Chris's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 30 Apr 2025 09:04:41 -0700 60 Chris's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Alien 3 42875803
Alongside a full cast, Michael Biehn and Lance Henriksen reprise their iconic roles as Corporal Hicks and Bishop from the 1986 film Aliens.

Father of cyberpunk, William Gibson’s original script for Alien III, written in 1987 as a sequel to Aliens, never made it to our screens, although it went on to achieve cult status among fans as the third installment that might have been after being leaked online.

This terrifying, cinematic multicast dramatization—directed by the multi award-winning Dirk Maggs, is the chance to experience William Gibson’s untold story and its terrifying, claustrophobic and dark encounters between humans and aliens, as a completely immersive audio experience.

The story begins with the Sulaco on its return journey from LV-426. On board the military ship are the cryogenically frozen skeleton crew of that film’s survivors: Ripley, Hicks, Newt and Bishop.

We travel aboard and hear an alarm blare. Our heroes are no longer alone....

Starring: Tom Alexander, Barbara Barnes, Michael Biehn, Cliff Chapman, Samantha Coughlan, Ben Cura, Dar Dash, Harry Ditson, Mairead Doherty, Lance Henriksen, Graham Hoadly, Lorelei King, Laurel Lefkow, Martin McDougall, Sarah Pitard, Michael Roberts, David Seddon, Andrew James Spooner, Siri Steinmo, Dai Tabuchi, Keith Wickham, Rebecca Yeo.]]> 136 William Gibson 1506708110 Chris 3 3.27 2018 Alien 3
author: William Gibson
name: Chris
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/19
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Absolute Wonder Woman (2024-) #7 (Absolute Wonder Woman 2024, #7)]]> 230332404 Kelly Thompson Chris 0 currently-reading 4.66 Absolute Wonder Woman (2024-) #7 (Absolute Wonder Woman 2024, #7)
author: Kelly Thompson
name: Chris
average rating: 4.66
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Door-to-Door Bookstore 62192261 The charming international bestseller about an elderly bookseller who delivers his recommendations door-to-door and an unlikely friendship with a nine-year-old girl that changes his life, for fans of The Midnight Library and A Man Called Ove.

The bookseller Carl Christian Kollhoff delivers books to special customers in the evening hours after closing time, walking through the picturesque alleys of the city. These people are almost like friends to him, and he is their most important connection to the world.

When Kollhoff unexpectedly loses his job, it takes the power of books and a nine-year-old girl to make them all find the courage to rebuild their bonds with each other.

A bestselling phenomenon internationally,Carsten Henn’sThe Door-to-Door Bookstoreis a feel-good novel about books and friendship.]]> 239 Carsten Henn 133549085X Chris 0 to-read 4.07 2020 The Door-to-Door Bookstore
author: Carsten Henn
name: Chris
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Babel 59729042 A novel that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.

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

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

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

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]> 560 R.F. Kuang Chris 4 4.14 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Chris
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #3)]]> 7093952
But on the winter night when they were supposed to leave, Rosie didn't show. Frank took it for granted that she'd given him the brush-off--probably because of his alcoholic father, nutcase mother, and generally dysfunctional family. He never went home again.

Neither did Rosie. Everyone thought she had gone to England on her own and was over there living a shiny new life. Then, twenty-two years later, Rosie's suitcase shows up behind a fireplace in a derelict house on Faithful Place, and Frank is going home whether he likes it or not.

Getting sucked in is a lot easier than getting out again. Frank finds himself straight back in the dark tangle of relationships he left behind. The cops working the case want him out of the way, in case loyalty to his family and community makes him a liability. Faithful Place wants him out because he’s a detective now, and the Place has never liked cops. Frank just wants to find out what happened to Rosie Daly-and he’s willing to do whatever it takes, to himself or anyone else, to get the job done.]]> 400 Tana French 0670021873 Chris 4
Tana French excels at crafting complex, well-rounded characters. She is particularly adept at immersing us in the interior life and struggle of her main protagonist. This, added to her knack for viscerally conveying emotion both in dialogue and description, pulls you into her honest, harsh, and heartbreaking reflection on facing your past and, as buried secrets bubble to the surface, coming to terms with the things you wanted but realize you will never have.

I will always make time to follow where a Tara French novel leads, and I frequently find her characters lingering with and haunting me afterward.]]> 3.98 2010 Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #3)
author: Tana French
name: Chris
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
review:
"Faithful Place" is the third book in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series. It centers on the life of Detective Frank Mackey, who, having come to terms with the disappearance many years ago of the love of his life when they had planned to run away together to London, suddenly finds himself with a reason to believe she was murdered. One of the reasons I adore French’s novels is that her stories are less of a crime drama and more about the main character and the people around them - about how the murder mystery at the heart of the story affects them.

Tana French excels at crafting complex, well-rounded characters. She is particularly adept at immersing us in the interior life and struggle of her main protagonist. This, added to her knack for viscerally conveying emotion both in dialogue and description, pulls you into her honest, harsh, and heartbreaking reflection on facing your past and, as buried secrets bubble to the surface, coming to terms with the things you wanted but realize you will never have.

I will always make time to follow where a Tara French novel leads, and I frequently find her characters lingering with and haunting me afterward.
]]> Falling 56614951
There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don't know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot's family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.]]> 304 T.J. Newman 1982177888 Chris 1
This book is filled with all of the requisite thrills and cliffhangers, along with one-dimensional, paper-thin characters driven by stereotypical motivations who thus make stupid decisions to further the plot.
The events that unfold in this book are so unrealistic and make no sense that my eyes were rolling into the back of my head more than they were focused on the page. In addition, there are numerous annoyingly italicized flashback sections for each character that aren’t necessary at all.

All I can say is that as I kept flipping the pages and my being forced to suspend disbelief rose to new, unimaginable heights; I was as pleased as the passengers in this book when - SPOILER ALERT - the plane finally landed.
]]> 3.79 2021 Falling
author: T.J. Newman
name: Chris
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/18
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:
It would appear that I am in the minority opinion about this debut novel. For me, this book offered a promising approach in a much-overdone niche - terrorists taking over an airplane - but ultimately delivered a cheesy, formulaic, and cliched story. It reads like the early draft of a bad Hollywood screenplay more than a decent novel.

This book is filled with all of the requisite thrills and cliffhangers, along with one-dimensional, paper-thin characters driven by stereotypical motivations who thus make stupid decisions to further the plot.
The events that unfold in this book are so unrealistic and make no sense that my eyes were rolling into the back of my head more than they were focused on the page. In addition, there are numerous annoyingly italicized flashback sections for each character that aren’t necessary at all.

All I can say is that as I kept flipping the pages and my being forced to suspend disbelief rose to new, unimaginable heights; I was as pleased as the passengers in this book when - SPOILER ALERT - the plane finally landed.

]]> All the Colors of the Dark 203019740 From the New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that spans decades.

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Mohammed Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy with one eye, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession, and the blinding light of hope.]]> 608 Chris Whitaker 0593798872 Chris 5
Like all magnificent novels, this book defies classification according to any one genre and is best described in terms of its themes: how friendships begin and change, how trauma shatters lives, yet how hope never fades and love always endures, how the missing are never forgotten by those who are relentless in continuing both to see and look for them, and how, in the end, we always learn people’s true colors.

This gritty and gripping tale that begins in the small Ozark town of Monta Clare, Missouri, with Patch, Saint, and Misty, features a cast of quirky, interesting, and deeply developed characters. The writing is quick yet also lyrical and picturesque - witty and funny but also charged with deliberate emotion and honest introspection. This isn’t a recreational read. It’s a read that demands and earns the reader’s full attention. Take it in as a slow burn and fight the temptation to rush through it or to give up prematurely. ]]> 4.23 2024 All the Colors of the Dark
author: Chris Whitaker
name: Chris
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/12
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves:
review:
All the Colors of the Dark is one of the best books I’ve read in quite some time. This breathtaking, epic story of friendship, community, trauma, and joy that spans decades intrigued me from the first chapter and captivated me until the last sentence. As I read it, I had to force myself to put it down and get on with my life.

Like all magnificent novels, this book defies classification according to any one genre and is best described in terms of its themes: how friendships begin and change, how trauma shatters lives, yet how hope never fades and love always endures, how the missing are never forgotten by those who are relentless in continuing both to see and look for them, and how, in the end, we always learn people’s true colors.

This gritty and gripping tale that begins in the small Ozark town of Monta Clare, Missouri, with Patch, Saint, and Misty, features a cast of quirky, interesting, and deeply developed characters. The writing is quick yet also lyrical and picturesque - witty and funny but also charged with deliberate emotion and honest introspection. This isn’t a recreational read. It’s a read that demands and earns the reader’s full attention. Take it in as a slow burn and fight the temptation to rush through it or to give up prematurely.
]]> <![CDATA[Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age]]> 195791072 The never-before-told story of the women Egyptologists who paved the way of exploration in Egypt and created the basis for Egyptology.

The history of Egyptology is often told as yet one more grand narrative of powerful men striving to seize the day and the precious artifacts for their competing homelands. But that is only half of the story. During the so-called Golden Age of Exploration, there were women working and exploring before Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tut. Before men even conceived of claiming the story for themselves, women were working in Egypt to lay the groundwork for all future exploration.

In Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age, Kathleen Sheppard brings the untold stories of these women back into this narrative. Sheppard begins with some of the earliest European women who ventured to Egypt as travelers: Amelia Edwards, Jenny Lane, and Marianne Brocklehurst. Their travelogues, diaries and maps chronicled a new world for the curious. In the vast desert, Maggie Benson, the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, met Nettie Gourlay, the woman who became her lifelong companion. They battled issues of oppression and exclusion and, ultimately, are credited with excavating the Temple of Mut.

As each woman scored a success in the desert, she set up the women who came later for their own struggles and successes. Emma Andrews� success as a patron and archaeologist helped to pave the way for Margaret Murray to teach. Margaret’s work in the university led to the artists Amice Calverley’s and Myrtle Broome’s ability to work on site at Abydos, creating brilliant reproductions of tomb art, and to Kate Bradbury’s and Caroline Ransom’s leadership in critical Egyptological institutions. Women in the Valley of the Kings upends the grand male narrative of Egyptian exploration and shows how a group of courageous women charted unknown territory and changed the field of Egyptology forever.]]> 320 Kathleen Sheppard 125028435X Chris 0 to-read 3.50 2024 Women in the Valley of the Kings: The Untold Story of Women Egyptologists in the Gilded Age
author: Kathleen Sheppard
name: Chris
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I Cheerfully Refuse 198276006 I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician setting sail on Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. An endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, he seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. After encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, he eventually lands to find an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, a crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. As his guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his wake.]]> 336 Leif Enger 0802162932 Chris 0 to-read 3.95 2024 I Cheerfully Refuse
author: Leif Enger
name: Chris
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When Among Crows (Curse Bearer, #1)]]> 195790597 When Among Crows is swift and striking, drawing from the deep well of Slavic folklore and asking if redemption and atonement can be found in embracing what we most fear.

We bear the sword, and we bear the pain of the sword.

On Kupala Night, Dymitr arrives in Chicago’s monstrous, magical underworld with a perilous mission: pick the mythical fern flower and offer it to a cursed creature in exchange for help finding the legendary witch Baba Jaga.

Ala is a fear-eating zmora afflicted with a bloodline curse that’s slowly killing her. She's just desperate enough to say yes to Dymitr, even if she doesn’t know his motives.

Over the course of one night, Ala and Dymitr risk life and limb in search of Baba Jaga, and begin to build a tentative friendship. . . but when Ala finds out what Dymitr is hiding, it could destroy them both.]]> 166 Veronica Roth 1250855489 Chris 0 to-read 3.71 2024 When Among Crows (Curse Bearer, #1)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Chris
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Playground 205478762 The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.]]> 381 Richard Powers 1324086033 Chris 0 to-read 4.16 2024 Playground
author: Richard Powers
name: Chris
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wedding People 198902277 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250899576.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.]]> 384 Alison Espach Chris 0 to-read 4.11 2024 The Wedding People
author: Alison Espach
name: Chris
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop]]> 133938826 should feel successful—but all she feels is drained. Haunted by an abandoned dream, she takes a leap of faith and leaves her old life behind. Quitting her job and divorcing her husband, Yeongju moves to a quiet residential neighborhood outside the city and opens the Hyunam-dong Bookshop.

The transition isn’t easy. For months, all Yeongju can do is cry. But as the long hours in the shop stretch on, she begins to reflect on what makes a good bookseller and a meaningful store. She throws herself into reading voraciously, hosting author events, and crafting her own philosophy on bookselling. Gradually, Yeongju finds her footing in her new surroundings.

Surrounded by friends, writers, and the books that bind them, Yeongju begins to write a new chapter in her life. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop evolves into a warm, welcoming haven for lost souls—a place to rest, heal, and remember that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start over.]]> 307 Hwang Bo-Reum Chris 0 to-read 3.93 2022 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop
author: Hwang Bo-Reum
name: Chris
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Conclave 29397486
Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and eighteen cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election.

They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals.

Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.]]> 288 Robert Harris Chris 4
To the uninterested, this may sound like a snooze-fest. But Harris deftly utliizes the cloistered setting and nature of the setting to craft an compelling procedural filled with uncontrived tension and intrigue. I also appreciated this story being tola against the backdrop of the internal monologue of a person wrestling with questions of faith, certainty, and doubt. It’s a short read that kept me guessing as I turned its pages.

]]> 4.03 2016 Conclave
author: Robert Harris
name: Chris
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/08
date added: 2024/11/08
shelves:
review:
Centered around of a hypothetical 2022 election for a new Roman Catholic pope, this story is told from the perspective of Jacopo Lomeli, the Dean of the College of Cardinals who is responsible for presiding over the vote. The narrative almost reads as a behind the scenes work of historical fiction as we are given an in-depth, well-researched, and detailed rendering of the rituals and traditions that mark a conclave.

To the uninterested, this may sound like a snooze-fest. But Harris deftly utliizes the cloistered setting and nature of the setting to craft an compelling procedural filled with uncontrived tension and intrigue. I also appreciated this story being tola against the backdrop of the internal monologue of a person wrestling with questions of faith, certainty, and doubt. It’s a short read that kept me guessing as I turned its pages.


]]> <![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 Chris 4
What follows is a beautifully written and poignant saga into the intertwined lives and backstories of the Jewish and Negro communities that coexist, much to the dismay and maltreatment of their white neighbors on the better end of this industrial town.

McBride takes his time in allowing us to get to know his larger-than-life, quirky, and vibrant characters. Through the distinctiveness of their voices, he allows us a telling glimpse into the tensions of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and abuse of the physically and mentally disabled that sadly continue to mark our times.

In the end, this book leaves you with much to appreciate and ponder as it weaves a story that testifies both to our interconnection as human beings amid all our diversity and the value of true friendship and community born out of respect for one another despite our differences. ]]> 3.83 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Chris
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:
A murder mystery that is unearthed in 1972 takes us all the way back to the 1930’s Depression Era in Pottstown, PA.

What follows is a beautifully written and poignant saga into the intertwined lives and backstories of the Jewish and Negro communities that coexist, much to the dismay and maltreatment of their white neighbors on the better end of this industrial town.

McBride takes his time in allowing us to get to know his larger-than-life, quirky, and vibrant characters. Through the distinctiveness of their voices, he allows us a telling glimpse into the tensions of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, and abuse of the physically and mentally disabled that sadly continue to mark our times.

In the end, this book leaves you with much to appreciate and ponder as it weaves a story that testifies both to our interconnection as human beings amid all our diversity and the value of true friendship and community born out of respect for one another despite our differences.
]]> Incidents Around the House 199757490 A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,� from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box

To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’sMommy,Daddo,and Grandma Ruth.But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”�

When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay.

Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling.

But Other Mommy needs an answer.

Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.]]> 367 Josh Malerman 0593723120 Chris 4
It is a chilling, atmospheric tale that uniquely relies on a child’s perspective in unfolding its narrative. Subverting the typical haunted house narrative, this is a slow-burn terror of psychological tension beneath the surface of supernatural horror. Reader beware: this book will leave your heart pounding long after you close its pages.
]]> 3.61 2024 Incidents Around the House
author: Josh Malerman
name: Chris
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/11/01
shelves:
review:
Incidents Around the House is one of the creepiest books I’ve ever read. It was the perfect read to conclude the Halloween season. This deeply unsettling horror story filled with a mounting sense of inescapable dread stands out not only for its supernatural elements but also for its exploration of family dynamics.

It is a chilling, atmospheric tale that uniquely relies on a child’s perspective in unfolding its narrative. Subverting the typical haunted house narrative, this is a slow-burn terror of psychological tension beneath the surface of supernatural horror. Reader beware: this book will leave your heart pounding long after you close its pages.

]]> First Lie Wins 164444179 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593492918.

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence, a tight group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job isn’t like the others. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.

Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge. . . .]]> 340 Ashley Elston Chris 4 3.97 2024 First Lie Wins
author: Ashley Elston
name: Chris
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves:
review:
A delightful cat-and-mouse thriller about a dance of deception taking place between Evie, a con artist, and her unknown handler, Mr. Smith. A briskly paced and suspenseful story that moves between the past and the present in unfolding its story. Cleverly devised - chock full of tension and twists.
]]> Hidden Pictures 58724923 A wildly inventive spin on the supernatural thriller, about a woman working as a nanny for a young boy with strange and disturbing secrets.

Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.

Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.

Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.

Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.]]> 372 Jason Rekulak 1250819342 Chris 3 ]]> 4.12 2022 Hidden Pictures
author: Jason Rekulak
name: Chris
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves:
review:
Hidden Pictures is less of a horror story and more of a very good thriller. That being said, there is a creepy dimension to this narrative that is heightened by the inclusion of various drawings related to the story along the way. It is an easy, intriguing, and quick read that held my interest. The characters are decent as is the ultimate resolution of what exactly is going on.

]]> Starter Villain 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389223 Chris 4 4.09 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Chris
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves:
review:
Starter Villain is a delightfully wild, diverting, uncomplicated, and very funny read. The setup, plot, and dialogue are pure Scalzi—whom I adore for his quirky sense of humor and engaging style of storytelling. Highly readable and accessible, with some subtle but not too heavy or deep social commentary along the way.
]]> <![CDATA[The Last House on Needless Street]]> 54621094
All these things are true. And yet they are all lies...

You think you know what's inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you've read this story before. That's where you're wrong.

In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, lies something buried. But it's not what you think...]]> 337 Catriona Ward 1788166167 Chris 4
The character-building is exceptional. Told from multiple shifting POVs of very unreliable narrators, the mystery inherent to the entire narrative kept me off-balance until the end. I highly recommend going into this book without reading too much information about it -and definitely read the Afterword.]]> 3.82 2021 The Last House on Needless Street
author: Catriona Ward
name: Chris
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/18
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
review:
The Last House on Needless Street is a unique, chilling work of gothic psychological horror. It is an intricate, thoughtfully crafted, and layered story about trauma and survival, marked by powerful prose and many surprises.

The character-building is exceptional. Told from multiple shifting POVs of very unreliable narrators, the mystery inherent to the entire narrative kept me off-balance until the end. I highly recommend going into this book without reading too much information about it -and definitely read the Afterword.
]]> Down in the Hollow 88359476 351 Timothy Hobbs Chris 0 to-read 3.93 Down in the Hollow
author: Timothy Hobbs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All Hallows 60784620 Stranger Things, this horror drama from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden follows neighborhood families and a mysterious, lurking evil on one Halloween day.

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the neighborhood splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?

New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales...but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.

All Hallows. The one night when everything is a mask...]]> 325 Christopher Golden 125028029X Chris 4 3.51 2023 All Hallows
author: Christopher Golden
name: Chris
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves:
review:
This is a perfect, creepy October read as the entire story takes place in one night on Halloween, 1984. This tale of terror and tragedy on Parmenter Road as night falls and Halloween festivities begin is a descriptive, slow burn that is deeply invested in the various perspectives of its characters. As strange children come to town trying to get away from Broghan, The Cunning Man, a sinister mystery unfolds that brings secrets and lies to light even as a menacing darkness overtakes the neighborhood. Reading this book, I was left with a feeling of nostalgia and unshakable melancholy and dread.
]]> We Used to Live Here 199798006
As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

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

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it� (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).]]> 312 Marcus Kliewer 1982198788 Chris 0 to-read 3.66 2024 We Used to Live Here
author: Marcus Kliewer
name: Chris
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nestlings 65212029 Nat Cassidy is at his razor-sharp best again with his horror novel Nestlings, which harnesses the creeping paranoia of Rosemary's Baby and the urban horror of 'Salem's Lot, set in an exclusive New York City residential building.

Ana and Reid need a break. The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling―with mobility, with her relationship with Reid, with resentment for her baby. Reid dismisses disturbing events and Ana’s deep unease and paranoia, but he can't explain the needle-like bite marks on their baby.]]> 293 Nat Cassidy 1250265258 Chris 0 to-read 3.81 2023 Nestlings
author: Nat Cassidy
name: Chris
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The September House 64623481 A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.]]> 352 Carissa Orlando 0593548612 Chris 0 to-read 3.87 2023 The September House
author: Carissa Orlando
name: Chris
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dark Harvest 11801953
Pete McCormick knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end future in this one-horse town. He's willing to risk everything, including his life, to be a winner for once. But before the night is over, Pete will look into the saw-toothed face of horror—and discover the terrifying true secret of the October Boy.]]> 209 Norman Partridge Chris 3
Solid dark and sinister October vibes. Second person narration gets a bit annoying. Held by interest. While I appreciate that authors don’t fill in all the details in order to allo the readers� imaginations to fill in the blanks, I do think a little more backstory would have been ideal.]]> 3.78 2006 Dark Harvest
author: Norman Partridge
name: Chris
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves:
review:
A quick and enjoyable read about a small, nondescript town bound to a creepy annual Halloween tradition.

Solid dark and sinister October vibes. Second person narration gets a bit annoying. Held by interest. While I appreciate that authors don’t fill in all the details in order to allo the readers� imaginations to fill in the blanks, I do think a little more backstory would have been ideal.
]]> <![CDATA[Something Wicked This Way Comes]]> 248596 Something Wicked This Way Comes, now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre.

For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.

Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon.]]> 293 Ray Bradbury 0380729407 Chris 4
So many years later, now as a middle-aged person, I picked up this book and tried again. This proved to be a wise decision. I not only finished but immensely enjoyed this coming-of-age novel, which explores ideas of age and self while framing a story of a father and a son finding themselves and each other against the backdrop of a strange and sinister carnival that arrives in town.

This is a dark, lurking tale replete with creepy imagery and beautiful, thought-provoking writing. While the story reflects some ideals and language that haven’t necessarily aged well, if one reads this book in the context of its time, one can be forgiving.

If you're looking for a literary classic that will demand your careful attention while it increases your vocabulary - something that pairs well with as the days fall shorter, the nights grow longer, and a menacing chill starts to appear in the air - then this novel is for you.]]> 3.92 1962 Something Wicked This Way Comes
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Chris
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/03
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves:
review:
I tried to read this book when I was a teenager, but the story never grabbed me, and so l never finished it. But the one thing that I stuck with me about the book was the atmospheric and descriptive telling of this tale set during October, just a week before Halloween.

So many years later, now as a middle-aged person, I picked up this book and tried again. This proved to be a wise decision. I not only finished but immensely enjoyed this coming-of-age novel, which explores ideas of age and self while framing a story of a father and a son finding themselves and each other against the backdrop of a strange and sinister carnival that arrives in town.

This is a dark, lurking tale replete with creepy imagery and beautiful, thought-provoking writing. While the story reflects some ideals and language that haven’t necessarily aged well, if one reads this book in the context of its time, one can be forgiving.

If you're looking for a literary classic that will demand your careful attention while it increases your vocabulary - something that pairs well with as the days fall shorter, the nights grow longer, and a menacing chill starts to appear in the air - then this novel is for you.
]]> <![CDATA[Haint: A Pulp Horror Novel (The Gallowglass Files, Tales of Appalachian Horror Book 1)]]> 123226039 Immerse yourself in the heart-stopping horrors of an isolated and crime-ridden Kentucky holler, where the lines between myth and reality blur, and a legendary creature awakens to stalk unsuspecting prey.

In the aftermath of a tragic mine collapse, Sheriff Hunter Gallogly finds himself caught between two worlds. A man of law, he must navigate the treacherous paths of his ancestral land while investigating a string of apparent murders. When the sheriff’s drug dealing cousins, Greg and Bob, become involved in an investigation into the killing of one of their dealers, the trio soon stumbles upon evidence that points to an impossible perpetrator.

As the body count rises and terror spreads, Hunter, Greg, and Bob form an unlikely alliance, bound by blood and driven by survival. Together, they embark on a perilous journey to confront a seemingly unstoppable creature and put an end to its reign of terror. But as they delve deeper into the hunt, family secrets are revealed that could tear them apart.

Against a backdrop of moonlit hollers and ancient superstitions, the sheriff and his cousins, accompanied by both deputies and criminals, wage a desperate battle for the survival of their town. As the creature’s power grows, and the community descends into chaos, the Galloglys must confront their own demons and find the strength to face the unimaginable.

Prepare for a heart-pounding narrative that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Will the Galloglys overcome their differences and put an end to the creature’s reign of terror? Or will they fall victim to the same legend that plagued their kinfolk generations ago.

In this gripping horror novel set in the depths of Appalachia, author Samuel Brower weaves a tale of bloodlust, family bonds, and the indomitable spirit of those who dare to face the darkness head-on.]]> 277 Samuel Brower Chris 4 4.14 Haint: A Pulp Horror Novel (The Gallowglass Files, Tales of Appalachian Horror Book 1)
author: Samuel Brower
name: Chris
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Things Don't Break on Their Own]]> 203021187 272 Sarah Easter Collins Chris 4 4.18 2024 Things Don't Break on Their Own
author: Sarah Easter Collins
name: Chris
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/09/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Devil By Name (Fever House, #2)]]> 202220103 No one expected the apocalypse would be broadcast via phone call. But in this chilling sequel to Fever House, anyone who managed to survive that doomsday call has a harrowing answer to the question, “Where were you when the Message came through?�

Five years after the event that drove most of the global population to madness, the world is overrun with the “fevered”—once-human, zombielike creatures drawn indiscriminately to violence and murder. In a campaign to restabilize the country, the massive corporation known as Terradyne Industries has merged with the U.S. government in a partnership of dubious motives, quarantining major American cities behind towering walls and corralling the afflicted there with the hope, they say, of developing a vaccine.

In Portland, where it all began, guilt-ridden detective John Bonner scours the city’s darkest corners for clues to humanity’s redemption. In New England, Katherine Moriarty mourns the devastating losses of her husband and son while in hiding from Terradyne. And across the ocean in France, a sixteen-year-old girl named Naomi Laurent discovers she has a disturbing and powerful gift—which may just be the key to the world’s salvation.

Equal parts gruesome and beautiful, The Devil by Name is a heart-stopping, breakneck saga of survival. As its characters� paths inevitably collide across the ravaged landscape of a post-apocalyptic America, they are united by the desire to not just escape death but to carve out some way to live anew.

Everything starts and ends in the fever house.

]]> 376 Keith Rosson 0593595793 Chris 3 4.43 2024 The Devil By Name (Fever House, #2)
author: Keith Rosson
name: Chris
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:

]]> Small Town Horror 199221815
Maybe this is a ghost story...

Andrew Larimer thought he left the past behind. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he finds he has no choice but to return home, and to confront the memories—and the horror—of a night, years ago, that changed everything.

For Andrew and his friends, the past is not dead, and the curse that has befallen them now threatens to destroy all that they've become.

One dark secret...

One small-town horror...]]> 400 Ronald Malfi 180336758X Chris 3 3.86 2024 Small Town Horror
author: Ronald Malfi
name: Chris
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/17
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles]]> 1936316

For the first time, Turner shares her childhood challenges-a life lived in countries around the world until her father, a State Department official whom she so admired, died suddenly when she was a teenager. She talks about her twenty year marriage, and why she and her husband recently separated, her close relationship with her daughter, her commitment to service, and how activism in controversial causes has bolstered her beliefs. And Turner reveals the pain and heartbreak of her struggle with rheumatoid arthritis, and how, in spite of it, she made a daring to take a break from the movies and relaunch her stage career.


Along the way, Turner describes what it's like to work with legends like Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, William Hurt, Steve Martin, Francis Ford Coppola, John Huston, John Waters, Edward Albee...and, with characteristic irreverent humor, shares her behind-the-screen stories of dealing with all types of creative, intimidating, and inspiring characters.


Kathleen Turner has always known that she would play the lead in the story of her life. It's impossible not to take her lessons on living, love, and leading roles to heart. And it won't be long until you'll be sending yourself roses!]]> 272 Kathleen Turner 0446581127 Chris 3 3.33 2008 Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love, and Leading Roles
author: Kathleen Turner
name: Chris
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind]]> 200503082 A sharp and timely book about the dark art of manipulation through weaponized storytelling

Best-selling author Annalee Newitz traces the way disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats—the essential tool kit for psychological warfare—have evolved from military weapons used against foreign adversaries into tools used in domestic culture wars. Newitz delves into America’s deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper and reaching its apotheosis with disinformation during twenty-first–century elections.

The nation’s secret weapon has long been coercive storytelling, fashioned by operatives who drew on their experiences in the ad industry and as science-fiction writers. Now, through a weapons-transfer program long unacknowledged, it has found its way into the hands of culture warriors, in conflicts from school-board fights over LGBTQ+ students to campaigns against feminist viewpoints. Stories Are Weapons delivers a powerful counter-narrative, as Newitz highlights the process of psychological disarmament, speaking with Indigenous archivists preserving their histories in new ways, activist storytellers, and technology experts transforming social media.]]> 246 Annalee Newitz 0393881512 Chris 3 3.93 2024 Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind
author: Annalee Newitz
name: Chris
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/14
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves:
review:

]]> The Book of Doors 156480764
In New York City, bookseller Cassie Andrews is living an unassuming life when she is given a gift by a favourite customer. It's a book - an unusual book, full of strange writing and mysterious drawings. And at the very front there is a handwritten message to Cassie, telling her that this is the Book of Doors, and that any door is every door .

What Cassie is about to discover is that the Book of Doors is a special book that bestows an extraordinary powers on whoever possesses it, and soon she and her best friend Izzy are exploring all that the Book of Doors can do, swept away from their quiet lives by the possibilities of travelling to anywhere they want.

But the Book of Doors is not the only magical book in the world. There are other books that can do wondrous and dreadful things when wielded by dangerous and ruthless individuals - individuals who crave what Cassie now possesses.

Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is, it seems, Drummond Fox. He is a man fleeing his own demons - a man with his own secret library of magical books that he has hidden away in the shadows for safekeeping. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all . . .

Because some doors should never be opened.]]> 408 Gareth Brown 1787637247 Chris 5
This well-plotted, fast-paced, mind-bending, and addictive tale of magic, adventure, and fantasy swept me away. Led by a well-developed female protagonist, the characters are quirky and compelling - all of them flawed but genuine. The premise of this story is unique and compelling and unfolds with several unexpected twists and turns as well as a satisfying conclusion.

This is one of my favorite reads of 2024. A tip of the hat to Mr. Gareth Brown for a fabulous debut novel.]]> 4.03 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: Chris
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:
There are some books you read that you simultaneously can’t put down and don’t want to end. This is one of those books.

This well-plotted, fast-paced, mind-bending, and addictive tale of magic, adventure, and fantasy swept me away. Led by a well-developed female protagonist, the characters are quirky and compelling - all of them flawed but genuine. The premise of this story is unique and compelling and unfolds with several unexpected twists and turns as well as a satisfying conclusion.

This is one of my favorite reads of 2024. A tip of the hat to Mr. Gareth Brown for a fabulous debut novel.
]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

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

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Chris 5
This book has some of the best - intelligent, convincing storytelling and fantastic, nuanced character development. Reading it left me reflecting on how I can more consciously look beyond momentary disappointments and petty resentments and better come to appreciate how much the relationships we mutually forge in this life matter and should be cherished. I highly recommend this book.]]> 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Chris
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/24
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves:
review:
This beautifully written tale of friendship and love goes back and forth in time. Embedded in the world of gaming, it deftly presents life as a perpetual game of painful, missed opportunities, potential, hopeful second chances, and endless possibilities.

This book has some of the best - intelligent, convincing storytelling and fantastic, nuanced character development. Reading it left me reflecting on how I can more consciously look beyond momentary disappointments and petty resentments and better come to appreciate how much the relationships we mutually forge in this life matter and should be cherished. I highly recommend this book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality]]> 176443264 Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking.

Utilizing the linguistic insights of her “witty and brilliant� first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet.

“Magical thinking� can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external Think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven.

In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “Halo effect� cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger than life celebrities, to how the “Sunk Cost Fallacy� can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.]]> 259 Amanda Montell 1668007975 Chris 4 3.45 2024 The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality
author: Amanda Montell
name: Chris
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/24
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Walk the Blue Fields 2524702
A masterful portrait of a country wrestling with its past and of individuals eking out their futures, Walk the Blue Fields is a breathtaking collection from one of Ireland’s greatest talents, and a resounding articulation of all the yearnings of the human heart.]]> 168 Claire Keegan 0802170498 Chris 4 4.02 2007 Walk the Blue Fields
author: Claire Keegan
name: Chris
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves:
review:
First, I’ll confess my bias. I adore Claire Keegan’s writing. This collection of some of her short stories reflects why I relish her work - crisp, nuanced descriptions of her characters, their environments, and histories that are peppered with subtle musings on the human condition and relationships that linger long after you’ve read them.
]]> Blindsight (Firefall, #1) 48484 Two months since the stars fell...

Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown.

Two months of silence while a world holds its breath.

Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune’s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever’s out there isn’t talking to us. It’s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route.

So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn’t want to meet?

You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees X-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won’t be needed, and a fainter hope she’ll do any good if she is needed. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called “vampire,� recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist � an informational topologist with half his mind gone � as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge.

You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find.

But you’d give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them…]]> 384 Peter Watts 0765312182 Chris 0 to-read 4.01 2006 Blindsight (Firefall, #1)
author: Peter Watts
name: Chris
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![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 Chris 5 3.66 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Chris
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves:
review:
A unique premise that is wonderfully executed via a series of touching and descriptive vignettes that end up being bound together in an insightful way. The characters are carefully and delightfully fleshed out over the course of the book. The overall experience is such that when you finish, you don’t want to leave this cafe. Thankfully, there are four more opportunities to visit thanks to this becoming a book series. Can’t wait to go back!
]]> Security 25810610
Writing in the tradition of Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King, and with a deep bow to Daphne du Maurier, author Gina Wohlsdorf pairs narrative ingenuity and razor-wire prose with quick twists, sharp turns, and gasp-inducing terror. Security is grand guignol storytelling at its very best.

A shocking thriller, a brilliant narrative puzzle, and a multifaceted love story unlike any other, Security marks the debut of a fearless and gifted writer.]]> 229 Gina Wohlsdorf 1616205628 Chris 1 3.28 2016 Security
author: Gina Wohlsdorf
name: Chris
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2016
rating: 1
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves:
review:
Ridiculous. Contrived. Plodding. Almost didn’t finish this. Wish I hadn’t because after dragging myself to the very last page I felt like I’d been treated like all of the victims in this book. To compare this to “Rear Window� or “Psycho� is an insult to both stories.
]]> <![CDATA[The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2)]]> 157062582
Alors que l’affaire menace la réputation du Regency Grand, et que tous les employés sont des suspects, Molly se rend compte qu’elle a un lien important avec la victime. La clé de cette énigme se trouve nichée dans son passé, à l’époque où, enfant, elle accompagnait sa grand-mère dans le mystérieux manoir des Grimthorpe�

Afin d’aider ses amis, de sauver l’hôtel et d’empêcher un nouveau drame, Molly va se lancer corps et âme dans cette nouvelle enquête haute en couleur !]]> 293 Nita Prose 0593356187 Chris 4 3.75 2023 The Mystery Guest (Molly the Maid, #2)
author: Nita Prose
name: Chris
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/01
shelves:
review:
Rarely does a sequel like up to or even exceed what came before. This is one of those rare exceptions. Relished the continuation of Molly’s story and learning more about her childhood and relationship with her Gran. As always, Prose weaves the development of her characters through spinning the yarn of a delightful murder mystery.
]]> The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1) 55196813
Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has been navigating life's complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

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

A Clue-like, locked-room mystery and a heartwarming journey of the spirit, The Maid explores what it means to be the same as everyone else and yet entirely different—and reveals that all mysteries can be solved through connection to the human heart.]]> 304 Nita Prose 0593356152 Chris 4 3.71 2022 The Maid (Molly the Maid, #1)
author: Nita Prose
name: Chris
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/29
date added: 2024/07/29
shelves:
review:
An engaging and satisfying read! Appreciated the narrative being told from Molly’s perspective as well as the nuances in the development of her character.
]]> The House Across the Lake 58909880 The New York Times best-selling author of Final Girls and Survive the Night is back with his most unexpected thriller yet.

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.

With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense, and gasp-worthy surprises, Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake unveils more than one twist that will shock readers until the very last page.]]> 369 Riley Sager Chris 3 3.57 2022 The House Across the Lake
author: Riley Sager
name: Chris
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/26
date added: 2024/07/26
shelves:
review:

]]> The Tiger and the Acrobat 36306738 176 Susanna Tamaro 1786072823 Chris 5 3.77 2016 The Tiger and the Acrobat
author: Susanna Tamaro
name: Chris
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/09
date added: 2024/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Women 127305853
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]> 471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 Chris 4 4.58 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Chris
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)]]> 5941114 466 Tana French 0143115626 Chris 4 4.06 2008 The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)
author: Tana French
name: Chris
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/25
date added: 2024/06/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)]]> 2459785
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.]]> 448 Tana French Chris 4 3.82 2007 In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)
author: Tana French
name: Chris
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/11
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Wayward (Wanderers, #2) 55583491 1085 Chuck Wendig 0593158784 Chris 4 4.32 2022 Wayward (Wanderers, #2)
author: Chuck Wendig
name: Chris
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/18
date added: 2024/06/05
shelves:
review:

]]> The Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2) 174156145
Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He’s found it, more or he’s built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he’s gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey’s long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn’t want protecting. What she wants is revenge.

A nuanced, atmospheric tale that explores what we’ll do for our loved ones, what we’ll do for revenge, and what we sacrifice when the two collide.]]> 467 Tana French 0593493435 Chris 5 3.95 2024 The Hunter (Cal Hooper, #2)
author: Tana French
name: Chris
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/24
date added: 2024/05/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Catch-22 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Chris 3 3.99 1961 Catch-22
author: Joseph Heller
name: Chris
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/12
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us]]> 58214330 In her stunning debut, the creator of Black Liturgies weaves stories from three generations of her family alongside contemplative reflections to discover the "necessary rituals" that connect us with our belonging, dignity, and liberation.

"From the womb, we must repeat with regularity that to love ourselves is to survive. I believe that is what my father wanted for me and knew I would so desperately need: a tool for survival, the truth of my dignity named like a mercy new each morning."

So writes Cole Arthur Riley in her unforgettable book of stories and reflections on discovering the sacred in her skin. In these deeply transporting pages, Arthur Riley reflects on the stories of her grandmother and father, and how they revealed to her an embodied, dignity-affirming spirituality, not only in what they believed but in the act of living itself. Writing memorably of her own childhood and coming to self, Arthur Riley boldly explores some of the most urgent questions of life and faith: How can spirituality not silence the body, but instead allow it to come alive? How do we honor, lament, and heal from the stories we inherit? How can we find peace in a world overtaken with dislocation, noise, and unrest? In this indelible work of contemplative storytelling, Arthur Riley invites us to descend into our own stories, examine our capacity to rest, wonder, joy, rage, and repair, and find that our humanity is not an enemy to faith but evidence of it.

At once a compelling spiritual meditation, a powerful intergenerational account, and a tender coming-of-age narrative, This Here Flesh speaks potently to anyone who suspects that our stories might have something to say to us.]]> 203 Cole Arthur Riley 0593239776 Chris 5 4.61 2022 This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us
author: Cole Arthur Riley
name: Chris
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/13
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Fever House (Fever House, #1) 66087060 A small-time criminal. A has-been rock star. A shadowy government agency. And a severed hand whose dark powers threaten to destroy them all.

When leg-breaker Hutch Holtz rolls up to a rundown apartment complex in Portland, Oregon, to collect overdue drug money, a severed hand is the last thing he expects to find stashed in the client’s refrigerator. Hutch quickly realizes that the hand induces uncontrollable madness: Anyone in its proximity is overcome with a boundless compulsion for violence. Within hours, catastrophic forces are set into motion: Dark-op government agents who have been desperately hunting for the hand are on Hutch’s tail, more of the city’s residents fall under its brutal influence, and suddenly all of Portland stands at the precipice of disaster. . . .

But it’s all the same for Katherine Moriarty, a singer whose sudden fame and precipitous downfall were followed by the mysterious death of her estranged husband—suicide, allegedly. Her trauma has made her agoraphobic, shackled within the confines of her apartment. Her son, Nick, has moved home to care for her, quietly making his living working for Hutch’s boss.

When Hutch calls Nick in distress, looking for someone else to take the hand, Katherine and Nick are plunged into a global struggle that will decimate the walls of the carefully arranged life they’ve built. Mother and son must evade both crazed, bloodthirsty masses and deceitful government agents while exorcising family secrets that have risen from the dead—secrets, they soon discover, that might hold the very key to humanity’s survival.

Can you resist the hand? Find an excerpt from the next Fever House novel at the end of the book.]]> 417 Keith Rosson 0593595750 Chris 4 4.02 2023 Fever House (Fever House, #1)
author: Keith Rosson
name: Chris
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/13
date added: 2024/05/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Flight Behavior 13438524 Flight Behavior takes on one of the most contentious subjects of our time: climate change. With a deft and versatile empathy Kingsolver dissects the motives that drive denial and belief in a precarious world.

Flight Behavior transfixes from its opening scene, when a young woman's narrow experience of life is thrown wide with the force of a raging fire. In the lyrical language of her native Appalachia, Barbara Kingsolver bares the rich, tarnished humanity of her novel's inhabitants and unearths the modern complexities of rural existence. Characters and reader alike are quickly carried beyond familiar territory here, into the unsettled ground of science, faith, and everyday truces between reason and conviction.

Dellarobia Turnbow is a restless farm wife who gave up her own plans when she accidentally became pregnant at seventeen. Now, after a decade of domestic disharmony on a failing farm, she has settled for permanent disappointment but seeks momentary escape through an obsessive flirtation with a younger man. As she hikes up a mountain road behind her house to a secret tryst, she encounters a shocking sight: a silent, forested valley filled with what looks like a lake of fire. She can only understand it as a cautionary miracle, but it sparks a raft of other explanations from scientists, religious leaders, and the media. The bewildering emergency draws rural farmers into unexpected acquaintance with urbane journalists, opportunists, sightseers, and a striking biologist with his own stake in the outcome. As the community lines up to judge the woman and her miracle, Dellarobia confronts her family, her church, her town, and a larger world, in a flight toward truth that could undo all she has ever believed.

Flight Behavior takes on one of the most contentious subjects of our time: climate change. With a deft and versatile empathy Kingsolver dissects the motives that drive denial and belief in a precarious world.]]> 436 Barbara Kingsolver 0062124269 Chris 4 3.79 2012 Flight Behavior
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Chris
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/03
date added: 2024/05/03
shelves:
review:

]]> China Lake (Evan Delaney, #1) 105735 486 Meg Gardiner 034082249X Chris 4 3.66 2002 China Lake (Evan Delaney, #1)
author: Meg Gardiner
name: Chris
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/19
date added: 2024/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> The Inmate 61149872 1) Treat all prisoners with respect.
2) Never reveal any personal information.
3) Never EVER become too friendly with the inmates.

But none of the staff at the prison knows Brooke has already broken the rules. Nobody knows about her intimate connection to Shane Nelson, one of the penitentiary's most notorious and dangerous inmates. And they certainly don't know that Shane was Brooke's high school sweetheart―the star quarterback who is now spending the rest of his life in prison for a series of grisly murders. Or that Brooke's testimony was what put him there.

But Shane knows. And he will never forget.]]> 388 Freida McFadden Chris 4 4.03 2022 The Inmate
author: Freida McFadden
name: Chris
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/13
date added: 2024/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> The Searcher 52661162
Then a local boy appeals to him for help. His brother is missing, and no one in the village, least of all the police, seems to care. And once again, Cal feels that restless itch.

Something is wrong in this community, and he must find out what, even if it brings trouble to his door.]]> 451 Tana French 073522465X Chris 4 3.70 2020 The Searcher
author: Tana French
name: Chris
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/05
date added: 2024/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Holly 65916344 Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and ingeniously resourceful characters, returns in this thrilling novel to solve the gruesome truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

“Sometimes the universe throws you a rope.� � BILL HODGES

Stephen King’s Holly marks the triumphant return of beloved King character Holly Gibney. Readers have witnessed Holly’s gradual transformation from a shy (but also brave and ethical) recluse in Mr. Mercedes to Bill Hodges’s partner in Finders Keepers to a full-fledged, smart, and occasionally tough private detective in The Outsider. In King’s new novel, Holly is on her own, and up against a pair of unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just died. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny Dahl’s desperate voice makes it impossible for Holly to turn her down.

Mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are harboring an unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to: they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless.

Holly must summon all her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver the shockingly twisted professors in this chilling new masterwork from Stephen King.]]> 449 Stephen King 1668016133 Chris 4 4.01 2023 Holly
author: Stephen King
name: Chris
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History]]> 61469898 The vivid, behind-the-scenes story of perhaps the most consequential political moment in American history—Abraham Lincoln’s history-changing nomination to the lead the Republican Party in the 1860 presidential election

Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln had a record of political failure. In 1858, he had lost a celebrated Senate bid against incumbent Stephen Douglas, his second failed Senate run, and had not held public office since one term in Congress a decade earlier. As the Republican National Convention opened in mid-May 1860 in Chicago, powerful New York Senator William Seward was the overwhelming favorite for the presidential nomination, with notables like Salmon Chase and Edward Bates in the running. Few thought Lincoln stood a chance—though stubborn Illinois circuit Judge David Davis had come to fight for his friend anyway.

Such was the political landscape as Edward Achorn’s The Lincoln Miracle opens on Saturday, May 12, 1860. Chronicling the tense political drama as it unfolded over the next six days, Achorn explores the genius of Lincoln’s quiet strategy, the vicious partisanship tearing apart America, the fierce battles raging over racism and slavery, and booming Chicago as a symbol of the modernization transforming the nation. Closely following the shrewd insiders on hand, from Seward power broker Thurlow Weed to editor Horace Greeley � bent on stopping his former friend, Seward—Achorn brings alive arguably the most consequential political story in America’s history.

From smoky hotel rooms to night marches by the Wide Awakes, the new Republican youth organization, to fiery speeches on the floor of the giant convention center called The Wigwam, Achorn portrays a political climate way more contentious than our own today, out of which the seemingly impossible long shot prevailed, to the nation’s everlasting benefit. As atmospheric and original as Achorn’s previous Every Drop of Blood, The Lincoln Miracle is essential reading for any Lincoln aficionado as it is for anyone who cares about our nation’s history.]]> 512 Edward Achorn 080216062X Chris 5 4.45 2023 The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History
author: Edward Achorn
name: Chris
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves:
review:

]]> Verity 59218704 Whose truth is the lie?Stay up all night readingthe sensational psychological thriller that has readers obsessed, from the #1New York Timesbestselling author of Too Late andIt Ends With Us.#1 New York TimesBestseller·USA TodayBestseller·Globe and MailBestseller·Publishers WeeklyBestsellerLowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered.Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue loving her.]]> 333 Colleen Hoover Chris 3 4.39 2018 Verity
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Chris
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/01
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Love Marriage 59543421 Named a Best Book of 2022 So Far by The New Yorker! “Cultural clashes, political satire, Oedipal conflicts, elegant prose—they’re all here in this romp of a book.� —Oprah Daily A Phenomenal Book Club Pick and a New York Times Book Review Group Text Selection, Love Marriage is a glorious moving novel from Booker Prize shortlisted Monica Ali, who has “an inborn generosity that cannot be learned� (The New York Times Book Review).In present-day London, Yasmin Ghorami is twenty-six, in training to be a doctor (like her Indian-born father), and engaged to the charismatic, upper-class Joe Sangster, whose formidable mother, Harriet, is a famous feminist. The gulf between families is vast. So, too, is the gulf in sexual experience between Yasmin and Joe. As the wedding day draws near, misunderstandings, infidelities, and long-held secrets upend both Yasmin’s relationship and that of her parents, a “love marriage,� according to the family lore that Yasmin has believed all her life. A gloriously acute observer of class, sexual mores, and the mysteries of the human heart, Monica Ali has written a “riveting� (BookPage, starred review) social comedy and a moving, revelatory story of two cultures, two families, and two people trying to understand one another that’s “sure to please Ali’s fans and win some new ones� (Publishers Weekly).]]> 429 Monica Ali 1982181494 Chris 3 4.08 2022 Love Marriage
author: Monica Ali
name: Chris
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/02/23
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello]]> 138878
The Way To Love contains the final flowering of Anthony de Mello's thought, andin it he grapples with the ultimate question oflove. In thirty-one meditations, he implores hisreaders with his usual pithiness to break throughillusion, the great obstacle to love. "Lovesprings from awareness," de Mello insists, sayingthat it is only when we see others as they arethat we can begin to really love. But not only mustwe seek to see others with clarity, we must examineourselves without misconception. The task,however, is not easy. "The most painful act,"de Mello says, "is the act of seeing. But inthat act of seeing that love is born." AnthonyDe Mello was the director of the Sadhana Instituteof Pastoral Counseling in Poona, India, andauthored several books. The Way To Love is his last.]]> 196 Anthony de Mello 038524939X Chris 0 currently-reading 4.24 1991 The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello
author: Anthony de Mello
name: Chris
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Great Expectations 2623
Pip must discover his true self, and his own set of values and priorities. Whether such values allow one to prosper in the complex world of early Victorian England is the major question posed by Great Expectations, one of Dickens's most fascinating, and disturbing, novels.

This edition includes the original, discarded ending, Dickens's brief working notes, and the serial instalments and chapter divisions in different editions. It also uses the definitive Clarendon text.]]> 544 Charles Dickens 0192833596 Chris 0 currently-reading 3.78 1861 Great Expectations
author: Charles Dickens
name: Chris
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1861
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor]]> 36137570 Like Dreamersdirectly addresses his Palestinian neighbors in this taut and provocative book, empathizing with Palestinian suffering and longing for reconciliation as he explores how the conflict looks through Israeli eyes.

I call you "neighbor" because I don’t know your name, or anything personal about you. Given our circumstances, "neighbor" might be too casual a word to describe our relationship. We are intruders into each other’s dream, violators of each other’s sense of home. We are incarnations of each other’s worst historical nightmares. Neighbors?

Letters to My Palestinian Neighboris one Israeli’s powerful attempt to reach beyond the wall that separates Israelis and Palestinians and into the hearts of "the enemy." In a series of letters, Yossi Klein Halevi explains what motivated him to leave his native New York in his twenties and move to Israel to participate in the drama of the renewal of a Jewish homeland, which he is committed to see succeed as a morally responsible, democratic state in the Middle East.

This is the first attempt by an Israeli author to directly address his Palestinian neighbors and describe how the conflict appears through Israeli eyes. Halevi untangles the ideological and emotional knot that has defined the conflict for nearly a century. In lyrical, evocative language, he unravels the complex strands of faith, pride, anger and anguish he feels as a Jew living in Israel, using history and personal experience as his guide.

Halevi’s letters speak not only to his Palestinian neighbor, but to all concerned global citizens, helping us understand the painful choices confronting Israelis and Palestinians that will ultimately help determine the fate of the region.]]> 229 Yossi Klein Halevi 0062844938 Chris 0 currently-reading 4.09 2019 Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor
author: Yossi Klein Halevi
name: Chris
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![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 Chris 0 currently-reading 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: Chris
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rising Storm (Star Wars: The High Republic)]]> 55644027 The heroes of the High Republic era return to face a shattered peace and a fearsome foe, following the dramatic events of Light of the Jedi.

In the wake of the hyperspace disaster and the heroism of the Jedi, the Republic continues to grow, bringing more worlds together under a single unified banner. Under the leadership of Chancellor Lina Soh, the spirit of unity extends throughout the galaxy, with the Jedi and the newly established Starlight Beacon station at the vanguard.

In celebration, the chancellor plans the Republic Fair, a showcase of the possibilities and the peace of the expanding Republic—a peace the Jedi hope to foster. Stellan Gios, Bell Zettifar, Elzar Mann, and others join the event as ambassadors of harmony. But as the eyes of the galaxy turn toward the fair, so too does the fury of the Nihil. Their leader, Marchion Ro, is intent on destroying this unity. His storm descends on the pageantry and celebration, sowing chaos and exacting revenge.

As the Jedi struggle to curb the carnage of the rampaging Nihil, they come face-to-face with the true fear their enemy plans to unleash across the galaxy—the kind of fear from which even the Force cannot shield them.]]> 430 Cavan Scott 0593159411 Chris 0 currently-reading 4.12 2021 The Rising Storm (Star Wars: The High Republic)
author: Cavan Scott
name: Chris
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Light of the Jedi (Star Wars: The High Republic)]]> 51788222 Long before the First Order, before the Empire, before even The Phantom Menace. . . Jedi lit the way for the galaxy in The High Republic

It is a golden age. Intrepid hyperspace scouts expand the reach of the Repubic to the furthest stars, worlds flourish under the benevolent leadership of the Senate, and peace reigns, enforced by the wisdom and strength of the renowned order of Force users known as the Jedi. With the Jedi at the height of their power, the free citizens of the galaxy are confident in their ability to weather any storm But the even brightest light can cast a shadow, and some storms defy any preparation.

When a shocking catastrophe in hyperspace tears a ship to pieces, the flurry of shrapnel emerging from the disaster threatens an entire system. No sooner does the call for help go out than the Jedi race to the scene. The scope of the emergence, however, is enough to push even Jedi to their limit. As the sky breaks open and destruction rains down upon the peaceful alliance they helped to build, the Jedi must trust in the Force to see them through a day in which a single mistake could cost billions of lives.

Even as the Jedi battle valiantly against calamity, something truly deadly grows beyond the boundary of the Republic. The hyperspace disaster is far more sinister than the Jedi could ever suspect. A threat hides in the darkness, far from the light of the age, and harbors a secret that could strike fear into even a Jedi's heart.]]> 407 Charles Soule Chris 5 4.04 2021 Light of the Jedi (Star Wars: The High Republic)
author: Charles Soule
name: Chris
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/24
date added: 2024/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[When Harry Met Sally ... (BFI Film Classics)]]> 56087648 110 Tamar Jeffers Mcdonald 1839021179 Chris 0 currently-reading 2.50 2015 When Harry Met Sally ... (BFI Film Classics)
author: Tamar Jeffers Mcdonald
name: Chris
average rating: 2.50
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Portrait of a Thief 58611246 Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell in Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.

History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now.

Will Chen plans to steal them back.

A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents� American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.

His crew is every heist archetype one can imag­ine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down.

Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted at­tempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.

Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, Portrait of a Thief is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary cri­tique of the lingering effects of colonialism.]]> 384 Grace D. Li 0593186079 Chris 3 3.54 2022 Portrait of a Thief
author: Grace D. Li
name: Chris
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/01
date added: 2023/12/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)]]> 62047992 The moving international sensation about new beginnings, human connection, and the joy of reading.

Hidden in Jimbocho, Tokyo, is a booklover's paradise. On a quiet corner in an old wooden building lies a shop filled with hundreds of second-hand books.

Twenty-five-year-old Takako has never liked reading, although the Morisaki bookshop has been in her family for three generations. It is the pride and joy of her uncle Satoru, who has devoted his life to the bookshop since his wife Momoko left him five years earlier.

When Takako's boyfriend reveals he's marrying someone else, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle's offer to live rent-free in the tiny room above the shop. Hoping to nurse her broken heart in peace, Takako is surprised to encounter new worlds within the stacks of books lining the Morisaki bookshop.

As summer fades to autumn, Satoru and Takako discover they have more in common than they first thought. The Morisaki bookshop has something to teach them both about life, love, and the healing power of books.]]> 150 Satoshi Yagisawa 0063278677 Chris 4 3.66 2010 Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, #1)
author: Satoshi Yagisawa
name: Chris
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/13
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Foster 8143909
Winner of the Davy Byrnes Memorial Prize, Foster is now published in a revised and expanded version. Beautiful, sad and eerie, it is a story of astonishing emotional depth, showcasing Claire Keegan's great accomplishment and talent.]]> 89 Claire Keegan 0571255655 Chris 5 4.32 2010 Foster
author: Claire Keegan
name: Chris
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/26
date added: 2023/10/27
shelves:
review:
A beautifully authored story of how the longing born of loss and the pain of grief can find solace through the gracious hospitality and unconditional love - and how these sacred gifts can awaken the joy and possibility within another person - a child - who has been overlooked. Such a great read.
]]> Small Things Like These 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Chris 5 4.13 2021 Small Things Like These
author: Claire Keegan
name: Chris
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/21
date added: 2023/10/22
shelves:
review:
A brief but compelling novella. Exceptionally written. Such subtle nuance and beautiful expression given to the human condition. This is a story that stays with you.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Pray: Reflections and Essays]]> 36592787
C. S. Lewis’s insights on Christianity and his reflections on Christian life continue to guide us more than fifty years after his death. How to Pray showcases Lewis’s enduring wisdom on prayer and its place in our daily lives.

Cultivated from his many essays, articles, and letters, as well as his classic works, How to Pray provides practical wisdom and instruction to help readers nurture their spiritual beliefs and embrace prayer in all its forms. While many people would like to speak to God, they often don’t know how to begin. Lewis guides them through the practice, illuminating the significance of prayer and why it is central to faith.

A welcome addition to the C. S. Lewis canon, How to Pray offers a deeper understanding of our personal tradition of prayer, our faith, and what is means to be a Christian.]]> 101 C.S. Lewis Chris 0 currently-reading 4.37 How to Pray: Reflections and Essays
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Chris
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Hiroshima 27323 152 John Hersey 0679721037 Chris 0 to-read 4.02 1946 Hiroshima
author: John Hersey
name: Chris
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The History of Europe in Bite-sized Chunks]]> 44174816 193 Jacob F. Field 1789290546 Chris 0 to-read 3.80 2019 The History of Europe in Bite-sized Chunks
author: Jacob F. Field
name: Chris
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Seven Brief Lessons on Physics]]> 25734172 All the beauty of modern physics in fewer than a hundred pages.

This is a book about the joy of discovery. A playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics, it's already a major bestseller in Italy and the United Kingdom. Carlo Rovelli offers surprising—and surprisingly easy to grasp—explanations of general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, and the role humans play in this weird and wonderful world. He takes us to the frontiers of our knowledge: to the most minute reaches of the fabric of space, back tothe origins of the cosmos, and into the workings of our minds. “Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world,� Rovelli writes. “And it’s breathtaking.”]]> 81 Carlo Rovelli 0399184414 Chris 0 to-read 3.97 2014 Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
author: Carlo Rovelli
name: Chris
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1) 50520939
Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.]]> 376 Olivie Blake Chris 0 to-read 3.55 2020 The Atlas Six (The Atlas, #1)
author: Olivie Blake
name: Chris
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![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 Chris 0 to-read 4.07 2020 What You Are Looking For Is in the Library
author: Michiko Aoyama
name: Chris
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Don't Look Now and Other Stories]]> 18869987
Collecting five stories of mystery and slow, creeping horror, Daphne Du Maurier's Don't Look Now and Other Stories showcases her unique blend of sympathy and spinetingling suspense.]]> 214 Daphne du Maurier 0316253642 Chris 0 to-read 3.84 1971 Don't Look Now and Other Stories
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Chris
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cat Who Saved Books (The Cat Who..., #1)]]> 56755560 The Cat Who Saved Books is a heart-warming story about finding courage, caring for others � and the tremendous power of books.

Grandpa used to say it all the time: 'books have tremendous power'. But what is that power really?

Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse.

After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone . . .

Sosuke Natsukawa's international bestseller, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.]]> 198 Sōsuke Natsukawa 0063095726 Chris 0 to-read 3.74 2017 The Cat Who Saved Books (The Cat Who..., #1)
author: Sōsuke Natsukawa
name: Chris
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tales from the Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #2)]]> 54373691 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...

From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold comes a story of four new customers each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula's time-travelling offer.

Among some faces that will be familiar to readers of Kawaguchi's previous novel, we will be introduced to:

The man who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years ago
The son who was unable to attend his own mother’s funeral
The man who travelled to see the girl who he could not marry
The old detective who never gave his wife that gift...

This beautiful, simple tale tells the story of people who must face up to their past, in order to move on with their lives. Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?]]> 192 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529050863 Chris 0 to-read 3.98 2017 Tales from the Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #2)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Chris
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #3)]]> 60224365 The latest novel in the international bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, following four new customers in a little Tokyo café where customers can travel back in time.

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café that 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.

From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Tales from the Cafecomes another story of four new customers, each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Café Funiculi Funicula's time-travelling offer. Among some familiar faces from Kawaguchi's previous novels, readers will also be introduced to a daughter, a comedian, a sister, and a lover, each with something they wish they had said differently.

With his signature heartwarming characters and immersive storytelling, Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?]]> 220 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 0369722698 Chris 0 to-read 3.90 2018 Before Your Memory Fades (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #3)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Chris
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Grief Is the Thing with Feathers]]> 25334576
In this moment of despair they are visited by Crow - antagonist, trickster, healer, babysitter. This self-described sentimental bird is attracted to the grieving family and threatens to stay until they no longer need him. As weeks turn to months and physical pain of loss gives way to memories, this little unit of three begin to heal.

In this extraordinary debut - part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief, Max Porter's compassion and bravura style combine to dazzling effect. Full of unexpected humour and profound emotional truth, Grief is the Thing with Feathers marks the arrival of a thrilling new talent.]]> 114 Max Porter 0571323766 Chris 0 to-read 3.85 2015 Grief Is the Thing with Feathers
author: Max Porter
name: Chris
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Thunderstone: A true story of losing one home and discovering another]]> 62675569
‘It was believed lightning would not strike a house that held a thunderstone. And so these fossils were placed on top of clocks, under floorboards, over stable doors . . . But there are some storms that thunderstones cannot prevent.�

In the wake of a traumatic lockdown, Nancy Campbell buys an old caravan and drives it into a strip of neglected woodland between a canal and railway. It is the first home she has ever owned. It will not move again.

As summer begins, Nancy embraces the challenge of how to live well in a space in which possessions and emotions often threaten to tumble. She masters the van’s mysterious mechanics, but as empty passenger trains rumble past inches from the windows, rain and grief threaten to flood in.

Yet soon, Nancy’s encounters with the community of boaters moored nearby, and their lessons in survival off-grid, prove fundamental. The wasteland burgeons into a place of wild beauty, as Nancy works to clear industrial junk and create a forest garden. And as illness and uncertainty loom once more, it is these unconventional relationships, this anchored van, that will bring her solace and hope.

An intimate journal across the span of a defining summer, Thunderstone is a celebration of transformation; an invitation to approach life with imagination and to embrace change bravely.]]> 256 Nancy Campbell 1783966998 Chris 0 to-read 3.73 Thunderstone: A true story of losing one home and discovering another
author: Nancy Campbell
name: Chris
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Never Let Me Go 6334 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Chris 0 to-read 3.85 2005 Never Let Me Go
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Chris
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Month in the Country 60707 160 J.L. Carr 0940322471 Chris 0 to-read 4.10 1980 A Month in the Country
author: J.L. Carr
name: Chris
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Much of These Hills Is Gold]]> 45895362
Ba dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way, they encounter giant buffalo bones, tiger paw prints, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets, sibling rivalry, and glimpses of a different kind of future.

Both epic and intimate, blending Chinese symbolism and re-imagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story, an unforgettable sibling story, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But page by page, it's about the memories that bind and divide families, and the yearning for home.]]> 288 C Pam Zhang 0525537201 Chris 0 to-read 3.77 2020 How Much of These Hills Is Gold
author: C Pam Zhang
name: Chris
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pew 51542370
As the town spends the week preparing for a mysterious Forgiveness Festival, Pew is shuttled from one household to the next. The earnest and seemingly well-meaning townspeople see conflicting identities in Pew, and many confess their fears and secrets to them in one-sided conversations. Pew listens and observes while experiencing brief flashes of past lives or clues about their origins. As days pass, the void around Pew’s presence begins to unnerve the community, whose generosity erodes into menace and suspicion. Yet by the time Pew’s story reaches a shattering and unsettling climax at the Forgiveness Festival, the secret of their true nature—as a devil or an angel or something else entirely—is dwarfed by even larger truths.

Pew, Catherine Lacey’s third novel, is a foreboding, provocative, and amorphous fable about the world today: its contradictions, its flimsy morality, and the limits of judging others based on their appearance. With precision and restraint, one of our most beloved and boundary-pushing writers holds up a mirror to her characters� true selves, revealing something about forgiveness, perception, and the faulty tools society uses to categorize human complexity.]]> 224 Catherine Lacey 0374230927 Chris 0 to-read 3.71 2020 Pew
author: Catherine Lacey
name: Chris
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Book Eaters 58724745
Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.]]> 298 Sunyi Dean 1250810183 Chris 0 to-read 3.60 2022 The Book Eaters
author: Sunyi Dean
name: Chris
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Lost Pianos of Siberia 50616973
Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell.

Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos � grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, as well as humble, Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the westernizing influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood.

How these pianos travelled into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is testament to noble acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers, and exiles. Siberian pianos have accomplished extraordinary feats, from the instrument that Maria Volkonsky, wife of an exiled Decemberist revolutionary, used to spread music east of the Urals, to those that brought reprieve to the Soviet Gulag. That these instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia is largely a story of music in this fascinating place, following Roberts on a three-year adventure as she tracks a number of different instruments to find one whose history is definitively Siberian. Her journey reveals a desolate land inhabited by wild tigers and deeply shaped by its dark history, yet one that is also profoundly beautiful � and peppered with pianos.]]> 448 Sophy Roberts 0802149286 Chris 0 to-read 3.95 2020 The Lost Pianos of Siberia
author: Sophy Roberts
name: Chris
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Tomb Guardians 58456246 PHILIP TERRY (Editor of The Penguin Book of Oulipo)

A highly original novel exploring the artistic and political significance of four portraits, which belong to the dawn of Protestantism. A textual performance that can be read in a single sitting, and re-read.

The author of Mr. Beethoven (Goldsmiths Prize 2020 shortlist; Walter Scott Prize 2021 longlist; Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021 longlist) sustains this theme: the power of the imagination to unlock historical truth. Griffiths resurrected Beethoven with varied approaches to prose. In The Tomb Guardians, a single infinite conversation is explored without a break. Each of his novels presents readers with new rules, yet the same emotional depth.]]> 121 Paul Griffiths 191621861X Chris 0 to-read 4.44 2021 The Tomb Guardians
author: Paul Griffiths
name: Chris
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Glass Pearls 27415760 This thrilling tale of an ex-Nazi surgeon hiding in plain sight in 1960s London by the celebrated filmmaker is a lost gem with 'the morbid tension of a thriller' (introduced by Anthony Quinn, author of Curtain Call and Our Friends in Berlin).

Nothing is more inviting to disclose your secrets than to be told by others of their own ...

London, June 1965. Karl Braun arrives as a lodger in Pimlico: hatless, with a bow-tie, greying hair, slight in build. His new neighbours are intrigued by this cultured German gentleman who works as a piano tuner; many are fellow émigrés, who assume that he, like them, came to England to flee Hitler. That summer, Braun courts a woman, attends classical concerts, dances the twist. But as the newspapers fill with reports of the hunt for Nazi war criminals, his nightmares become increasingly worse .]]> 226 Emeric Pressburger 0571324940 Chris 0 to-read 4.00 1966 The Glass Pearls
author: Emeric Pressburger
name: Chris
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> All for Nothing 36620274
All for Nothing, published in 2006, was the last novel by Walter Kempowski, one of postwar Germany’s most acclaimed and popular writers.]]> 343 Walter Kempowski 1681372053 Chris 0 to-read 4.09 2006 All for Nothing
author: Walter Kempowski
name: Chris
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Enchanted April 3077
The women at the center of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.

The Enchanted April was a best-seller in both England and the United States, where it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and set off a craze for tourism to Portofino. More recently, the novel has been the inspiration for a major film and a Broadway play.]]> 232 Elizabeth von Arnim Chris 0 to-read 3.90 1922 The Enchanted April
author: Elizabeth von Arnim
name: Chris
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Swimmers 58214333 From the award winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine, a tour de force of economy, precision, and emotional power about what happens to a group of obsessed recreational swimmers when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool.

The swimmers are unknown to each other except through their private routines (slow lane, fast lane), and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief.

One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese internment camp in which she spent the war. Narrated by Alice's daughter, who witnesses her stark and devastating decline, The Swimmers is a searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the sorrows of implacable loss, written in spellbinding, incantatory prose.

The most commanding and unforgettable work yet from a modern master.
]]> 176 Julie Otsuka 0593321332 Chris 0 to-read 3.65 2022 The Swimmers
author: Julie Otsuka
name: Chris
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Midnight Mass 9151988 417 F. Paul Wilson Chris 5 4.00 2004 Midnight Mass
author: F. Paul Wilson
name: Chris
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/08
date added: 2023/10/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War]]> 56668328 An exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war

ANew York Times Book Review Editors� Choice

In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history.

Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,� asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal?

In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?�

Things might have gone differently had LeMay’s predecessor, General Haywood Hansell, remained in charge. Hansell believed in precision bombing, but when he and Curtis LeMay squared off for a leadership handover in the jungles of Guam, LeMay emerged victorious, leading to the darkest night of World War II. The Bomber Mafia is a riveting tale of persistence, innovation, and the incalculable wages of war.]]> 256 Malcolm Gladwell 0316296619 Chris 4 3.98 2021 The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Chris
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/25
date added: 2023/10/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Stranger in the Lifeboat 56922594
Albom has written of heaven in the celebrated number one bestsellers "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and "The First Phone Call from Heaven". Now, for the first time in his fiction, he ponders what we would do if, after crying out for divine help, God actually appeared before us? A fast-paced, compelling novel that makes you ponder your deepest beliefs, "The Stranger in the Lifeboat suggests that answers to our prayers may be found where we least expect them."]]> 271 Mitch Albom 006288834X Chris 3 4.05 2021 The Stranger in the Lifeboat
author: Mitch Albom
name: Chris
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/14
date added: 2023/10/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Light in Hidden Places 51298322 One knock at the door, and Stefania has a choice to make...



It is 1943, and for four years, sixteen-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemsyl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio -- a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish.



But everything changes when the German army invades Przemsyl. The Diamants are forced into the ghetto, and Stefania is alone in an occupied city, the only one left to care for Helena, her six-year-old sister. And then comes the knock at the door. Izio's brother Max has jumped from the train headed to a death camp. Stefania and Helena make the extraordinary decision to hide Max, and eventually twelve more Jews. Then they must wait, every day, for the next knock at the door, the one that will mean death. When the knock finally comes, it is two Nazi officers, requisitioning Stefania's house for the German army.



With two Nazis below, thirteen hidden Jews above, and a little sister by her side, Stefania has one more excruciating choice to make.

]]> 394 Sharon Cameron 1338355953 Chris 0 4.61 2020 The Light in Hidden Places
author: Sharon Cameron
name: Chris
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/01
date added: 2023/10/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Master Class 48552796 From the critically-acclaimed author of the international bestseller VOX comes a suspenseful new novel that examines a disturbing near future where harsh realities follow from unreachable standards. It’s impossible to know what you will do� Every child's potential is regularly determined by a standardized their quotient (Q). Score high enough, and attend a top tier school with a golden future. Score too low, and it's off to a federal boarding school with limited prospects afterwards. The purpose? An improved society where education costs drop, teachers focus on the more promising students, and parents are happy. When your child is taken from you. Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state's elite schools. When her nine-year-old daughter bombs a monthly test and her Q score drops to a disastrously low level, she is immediately forced to leave her top school for a federal institution hundreds of miles away. As a teacher, Elena thought she understood the tiered educational system, but as a mother whose child is now gone, Elena's perspective is changed forever. She just wants her daughter back.And she will do the unthinkable to make it happen.]]> 337 Christina Dalcher Chris 3 3.95 2020 Master Class
author: Christina Dalcher
name: Chris
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2020/08/06
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves:
review:

]]> I Will Find You 61392438 David and Cheryl Burroughs are living the dream - married, a beautiful house in the suburbs, a three year old son named Matthew - when tragedy strikes one night in the worst possible way.

David awakes to find himself covered in blood, but not his own - his son's. And while he knows he did not murder his son, the overwhelming evidence against him puts him behind bars indefinitely.

Five years into his imprisonment, Cheryl's sister arrives - and drops a bombshell.

She's come with a photograph that a friend took on vacation at a theme park. The boy in the background seems familiar - and even though David realizes it can't be, he knows it is. It's Matthew, and he's still alive.

David plans a harrowing escape from prison, determined to do what seems impossible - save his son, clear his own name, and discover the real story of what happened that devastating night.]]> 400 Harlan Coben Chris 0 currently-reading 4.36 2023 I Will Find You
author: Harlan Coben
name: Chris
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>