedy that shattered his life. To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journeys from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move—and that one of their own has betrayed them.

Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, but her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will—the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?

As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.]]> 498 Cassandra Clare 1416975888 Minal 3 4.42 2011 Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices, #2)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3)]]> 18335634
THE INFERNAL DEVICES WILL NEVER STOP COMING

A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.

Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.

As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?

Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment, and the tangled threads of love and loss intertwine as the Shadowhunters are pushed to the very brink of destruction in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.]]> 567 Cassandra Clare 1406321346 Minal 3 4.55 2013 Clockwork Princess (The Infernal Devices, #3)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/28
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us]]> 59575939 A grand tour through the hidden realms of animal senses that will transform the way you perceive the world --from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes.

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension--the world as it is truly perceived by other animals.

We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires, turtles that can track the Earth's magnetic fields, fish that fill rivers with electrical messages, and humans that wield sonar like bats. We discover that a crocodile's scaly face is as sensitive as a lover's fingertips, that the eyes of a giant squid evolved to see sparkling whales, that plants thrum with the inaudible songs of courting bugs, and that even simple scallops have complex vision. We learn what bees see in flowers, what songbirds hear in their tunes, and what dogs smell on the street. We listen to stories of pivotal discoveries in the field, while looking ahead at the many mysteries which lie unsolved.

In An Immense World, author and acclaimed science journalist Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us. Because in order to understand our world we don't need to travel to other places; we need to see through other eyes.]]> 464 Ed Yong Minal 0 to-read 4.46 2022 An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
author: Ed Yong
name: Minal
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/12
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]]> Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Minal 0 to-read 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Minal
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/12
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]]> <![CDATA[I Am Bunny: How a "Talking" Dog Taught Me Everything I Need to Know About Being Human]]> 123025553 272 Alexis Devine 0358674301 Minal 0 to-read 4.12 I Am Bunny: How a "Talking" Dog Taught Me Everything I Need to Know About Being Human
author: Alexis Devine
name: Minal
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> Under the Whispering Door 53205888 Welcome to Charon's Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh, and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead.

And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead.

But even in death he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived, so when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.

Hilarious, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is an uplifting story about a life spent at the office and a death spent building a home.]]> 376 T.J. Klune 1250217342 Minal 4 4.10 2021 Under the Whispering Door
author: T.J. Klune
name: Minal
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/06
date added: 2024/03/06
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)]]> 7171637 New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments series.

The year is 1878. Tessa Gray descends into London’s dark supernatural underworld in search of her missing brother. She soon discovers that her only allies are the demon-slaying Shadowhunters—including Will and Jem, the mysterious boys she is attracted to. Soon they find themselves up against the Pandemonium Club, a secret organization of vampires, demons, warlocks, and humans. Equipped with a magical army of unstoppable clockwork creatures, the Club is out to rule the British Empire, and only Tessa and her allies can stop them...]]> 479 Cassandra Clare 1416975861 Minal 3 4.31 2010 Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices, #1)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/01
date added: 2024/03/01
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]]> To Be Taught, If Fortunate 43190272
Ariadne is one such explorer. As an astronaut on an extrasolar research vessel, she and her fellow crewmates sleep between worlds and wake up each time with different features. Her experience is one of fluid body and stable mind and of a unique perspective on the passage of time. Back on Earth, society changes dramatically from decade to decade, as it always does.

Ariadne may awaken to find that support for space exploration back home has waned, or that her country of birth no longer exists, or that a cult has arisen around their cosmic findings, only to dissolve once more by the next waking. But the moods of Earth have little bearing on their mission: to explore, to study, and to send their learnings home.

Carrying all the trademarks of her other beloved works, including brilliant writing, fantastic world-building and exceptional, diverse characters, Becky's first audiobook outside of the Wayfarers series is sure to capture the imagination of listeners all over the world.]]> 153 Becky Chambers 0062936018 Minal 4 4.19 2019 To Be Taught, If Fortunate
author: Becky Chambers
name: Minal
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6)]]> 8755785
Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.

The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris - but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons?

When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee - even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned...

Love will be sacrificed and lives lost in the terrible battle for the fate of the word in the thrilling final installment of the classic urban fantasy series The Mortal Instruments!]]> 725 Cassandra Clare 1481426303 Minal 5 4.38 2014 City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments, #6)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/02/24
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]]> <![CDATA[City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5)]]> 8755776 New York Times bestselling Mortal Instruments continues—and so do the thrills and danger for Jace, Clary, and Simon.

What price is too high to pay, even for love? When Jace and Clary meet again, Clary is horrified to discover that the demon Lilith’s magic has bound her beloved Jace together with her evil brother Sebastian, and that Jace has become a servant of evil. The Clave is out to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. As Alec, Magnus, Simon, and Isabelle wheedle and bargain with Seelies, demons, and the merciless Iron Sisters to try to save Jace, Clary plays a dangerous game of her own. The price of losing is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she still trust him? Or is he truly lost?

Love. Blood. Betrayal. Revenge. Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.]]> 535 Cassandra Clare 1442416866 Minal 4 4.22 2012 City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/14
date added: 2024/02/14
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]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

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

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 715 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Minal 0 to-read 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Minal
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

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

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

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

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Minal 3 3.66 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Minal
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/11
date added: 2024/02/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience Is Changing How We Think About PTSD]]> 56643994 A top expert on human trauma argues thatwevastly overestimatehow common PTSDis andfailtorecognizehow resilient people really are

After 9/11, mental health professionalsflockedto New York to handle what everyone assumed would be a flood of trauma cases.Oddly,thefloodnever came.

InTheEnd of Trauma, pioneering psychologist GeorgeA.Bonanno argues that we failed to predict the psychological response to 9/11 because most of what we understand about trauma is wrong.For starters, it’snot nearly as common as we think. In fact, people are overwhelmingly resilient toadversity.What we often interpret asPTSDare signsof a natural processof learninghow todealwithaspecific situation. We can cope far more effectively if we understand how thisprocessworks.Drawing on four decades ofresearch,Bonannoexplains what makes us resilient, whywesometimesaren’t, andhow we can better handletraumatic stress.

Hopeful and humane,The End of Traumaoverturnseverythingwe thoughtwe knewabout how peoplerespond to hardship.]]> 336 George A. Bonanno 1541674367 Minal 0 to-read 3.73 The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience Is Changing How We Think About PTSD
author: George A. Bonanno
name: Minal
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams (#2)]]> 28638288
It was meant to be temporary, a three-month time-out from the daily grind of being broken up and miserable, but within days of her arrival, alone and not quite in her right mind, Susan "accidentally" bought a tiny one-bedroom cottage in the woods. And that is how she discovered she was moving 3,000 miles away from everyone and everything she had known and loved.

Funny, observant, touching, and addictive (you are not going to want this book to end), based on the diaries she has kept all her life, Susan Branch relates her inspirational tale of starting over, of lost love and self discovery, her search for roots, purpose, and destiny with laugh-out-loud honesty. A road map for overcoming loss, following your heart, and making dreams come true, charmingly hand-lettered and watercolored in Susan's inimitable style, there are diary excerpts, recipes, and hundreds of photographs.

Printed in the USA, in full color with a ribbon bookmark, Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams is book number two of a continuing story . . . Book one was The Fairy Tale Girl which came out October 2015, and book 3, which was written first, was A Fine Romance, Falling in Love with the English Countryside published in August 2013.]]> 368 Susan Branch 0996044027 Minal 5 4.49 2016 Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams (#2)
author: Susan Branch
name: Minal
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/04
date added: 2024/02/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris]]> 60466963 The Clockmaker’s Wife—comes a tale of love and a betrayal that echoes through generations�

Paris, 1940: War is closing in on the city of love. With his wife forced into hiding, Jacques must stand by and watch as the Nazis take away everything he holds dear. Everything except his last beacon of hope: his beloved bookshop, La Page Cachée.

But when a young woman and her child knock on his door one night and beg for refuge, he knows his only option is to risk it all once more to save a life�

Modern day: Juliette and her husband have finally made it to France on the romantic getaway of her dreams—but as the days pass, all she discovers is quite how far they’ve grown apart. She’s craving a new adventure, so when she happens across a tiny, abandoned shop with a for-sale sign in the window, it feels fated.

And she’s about to learn that the forgotten bookshop hides a lot more than meets the eye�

A heartbreaking tale of love and loss in war, perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Rachel Hore.]]> 367 Daisy Wood 0008525242 Minal 3 4.09 2022 The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris
author: Daisy Wood
name: Minal
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/02/03
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]]> The Fairy Tale Girl 26158041
Susan began writing The Fairy Tale Girl as one volume, but by the time she put in all the details, and her art and photographs, it was almost 700 pages, too big, so she decided to turn it into two books. The second book will be coming early next year, and will be called Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams. Both The Fairy Tale Girl and Martha's Vineyard, Isle of Dreams (publication date May 2016) are prequels to Susan's last book, A Fine Romance - Falling in Love with the English Countryside (2013).]]> 288 Susan Branch 0996044019 Minal 5 4.44 2015 The Fairy Tale Girl
author: Susan Branch
name: Minal
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/03
date added: 2024/02/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4)]]> 6752378 425 Cassandra Clare 1442403543 Minal 4 4.09 2011 City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/02/02
date added: 2024/02/03
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]]> <![CDATA[City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2)]]> 1582996 Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE]
ACE #1

Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go � especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil � and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings � and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.]]> 453 Cassandra Clare 1416914293 Minal 0 4.12 2008 City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/28
date added: 2024/01/28
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]]> Belladonna (Belladonna, #1) 59227936
Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation, and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.

However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.]]> 409 Adalyn Grace 0316158232 Minal 0 to-read 3.96 2022 Belladonna (Belladonna, #1)
author: Adalyn Grace
name: Minal
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/28
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]]> <![CDATA[City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3)]]> 3777732 Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE]
ACE #1

To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City - whatever the cost?

Love is a mortal sin and the secrets of the past prove deadly as Clary and Jace face down Valentine in the third installment of the New York Times bestselling series The Mortal Instruments.]]> 541 Cassandra Clare 1416914307 Minal 5 4.27 2009 City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/20
date added: 2024/01/20
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]]> <![CDATA[City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)]]> 256683
This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...]]> 485 Cassandra Clare 1416914285 Minal 4 4.08 2007 City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1)
author: Cassandra Clare
name: Minal
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/17
date added: 2024/01/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1)]]> 136342745
Since time immemorial, the Spires have sheltered humanity. Within their halls, the ruling aristocratic houses develop scientific marvels, foster trade alliances, and maintain fleets of airships to keep the peace.

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship Predator. Loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is damaged in combat, Grimm joins a team of Albion agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring his ship.

And as Grimm undertakes this task, he learns that the conflict between the Spires is merely a premonition of things to come. Humanity’s ancient enemy, silent for more than ten thousand years, has begun to stir once more. And death will follow in its wake...]]> 656 Jim Butcher 0593642058 Minal 0 to-read 4.14 2015 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Minal
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis, #1)]]> 9516
Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.]]> 153 Marjane Satrapi 037571457X Minal 5 4.27 2003 Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis, #1)
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Minal
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/01/01
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An incredible account with a brilliantly illustrated childhood perspective of growing up in Iran in the late seventies/early eighties. I was blown away and read it in a few hours. Can't wait to get my hands on the next volume.
]]> <![CDATA[Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Persepolis, #2)]]> 9517 Persepolis, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as "one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day," Marjane Satrapi dazzled us with her heartrending memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Here is the continuation of her fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran.

As funny and poignant as its predecessor, Persepolis 2 is another clear-eyed and searing condemnation of the human cost of fundamentalism. In its depiction of the struggles of growing up--here compounded by Marjane's status as an outsider both abroad and at home--it is raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.]]> 187 Marjane Satrapi 0375714669 Minal 0 to-read 4.22 2001 Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return (Persepolis, #2)
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Minal
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Oceans and the Stars 98653877 Mark Helprin, the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Winter’s Tale andA Soldier of the Great War , returns with a fast-paced, beautifully written novel about the majesty ofthe sea; a life dedicated to duty, honor, and country; and the gift of falling in love.

A Navy captain near the end of a decorated career, Stephen Rensselaer is disciplined, intelligent, and determined always to do what’s right. In defending the development of a new variant of warship, he makes an enemy of the President of the United States, who assigns him to command the doomed line’s only prototype­–� Athena , Patrol Coastal 15­­––with the intent to humiliate a man who should have been an admiral.

Rather than resign, Rensselaer takes the new assignment in stride, and while supervising Athena ’s fitting out in New Orleans, encounters a brilliant lawyer, Katy Farrar, with whom he falls in last-chance love. Soon thereafter, he is deployed on a mission that subjects his integrity, morality, and skill to the ultimate test, and ensures that Athena will live forever in the annals of the Navy.

As in the Odyssey , Katy is the force that keeps him alive and the beacon that lights the way home through seven battles, mutiny, and court martial. In classic literary form, an enthralling new novel that extolls the virtues of living by the laws of conscience, decency, and sacrifice, The Oceans and the Stars is nothing short of a masterpiece.]]> 512 Mark Helprin 1419769081 Minal 0 to-read 4.28 2023 The Oceans and the Stars
author: Mark Helprin
name: Minal
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/31
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]]> <![CDATA[The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea]]> 7085440 From his childhood fascination with the gigantic Natural History Museum model of a blue whale to his adult encounters with the living animals in the Atlantic Ocean, the acclaimed writer Philip Hoare has been obsessed with whales. Journeying through human and natural history, The Whale is the result of his voyage of discovery into the heart of this obsession and the book that inspired it: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.

Taking us deep into their domain, Hoare shows us these mysterious creatures as they have never been seen before. Following in Ishmael's footsteps, he explores the troubled history of man and whale; visits the historic whaling locales of New Bedford, Nantucket, and the Azores; and traces the whale's cultural history from Jonah to Free Willy. Winner of the prestigious BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, The Whale is an unforgettable and often moving attempt to explain why these strange and beautiful animals still exert such a powerful hold on our imagination.

]]> 464 Philip Hoare 0061976210 Minal 0 to-read 3.83 2008 The Whale: In Search of the Giants of the Sea
author: Philip Hoare
name: Minal
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/31
shelves: to-read
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]]> Kaikeyi 57127277 “I was born on the full moon under an auspicious constellation, the holiest of positions—much good it did me.�

So begins Kaikeyi’s story. The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, she is raised on tales about the might and benevolence of the gods: how they churned the vast ocean to obtain the nectar of immortality, how they vanquish evil and ensure the land of Bharat prospers, and how they offer powerful boons to the worthy. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, listens as her own worth is reduced to the marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear.

Desperate for independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With it, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat, and most favored queen.

But as the evil from her childhood stories threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family. And Kaikeyi must decide if resistance is worth the destruction it will wreak—and what legacy she intends to leave behind.

The unforgettable tale of a woman determined to leave her mark in a world gods and men dictate the shape of things to come. "Patel's mesmerizing debut shines a brilliant light on the vilified queen from the Ramayana"
(Publishers Weekly, starred review).]]> 478 Vaishnavi Patel 0759557330 Minal 4 4.17 2022 Kaikeyi
author: Vaishnavi Patel
name: Minal
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/31
date added: 2023/12/31
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]]> <![CDATA[When the Angels Left the Old Country]]> 60420448 A queer immigrant fairytale about individual purpose, the fluid nature of identity, and the power of love to change and endure.

Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.

Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they’ve left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold.]]> 408 Sacha Lamb 1646141768 Minal 4 4.24 2022 When the Angels Left the Old Country
author: Sacha Lamb
name: Minal
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/16
date added: 2023/12/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1)]]> 228665
Moiraine Damodred arrives in Emond’s Field on a quest to find the one prophesized to stand against The Dark One, a malicious entity sowing the seeds of chaos and destruction. When a vicious band of half-men, half beasts invade the village seeking their master’s enemy, Moiraine persuades Rand al’Thor and his friends to leave their home and enter a larger unimaginable world filled with dangers waiting in the shadows and in the light.]]> 800 Robert Jordan 0812511816 Minal 3 4.19 1990 The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Minal
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/08
date added: 2023/12/09
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]]> Dark Places 5886881
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.

Who did massacre the Day family?]]> 424 Gillian Flynn 0307341569 Minal 0 to-read 3.95 2009 Dark Places
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Minal
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill]]> 77286260
In the early 1900s, two sistersmust navigate the magic and the dangers of the Fae in thisenchanting and cozyhistorical fantasy about sisterhood and self-discovery.

There is no magic on Prospect Hill—or anywhere else, for that matter. But just on the other side of the veil is the world of the Fae. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier—a bit of glass to find something lost, a cup of milk for better layers in the chicken coop.

Much of that old wisdomwaslost as the riverboats gave way to the rail lines and the farmers took work atmills and factories. Alaine Fairborn’s family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to findalost shoe andtoensure dry weather on her sister’s wedding day.

When Delphine confidesher new husband is not the man she thought he was, Alaine will stop at nothing to help her sister escapehim. Small bargains buy themtime, but a major one is needed. Yet, the price for true freedom may be more than they’re willing to pay.]]> 400 Rowenna Miller 0316378577 Minal 4 3.65 2023 The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill
author: Rowenna Miller
name: Minal
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/08
date added: 2023/11/08
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]]> <![CDATA[A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)]]> 53138095 Global phenomenon Sarah J. Maas’s sexy, richly imagined #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series continues with the journey of Feyre’s fiery sister, Nesta.

Nesta Archeron has always been prickly-proud, swift to anger, and slow to forgive. And ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, she’s struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. Worse, she can’t seem to move past the horrors of the war with Hybern and all she lost in it.

The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre’s Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta’s orbit. But her temper isn’t the only thing Cassian ignites. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other.

Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms. And the key to halting them might very well rely on Cassian and Nesta facing their haunting pasts.

Against the sweeping backdrop of a world seared by war and plagued with uncertainty, Nesta and Cassian battle monsters from within and without as they search for acceptance—and healing—in each other’s arms.]]> 757 Sarah J. Maas 168119628X Minal 4 4.44 2021 A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Minal
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/12
date added: 2023/10/12
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]]> Angel Falls 276342 Kristin Hannah's talent for writing poignant tales of duty, passion, identity and family bonds made last year's On Mystic Lake a bestseller, and will certainly rake in the fans this time. (Imagine Danielle Steel without the Gucci bags or aging corporate CEOs.) While the majority of the novel has our heroine knocked out on a hospital gurney, Hannah makes valiant efforts to bring Mike's character to life, and Liam's enduring love should keep you rooting for him and reaching for the hanky. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien

]]> 400 Kristin Hannah Minal 0 to-read 3.79 2000 Angel Falls
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Minal
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 50659467
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575567 Minal 3 4.15 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Minal
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/30
date added: 2023/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5)]]> 50659471
Yet even the festive atmosphere can't keep the shadows of the past from looming. As Feyre navigates her first Winter Solstice as High Lady, her concern for those dearest to her deepens. They have more wounds than she anticipated-scars that will have a far-reaching impact on the future of their court.

Bridging the events of A Court of Wings and Ruin with the later books in the series, A Court of Frost and Starlight explores the far-reaching effects of a devastating war and the fierce love between friends.]]> 272 Sarah J. Maas 1635575621 Minal 2 3.69 2019 A Court of Frost and Starlight (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3.5)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Minal
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/28
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden]]> 62919890 A seminal work that expands how we talk about the natural world and the environment as National Book Critics Circle Criticism finalist Camille T. Dungy diversifies her garden to reflect her heritage

In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominately white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013 with her husband and daughter, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant.

In resistance to the homogeneous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of the planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it.

Definitive and singular, Soil functions at the nexus of nature writing, environmental justice, and prose to encourage readers to recognize the relationship between the peoples of the African diaspora and the land on which they live, and to understand that wherever soil rests beneath their feet is home.]]> 321 Camille T. Dungy 1982195304 Minal 0 to-read 4.15 2023 Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden
author: Camille T. Dungy
name: Minal
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power]]> 45046690
In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London. Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t―and why.]]> 336 Deirdre Mask 1250134765 Minal 0 to-read 4.07 2020 The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
author: Deirdre Mask
name: Minal
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do]]> 18656041
There's something about water that attracts and fascinates us. No wonder: it's the most omnipresent subnstance on Earth and, along with air, the primary ingredient for supporting life as we know it. From far, far outside, our planet looks like a blue marble; from deep inside, we ourselves are three-quarters H2O.

We know instinctively that being near water makes us healthier and happier, reduces stress, and brings us peace. But why? And what might the answer tell us about how we should be living our lives?

After centuries of asking these questions, we can finally answer them - and those answers are life changing. As Wallace J. Nichols reveals in Blue Mind, we are now at the forefront of a wave of neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and medical research that illuminates the phsysiological and brain processes that underlie our transformative connection to water. That research, involving tools like EEGs, MRIs, and fMRIs, is uncovering remarkable truths about water's incredibly powerful, and startlingly profound, effects on our bodies and souls. Drawing on this breakthrough science, and on compelling personal stories from top athletes, leading scientists, military veterans, and gifted artists, Nichols shows precisely how proximity to water can:

-improve performance in a wide range of fields
-increase calm and diminish anxiety much better than medication
-amplify creativity - artistic and otherwise
-increase generosity and compassion
-increase professional success
-improve our overall health and well-being
-reinforce our connection to the natural world - and one another

Blue Mind isn't just about oceans, lakes, and rivers. Water's tremendous benefits stretch from the sea to the swimming pool, from a barrier reef to a glass of water - even a fishbowl, photograph, or painting. So no matter where you live on this big blue marble, it's time to get your brain on water.]]> 352 Wallace J. Nichols 0316252085 Minal 0 to-read 3.70 2014 Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do
author: Wallace J. Nichols
name: Minal
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)]]> 50659472 The epic third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin's actions and learn what she can about the invading king threatening to bring her land to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit. One slip could bring doom not only for Feyre, but for everything-and everyone-she holds dear.

As war bears down upon them all, Feyre endeavors to take her place amongst the High Fae of the land, balancing her struggle to master her powers-both magical and political-and her love for her court and family. Amidst these struggles, Feyre and Rhysand must decide whom to trust amongst the cunning and lethal High Lords, and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

In this thrilling third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series from Sarah J. Maas, the fate of Feyre's world is at stake as armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy it.]]> 699 Sarah J. Maas 1635575605 Minal 3 4.47 2017 A Court of Wings and Ruin (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Minal
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/20
date added: 2023/09/20
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]]> Love Anthony 13547381
Two women, each cast adrift by unforseen events in their lives, meet by accident on a Nantucket beach and are drawn into a friendship.
Olivia is a young mother whose eight-year-old severely autistic son has recently died. Her marriage badly frayed by years of stress, she comes to the island in a trial separation to try and make sense of the tragedy of her Anthony’s short life.

Beth, a stay-at-home mother of three, is also recently separated after discovering her husband’s long-term infidelity. In an attempt to recapture a sense of her pre-married life, she rekindles her passion for writing, determined to find her own voice again. But surprisingly, as she does so, Beth also find herself channeling the voice of an unknown boy, exuberant in his perceptions of the world around him if autistic in his expression—a voice she can share with Olivia�(is it Anthony?)—that brings comfort and meaning to them both.]]> 309 Lisa Genova 1439164681 Minal 4 3.95 2012 Love Anthony
author: Lisa Genova
name: Minal
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/16
date added: 2023/09/16
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review:

]]> Binti (Binti, #1) 25667918 For the first time in hardcover, the winner of the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award!

With a new foreword by N. K. Jemisin

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach.

If Binti hopes to survive the legacy of a war not of her making, she will need both the the gifts of her people and the wisdom enshrined within the University, itself -- but first she has to make it there, alive.

The Binti Series
Book 1: Binti
Book 2: Binti: Home
Book 3: Binti: The Night Masquerade]]> 96 Nnedi Okorafor 0765384469 Minal 0 to-read 3.81 2015 Binti (Binti, #1)
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Minal
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/15
shelves: to-read
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