´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©'s bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 06 May 2025 10:48:33 -0700 60 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©'s bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Women Who Run With the Wolves 241823
In "Women Who Run With the Wolves," Dr Estes unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairytales and stories, many from her own family, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature. Through the stories and commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman, and hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic and medicine. Dr Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.]]>
537 Clarissa Pinkola Estés 0345409876 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.12 1992 Women Who Run With the Wolves
author: Clarissa Pinkola Estés
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A Queen's Game 205307699 The New York Times bestselling author of the American Royals series invites you to visit 19th-century Europe amid the glamour and intrigue of the Victorian era. In this historical romance inspired by true events, three princesses struggle to find love—and end up vying for the hearts of two future kings.

In the last glittering decade of European empires, courts, and kings, three young women are on a collision course with history—and with each other.

Alix of Hesse is Queen Victoria’s favorite granddaughter, so she can expect to end up with a prince . . . except that the prince she’s falling for is not the one she’s supposed to marry.

Hélène d’Orléans, daughter of the exiled King of France, doesn’t mind being a former princess; it gives her more opportunity to break the rules. Like running around with the handsome, charming, and very much off-limits heir to the British throne, Prince Eddy.

Then there’s May of Teck. After spending her entire life on the fringes of the royal world, May is determined to marry a prince—and not just any prince, but the future king.

In a story that sweeps from the glittering ballrooms of Saint Petersburg to the wilds of Scotland, A Queen’s Game recounts a pivotal moment in real history as only Katharine McGee can tell it: through the eyes of the young women whose lives, and loves, changed it forever.]]>
368 Katharine McGee 0593710703 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.65 2024 A Queen's Game
author: Katharine McGee
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Creative Act: A Way of Being]]> 60965426 From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.

"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment." --Anne Lamott

"I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be." --Rick Rubin

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output, it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments--and lifetimes--of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.]]>
406 Rick Rubin 0593652886 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.00 2023 The Creative Act: A Way of Being
author: Rick Rubin
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis]]> 145624514
Everyone who makes the journey faces an impossible choice. Hundreds of thousands of people who arrive every year at the US-Mexico border travel far from their homes. An overwhelming share of them come from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, although many migrants come from farther away. Some are fleeing persecution, others crime or hunger. Very often it will not be their first attempt to cross. They may have already been deported from the United States, but it remains their only hope for safety and prosperity. Their homes have become uninhabitable. They will take their chances.

This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. Indeed, as Blitzer dramatizes with forensic, unprecedented reporting, it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture for the first time.

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience. With astonishing nuance and detail, Blitzer tells an epic story about the people whose lives ebb and flow across the border, and in doing so, he delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital and remarkable story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.]]>
544 Jonathan Blitzer 1984880802 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.47 2024 Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis
author: Jonathan Blitzer
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom]]> 27091 Teaching to Transgress, bell hooks—writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual—writes about a new kind of education, educations as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to "transgress" against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher's most important goal.

Bell hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom?

Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise critical questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself.

"To educate as the practice of freedom," writes bell hooks, "is a way of teaching that any one can learn." Teaching to Transgress is the record of one gifted teacher's struggle to make classrooms work.

–from the back of the book]]>
216 bell hooks 0415908086 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.46 1994 Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
author: bell hooks
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Last Custodians 18180303 300 Aisha Jawara 9983955954 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.20 2013 The Last Custodians
author: Aisha Jawara
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood]]> 29780253
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents� indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.]]>
289 Trevor Noah 0385689225 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 5 4.48 2016 Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
author: Trevor Noah
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Bookstore Sisters 62337113 From New York Times bestselling author Alice Hoffman comes a heartfelt short story about family, independence, and finding your place in the world.

Isabel Gibson has all but perfected the art of forgetting. She’s a New Yorker now, with nothing left to tie her to Brinkley’s Island, Maine. Her parents are gone, the family bookstore is all but bankrupt, and her sister, Sophie, will probably never speak to her again.

But when a mysterious letter arrives in her mailbox, Isabel feels herself drawn to the past. After years of fighting for her independence, she dreads the thought of going back to the island. What she finds there may forever alter her path—and change everything she thought she knew about her family, her home, and herself.]]>
36 Alice Hoffman 1662510500 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 4 4.00 2022 The Bookstore Sisters
author: Alice Hoffman
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Personal Librarian 55333938 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780593101537.

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.]]>
341 Marie Benedict ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 5 3.98 2021 The Personal Librarian
author: Marie Benedict
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]>
Junie 212806648 A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie.

When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act—one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests� coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that can no longer be ignored.

With time ticking down, Junie begins to push against the harsh current that has controlled her entire life. As she grapples with an increasingly unfamiliar world in which she has little control, she is forced to ask herself: When we choose love and liberation, what must we leave behind?]]>
368 Erin Crosby Eckstine 0593725115 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.21 2025 Junie
author: Erin Crosby Eckstine
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Blended 38351370
Eleven-year-old Isabella is used to these kinds of comments - her father is black, her mother is white - but that doesn't mean she likes them. And now that her parents are divorced (and getting along WORSE than ever), Isabella feels more like a push-me-pull-me toy.

One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves.

Being split between Mom and Dad is more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: it’s also about switching identities. If you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?]]>
308 Sharon M. Draper 1442495006 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.14 2018 Blended
author: Sharon M. Draper
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft]]> 10569 (back cover)]]> 320 Stephen King 0743455967 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.33 2000 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
author: Stephen King
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Coming 25944711 The Coming, a novel that National Book Award-winning author Charles
Johnson (Middle Passage) calls "powerful and beautiful" and "a work to be proud of."

Lyrical, poetic, and hypnotizing, The Coming tells the story of a people's capture and sojourn from their homeland across the Middle Passage--a traumatic trip that exposed the strength and
resolve of the African spirit. Extreme conditions produce extraordinary insight, and only after being stripped of everything do they discover the unspeakable
beauty they once took for granted. This powerful, haunting novel will shake readers to their very souls.]]>
240 Daniel Black 1466890673 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.40 2015 The Coming
author: Daniel Black
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Champagne Letters 207298222 Perfect for fans of bubbly wine and Kristin Harmel, this historical fiction novel follows Mme. Clicquot as she builds her legacy, and the modern divorcee who looks to her letters for inspiration.Reims, France, 1805: Barbe-Nicole Clicquot has just lost her beloved husband but is determined to pursue their dream of creating the premier champagne house in France, now named for her new identity as a Veuve Clicquot. With the Russians poised to invade, competitors fighting for her customers, and the Napoleonic court politics complicating matters she must set herself apart quickly and permanently if she, and her business, are to survive. In present day Chicago, broken from her divorce, Natalie Taylor runs away to Paris. In a book stall by the Seine, Natalie finds a collection of the Widow Clicquot’s published letters and uses them as inspiration to step out of her comfort zone and create a new, empowered life for herself. But when her Parisian escape takes a shocking and unexpected turn, she’s forced to make a choice. Should she accept her losses and return home, or fight for the future she’s only dreamed about? What would the widow do?]]> 352 Kate Macintosh 1668061880 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.84 2024 The Champagne Letters
author: Kate Macintosh
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life]]> 55918375 256 Craig Groeschel 0310362725 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.29 2021 Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life
author: Craig Groeschel
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Reviving Mission: Awakening to the Everyday Movement of God]]> 210451898 God's mission is for everyone, every day.

After seasons of societal disruption and disillusion, we're seeing signs of a new season of God bringing people into renewal and revival. Jesus is the Sent One who likewise sends us out on his behalf. God is leading us into a new normal where all of us—not just the professionals—can actively encounter him and experience his work.

Apostolic mission leaders Linson Daniel, Jon Hietbrink, and Eric Rafferty open God's invitation into everyday mission in the way of Jesus. Though Christians may be discouraged by various challenges, this new season holds opportunities for encountering God's movement in fresh ways among unlikely people. With biblical insights into how Jesus and the early church lived, the authors invite us into four Es of revived

� Encountering the reality of God
� Exploring what he's already doing around us
� Empowering those he sends us to
� Establishing communal rhythms for transforming habits and habitats

This integrative model brings together spirituality, calling, and formation in a way that equips the whole community for transformation and renewal.

God's mission revives us as sent ones and the communities we are sent to. Come and be awakened to his everyday movement all around you.]]>
240 Linson Daniel 1514009625 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.54 Reviving Mission: Awakening to the Everyday Movement of God
author: Linson Daniel
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.54
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Empty Promises: The Truth About You, Your Desires, and the Lies You're Believing]]> 13177920

We all long for more of something in our lives. In our endless pursuit to feel worth and acceptance we find ourselves sacrificing everything for the promise to be a little more beautiful, a little richer, a little more powerful and successful, a little more loved.

How do we break free from these empty pursuits and start chasing the only Promise that will ever satisfy? How do we uncover the hidden idols that are driving us and turn our devotion toward the one true God?

Join Pastor and best-selling author Pete Wilson in discovering the joy and freedom that comes with seeking after God with your whole life. Learn how to replace, and not just relinquish, life's empty promises by turning your focus and worship toward Him. It is the only thing that will set you absolutely free from the endless pursuit of everything else.]]>
217 Pete Wilson ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.22 2012 Empty Promises: The Truth About You, Your Desires, and the Lies You're Believing
author: Pete Wilson
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People]]> 199534697 A surprising and beautiful meditation on the color blue—and its fascinating role in Black history and culture—from National Book Award winner Imani Perry

Throughout history, the concept of Blackness has been remarkably intertwined with another color: blue. In daily life, it is evoked in countless ways. Blue skies and blue water offer hope for that which lies beyond the current conditions. But blue is also the color of deep melancholy and heartache, echoing Louis Armstrong’s question, “What did I do to be so Black and blue?� In this book, celebrated author Imani Perry uses the world’s favorite color as a springboard for a riveting emotional, cultural, and spiritual journey—an examination of race and Blackness that transcends politics or ideology.

Perry traces both blue and Blackness from their earliest roots to their many embodiments of contemporary culture, drawing deeply from her own life as well as art and history: The dyed indigo cloths of West Africa that were traded for human life in the 16th century. The mixture of awe and aversion in the old-fashioned characterization of dark-skinned people as “Blue Black.� The fundamentally American art form of blues music, sitting at the crossroads of pain and pleasure. The blue flowers Perry plants to honor a loved one gone too soon.

Poignant, spellbinding, and utterly original, Black in Blues is a brilliant new work that could only have come from the mind of one of our greatest writers and thinkers. Attuned to the harrowing and the sublime aspects of the human experience, it is every bit as vivid, rich, and striking as blue itself.]]>
256 Imani Perry 0062977393 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.34 2025 Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People
author: Imani Perry
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Scuttlebutt Letters: Words to a Wild Tongue]]> 198387250 96 Natalie Brand 1527111164 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.58 The Scuttlebutt Letters: Words to a Wild Tongue
author: Natalie Brand
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.58
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Gospel-Shaped Womanhood: How losing yourself & finding your identity in Christ changes everything]]> 202256496 208 Sarah Rice 1914966880 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.42 Gospel-Shaped Womanhood: How losing yourself & finding your identity in Christ changes everything
author: Sarah Rice
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.42
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling]]> 165938555
Political instability, poverty, climate change,ÌýandÌýtheÌýinsatiable appetite for cheap labor all fuel clandestine movement across borders. As those borders harden, the demandÌýfor smugglers whoÌýaid migrants across them increases every year. Yet the real lives and work of smugglers—or coyotes , or guides, as they are often known by the migrants who hire their services—are only ever reported on from a distance, using tired tropes and stereotypes, often depicted as boogie men and violent warlords. In an effort to better understand this essential yet extralegal billion dollar global industry, internationally recognized anthropologist and expert Jason DeÌýLeón embedded with a group of smugglers moving migrants across Mexico over the course of seven years.

The result of this unique and extraordinary access is SOLDIERS AND the first ever in-depth, character-driven look at human smuggling. It is a heart-wrenching and intimate narrative that revolves around the life and death of one coyote who falls in love and tries to leave smuggling behind. In a powerful, original voice, DeÌýLeón expertly chronicles the lives of low-level foot soldiers breaking into the smuggling game, and morally conflicted gang leaders who oversee rag-tag crews of guides and informants along the migrant trail. SOLDIERS AND KINGS is not only a ground-breaking up-close glimpse of a difficult-to-access world, it is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction.]]>
367 Jason De León 0593298586 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.31 2024 Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
author: Jason De León
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land]]> 199393033 A powerful work of reportage and American history that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later

Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. Nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests—in the emergence of this great nation, our government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples.

In the 1830s, Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn’t have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling that would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including Nagle’s own Cherokee Nation.

Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history. The story it tells exposes both the wrongs that our nation has committed and the Native-led battle for justice that has shaped our country.]]>
352 Rebecca Nagle 0063112043 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.43 2024 By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land
author: Rebecca Nagle
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi]]> 204316858 A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long. Wright Thompson’s family farm in Mississippi is 23 miles from the site of one of the most notorious and consequential killings in American history, yet he had to leave the state for college before he learned the first thing about it. To this day, fundamental truths about the crime are widely unknown, including where it took place and how many people were involved. This is no the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.ÌýIn August 1955, two men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were charged with the torture and murder of the 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi.ÌýAfter their inevitable acquittal in a mockery of justice, they gave a false confession to a journalist, which was misleading about where the long night of hell took place and who was involved.ÌýIn fact, Wright Thompson reveals, at least nine people can be placed at the scene, which was inside the barn of one of the killers, on a plot of land within the six-square-mile grid whose official name is Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, fabled in the Delta of myth as the birthplace of the blues on nearby Dockery Plantation. Even in the context of the brutal caste regime of the time, the four-hour torture and murder of a boy barely in his teens for whistling at a young white woman was acutely depraved; Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s decision to keep the casket open seared the crime indelibly into American consciousness. Wright Thompson has a deep understanding of this story—the world of the families of both Emmett Till and his killers, and all the forces that aligned to place them together on that spot on the map.ÌýAs he shows, the full horror of the crime was its inevitability, and how much about it we still need to understand. Ultimately this is a story about property, and money, and power.ÌýIt implicates all of us.ÌýIn The Barn, Thompson befriends the few people who have been engaged in the hard, fearful business of bringing the truth to light, people like Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till’s friend, who came down from Chicago with him that summer, and is the last person alive to know him well.ÌýWheeler Parker’s journey to put the killing floor of the barn on the map of Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, and the Delta, and America, is a journey we all need to go on if this country is to heal from its oldest, deepest wound.]]> 448 Wright Thompson 0593299825 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.36 2024 The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi
author: Wright Thompson
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[How the García Girls Lost Their Accents]]> 11208 286 Julia Alvarez 0452287073 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.65 1991 How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
author: Julia Alvarez
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life]]> 51351300 "A book you will want to read and read again." -- Eugene Peterson

Afterword by Bono.

How can we find a more transparent, resilient, and fearless life of faith?Ìý

The book of Psalms has been central to God's people for millennia, across all walks of life and cultural contexts. In reading it, we discover that we are never alone in our joys, sorrows, angers, doubts, praises, or thanksgivings. In it, we learn about prayer and poetry, honesty and community, justice and enemies, life and death, nations and creation. Open and Unafraid shows us how to read the psalms in a fresh, life-giving way, and so access the bottomless resources for life that they provide.

"David Taylor’s take is 'open and unafraid' alright. He really goes there, exposing himself before God in the most beautiful way. He might have called the book Naked, because if you don’t find your own self feeling a little exposed here, it might be time to take some armor off."Ìý -- Bono, from the Afterword

"A book that you will want to read and read again, and yet again, in order to discover the wisdom of the Psalms that shows us how to walk in the life-giving way of Jesus." -- Eugene Peterson, from the Foreword

"A winsome, accessible entry into the Book of Psalms…Connects the poetry of the psalms to real-life wonders and struggles." -- Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

"Taylor reads these biblical prayers with Dr. Seuss, rappers, and other poets, along with theologians and the daily news....Guides readers in tracing out patterns of holy speech that have the potential for healing our hearts and our communities." -- Ellen F. Davis, Duke Divinity School

"I have always loved the psalms--for their defiant devotion, their deep joy, and their brutal yet beautiful honesty.ÌýAnd after reading this fantastic book about them, I love them even more." -- Matt Redman, worship leader and song writer

"In these fraught and fearsome days, we need the psalms more than ever. And we need more faithful artists and thinkers like David Taylor to mine the infinite gifts the psalms offer across the ages." -- Karen Swallow Prior, author of Fierce Convictions]]>
224 W. David O. Taylor 140021047X ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 4.25 2020 Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life
author: W. David O. Taylor
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Rule Book (The Cheat Sheet, #2)]]> 182484354 College exes break all the rules when they reunite years later in this enemies-to-lovers, second-chance romance, the highly anticipated companion novel to the viral TikTok sensation The Cheat Sheet.

Nora Mackenzie’s entire career lies in the hands of famous NFL tight end Derek Pender, who happens to be her extremely hot college ex-boyfriend. Nora didn’t end things as gracefully as she could have back then, and now it has come back to haunt her. Derek is her first client as an official full-time sports agent, and he’s holding a grudge.

Derek has set his sights on a little friendly revenge. If Nora Mackenzie, the first girl to ever break his heart, wants to be his agent, oh, he’ll let her be his agent. The plan is simple: make Nora’s life absolutely miserable. But if Derek knows anything about the woman he once loved—she won’t quit easily.

Instead of giving in, Nora starts a scheme of her own. But then a wild night in Vegas leads to Nora and Derek in bed the next morning married. With their rule book out the window, could this new relationship save their careers and spark the romance of a lifetime?]]>
356 Sarah Adams 0593723678 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.88 2024 The Rule Book (The Cheat Sheet, #2)
author: Sarah Adams
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge]]> 16182599 The 40-day prayer plan that will change your life plan

Do you pray as often and as boldly as you want to?ÌýThere is a way to experience a deeper, more passionate, persistent, and intimate prayer life.

In this forty-day devotional, Mark Batterson applies the principles of his New York Times bestselling book The Circle Maker to teach you a new way to pray. As thousands of readers quickly became many tens of thousands, true stories of miraculous and inspiring answers to prayer began to pour in. These testimonies will light your faith on fire and help you pray with even more boldness.

In Draw the Circle, through forty true, faith-building stories of God’s answers to prayers, daily Scriptures and prayer prompts, Batterson inspires you to pray and keep praying like never before.

Begin a lifetime of watching God work.ÌýBelieve in the God who can do all things. Experience the power of bold prayer and even bolder faith in Draw the Circle.]]>
226 Mark Batterson 0310327121 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 4.42 2012 Draw the Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge
author: Mark Batterson
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:

]]>
Remarkably Bright Creatures 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

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

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

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

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]>
368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.35 2022 Remarkably Bright Creatures
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History]]> 43862307 The Golden Thread weaves an illuminating story of human ingenuity. Design journalist Kassia St. Clair guides us through the technological advancements and cultural customs that would redefine human civilization—from the fabric that allowed mankind to achieve extraordinary things (traverse the oceans and shatter athletic records) and survive in unlikely places (outer space and the South Pole). She peoples her story with a motley cast of characters, including Xiling, the ancient Chinese empress credited with inventing silk, to Richard the Lionhearted and Bing Crosby. Offering insights into the economic and social dimensions of clothmaking—and countering the enduring, often demeaning, association of textiles as “merely women’s workâ€â€�The Golden Thread offers an alternative guide to our past, present, and future.]]> 368 Kassia St. Clair 1631494805 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.05 2018 The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History
author: Kassia St. Clair
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Open Water 53414230
At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, Caleb Azumah Nelson has written the most essential British debut of recent years.]]>
145 Caleb Azumah Nelson 0241448778 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.03 2021 Open Water
author: Caleb Azumah Nelson
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Maame 60784605 Shortlisted for the TikTok Book Awards in the Book of the Year, 2023 and the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Debut and Fiction Book of the Year, 2023.

It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting.

When her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie leaps at the chance to get out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts�: She finds a flat share, says yes to after-work drinks, pushes for more recognition in her career, and throws herself into the bewildering world of internet dating. But it's not long before tragedy strikes, forcing Maddie to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils—and rewards—of putting her life on the line.

Smart, funny, and deeply affecting, Jessica George's Maame deals with the themes of our time with humor and poignancy: from familial duty and racism, to female pleasure, the complexity of love, and the life-saving power of friendship. Most important, it explores what it feels like to be torn between two homes and cultures―and it celebrates finally being able to find where you belong.]]>
320 Jessica George ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 5 4.03 2023 Maame
author: Jessica George
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:

]]>
Lies and Weddings 197144545 A forbidden affair erupts dramatically amid a decadent Hawaiian wedding in this hilarious, sophisticated, and thrillingly plotted story of love, money, murder, sex—and the lies we tell about them all.
Ìý
Rufus Leung Gresham, future Earl of Greshambury and son of a former Hong Kong supermodel, has a problem: his family fortune, the legendary Gresham Trust, has been depleted by decades of profligate spending. While magazine covers and Instagram stories display impeccably designed manors and shiny new yachts, the secret reality holds nothing more than a gargantuan mountain of debt. The only solution, put forth by Rufus’s scheming mother, is for Rufus to seduce a woman with money, thereby securing the family's precarious financial future.

Should he marry Solène de Courcy, a French hotel heiress with honey-blond tresses and a royal bloodline? Should he pursue Martha Dung, the tattooed venture capital genius who passes out billions like lollipops? Or should he follow his heart, betray his family, squander his legacy, and finally confess his love to the literal girl next door, the humble daughter of a doctor, Eden Tong?

When the Gresham family descends on the Big Island of Hawaii to host a veritable who's who of sultans, barons, and oligarchs for the wedding of the decade, Rufus must merely flex his famous abs to bewitch the heiress of his choice. But instead a hot mic exposes a secret tryst, a volcanic eruption burns through the nuptials, and the Gresham family's plans—and their reputation—go up in flames.

Can the once-great earldom rise from the ashes? Or will a secret tragedy, hidden for two decades, reveal a shocking twist? Spanning the black sand beaches of Hawaii, the red city of Marrakech, the Los Angeles bachelor pad of a billionaire playboy, and the inner sanctum of England’s oldest family estate, Lies and Weddings reveals an enthralling family saga that is as scandalous and satirical as it is full of heart.]]>
437 Kevin Kwan 0385546297 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.69 2024 Lies and Weddings
author: Kevin Kwan
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Queens of Themiscyra (The Grecian Women)]]> 58905559
In ancient Themiscyra, Hippolyte rules as Queen of the Amazons. Feared throughout Greece, their skills on the battlefield are unmatched. But when a ship lands on their shores, it brings something more dangerous than the threat of war. It brings a future Hippolyte could never have dreamed of.

Swept away to Athens, Hippolyte learns a love that transcends even the bond of the Amazon women. Can she forget her warrior past and forge a new life she had never dreamed of?

With her sister gone, Penthesilea is left with no choice but to rise as the new Queen of the Amazons. She does so with a ferocity that sparks terror throughout the Aegean. Replacing her sister’s compassion and wisdom, Penthesilea rules with impulsiveness and might.

So when Hippolyte’s world starts to crumble it is up to Penthesilea to decide how far she will go to defend their honour.]]>
458 Hannah M. Lynn ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 4 3.99 2022 Queens of Themiscyra (The Grecian Women)
author: Hannah M. Lynn
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]>
Boss Lady 156709279 In this funny and inspiring novel from the authors of The Better Half, a mess of a heroine is desperate to resolve her past so she can finally rediscover who she was always meant to be.

Antonia “Toni� Arroyo’s protective mother has outdated notions for her daughter’s life: employ her natural beauty and marry young. But Toni has wholly different aspirations.

A promising inventor and budding entrepreneur, she fights to keep her passions alive as a financially strapped mother of twins with a job in airport transportation services that has her going in circles. One treasured frequent passenger is elderly traveler Sylvia Eisenberg, Toni’s sage but unofficial adviser and cheerleader. When Toni meets Sylvia’s grandson, Ash, a striking venture capitalist, luck just might bend her way.

With a game-changing new business endeavor in development, Toni hustles an opportunity to pitch her idea on TV’s Innovation Nation. Toni’s unexpected challenger? Her very own recently resurfaced, self-aggrandizing not-quite-ex-husband. As Toni’s interrupted past collides with her tenuous future, she is more determined than ever to follow through on her delayed dreams. Toni’s been clinging to “maybeâ€� for so long—it’s finally time for “absolutely.â€]]>
317 Alli Frank 1662514786 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 currently-reading 4.04 2024 Boss Lady
author: Alli Frank
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy, #1)]]> 37969723
When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and coolly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position, able to observe the two men driving the Greek army in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate not only of Briseis's people but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war—the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead—all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives—and it is nothing short of magnificent.]]>
325 Pat Barker ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.88 2018 The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy, #1)
author: Pat Barker
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History]]> 195430723
At the height of the Civil Rights movement, Lydia Abarca was a Black prima ballerina with a major international dance company—the Dance Theatre of Harlem, a troupe of women and men who became each other’s chosen family. She was the first Black ballerina on the cover of Dance magazine, an Essence cover star; she was cast in The Wiz and in a Bob Fosse production on Broadway. She performed in some of ballet’s most iconic works with other trailblazing ballerinas, including the young women who became her closest friends—founding Dance Theatre of Harlem members Gayle McKinney-Griffith and Sheila Rohan, as well as first-generation dancers Karlya Shelton and Marcia Sells.

These Swans of Harlem performed for the Queen of England, Mick Jagger, and Stevie Wonder, on the same bill as Josephine Baker, at the White House, and beyond. But decades later there was almost no record of their groundbreaking history to be found. Out of a sisterhood that had grown even deeper with the years, these Swans joined forces again—to share their story with the world.

Captivating, rich in vivid detail and character, and steeped in the glamour and grit of professional ballet, The Swans of Harlem is a riveting account of five extraordinarily accomplished women, a celebration of both their historic careers and the sustaining, grounding power of female friendship, and a window into the robust history of Black ballet, hidden for too long.]]>
304 Karen Valby 0593317521 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.23 2024 The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History
author: Karen Valby
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Palmares 56378193
Intricate and compelling, Palmares recounts the journey of Almeyda, a Black slave girl who comes of age on Portuguese plantations and escapes to a fugitive slave settlement called Palmares. Following its destruction, Almeyda embarks on a journey across colonial Brazil to find her husband, lost in battle.

Her story brings to life a world impacted by greed, conquest, and colonial desire. She encounters a mad lexicographer, desperate to avoid military service; a village that praises a god living in a nearby cave; and a medicine woman who offers great magic, at a greater price.

Combining the author’s mastery of language and voice with her unique brand of mythology and magical realism, Jones reimagines the historical novel. The result is a sweeping saga spanning a quarter century, with vibrant settings and unforgettable characters, steeped in the rich oral tradition of its world. Of Gayl Jones, the New Yorker noted, “[Her] great achievement is to reckon with both history and interiority, and to collapse the boundary between them.� Like nothing else before it, Palmares embodies this gift.]]>
492 Gayl Jones 0807033499 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 2.84 2021 Palmares
author: Gayl Jones
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 2.84
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Message 210943364
The first of the book’s three intertwining essays is set in Dakar, Senegal. Despite being raised as a strict Afrocentrist, Coates had never set foot on the African continent until now. He roams the “steampunk� city of “old traditions and new machinery,� but everywhere he goes he feels as if he’s in two places at once: a modern city in Senegal and a mythic kingdom in his mind. Finally he travels to the slave castles off the coast and has his own reckoning with the legacy of the Afrocentric dream.

He takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he meets an educator whose job is threatened for teaching one of Coates’s own books. There he discovers a community of mostly white supporters who were transformed by the “racial reckoning� of 2020. But he also explores the backlash to this reckoning and the deeper myths of the community—a capital of the confederacy with statues of segregationists looming over its public squares.

And in Palestine, Coates discovers the devastating gap between the narratives we’ve accepted and the clashing reality of life on the ground. He meets with activists and dissidents, Israelis and Palestinians—the old, who remember their dispossessions on two continents, and the young, who have only known struggle and disillusionment. He travels into Jerusalem, the heart of Zionist mythology, and to the occupied territories, where he sees the reality the myth is meant to hide. It is this hidden story that draws him in and profoundly changes him—and makes the war that would soon come all the more devastating.

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.]]>
232 Ta-Nehisi Coates 0593230388 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.51 2024 The Message
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A Song to Drown Rivers 203578730 Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.

Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue—convinced that the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi draws the attention of the famous young military advisor, Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people, and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within.

Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotion, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. But she knows Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods.

Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a brutality lurks and Xishi knows she can never let her guard down. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall—and if she is unmasked as a traitor, she will bring both kingdoms down.]]>
325 Ann Liang 1250289467 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.84 2024 A Song to Drown Rivers
author: Ann Liang
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Counted with the Stars (Out From Egypt, #1)]]> 25822042
Choosing to flee with the Hebrews, Kiya finds herself reliant on a strange God and drawn to a man who despises her people. With everything she's ever known swept away and now facing the trials of the desert, will she turn back toward Egypt or surrender her life and her future to Yahweh?]]>
345 Connilyn Cossette 0764214373 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.33 2016 Counted with the Stars (Out From Egypt, #1)
author: Connilyn Cossette
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Women of the Bible Speak 57092388
The women of the Bible lived timeless stories—by examining them, we can understand what it means to be a woman of faith.

People unfamiliar with Scripture often assume that women play a small, secondary role in the Bible. But in fact, they were central figures in numerous Biblical tales. It was Queen Esther’s bravery at a vital point in history which saved her entire people. The Bible contains warriors like Jael, judges like Deborah, and prophets like Miriam. The first person to witness Jesus� resurrection was Mary Magdalene, who promptly became the first Christian evangelist, eager to share the news which would change the world forever.

In The Women of the Bible Speak, Fox News Channel's Shannon Bream opens up the lives of sixteen of these Biblical women, arranging them into pairs and contrasting their journeys. In pairing their stories, Shannon helps us reflect not only on the meaning of each individual’s life, but on how they relate to each other and to us.

From the shepherdesses of ancient Israel who helped raise the future leaders of the people of God, to the courageous early Christians, the narrative of the Bible offers us many vivid and fascinating female characters. In their lives we can see common struggles to resist bitterness, despair, and pride, and to instead find their true selves in faith, hope, and love. In studying these heroes of the faith, we can find wisdom and warnings for how to better navigate our own faith journeys.

The Women of the Bible Speak outlines the lessons we can take from the valor of Esther, the hope of Hannah, the audacity of Rahab, and the faith of Mary. In broadening each woman’s individual story, Shannon offers us a deeper understanding of each, and wisdom and insights that can transform our own lives today.Ìý]]>
256 Shannon Bream 006304661X ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.32 2021 The Women of the Bible Speak
author: Shannon Bream
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourner's Guide to Grief]]> 201108254 After her brother was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan, Annie Sklaver Orenstein was heartbroken and unmoored. Standing in the grief section of her local bookstore, she searched for guides on how to work through her grief as a mourning sibling—and found nothing. More than 4 million American adults each year will lose a sibling, yet there isn't a modern resource guide available that speaks directly to this type of grief that at times can be overshadowed by grieving parents and spouses and made even more difficult by the complexities of sibling dynamics.

In Always a Sibling,Ìý Annie uses her own story and those of others to create the empathic, thoughtful, practical resource that she sought. Divided into three With, Without, and Within, Always a Sibling creates a framework that enables the reader to ground themselves in order to process and validate this often overlooked grief. Annie guides readers to capture the memories and emotions of life with their now deceased sibling, then moves to addressing the grieving process in detail as they navigate life without them. Ultimately, readers will find ways to experience their sibling's presence within themselves and acknowledge their legacy. With practical strategies rooted in proven grief processing techniques, trauma recovery, and psychoanalysis, Always A Sibling truly supports mourners through the unique experience of sibling loss.Ìý]]>
272 Annie Sklaver Orenstein 030683149X ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.60 Always a Sibling: The Forgotten Mourner's Guide to Grief
author: Annie Sklaver Orenstein
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.60
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year]]> 82076
Norman Vincent Peale’s philosophy of positive thinking has had an unprecedented influence on millions of people throughout the world. Now, the wisdom of nine books—including The Power of Positive Thinking —can be found within these pages. Timeless in their message, invaluable in the course of daily life, Dr. Peale’s classic books provide inspiration when you most need it and lead the way to a fuller, happier, more satisfying life. With a new introduction by Dr. Peale , Positive Thinking Every Day will help make your every day the best it can possibly be.]]>
384 Norman Vincent Peale 0671868918 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.18 1993 Positive Thinking Every Day: An Inspiration for Each Day of the Year
author: Norman Vincent Peale
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Power of Positive Thinking]]> 1134122 "This book is written with the sole objective of helping the reader achieve a happy, satisfying, and worthwhile life."

-- Norman Vincent Peale

The precursor to The Secret, The Power of Positive Thinking has helped millions of men and women to achieve fulfillment in their lives. In this phenomenal bestseller, Dr. Peale demonstrates the power of faith in action. With the practical techniques outlined in this book, you can energize your life -- and give yourself the initiative needed to carry out your ambitions and hopes. You'll learn how to:

Expect the best and get it

Believe in yourself and in everything you do

Develop the power to reach your goals

Break the worry habit and achieve a relaxed life

Improve your personal and professional relationships

Assume control over your circumstances

Be kind to yourself

]]>
128 Norman Vincent Peale 1416560610 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.13 1952 The Power of Positive Thinking
author: Norman Vincent Peale
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking]]> 8520610 The book that started the Quiet Revolution

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.Ìý

In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content.]]>
333 Susan Cain 0307352145 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.07 2012 Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
author: Susan Cain
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Song of Achilles 13623848 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780062060624.

Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.]]>
408 Madeline Miller ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 4.30 2011 The Song of Achilles
author: Madeline Miller
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/27
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma]]> 18693771 A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing.

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.]]>
464 Bessel van der Kolk 0670785938 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.36 2014 The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
author: Bessel van der Kolk
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Cat & Dog Theology: Rethinking Our Relationship With Our Master]]> 721702 207 Bob Sjogren 1884543170 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.23 2003 Cat & Dog Theology: Rethinking Our Relationship With Our Master
author: Bob Sjogren
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass]]> 58355685 256 Nicol Turner Lee ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.83 Digitally Invisible: How the Internet is Creating the New Underclass
author: Nicol Turner Lee
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Lovely War 44107480
Aubrey Edwards is also headed toward the trenches. A gifted musician who's played Carnegie Hall, he's a member of the 15th New York Infantry, an all-African-American regiment being sent to Europe to help end the Great War. Love is the last thing on his mind. But that's before he meets Colette Fournier, a Belgian chanteuse who's already survived unspeakable tragedy at the hands of the Germans.

Thirty years after these four lovers' fates collide, the Greek goddess Aphrodite tells their stories to her husband, Hephaestus, and her lover, Ares, in a luxe Manhattan hotel room at the height of World War II. She seeks to answer the age-old question: Why are Love and War eternally drawn to one another? But her quest for a conclusion that will satisfy her jealous husband uncovers a multi-threaded tale of prejudice, trauma, and music and reveals that War is no match for the power of Love.

A sweeping, multi-layered romance with a divine twist, by the Printz Honor-winning author of The Passion of Dolssa, set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II.]]>
471 Julie Berry ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.23 2019 Lovely War
author: Julie Berry
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Lion Women of Tehran 199798217 A heartfelt novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.�

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls� high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.]]>
327 Marjan Kamali 1668036584 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 currently-reading 4.47 2024 The Lion Women of Tehran
author: Marjan Kamali
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
That Month in Tuscany 39908222
Ren Sawyer and Lizzy Harper live completely different lives. He’s a rock star with a secret he can no longer live with. She’s a regular person whose husband stood her up for a long planned anniversary trip.

On a flight across the Atlantic headed for Italy, a drunken pity party and untimely turbulence literally drop Lizzy into Ren’s lap. It is the last thing she can imagine ever happening to someone like her. But despite their surface differences, they discover an undeniable pull between them. A pull that leads them both to remember who they had once been before letting themselves be changed by a life they had each chosen.

Exploring the streets of Florence and the hills of Tuscany together - two people with seemingly nothing in common - changes them both forever. And what they find in each other is something that might just heal them both.

*** Previously titled Rock Her.]]>
342 Inglath Cooper 0989110699 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.92 2014 That Month in Tuscany
author: Inglath Cooper
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves:
review:

]]>
Loot 62802771
" Loot held me spellbound from the first page. This is an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger.� —Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait

Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe.

Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate.Ìý When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.]]>
304 Tania James 0593535979 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 currently-reading 3.72 2023 Loot
author: Tania James
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/11
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
The Masterpiece 35605477
A successful LA artist, Roman Velasco appears to have everything he could possibly want―money, women, fame. Only Grace Moore, his reluctant, newly hired personal assistant, knows how little he truly has. The demons of Roman’s past seem to echo through the halls of his empty mansion and out across his breathtaking Topanga Canyon view. But Grace doesn’t know how her boss secretly wrestles with those demons: by tagging buildings as the Bird, a notorious but unidentified graffiti artist―an alter ego that could destroy his career and land him in prison.

Like Roman, Grace is wrestling with ghosts and secrets of her own. After a disastrous marriage threw her life completely off course, she vowed never to let love steal her dreams again. But as she gets to know the enigmatic man behind the reputation, it’s as if the jagged pieces of both of their pasts slowly begin to fit together . . . until something so unexpected happens that it changes the course of their relationship―and both their lives―forever.]]>
496 Francine Rivers 1496407903 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 5 4.24 2018 The Masterpiece
author: Francine Rivers
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves:
review:

]]>
Sisters with a Side of Greens 157020054 "A charming novel about sisterhood, regrets, and second chances, [with] a peek into Southern comfort food. An utter delight from start to finish." ―Terah Shelton Harris, author of One Summer in Savannah

Two strong-willed sisters fight their way to forgiveness in this feel-good Southern fiction, for fans of Terry McMillan and KJ Dell'Antonia's The Chicken Sisters.

Rose Tillman and her sister Marvina Nash haven't spoken in decades―not since Rose sent Marvina $40 to register their business, and Marvina used that money for her own personal purposes. Now retired, Rose wants to open the restaurant they'd once dreamed of. But, to her horror, Rose realizes she's forgotten their mother's secret spice mix recipe, known to only one other person in the world.

With no other option, Rose embarks on a two-hour drive to Marvina's house back in Fork City, TX. Marvina has her own version of what caused their falling out, and it's a far cry from what Rose recalls. Marvina, skeptical and still indignant, but incurably polite, figures she'll give Rose a chance to speak her piece, before closing the door in her face.Ìý

As the sisters fight their way to forgiveness, they unpack their complicated past, form an unexpected alliance with a young mother-to-be, and reconnect through the tantalizing aroma of chicken dinners that hold the power to heal―or divide―a community. In a tale rich with Southern charm, Rose and Marvina discover, through fussing, laughter, and tears, that the secret ingredient to a bright future might just be found in facing who they are today―and in forgiving the past to embrace a second chance at sisterhood.]]>
368 Michelle Stimpson 1728271592 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.93 Sisters with a Side of Greens
author: Michelle Stimpson
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Wives Like Us 61896550
If you think the English countryside is all green wellies, muddy Land Rovers, and grey-haired ladies in tweed, then you’ve never visited The Bottoms.

Welcome to the rose-strewn county of Oxfordshire, and the tony Cotswold villages of Little Bottom, Middle Bottom, Great Bottom, and Monkton Bottom, recently annexed by a glittering new breed of female: the Country Princess.

Following a ghastly row about a missing suite of diamonds, Tata Hawkins has flounced out of Monkton Bottom Manor with her daughter, Minty, and Executive Butler Ian Palmer in tow, decamping to The Old Coach House to teach her husband, Bryan, a lesson.

But things don’t go to plan. Bryan disappears to Venice with a bikini designer; Selby Fairfax, the glamorous American divorcée who has inherited the beautiful estate next door—Great Bottom Park—is refusing Tata’s overtures at friendship; Tata’s two best friends, Sophie Thompson and Fernanda Ovington-Williams, are distracted by their own problems; worst of all, Ian has nowhere to store his collection of vintage Gucci loafers.

Will Tata ever return to the comforts of the Manor? Will Sophie’s husband start appreciating her? Will Fernanda ever find a replacement Manny for her friendless son, Luca? Will Selby believe in love again? With the help of a pig farmer-ess moonlighting as a Personal Assistant, a male model moonlighting as a stable hand, a London barrister moonlighting as a gentleman farmer, and a hypochondriac American tech mogul lying in a hospital bed, is there any hope that Ian can restore harmony to The Bottoms?]]>
368 Plum Sykes 0062429086 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.42 2024 Wives Like Us
author: Plum Sykes
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
I Hope This Doesn't Find You 124932739 I Hope This Doesn't Find You is Never Have I Ever meets To All the Boys if Lara Jean wrote hate emails instead of love letters.

Sadie Wen is perfect on paper: school captain, valedictorian, and a "pleasure to have in class." It’s not easy, but she has a trick to keep her model-student smile plastered on her face at all times: she channels all her frustrations into her email drafts. She'd never send them of course -- she'd rather die than hurt anyone's feelings -- but it's a relief to let loose on her power-hungry English teacher or a freeloading classmate taking credit for Sadie's work.

All her most vehemently worded emails are directed at her infuriating cocaptain, Julius Gong, whose arrogance and competitive streak have irked Sadie since they were kids. "You're attention starved and self-obsessed and unbearably vain . . . I really hope your comb breaks and you run out of whatever expensive hair products you've been using to make your hair appear deceptively soft..."

Sadie doesn't have to hold back in her emails, because nobody will ever read them... that is, until they're accidentally sent out.

Overnight, Sadie’s carefully crafted, conflict-free life is turned upside down. It's her worst nightmare -- now everyone at school knows what she really thinks of them, and they're not afraid to tell her what they really think of her either. But amidst the chaos, there's one person growing to appreciate the "real" Sadie -- Julius, the only boy she's sworn to hate...]]>
320 Ann Liang 1338827154 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.17 2024 I Hope This Doesn't Find You
author: Ann Liang
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Paris Novel 195430688
Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean... Oysters, she thought, where have they been all my life?

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual a one-way plane ticket and a note reading Go to Paris . But Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a childhood trauma has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. When her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

Alone in a foreign city, Stella falls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and, for the first time in her life, Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress and together they embark on an adventure.

Her first iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters, and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces her to a veritable who’s who of the 1980s Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, Stella begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.

As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed� at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.]]>
288 Ruth Reichl 0812996305 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.67 2024 The Paris Novel
author: Ruth Reichl
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Counting Stars in an Empty Sky: Trusting God's Promises for Your Impossibilities]]> 43984662
In this faith-filled book, Michael Youssef takes you through Abraham's incredible journey of faith, encouraging you to trust God's timing and plan when the road gets difficult. He also shares his own experiences of trusting God in a foreign land and includes reflection questions for you and your small group to pinpoint the ways in which you're trusting--or need to trust--God to keep his promises, even when the way forward seems impossible--even when you can't see the stars.]]>
208 Michael Youssef 0801077877 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 4.27 Counting Stars in an Empty Sky: Trusting God's Promises for Your Impossibilities
author: Michael Youssef
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/01
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Holy Hygge: Creating a Place for People to Gather and the Gospel to Grow]]> 60447467 Women were made to give life—and they can do that right in their own homes.Ìý

Hygge [HYOO-guh] has become a cultural buzzword. When many read about this Danish practice, their shoulders lift in excitement, then fall in exhale. In a culture of rush, hygge appeals to their desire for rest—for slow living, shared moments, and fostered friendships. Hygge has strong ties to beauty, contentment, and well-being. It’s warm and inviting. Hygge is the opposite of hustle. It eschews abundance. It savors. It takes things slow and envelopes you in sanctuary. Hygge is home. When you sit in a comfy chair by the fire, that’s hygge. When you arrange a fresh bouquet of wildflowers on a bedside table, that’s hygge too. Candles, soft furnishings, natural light, fresh-baked pastries, intimate gatherings with friends—these are what come to mind when you think of hygge. But hygge can be so much more.Ìý

In Holy Hygge, author Jamie Erickson unites the popular Danish practice with the deep, theological truths of the gospel. She unpacks the seven tenets of hygge: hospitality, relationships, well-being, atmosphere, comfort, contentment, and rest. In addition, Erickson shows how the external veneer of a lifestyle can create a life-giving home only when placed under the hope of the gospel. Holy Hygge provides practical ideas for using hygge to gather people and introduce them to faith in Christ. Each chapter concludes with discussion questions, Scripture references, and a prayer.]]>
224 Jamie Erickson 0802427979 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 currently-reading 4.10 2022 Holy Hygge: Creating a Place for People to Gather and the Gospel to Grow
author: Jamie Erickson
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Wildcat (Playing to Win, #2)]]> 194935826
I was supposed to be taking the summer off from dating. . . and flirting. . . and men in general. A cleanse. It sounded great in theory. But theory went out the window when my own personal kryptonite sat on the barstool next to mine.

Six feet, five inches of stacked muscle and chiseled features, he exuded a cocky confidence that was hard to miss and even harder to resist. This man was delectable. Like a decadent piece of chocolate cake, tempting me to indulge.

And that was before I knew how he tasted.

The rules were simple:
One night.
No names.
No strings.

Until my handsome stranger turned out to be the hot-as-sin star forward for the Philadelphia Revolution hockey team. A single dad with two adorable kids who tug at my heart strings, and a family almost as obnoxious as my own.

But Cross Wilder isn’t looking for a hookup.
And I’m not looking for a fairytale.
The question is. . . do I have a choice?]]>
260 Bella Matthews ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 4.22 2024 The Wildcat (Playing to Win, #2)
author: Bella Matthews
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/02
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Keeper (Playing to Win, #1)]]> 181530988 Easton Hayes has been my knight in shining hockey skates since he saved my life.

This devastatingly handsome grump may be everyone’s favorite goalie, but to me, he’s my strength when demons haunt my dreams. And okay—so maybe he’s also the only man I’ve ever loved. But he doesn’t need to know that.

We’re friends.

It works for us.

At least, it did. Until I wake up with his ring on my finger and the hangover from hell. But what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas when he refuses to give me an annulment and follows me across the country instead.

Now our families are furious.

Our friends are playing matchmaker.

I’m getting goosebumps each time I hear the words “my wife.�

And I think my husband might be in love with me.]]>
275 Bella Matthews ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.96 2023 The Keeper (Playing to Win, #1)
author: Bella Matthews
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/11
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction]]> 41252565 Habits form us more than we form them.

The modern world is a machine of a thousand invisible habits, forming us into anxious, busy, and depressed people. We yearn for the freedom and peace of the gospel, but remain addicted to our technology, shackled by our screens, and exhausted by our routines. But because our habits are the water we swim in, they are almost invisible to us. What can we do about it?

The answer to our contemporary chaos is to practice a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. The Common Rule offers four daily and four weekly habits, designed to help us create new routines and transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor. Justin Earley provides concrete, doable practices, such as a daily hour of phoneless presence or a weekly conversation with a friend.

These habits are “common� not only because they are ordinary, but also because they can be practiced in community. They have been lived out by people across all walks of life—businesspeople, professionals, parents, students, retirees—who have discovered new hope and purpose. As you embark on these life-giving practices, you will find the freedom and rest for your soul that comes from aligning belief in Jesus with the practices of Jesus.]]>
204 Justin Whitmel Earley 0830845607 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.31 2019 The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction
author: Justin Whitmel Earley
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[More Than This (The Davenports, #2)]]> 174610825
Newly engaged Ruby Tremaine is eagerly planning her wedding to the love of her life when a nasty rumor threatens her reputation and her marriage. Olivia Davenport has committed to the social justice cause and secretly hopes she’ll be reunited with dashing lawyer Washington DeWight—until her parents decide she’s to marry someone else. Amy-Rose Shepherd is making her lifelong wish of owning a salon come true, but when an incident forces her to return to Freeport Manor, she’s back in the path of John Davenport, who still holds her heart. Helen Davenport is determined to get over her own heartbreak and bring the Davenport Carriage Company into the new century, even if it means teaming up with a thrill-seeking racecar driver who just loves to get under her skin.

Inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family, More Than This is the second book in the critically adored Davenports series, following four empowered and passionate young Black women as they navigate a rapidly changing society and discover the courage to steer their own paths in life—and love.]]>
379 Krystal Marquis 0593463366 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.78 2024 More Than This (The Davenports, #2)
author: Krystal Marquis
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Body Check 201144140 New York Times bestselling author of the Briar U series Elle Kennedy’s first hockey romance, Body Check, is now released in an expanded version, with both new and enhanced scenes by the author! More story, more hockey—and more heat!

After a childhood spent being dragged around the country by her hockey coach father, Hayden Houston intends to take some time to figure out her future. Whether that future will include her currently off-again boyfriend remains to be seen. What it certainly won’t include is the for-one-night-only guy she just met at a bar.

It seems hockey star Brody Croft did not get the memo about being temporary. Big, bold and driven, he’s dedicated in everything he does. Up till now, that’s been his team—the one owned by Hayden’s dad. But his night with Hayden has sparked something he didn’t expect. The two of them are good together. Really good. There’s a connection he’s never experienced before, one he knows they’d be wrong to ignore. Even with a game-fixing scandal testing both their loyalties—to teammates, to friends…to family.

Part of Hayden wants to turn tail and run. A complicated relationship with a bad boy hockey player is exactly what she never wanted. But when it comes to Brody, Hayden is realizing that people can be so much more than what they seem.]]>
304 Elle Kennedy 1335425535 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.36 2009 Body Check
author: Elle Kennedy
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Allow Me to Introduce Myself 198385439 320 Onyi Nwabineli 1525896032 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.72 2024 Allow Me to Introduce Myself
author: Onyi Nwabineli
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Pride and Joy 176451853 Black Cake meets Death at a Funeral in this heartwarming and hilarious novel about three generations of a Nigerian Canadian family grappling with their matriarch’s sudden passing while their auntie insists that her sister is coming back.

Joy Okafor is overwhelmed. Recently divorced, a life coach whose phone won’t stop ringing, and ever the dutiful Nigerian daughter, Joy has planned every aspect of her mother’s seventieth birthday weekend on her own.

As the Okafors slowly begin to arrive, Mama Mary goes to take a nap. But when the grandkids go to wake her, they find that she isn’t sleeping after all. Refusing to believe that her sister is gone-gone, Auntie Nancy declares that she has had a premonition that Mama Mary will rise again like Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

Desperate to believe that they’re about to witness a miracle, the family overhauls their birthday plans to welcome the Nigerian Canadian community, effectively spreading the word that Mama Mary is coming back. But skeptical Joy is struggling with the loss of her mother and not allowing herself to mourn just yet while going through the motions of planning a funeral that her aunt refuses to allow.

Filled with humor and flawed, deeply relatable characters that leap off the page, Pride and Joy will draw you in as the Okafors prepare for a miracle while coming apart at the seams, praying that they haven’t actually lost Mama Mary for good, and grappling with what losing her truly means for each of them.]]>
336 Louisa Onomé 1668012812 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.59 2024 Pride and Joy
author: Louisa Onomé
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
I Hope This Finds You Well 200987323 In this wildly funny and heartwarming office comedy, an admin worker accidentally gains access to her colleagues� private emails and DMs and decides to use this intel to save her job—a laugh-till-you-cry debut novel you’ll be eager to share with your entire list of contacts, perfect for fans of Anxious People and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine.

As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don’t seem to understand the importance of boundaries. Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text colour to white so no one can see. That is, until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.

When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department’s private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss’s favour, convince HR she’s Supershops material and beat out the competition.

But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworker’s private worlds and secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Soon she will need to decide if she’s ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if it means coming clean to her colleagues.

Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes with it.]]>
338 Natalie Sue 0063320363 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.74 2024 I Hope This Finds You Well
author: Natalie Sue
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Swift River 199798557 A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK | A Most Anticipated Book from Today, Real Simple, Time, Los Angeles Times, and BookPage

“The book we all need to revive our souls� (Nicole Dennis-Benn): A sweeping family saga about the complicated bond between mothers and daughters, the disappearance of a father, and the long-hidden history of a declining New England mill town.

“A powerful novel about how our family history shapes us, Swift River broke my heart, and then offered me hope.� —Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful

It’s the summer of 1987 in Swift River, and Diamond Newberry is learning how to drive. Ever since her Pop disappeared seven years ago, she and her mother hitchhike everywhere. But that’s not the only reason Diamond stands out: She’s teased relentlessly about her weight, and the fact that since Pop’s been gone, she is the only Black person in all of Swift River. This summer, Ma is determined to declare Pop legally dead so they can collect his life insurance money, get their house back from the bank, and finally move on.

But when Diamond receives a letter from a relative she’s never met, key elements of Pop’s life are uncovered. She is introduced to two generations of African American Newberry women, spanning the 20th century and revealing a much larger picture of prejudice and abandonment, of love and devotion. As pieces of their shared past become clearer, Diamond gains a sense of her place in the world and in her family. But how will what she’s learned of the past change her future?]]>
304 Essie J. Chambers 1668027917 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.47 2024 Swift River
author: Essie J. Chambers
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Other Side of Disappearing]]> 139923147 From the acclaimed author of Georgie, All Along and Love Lettering, a pitch-perfect, radiantly transporting love story about an unexpected road trip, true crime obsessions, and hard won vulnerability�

Hairstylist Jess Greene has spent the last decade raising her younger half-sister, Tegan—and keeping a shocking secret. Ever since their reckless mother ran off with a boyfriend she’d known only a few months, Jess has been aware that he’s the same accomplished con man who was the subject of a wildly popular podcast, The Last Con of Lynton Baltimore.

Now thirty-one, Jess didn’t bargain on Tegan eventually piecing together the connection for herself. But Tegan plans to do exactly what Jess has always feared—leave their safe, stable home to search for their mother—and she’ll be accompanied by the prying podcast host and her watchful, handsome producer, Adam Hawkins. Unwilling to let the sister she’s spent so much of her life protecting go it alone, Jess reluctantly joins them.

Together, the four make their way across the country, unraveling the mystery of where the couple disappeared to and why. But soon Jess is discovering other things too. Like a renewed sense of vulnerability and curiosity, and a willingness to expand beyond the walls she’s so carefully built. And in Adam, she finds an unexpected connection she didn’t even know was missing, if only she can let go and let him in . . .]]>
373 Kate Clayborn 1496737318 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.67 2024 The Other Side of Disappearing
author: Kate Clayborn
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Pardon My Frenchie 199450933 The New York TimesÌý bestselling author ofÌý Almost ThereÌý delivers the start of a new rom-com series with an enemies-to-lovers romance, perfect for readers of Abby Jimenez and Jasmine Guillory.

Ashanti Wright is ecstatic over the success of her dog boarding business, Barkingham Palace. In fact, it has become so successful that Ashanti has plans to expand her empire with a doggie bake shop. There’s just one problem, the building she’s had her eye on has just been sold to the surly grandson of one of her favorite customers.Ìý

Thaddeus Sims is not a dog person. He’s barely a person’s person. But when his grandmother is transferred to a senior living facility that doesn’t accept pets, the former army officer agrees to care for her annoying Standard Poodle, Puddin�. After all, it was with his grandmother’s help that Thad was able to buy the building that will soon house The PX, a sports bar/all-around hangout space for former servicemen that he plans to open.

Puddin� and Ashanti’s French Bulldog, Duchess, have become a bit of a sensation on Barkingham Palace’s livestream because of their budding romance. When a video of the dogs sharing a doggy treat Lady and the Tramp-style goes viral, their owners are sucked into a media frenzy that captures the nation by storm...and creates some sparks for their owners too.]]>
384 Farrah Rochon 1538739143 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.67 2024 Pardon My Frenchie
author: Farrah Rochon
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A love like the sun 135065588 Emily HenryÌý

«Deslumbrante, tierna y romántica. Me ha encantado este Friends to lovers».ÌýCarley FortuneÌý

Amigos desde siempre. Pareja por un verano.Ìý

Laniah tiene un pequeño negocio de cosmética natural en su ciudad natal. Isaac es la cara de una marca internacional. Ella valora muchísimo su privacidad; él es famoso en redes y los paparazzis le persiguen constantemente. Ambos son mejores amigos desde pequeños.Ìý

Cuando Isaac vuelve a Providence después de unos meses, descubre que Wildly Green está a punto de cerrar y Laniah se niega a aceptar su dinero. Por eso, Isaac se ve obligado a hacer lo que cualquier mejor amigo que se precie harí decirle al mundo que están saliendo.Ìý

De pronto, el negocio está floreciendo, y a Laniah no le queda otra que aceptar el ridículo plan de fingir que son pareja durante el verano, el tiempo suficiente para conseguir reflotar su sueño.Ìý

Pero pronto descubrirán que están jugando con fuego. Hay entre ellos una atracción a la que no han sucumbido antes, pero los límites de la amistad comienzan a desdibujarse y, conforme pasan los meses, esta podría no ser suficiente…Ìý]]>
368 Riss M. Neilson 0593640497 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.84 A love like the sun
author: Riss M. Neilson
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
This Summer Will Be Different 197577126 This summer they’ll keep their promise. This summer they won’t give into temptation. This summer will be different.

Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn’t know he’s her best friend’s younger brother. Lucy and Felix’s chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.

It’s easier said than done.

Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won’t wind up in Felix’s bed. Again.

If Lucy can’t help being drawn to Felix, at least she’s always kept her heart out of it.

When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she’s never been able to. But Felix’s sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new, and Lucy’s beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.]]>
368 Carley Fortune 0593638883 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 5 3.94 2024 This Summer Will Be Different
author: Carley Fortune
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/29
date added: 2024/05/29
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Husbands 193781998 An exuberant debut, The Husbands delights in how do we navigate life, love, and choice in a world of never-ending options?

When Lauren returns home to her flat in London late one night, she is greeted at the door by her husband, Michael. There’s only one problem—she’s not married. She’s never seen this man before in her life. But according to her friends, her much-improved decor, and the photos on her phone, they’ve been together for years.

As Lauren tries to puzzle out how she could be married to someone she can’t remember meeting, Michael goes to the attic to change a lightbulb and abruptly disappears. In his place, a new man emerges, and a new, slightly altered life re-forms around her. Realizing that her attic is creating an infinite supply of husbands, Lauren confronts the question: If swapping lives is as easy as changing a lightbulb, how do you know you’ve taken the right path? When do you stop trying to do better and start actuallyÌýliving?]]>
352 Holly Gramazio 0385550618 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.50 2024 The Husbands
author: Holly Gramazio
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Real Americans 62929342 Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.

In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than answers.

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made, and if so, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family, and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures? ]]>
399 Rachel Khong 0593537254 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.93 2024 Real Americans
author: Rachel Khong
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Waves Take You Home 142910824 In this heartfelt story about how the places we run from hold the answers to our deepest challenges, the death of her grandmother brings a young woman home, where she must face the past in order to become the heir of not just the family restaurant, but her own destiny.

Violeta Sanoguera had always done what she was told. She left the man she loved in Colombia in pursuit of a better life for herself and because her mother and grandmother didn’t approve of him. Chasing dreams of education and art in New York City, and with a new love, twenty-eight-year-old Violeta establishes a new life for herself, on her terms. But when her grandmother suddenly dies, everything changes.

After years of being on her own in NYC, Violeta finds herself on a plane back to Colombia, accompanied at all times by the ghost of her grandmother who is sending her messages and signs, to find she is the heir of the failing family restaurant, the very one Abuela told her to run from in the first place. The journey leads her to rediscover her home, her grandmother, and even the flame of an old love.]]>
331 María Alejandra Barrios Vélez 1662513941 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.79 2024 The Waves Take You Home
author: María Alejandra Barrios Vélez
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
By the Book (Meant to Be, #2) 58950845 A tale as old as time—for a new generation�

Isabelle is completely lost. When she first began her career in publishing right out of college, she did not expect to be twenty-five, living at home, still an editorial assistant, and the only Black employee at her publishing house. Overworked and underpaid, constantly torn between speaking up or stifling herself, Izzy thinks there must be more to this publishing life. So when she overhears her boss complaining about a beastly high-profile author who has failed to deliver his long-awaited manuscript, Isabelle sees an opportunity to finally get the promotion she deserves.

All she has to do is go to the author’s Santa Barbara mansion and give him a quick pep talk or three. How hard could it be?

But Izzy quickly finds out she is in over her head. Beau Towers is not some celebrity lightweight writing a tell-all memoir. He is jaded and withdrawn and—it turns out—just as lost as Izzy. But despite his standoffishness, Izzy needs Beau to deliver, and with her encouragement, his story begins to spill onto the page. They soon discover they have more in common than either of them expected, and as their deadline nears, Izzy and Beau begin to realize there may be something there that wasn't there before.

Best-selling author Jasmine Guillory’s reimagining of a beloved fairy tale is a romantic triumph of love and acceptance and learning that sometimes to truly know a person you have to read between the lines. ]]>
320 Jasmine Guillory 1368053386 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.68 2022 By the Book (Meant to Be, #2)
author: Jasmine Guillory
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves:
review:

]]>
Homegoing 27071490 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

A novel of breathtaking sweep and emotional power that traces three hundred years in Ghana and along the way also becomes a truly great American novel. Extraordinary for its exquisite language, its implacable sorrow, its soaring beauty, and for its monumental portrait of the forces that shape families and nations, Homegoing heralds the arrival of a major new voice in contemporary fiction.

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle's dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast's booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia's descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

Generation after generation, Yaa Gyasi's magisterial first novel sets the fate of the individual against the obliterating movements of time, delivering unforgettable characters whose lives were shaped by historical forces beyond their control. Homegoing is a tremendous reading experience, not to be missed, by an astonishingly gifted young writer.]]>
305 Yaa Gyasi ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.48 2016 Homegoing
author: Yaa Gyasi
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Unbought And Unbossed 1266444 Unbought and Unbossed is Shirley Chisholm's account of her remarkable rise from young girl in Brooklyn to America's first African-American Congresswoman. She shares how she took on an entrenched system, gave a public voice to millions, and sets the stage for her trailblazing bid to be the first woman and first African-American President of the United States. By daring to be herself, Shirley Chisholm shows us how she forever changed the status quo. This expanded edition, edited by Scott Simpson, digs deeper with analysis by experts like Donna Brazile and Shola Lynch exploring Shirley Chisholm's impact on today and tomorrows world.]]> 177 Shirley Chisholm 0395109329 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.44 1970 Unbought And Unbossed
author: Shirley Chisholm
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me into the Life of My Dreams]]> 51184296 Insecure’s Yvonne Orji uses a modern-day Biblical blueprint to candidly and humorously share the twists and turns that led her to success—and to inspire and empower readers to live their best lives.

Yvonne Orji has never shied away from being unapologetically herself, and that includes being outspoken about her faith. Known for interpreting Biblical stories and metaphors to fit current times, her humorous and accessible approach to faith leaves even non-believers inspired and wanting more.

The way Yvonne sees it, God was the Sovereign Prankster long before Ashton Kutcher, running around getting folks punk’d—but in the best way possible. When she meditates on her own life—full of unanticipated roadblocks and unforeseen blessings—she realizes it’s one big testimony to how God tricked her into living out her wildest dreams.

In BAMBOOZLED BY JESUS, a frank and fresh advice book, Orji takes readers on a journey through twenty life lessons, gleaned from her own experiences and her favorite source of inspiration: the Bible. She infuses wit and heart along with practical pointers—such as why being talented is not as sexy as being available, and how fear is similar to food poisoning—with the goal of helping others live the most fulfilling, audacious life possible.

With bold authenticity and practical relatability, Orji will inspire everyone to catapult themselves out of the mundane and into the magnificent. BAMBOOZLED BY JESUS paints a powerful picture of what it means to say “yes� to your most rewarding life—no matter your beliefs.]]>
320 Yvonne Orji 1250247039 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.46 2021 Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me into the Life of My Dreams
author: Yvonne Orji
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Truths and Roses 17336882 296 Inglath Cooper ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.19 1994 Truths and Roses
author: Inglath Cooper
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[That Weekend in Paris (Take Me There, #3)]]> 48911290 348 Inglath Cooper ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 4 4.09 That Weekend in Paris (Take Me There, #3)
author: Inglath Cooper
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/17
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity]]> 29939161
"I raced through Radical Candor --It’s thrilling to learn a framework that shows how to be both a better boss and a better colleague. Radical Candor is packed with illuminating truths, insightful advice, and practical suggestions, all illustrated with engaging (and often funny) stories from Kim Scott’s own experiences at places like Apple, Google, and various start-ups. Indispensable." � Gretchen Rubin author of New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project

"Reading Radical Candor will help you build, lead, and inspire teams to do the best work of their lives. Kim Scott's insights--based on her experience, keen observational intelligence and analysis--will help you be a better leader and create a more effective organization." � Sheryl Sandberg author of the New York Times bestseller Lean In

"Kim Scott has a well-earned reputation as a kick-ass boss and a voice that CEOs take seriously. In this remarkable book, she draws on her extensive experience to provide clear and honest guidance on the fundamentals of leading others: how to give (and receive) feedback, how to make smart decisions, how to keep moving forward, and much more. If you manage people--whether it be 1 person or a 1,000--you need Radical Candor . Now." � Daniel Pink author of New York Times bestseller Drive

From the time we learn to speak, we’re told that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. When you become a manager, it’s your job to say it--and your obligation.

Author Kim Scott was an executive at Google and then at Apple, where she worked with a team to develop a class on how to be a good boss. She has earned growing fame in recent years with her vital new approach to effective management, Radical Candor.

Radical Candor is a simple idea: to be a good boss, you have to Care Personally at the same time that you Challenge Directly. When you challenge without caring it’s obnoxious aggression; when you care without challenging it’s ruinous empathy. When you do neither it’s manipulative insincerity.

This simple framework can help you build better relationships at work, and fulfill your three key responsibilities as a leader: creating a culture of feedback (praise and criticism), building a cohesive team, and achieving results you’re all proud of.

Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Taken from years of the author’s experience, and distilled clearly giving actionable lessons to the reader; it shows managers how to be successful while retaining their humanity, finding meaning in their job, and creating an environment where people both love their work and their colleagues.]]>
336 Kim Malone Scott 1250103509 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.05 2017 Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
author: Kim Malone Scott
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt]]> 19500064
Hatshepsut, the daughter of a general who took Egypt's throne without status as a king’s son and a mother with ties to the previous dynasty, was born into a privileged position of the royal household. Married to her brother, she was expected to bear the sons who would legitimize the reign of her father’s family. Her failure to produce a male heir was ultimately the twist of fate that paved the way for her inconceivable rule as a cross-dressing king. At just twenty, Hatshepsut ascended to the rank of king in an elaborate coronation ceremony that set the tone for her spectacular twenty-two year reign as co-regent with Thutmose III, the infant king whose mother Hatshepsut out-maneuvered for a seat on the throne. Hatshepsut was a master strategist, cloaking her political power plays with the veil of piety and sexual expression. Just as women today face obstacles from a society that equates authority with masculinity, Hatshepsut had to shrewdly operate the levers of a patriarchal system to emerge as Egypt's second female pharaoh.

Hatshepsut had successfully negotiated a path from the royal nursery to the very pinnacle of authority, and her reign saw one of Ancient Egypt’s most prolific building periods. Scholars have long speculated as to why her images were destroyed within a few decades of her death, all but erasing evidence of her rule. Constructing a rich narrative history using the artifacts that remain, noted Egyptologist Kara Cooney offers a remarkable interpretation of how Hatshepsut rapidly but methodically consolidated power—and why she fell from public favor just as quickly. The Woman Who Would Be King traces the unconventional life of an almost-forgotten pharaoh and explores our complicated reactions to women in power.]]>
298 Kara Cooney 0307956768 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.63 2014 The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt
author: Kara Cooney
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts]]> 55711552 Part graphic novel, part memoir, Wake is an imaginative tour-de-force that tells the story of women-led slave revolts and chronicles scholar Rebecca Hall’s efforts to uncover the truth about these women warriors who, until now, have been left out of the historical record.

Women warriors planned and led slave revolts on slave ships during the Middle Passage. They fought their enslavers throughout the Americas. And then they were erased from history.

Wake tells the story of Dr. Rebecca Hall, a historian, granddaughter of slaves, and a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery. The accepted history of slave revolts has always told her that enslaved women took a back seat. But Rebecca decides to look deeper, and her journey takes her through old court records, slave ship captain’s logs, crumbling correspondence, and even the forensic evidence from the bones of enslaved women from the “negro burying ground� uncovered in Manhattan. She finds women warriors everywhere.

Using in-depth archival research and a measured use of historical imagination, Rebecca constructs the likely pasts of Adono and Alele, women rebels who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York. We also follow Rebecca’s own story as the legacy of slavery shapes life, both during her time as a successful attorney and later as a historian seeking the past that haunts her.

Illustrated beautifully in black and white, Wake will take its place alongside classics of the graphic novel genre, like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis and Art Spiegelman’s Maus. The story of both a personal and national legacy, it is a powerful reminder that while the past is gone, we still live in its wake.]]>
208 Rebecca Hall 1982115181 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.27 2021 Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts
author: Rebecca Hall
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake]]> 56108283
In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose gave this sack filled with a few precious items to her daughter, Ashley, as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley’s survival as well. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language—including Rose’s wish that “It be filled with my Love always.� Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving new book inspired by Rose’s gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women’s faint presence in archival records and draws on objects and art, to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—in a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States.

All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so.]]>
385 Tiya Miles 1984854992 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.94 2021 All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake
author: Tiya Miles
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Black Women's History of the United States (ReVisioning History)]]> 45153160 A vibrant and empowering history that emphasizes the perspectives and stories of African American women to show how they are--and have always been--instrumental in shaping our country

In centering Black women's stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women's unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today.

A Black Women's History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women's lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women's history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation.]]>
273 Daina Ramey Berry 0807033553 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.29 2020 A Black Women's History of the United States (ReVisioning History)
author: Daina Ramey Berry
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism]]> 139400705
This is my offering. My love letter to them, and to us.

Jenn M. Jackson, PhD, has been known to bring historical acuity to some of the most controversial topics in America today. Now, in their first book, Jackson applies their critical analysis to the questions that have long energized their Why has Black women’s freedom fighting been so overlooked throughout history, and what has our society lost because of our refusal to engage with our forestrugglers� lessons?

A love letter to those who have been minimized and forgotten, this collection repositions Black women’s intellectual and political work at the center of today’s liberation movements.

Across eleven original essays that explore the legacy of Black women writers and leaders—from Harriet Jacobs and Ida B. Wells to the Combahee River Collective and Audre Lorde—Jackson sets the record straight about Black women’s longtime movement organizing, theorizing, and coalition building in the name of racial, gender, and sexual justice in the United States and abroad. These essays show, in both critical and deeply personal terms, how Black women have been at the center of modern liberation movements despite the erasure and misrecognition of their efforts. Jackson illustrates how Black women have frequently done the work of liberation at great risk to their lives and livelihoods.

For a new generation of movement organizers and co-strugglers, Black Women Taught Us serves as a reminder that Black women were the first ones to teach us how to fight racism, how to name that fight, and how to imagine a more just world for everyone.]]>
368 Jenn M. Jackson 0593243331 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.41 Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism
author: Jenn M. Jackson
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America]]> 59951373 368 Dahlia Lithwick 0525561390 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.39 2022 Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
author: Dahlia Lithwick
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
All the Single Ladies 25814394
The New York Times bestselling investigation into the sexual, economic, and emotional lives of women is “an informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just the single ladies—who want to gain a greater understanding of this pivotal moment in the history of the United States� (The New York Times Book Review).

In 2009, award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister started All the Single Ladies about the twenty-first century phenomenon of the American single woman. It was the year the proportion of American women who were married dropped below fifty percent; and the median age of first marriages, which had remained between twenty and twenty-two years old for nearly a century (1890�1980), had risen dramatically to twenty-seven.

But over the course of her vast research and more than a hundred interviews with academics and social scientists and prominent single women, Traister discovered a startling truth: the phenomenon of the single woman in America is not a new one. And historically, when women were given options beyond early heterosexual marriage, the results were massive social change—temperance, abolition, secondary education, and more. Today, only twenty percent of Americans are married by age twenty-nine, compared to nearly sixty percent in 1960.

“An informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just single ladies� (The New York Times Book Review), All the Single Ladies is a remarkable portrait of contemporary American life and how we got here, through the lens of the unmarried American woman. Covering class, race, sexual orientation, and filled with vivid anecdotes from fascinating contemporary and historical figures, “we’re better off reading Rebecca Traister on women, politics, and America than pretty much anyone else� (The Boston Globe).]]>
339 Rebecca Traister 1476716560 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.99 2016 All the Single Ladies
author: Rebecca Traister
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Women & Power: A Manifesto 36525023 Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial. As far back as Homer’s Odyssey, Beard shows, women have been prohibited from leadership roles in civic life, public speech being defined as inherently male. From Medusa to Philomela (whose tongue was cut out), from Hillary Clinton to Elizabeth Warren (who was told to sit down), Beard draws illuminating parallels between our cultural assumptions about women’s relationship to power—and how powerful women provide a necessary example for all women who must resist being vacuumed into a male template. With personal reflections on her own online experiences with sexism, Beard asks: If women aren’t perceived to be within the structure of power, isn’t it power itself we need to redefine? And how many more centuries should we be expected to wait?]]> 115 Mary Beard 1631494759 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.02 2017 Women & Power: A Manifesto
author: Mary Beard
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The American Adventuress 58803123 352 C.W. Gortner 0063035804 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.93 2022 The American Adventuress
author: C.W. Gortner
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Summer on Sag Harbor 50496906
Against the odds, Olivia Jones has blazed her own enviable career path and built her name in the finance world. But hidden behind the veneer of her success, there is a gaping hole. Mourning both the loss and the betrayal of Omar, a surrogate father to her and her two godsisters, Olivia is driven to find out more about her biological father, a police officer who was killed when she was a little girl, and to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother.

Feeling untethered from her life in New York City, Olivia buys and redecorates a home in Sag Harbor and begins forging a new community out in SANS. Friendships blossom with Addy, a wealthy part-time sommelier; Kara, an ambitious art curator; and Whitney, the wife of an ex-basketball player and current president of the Sag Harbor Homeowners Association. She also takes to a kind, older gentleman named Mr. Whittingham, but soon discovers he too is not without his own troubles.

As the summer stretches on, each relationship teaches her more about who she really is. Though not without cost, Olivia’s search for her authentic identity in the secret history of her family of origin will lead her to redefine the meaning of joy, love, friendship, society, culture, and family—and restore her faith in herself, her relationships, her blackness, and her chosen path.]]>
416 Sunny Hostin 0062994212 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 4 3.73 2023 Summer on Sag Harbor
author: Sunny Hostin
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/01
date added: 2024/03/01
shelves:
review:

]]>
Let Us Descend 87556695
“‘Let us descend,� the poet now began, ‘and enter this blind world.’� � Inferno, Dante Alighieri

Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.

Annis, sold south by the white enslaver who fathered her, is the reader’s guide through this hellscape. As she struggles through the miles-long march, Annis turns inward, seeking comfort from memories of her mother and stories of her African warrior grandmother. Throughout, she opens herself to a world beyond this world, one teeming with of earth and water, of myth and history; spirits who nurture and give, and those who manipulate and take. While Ward leads readers through the descent, this, her fourth novel, is ultimately a story of rebirth and reclamation.

From one of the most singularly brilliant and beloved writers of her generation, this miracle of a novel inscribes Black American grief and joy into the very land—the rich but unforgiving forests, swamps, and rivers of the American South. Let Us Descend is Jesmyn Ward’s most magnificent novel yet, a masterwork for the ages.]]>
305 Jesmyn Ward 198210449X ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.68 2023 Let Us Descend
author: Jesmyn Ward
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Collide (Off the Ice, #1) 205467348 She’s an honors student with ambitious graduate school plans and he’s a jock with only hockey on his mind, but once their worlds collide, their connection is hot enough to melt an ice rink.

An ultimatum from Summer Preston’s thesis advisor thrusts her into an unexpected collision with the hockey team’s captain, Aiden Crawford. She’s caught between conflicting desires of fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming a sport psychologist and staying as far away as possible from the god-awful sport. And once she meets Aiden—well, let’s just say he confirms all her worst assumptions about hockey players.Ìý

Being the captain of the college hockey team has its perks, except when a reckless mistake by Aiden’s team threatens to jeopardize their entire season. As punishment, Aiden’s coach nominates him as the subject of a student research project. Participating is the last thing he wants to do, especially since the girl leading the project looks like she could wield his skates as a weapon.

Summer can’t stand Aiden’s blasé approach to life, and Aiden doesn’t understand why she’s twenty years old with a twenty-five-year plan. But their bickering soon turns to bantering—and once they let their guards down, there’s nothing to check their feelings.]]>
415 Bal Khabra 059381827X ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 5 3.91 2023 Collide (Off the Ice, #1)
author: Bal Khabra
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/26
date added: 2024/02/26
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Gilded Years 27276316 Passing meets The House of Mirth in this “utterly captivating� (Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of The Kitchen House) historical novel based on the true story of Anita Hemmings, the first black student to attend Vassar, who successfully passed as white—until she let herself grow too attached to the wrong person.

Since childhood, Anita Hemmings has longed to attend the country’s most exclusive school for women, Vassar College. Now, a bright, beautiful senior in the class of 1897, she is hiding a secret that would have banned her from admission: Anita is the only African-American student ever to attend Vassar. With her olive complexion and dark hair, this daughter of a janitor and descendant of slaves has successfully passed as white, but now finds herself rooming with Louise “Lottie� Taylor, the scion of one of New York’s most prominent families.

Though Anita has kept herself at a distance from her classmates, Lottie’s sphere of influence is inescapable, her energy irresistible, and the two become fast friends. Pulled into her elite world, Anita learns what it’s like to be treated as a wealthy, educated white woman—the person everyone believes her to be—and even finds herself in a heady romance with a moneyed Harvard student. It’s only when Lottie becomes infatuated with Anita’s brother, Frederick, whose skin is almost as light as his sister’s, that the situation becomes particularly perilous. And as Anita’s college graduation looms, those closest to her will be the ones to dangerously threaten her secret.

Set against the vibrant backdrop of the Gilded Age, an era when old money traditions collided with modern ideas, Tanabe has written an unputdownable and emotionally compelling story of hope, sacrifice, and betrayal—and a gripping account of how one woman dared to risk everything for the chance at a better life.]]>
379 Karin Tanabe 1501110454 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.82 2016 The Gilded Years
author: Karin Tanabe
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
All We Were Promised 182484361 A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia.

The rebel . . . the socialite . . . and the fugitive. Together, they will risk everything for one another in this “beguiling story of friendship, deception, and women crossing boundaries in the name of freedom� (Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Lost Friends).

Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she’d expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she’s locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.

Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she’s desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.]]>
368 Ashton Lattimore 0593600150 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 3.79 2024 All We Were Promised
author: Ashton Lattimore
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Cheat Sheet (The Cheat Sheet, #1)]]> 58100280 Is it ever too late to leave the friend-zone?

Hi, my name is Bree Camden, and I’m hopelessly in love with my best friend and star quarterback Nathan Donelson (so is half of America, judging by the tabloids and how much the guy dates). The first step is admitting, right? Except, I can never admit it to him because he clearly doesn’t see me that way, and the last thing I want is for things to get weird between us.

Nothing but good old-fashioned, no-touching-the-sexiest-man-alive, platonic friendship for us! Everything is exactly how I like it! Yes. Good. (I’m not crying, I’m just peeling an onion.)

Our friendship is going swimmingly until I accidentally spill my beans to a reporter over too much tequila, and now the world seems to think me and Nathan belong together. Oh, and did I mention we have to date publicly for three weeks until after the Super Bowl because we signed a contract with...oops, forgot I can’t tell anyone about that!

Bottom line is, now my best friend is smudging all the lines and acting very un-platonic, and I’m just trying to keep my body from bursting into flames every time he touches me.

How am I going to make it through three weeks of fake dating Nathan without anything changing between us? Especially when it almost-sort-a-kinda seems like he’s fighting for a completely different outcome?

Send help.
XO Bree]]>
306 Sarah Adams ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 3.70 2021 The Cheat Sheet (The Cheat Sheet, #1)
author: Sarah Adams
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me 29367958
But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she's beyond shocked.

For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn't find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He's asking for the unthinkable.

What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?]]>
475 Mariana Zapata ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 4.18 2016 The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
author: Mariana Zapata
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]>
Mockingbird Summer 175531639
This is the last summer of thirteen-year-old Corky Corcoran's childhood, and her family hires a Haitian housekeeper who brings her daughter, America, along with her. Corky is quick to befriend America and eager to share her favorite new "grown-up" novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. America's take on it is different and profoundly personal. As their friendship grows, Corky finds out so much more about America's life and her hidden skill: she can run as fast as Olympian Wilma Rudolph!

When Corky asks America to play with her girls' softball team for the annual church rivals game, it's a move that crosses the color line and sets off a firestorm. As tensions escalate, it fast becomes a season of big changes in High Cotton. For Corky, those changes will last a lifetime.]]>
303 Lynda Rutledge 1662504527 ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã© 0 to-read 4.23 2024 Mockingbird Summer
author: Lynda Rutledge
name: ´³²¹¾±³¾³¾Ã©
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>