en-US Thu, 08 May 2025 12:56:05 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 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 Lereesa 0 currently-reading 4.47 2024
author: Marjan Kamali
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/08
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]]> 220235413 From the author of The Other Boleyn Girl, legendary historical novelist Philippa Gregory returns to the court of Henry VIII with this dazzling and provocative tour de force about the high cost of loyalty, love, and betrayal.

Sister. Liar. Spy. Traitor.

Her secrets shaped a kingdom.

Her loyalty was deadly.

Jane Boleyn watches from the shadows of the Tudor court, where nothing is more powerful than a secret. And power rests on the edge of a tyrant King’s sword.

She wears many masks � loving wife, devoted sister, and obedient spy. It’s what a woman must do to survive.

The only weapon she has is her voice.

They say Jane’s whispers sealed the fate of two queens. They called her a liar and a traitor.

But the truth is far more dangerous�

Philippa Gregory brings the Boleyn traitor out of the shadows in an explosive story of one woman’s survival in the deadly dance of the Tudor Court.]]> 640 Philippa Gregory 0063439689 Lereesa 0 to-read 5.00
author: Philippa Gregory
name: Lereesa
average rating: 5.00
book published:
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date added: 2025/05/03
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]]> 7824322
Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously—and at great risk—documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.]]> 344 Ruta Sepetys 0399254129 Lereesa 5 4.36 2011
author: Ruta Sepetys
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/01
date added: 2025/05/01
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]]> 228796180 Shocking and darkly funny, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to the decisions that are shaping our world and the people who make them. Welcome to Facebook.

Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook's potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there and rose to its top ranks, things turned out a little different.

From wild schemes cooked up on private jets to risking prison abroad, Careless People exposes both the personal and political fallout when boundless power and a rotten culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative, Wynn-Williams rubs shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and world leaders, revealing what really goes on among the global elite - and the consequences this has for all of us.

Candid and entertaining, this is an intimate memoir set amid powerful forces. As all our lives are upended by technology and those who control it, Careless People will change how you see the world.]]> Sarah Wynn-Williams 1761771442 Lereesa 0 to-read 4.46 2025
author: Sarah Wynn-Williams
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> 216522711 They didn't know they would change each other.

Following the unlikely friendship of four of the first ever women to matriculate at Oxford University in the aftermath of the First World War, a captivating debut novel about sisterhood, self-determination and the many forms courage can take.

Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world's most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne and Otto (collectively known as The Eights) have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.

Dora was never meant to go to university, but, after losing both her brother and her fiancé on the battlefield, has arrived in their place. Politically-minded Beatrice, daughter of a famous suffragette, sees Oxford as a chance to make her own way - and some friends her own age. Otto was a nurse during the war but is excited to return to her socialite lifestyle in Oxford - where she hopes to find distraction from the memories that haunt her. And finally Marianne, the quiet, clever daughter of a village pastor, who has a shocking secret she must hide from everyone, even her new friends, if she is to succeed.

But Oxford's dreaming spires cast a dark shadow: in 1920, misogyny is still rife, influenza is still a threat, and the ghosts of the Great War are still very real indeed. And as the group navigate this tumultuous moment in time, their friendship will become more important than ever.]]> 384 Joanna Miller 0593851412 Lereesa 0 to-read 3.80 2025
author: Joanna Miller
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> 216247526 'It's time we name our kingdom!' he shouted over the wind. 'I say we call this place Happy Land. If this ain't the land of happy people, then where is it? Why not create our heaven right here on earth?'

In the hills of Appalachia, there once existed a land ruled by a king and queen. Inspired by memories of African kingdoms, a community of formerly enslaved men and women grasped freedom on mountain land they owned. But freedom doesn't always last forever . . .

Today, after years of silence, Nikki has been summoned to North Carolina by her estranged grandmother. But instead of revealing answers about their recent past, Mother Rita tells Nikki a shocking story about her great-great-great grandmother, Queen Luella, and the very land they stand on. Land Mother Rita insists must be protected at all costs.

As Nikki learns about the Kingdom of the Happy Land, she comes to realise how much of her identity is rooted in this family land, and how much they stand to lose if it, like so much else, is taken from them. It's time to reclaim what's theirs.]]> 368 Dolen Perkins-Valdez 0593337727 Lereesa 0 to-read 4.32 2025
author: Dolen Perkins-Valdez
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/26
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]]> 214331246 When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

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

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

When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Lereesa 5 4.60 2025
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/06
date added: 2025/04/09
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]]> 49694080
At twelve years old, Azere promised her dying father she would marry a Nigerian man and preserve her culture even after emigrating to Canada. Her mother has been vigilant about helping--forcing--her to stay well within the Nigerian dating pool ever since. But when another match-made-by-mom goes wrong, Azere ends up at a bar, enjoying the company and later sharing the bed of Rafael Castellano, a man who is tall, handsome, and white.

When their one-night stand unexpectedly evolves into something serious, Azere is caught between her growing feelings for Rafael and the compulsive need to please her mother who will never accept a relationship that threatens to dilute Azere's Nigerian heritage.

Azere can't help wondering if loving Rafael makes her any less of a Nigerian. Can she be with him without compromising her identity? The answer will either cause Azere to be audacious and fight for her happiness or continue as the compliant daughter.]]> 306 Jane Igharo 0593101944 Lereesa 2 3.77 2020
author: Jane Igharo
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
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]]> 43124133
Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn't want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.

When a surprise engagement is announced between Khalid and Hafsa, Ayesha is torn between how she feels about the straightforward Khalid and the unsettling new gossip she hears about his family. Looking into the rumors, she finds she has to deal with not only what she discovers about Khalid, but also the truth she realizes about herself.]]> 368 Uzma Jalaluddin Lereesa 4 3.84 2018
author: Uzma Jalaluddin
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/13
date added: 2025/03/13
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]]> 219521090 A publishing event ten years in the making�a searing, exquisite new novel by the best-selling and award-winning author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists�the story of four women and their loves, longings, and desires.

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until � betrayed and brokenhearted � she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America � but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.

In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a sparkling, transcendent novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved? A trenchant reflection on the choices we make and those made for us, on daughters and mothers, on our interconnected world, Dream Count pulses with emotional urgency and poignant, unflinching observations on the human heart, in language that soars with beauty and power. It confirms Adichie’s status as one of the most exciting and dynamic writers on the literary landscape.]]> 416 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 059380273X Lereesa 4 3.91 2025
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> 36839879 One moment will change their lives forever�

Competitive skier Mindy Wright is a superstar in the making until a spectacular downhill crash threatens not just her racing career but her life. During surgery, doctors discover she’s suffering from a severe form of leukemia, and a stem cell transplant is her only hope. But when her parents are tested, a frightening truth emerges. Mindy is not their daughter.

Who knows the answers?

The race to save Mindy’s life means unraveling years of lies. Was she accidentally switched at birth or is there something more sinister at play? The search for the truth will tear a family apart� and someone is going to deadly extremes to protect the family’s deepest secrets.

With vivid movement through time, Tear Me Apart examines the impact layer after layer of lies and betrayal has on two families, the secrets they guard, and the desperate fight to hide the darkness within.]]> 489 J.T. Ellison 0778330001 Lereesa 4 4.11 2018
author: J.T. Ellison
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
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]]> 56646479
Conceiving a baby is easier said than done, though, and Jake and Marisa’s perfect relationship is put to the test through months of fertility treatments and false starts. To make matters worse, Kate’s boundary-pushing turns into an all-out obsession--with Jake, with Marisa, and with their future child. Who is this woman? Why does she seem to know everything about Marisa and Jake?

In her quest to find out who Kate really is, Marisa might destroy everything she’s worked so hard to create: her perfect romance, her perfect family, and her perfect self. Jake doesn’t know the half of what Marisa has created and what she stands to lose. Magpie is a tense and twisting novel about mothers and children, envy and possession, and the dangers of getting everything you’ve ever dreamed of.]]> 326 Elizabeth Day 0008374945 Lereesa 4 3.69 2022
author: Elizabeth Day
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/24
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]]> 63323741 Auschwitz, 1944: “You can’t leave me,� I whisper, my hand trembling as I reach for her cheek. “You can’t. We’re in this life together, always, just you and me.� This utterly heartbreaking yet beautifully hopeful World War Two page-turner tells the story of identical twin sisters in Auschwitz. Born minutes apart, Arina and Nora have never left each other’s side—until now�

The cattle car is dark, except for the light filtering through the boarded windows. There are too many of us to count, crushed up against each other. The air is stuffy, carrying the scent of our terror—none of us know what awaits us when this train stops. I cling onto Mama’s hand and Nora, my twin sister, clutches Papa’s.

After what feels like forever, the train stops. We spill out of the carriage, the sun blinding us after being imprisoned in darkness for so long. There are people everywhere, soldiers separating children from their parents, husbands from wives.

We’re in some sort of queue, and a man in a dark-green SS uniform walks by, glancing at everyone he passes. “Twins, twins,� he shouts. My heart falls into the pit of my stomach.

“Right here,� says Mama, hesitation in her voice. “My daughters are twins.� My eyes widen, and Nora trembles. Papa tries to tell Mama to be quiet, but it’s too late.

The Nazi catches sight of us. “Twins,� he says again, pausing to inspect Nora and me. “Yes, you are, aren’t you? You two are going to come along with me.�

This unforgettable World War Two page-turner, perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Lucky Ones and The Midwife of Auschwitz, shows that, in the darkest of times, love can save your life�]]> 322 Shari J. Ryan 1837901066 Lereesa 4 4.35 2023
author: Shari J. Ryan
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
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]]> 60277038 Auschwitz, 1941: It was her father’s job to save the lives of the SS. But she chose to risk everything and save the lives of prisoners.

In Nazi-occupied Poland, Sofia cannot look her father in the eye. Sofia’s mother, her papa’s cherished wife, is Jewish—how dare he work as a doctor for the SS? She cannot forgive him, even if the bargain was made to spare their lives.

In the middle of the night, Isaac emerges from a packed train with hundreds of others. Beneath Auschwitz’s barbed wire, soldiers surround them, and gunshots pierce the dark sky. The SS decide prisoners� fates on the spot—and Isaac is chosen to work, rather than to die.

Every day, Isaac and his fellow inmates are sent to a nearby farm. From sunup to sundown, they toil the land with barely a scrap to eat. Every breath feels like it could be Isaac’s last, so when he sees a beautiful auburn-haired girl peering out of the farmhouse window, it feels like a dream�

Sofia refuses to accept what she is seeing. Disobeying her father and evading the guards, she risks her life to sneak a letter to the green-eyed boy outside. She explains that she has hidden them food, and that she’ll do everything in her power to save them.

This secret exchange sparks an escape that should have been impossible—and a love story that is unforgettable. But is love enough in the face of evil? And when Sofia and Isaac are concealed underground, holding their breath as the Nazis hunt them, will they survive?

Fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Choice, and Orphan Train. will be utterly gripped by this heartbreaking and unputdownable tale. This tear-jerking page-turner shows that even if your freedom has been robbed, and your loved ones torn from you, nobody can steal your hope�]]> 285 Shari J. Ryan 180314372X Lereesa 5 4.34 2022
author: Shari J. Ryan
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
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]]> 200776812 The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story.

There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.

Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Center convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation’s imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can’t resist writing back.

Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought?

Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer," Asako Yuzuki’s Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.]]> 464 Asako Yuzuki 0063236400 Lereesa 5 3.50 2017
author: Asako Yuzuki
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
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]]> 36992505 192 Beccy Hands 1785041827 Lereesa 4 4.32
author: Beccy Hands
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.32
book published:
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/02/05
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]]> 213888887 THE CAPTIVATING, HEART-RENDING STORY OF TWO WOMEN IN 1800S CHINA

Love and loss. Sisterhood and betrayal. Little Flower and Linjing's fates are bound together.

As a child, Little Flower is sold to Linjing's wealthy family to become a muizai. In a fit of childish jealousy over her new handmaiden's ladylike bound feet and talent for embroidery, Linjing ensures Little Flower can never leave her to ascend in society.

Despite their starkly different places in the Fong household, over the years the two girls must work together to secure both their futures through Linjing's marriage. As the two grow up, they are by turns bitter rivals and tentative friends.

Until scandal strikes the family, and Linjing and Little Flower's lives are unexpectedly thrown into chaos. Linjing's fall from grace could be an opportunity for Little Flower - but will their intertwined fates lead to triumph, or tragedy for them both?]]> 400 Jane Yang Lereesa 5 4.23 2025
author: Jane Yang
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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]]> 61783327 The Daughters of Madurai is both a heartrending family story and a page-turning mystery about the secrets we must keep to protect those we love.
Madurai, 1992. A young mother in a poor family, Janani is told she is useless if she can’t produce a son—or worse, if she bears daughters. They let her keep her first baby girl, but the rest are taken away as soon as they are born and murdered. But Janani can’t forget the daughters she was never allowed to love.
Sydney, 2019. Nila has a secret; one she’s been keeping from her parents for too long. Before she can say anything, her grandfather in India falls ill and she agrees to join her parents on a trip to Madurai. Nila knows very little about where her family came from or who they left behind. What she’s about to learn will change her forever. While The Daughters of Madurai explores the harrowing issue of female infanticide, it’s also a universal story about the bond between mothers and daughters, the strength of women, and the power of love in overcoming all obstacles.

Ìý±Õ±Õ> 336 Rajasree Variyar 1454948760 Lereesa 5 4.03 2023
author: Rajasree Variyar
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
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]]> 127280282 Discover the work of the greatest writer in the English language as you've never encountered it before by ordering internationally renowned actor Dame Judi Dench's SHAKESPEARE: The Man Who Pays The Rent—a witty, insightful journey through the plays and tales of our beloved Shakespeare.

Taking a curtain call with a live snake in her wig...

Cavorting naked through the Warwickshire countryside painted green...

Acting opposite a child with a pumpkin on his head...

These are just a few of the things Dame Judi Dench has done in the name of Shakespeare.

For the very first time, Judi opens up about every Shakespearean role she has played throughout her seven-decade career, from Lady Macbeth and Titania to Ophelia and Cleopatra. In a series of intimate conversations with actor & director Brendan O'Hea, she guides us through Shakespeare's plays with incisive clarity, revealing the secrets of her rehearsal process and inviting us to share in her triumphs, disasters, and backstage shenanigans.

Interspersed with vignettes on audiences, critics, company spirit and rehearsal room etiquette, she serves up priceless revelations on everything from the craft of speaking in verse to her personal interpretations of some of Shakespeare's most famous scenes, all brightened by her mischievous sense of humour, striking level of honesty and a peppering of hilarious anecdotes, many of which have remained under lock and key until now.

Instructive and witty, provocative and inspiring, this is ultimately Judi's love letter to Shakespeare, or rather, The Man Who Pays The Rent.]]> 400 Judi Dench 1250325773 Lereesa 5 4.51 2023
author: Judi Dench
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> 61273858 From the award-winning author of Yellow Wife, a daring and redemptive novel set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.

1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.

Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his par­ents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.

With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.]]> 384 Sadeqa Johnson 1982197366 Lereesa 5 4.23 2023
author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> 6334 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Lereesa 4 3.85 2005
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
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]]> 202341313
There's no wrong or right when it comes to feeding - it's what works for you and your baby, and this handy resource with chapters on feeding cues, length and frequency of feeds, positioning and attachment for breastfeeding, how to supplement if needed, pumping, bottle feeding and teat size, mixed feeding pros and cons, plus a truly comprehensive section dealing with challenges, all delivered in Olivia's imitable style, will make it a popular reference for all new parents.]]> 245 Olivia Hinge Lereesa 5 4.69
author: Olivia Hinge
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.69
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/25
date added: 2024/12/25
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]]> 65137920 The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

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

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

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

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder� where nothing is as it seems.]]> 432 Evie Woods 0008609209 Lereesa 4 4.03 2023
author: Evie Woods
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/24
date added: 2024/12/24
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]]> 14569052 A previously published edition of ISBN 9781616202415 can be found here.

Fifteen-year-old Kambili and her older brother Jaja lead a privileged life in Enugu, Nigeria. They live in a beautiful house, with a caring family, and attend an exclusive missionary school. They're completely shielded from the troubles of the world. Yet, as Kambili reveals in her tender-voiced account, things are less perfect than they appear. Although her Papa is generous and well respected, he is fanatically religious and tyrannical at home—a home that is silent and suffocating.

As the country begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili and Jaja are sent to their aunt, a university professor outside the city, where they discover a life beyond the confines of their father’s authority. Books cram the shelves, curry and nutmeg permeate the air, and their cousins� laughter rings throughout the house. When they return home, tensions within the family escalate, and Kambili must find the strength to keep her loved ones together.

Purple Hibiscus is an exquisite novel about the emotional turmoil of adolescence, the powerful bonds of family, and the bright promise of freedom.]]> 336 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 1616202416 Lereesa 5 4.18 2003
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 203579150 Family secrets come to light as a young woman fights to save herself, and others, in a Nazi-run baby factory—a real-life Handmaid's Tale—during World War II.

In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’s life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret—her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling.

One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program.

The Sunflower House is a meticulously-researched debut historical novel that uncovers the notorious Lebensborn Program of Nazi Germany. Women of “pure� blood stayed in Lebensborn homes for the sole purpose of perpetuating the Aryan population, giving birth to thousands of babies who were adopted out to “good� Nazi families. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she’s determined not only to save herself, but also the children in her care.

A tale of one woman’s determination to resist and survive, The Sunflower House is also a love story. When Allina meets Karl, a high-ranking SS officer with secrets of his own, the two must decide how much they are willing to share with each other—and how much they can stand to risk as they join forces to save as many children as they can. The threads of this poignant and heartrending novel weave a tale of loss and love, friendship and betrayal, and the secrets we bury in order to save ourselves.]]> 336 Adriana Allegri 1250326524 Lereesa 4 4.37 2024
author: Adriana Allegri
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2024/12/03
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]]> 54304031 Wench and Twelve Years a Slave, this harrowing story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.

Born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia, Pheby Brown was promised her freedom on her eighteenth birthday. But when her birthday finally comes around, instead of the idyllic life she was hoping for with her true love, she finds herself thrust into the bowels of slavery at the infamous Devil’s Half-Acre, a jail where slaves are broken, tortured, and sold every day. Forced to become the mistress of the brutal man who owns the jail, Pheby faces the ultimate sacrifice to protect her heart in this powerful, thrilling story of one slave’s fight for freedom.]]> 278 Sadeqa Johnson 1982149108 Lereesa 4 4.41 2021
author: Sadeqa Johnson
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
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]]> 208516656 If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.�

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.]]> 512 Liane Moriarty 0593798600 Lereesa 3 3.98 2024
author: Liane Moriarty
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/02
date added: 2024/12/02
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]]> 36317900 112 Sara Wickham Lereesa 5 4.63
author: Sara Wickham
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.63
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/29
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]]> 59697228
In this timely book, Dr Sara Wickham demystifies the evidence and highlights the significant discrepancies between guidelines and what we really know about the benefits of supporting women to birth spontaneously. With her renowned ability to make complex issues understandable, her holistic approach and more than twenty-five years� experience as a midwife and researcher, Dr Wickham draws on a wide range of evidence, including the voices of women and practitioners, to answer vital questions such as: How accurate are due dates? Is it really that risky to wait? Does induction make a difference? And, perhaps most importantly, how can we address the induction epidemic?

In Your Own Time is both a masterclass in what the evidence really says about induction of labour and a fascinating insight into how birth has come to be controlled by Western medicine.]]> 234 Sara Wickham Lereesa 5 4.47
author: Sara Wickham
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.47
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/29
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]]> 40121328
With EXPECTING BETTER, award-winning economist Emily Oster spotted a need in the pregnancy market for advice that gave women the information they needed to make the best decision for their own pregnancies. By digging into the data, Oster found that much of the conventional pregnancy wisdom was wrong. In CRIBSHEET, she now tackles an even great challenge: decision making in the early years of parenting.

As any new parent knows, there is an abundance of often-conflicting advice hurled at you from doctors, family, friends, and the internet. From the earliest days, parents get the message that they must make certain choices around feeding, sleep, and schedule or all will be lost. There's a rule--or three--for everything. But the benefits of these choices can be overstated, and the tradeoffs can be profound. How do you make your own best decision?]]> 352 Emily Oster 0525559256 Lereesa 4 4.12 2019
author: Emily Oster
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/11/24
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]]> 36521362
"This woman is a great healer and birth expert. This book will be brilliant." Russell Brand

Your Baby, Your Birth is a truly modern hypnobirthing book for ALL births.

In-demand hypnobirthing coach Hollie de Cruz provides you with the skills and tools to make any birth feel safe, calm, connected and empowering. Drawing on her experience working with new mums, including Fearne Cotton and Giovanna Fletcher, Hollie de Cruz helps you prepare for a positive (not 'perfect') birth experience and approach motherhood with confidence in yourself and your instincts.

Your Baby, Your Birth will teach

- That birth is safe - listen to your body, embrace the changes, prepare your mind and relax during pregnancy
- Exercises and breathing techniques for labour and birth for you and your birth partner, along with guided meditations to keep you calm and engaged
- How to trust your instincts, understand your body and baby, and make informed decisions throughout your pregnancy and beyond

Hollie de Cruz, creator of the award-winning yesmum positive affirmation cards, is renowned for demystifying hypnobirthing and her down-to-earth, realistic approach is highly sought after.

Whatever kind of birth you are planning, let Hollie de Cruz provide you with a set of deep relaxation, mindfulness and meditation tools for an empowering experience.]]> 265 Hollie de Cruz 178504186X Lereesa 5 4.21
author: Hollie de Cruz
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.21
book published:
rating: 5
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]]> 33870922 Fully revised and updated, this new edition will help you work out what kind of birth you really want, and learn how to maximise your chances of getting it. The book’s trademark Visual Birth Plan icons can be downloaded for free to help you create a birth plan for every eventuality.
Written in Milli Hill’s trademark warm and witty style, discover vital information on everything from the truth about pain and what giving birth actually feels like, to your choices and rights in the birth room; from optimal cord clamping, to postnatal mental health; from the inside track on breastfeeding, to positive, gentle caesarean.
Whether you plan to have your baby in hospital, in a birth centre, at home or by elective caesarean, this essential, non-judgemental guide shows you how to raise your expectations and have the best possible birth experience.
New for this edition:
- How to plan for a positive birth in difficult times
- Reworked chapter on choosing where to have your baby
What you need to know about exercise in pregnancy from Charlie Launder, author of Bumps and Burpees
- Top tips for breastfeeding from Amy Brown, author of The Positive Breastfeeding Book
- New section on your rights in pregnancy and birth by Bashi Hazard of the Human Rights in Childbirth International Lawyers Network
- Essential information about your pelvic floor, core and postnatal incontinence by Nikki Bergen, creator of the Belle Method, and Luce Brett, author of PMSL]]> 320 Milli Hill 1780664303 Lereesa 5 4.26 2017
author: Milli Hill
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2017
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/11/13
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]]> 203337138 From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring� (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.]]> 528 Jodi Picoult 0593497228 Lereesa 5 4.12 2024
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/11/10
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]]> 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Lereesa 4 3.86 2024
author: Sally Rooney
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
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]]> 48763401 ‘The latest in the series of powerful books on the divisions in modern Britain, and will take its place on many bookshelves beside Reni Eddo-Lodge’s Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race and Owen Jones’s Chavs.�

–Andrew Marr, Sunday Times

‘In his fascinating, enraging polemic, Verkaik touches on one of the strangest aspects of the elite schools and their product’s domination of public life for two and a half the acquiescence of everyone else.�

�Observer

In Britain today, the government, judiciary and military are all led by an elite who attended private school. Under their watch, our society has become increasingly divided and the gap between rich and poor is now greater than ever before. Is this the country we want to live in?

If we care about inequality, we have to talk about public schools.

Robert Verkaik issues a searing indictment of the system originally intended to educate the most underprivileged Britons, and outlines how, through meaningful reform, we can finally make society fairer for all.]]> 417 Robert Verkaik 1786073846 Lereesa 5 4.01
author: Robert Verkaik
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/19
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]]> 59089921 The secret is hidden within a collection of Dior dresses...

London, 2017. There's no one Lucille adores more than her grandmother. So when her beloved Granny Sylvie asks for Lucille's assistance with a small matter, she's happy to help. The next thing she knows, Lucille is on a train to Paris, tasked with retrieving a priceless Dior dress. But not everything is as it seems, and what Lucille finds in a small Parisian apartment will have her scouring the city for answers to a question that could change her entire life.

Paris, 1952. Postwar France is full of glamour and privilege, and Alice Ainsley is in the middle of it all. As the wife to the British ambassador to France, Alice's job is to see and be seen--even if that wasn't quite what she signed up for. Her husband showers her with jewels, banquets, and couture Dior dresses, but his affection has become distressingly elusive. As the strain on her marriage grows, Alice's only comfort is her bond with her trusted lady's maid, Marianne. But when a new face appears in her drawing room, Alice finds herself yearning to follow her heart...no matter the consequences.

The City of Light comes alive in this lush, evocative tale that explores the ties that bind us together, the truths we hold that make us who we are, and the true meaning of what makes someone family.]]> 384 Jade Beer 0593436814 Lereesa 4 4.03 2022
author: Jade Beer
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/20
date added: 2024/09/19
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]]> 18749 A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as “the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,� Half of a Yellow Sun re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed.

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.

Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all. Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.]]> 435 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 1400044162 Lereesa 5 4.34 2006
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2006
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> 55271524 352 Abigail Dean Lereesa 4 3.54 2021
author: Abigail Dean
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2021
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/09/03
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]]> 60654349 I am a Weyward, and wild inside.

2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

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

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

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world.]]> 329 Emilia Hart 125028080X Lereesa 4 4.03 2023
author: Emilia Hart
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/09/01
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]]> 201465867
Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.

Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.

When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of ten-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they’ve been looking for.

Michael and Marnie are on the precipice of a bright future . . . if they can survive the journey.]]> 368 David Nicholls 0063394057 Lereesa 4 3.97 2024
author: David Nicholls
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/08/29
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]]> 60556912
Every day I clean the Winchesters� beautiful house top to bottom. I collect their daughter from school. And I cook a delicious meal for the whole family before heading up to eat alone in my tiny room on the top floor.

I try to ignore how Nina makes a mess just to watch me clean it up. How she tells strange lies about her own daughter. And how her husband Andrew seems more broken every day. But as I look into Andrew’s handsome brown eyes, so full of pain, it’s hard not to imagine what it would be like to live Nina’s life. The walk-in closet, the fancy car, the perfect husband.

I only try on one of Nina’s pristine white dresses once. Just to see what it’s like. But she soon finds out� and by the time I realize my attic bedroom door only locks from the outside, it’s far too late.

But I reassure myself: the Winchesters don’t know who I really am.

They don’t know what I’m capable of�

An unbelievably twisty read that will have you glued to the pages late into the night. Anyone who loves The Woman in the Window, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down!]]> 329 Freida McFadden 1803144378 Lereesa 3 4.31 2022
author: Freida McFadden
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 3
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]]> 181110045 A haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C. boardinghouse during the McCarthy era.

Washington, D.C., 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss whose facade of perfect wife and mother covers gaping inner wounds; police officer’s daughter Nora, who is entangled with a shadowy gangster; frustrated baseball star Bea, whose career has ended along with the women’s baseball league of WWII; and poisonous, gung-ho Arlene, who has thrown herself into McCarthy’s Red Scare.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears apart the house, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?]]> 432 Kate Quinn 0063244748 Lereesa 5 4.26 2024
author: Kate Quinn
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/24
date added: 2024/08/24
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]]> 28500921
Week after week, the postcards arrive, addressed to a name Ellie does not know, with no return address, each signed with an initial: A.

With their bright skies, blue seas and alluring images of Greece, these cartes postales brighten her life. After six months, to her disappointment, they cease. But the montage she has created on the wall of her flat has cast a spell. She must see this country for herself.

On the morning Ellie leaves for Athens, a notebook arrives. Its pages tell the story of a man's odyssey through Greece. Moving, surprising and sometimes dark, A's tale unfolds with the discovery not only of a culture but also of a desire to live life to the full once more.

Beloved, bestselling author Victoria Hislop's Cartes Postales from Greece is fiction illustrated with photographs that make this journey around Greece, already alive in the imagination, linger forever in the mind.]]> Victoria Hislop 1472223535 Lereesa 3 3.37 2016
author: Victoria Hislop
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2016
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/08/21
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]]> 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 Lereesa 4 3.68 2023
author: Jesmyn Ward
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/05/06
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]]> 202105141
Anna has a life to envy. An apartment in New York. A well-meaning (too well-meaning?) partner. And a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn't want all that? Anna—it turns out.

Turning a minor mid-life crisis into a major life event she packs it in, heads back to Ireland, and gets a PR job for a super-high-end coastal retreat.

Tougher than it sounds. Newsflash: the locals hate it. So much so, there have been threats—and violence.

Anna, however, worked in the beauty industry. There's no ugliness she hasn't seen. No wrinkle she can't smooth over. Anna's got this.

Until she discovers that leaving New York doesn't mean escaping her mistakes.

Once upon a time she'd had a best friend. Once upon a time she'd loved a man. Now she has neither. And now she has to face them.

We all make mistakes.
But when do we stop making the same one over and over again?]]> 599 Marian Keyes 1405945443 Lereesa 0 to-read 3.93 2024
author: Marian Keyes
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/14
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]]> 50055775
In People Like Us, he explores what his own experience can tell us about social mobility in Britain today. Far from showing that anything is possible, he concludes his story is far from typical: our country is still riven with deep divisions that block children from deprived backgrounds from accessing the advantages that are handed to others from birth.

Confronting the stark statistics that reveal the depth of the problem, the problems of imagination and confidence that compound it, and offering inspirational advice for those hoping to change their own circumstances, People Like Us is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand modern Britain - and how we could change it for the better.]]> 256 Hashi Mohamed 1788161122 Lereesa 5 4.52
author: Hashi Mohamed
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.52
book published:
rating: 5
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]]> 34066798 The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers—Now a Paramount+ with Showtime series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.]]> 462 Amor Towles Lereesa 0 to-read 4.28 2016
author: Amor Towles
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 53107594 'You can't stop birds from flying, can you, Sameer? They go where they will...'

1960s UGANDA. Hasan struggles to keep his family business afloat following the sudden death of his wife. As he begins to put his shattered life back together piece by piece, a new regime seizes power, and a wave of rising prejudice threatens to sweep away everything he has built.

Present-day LONDON. Sameer, a young high-flying lawyer, senses an emptiness in what he thought was the life of his dreams. Called back to his family home by an unexpected tragedy, Sameer begins to find the missing pieces of himself not in his future plans, but in a heritage he never knew.

Moving between two continents over a troubled century, We Are All Birds of Uganda is an immensely resonant novel that explores racial tensions, generational divides and what it means to belong.]]> 400 Hafsa Zayyan 1529118646 Lereesa 0 4.01 2021
author: Hafsa Zayyan
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
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]]> 43884141
Athens 1941. After decades of political uncertainty, Greece is polarised between Right- and Left-wing views when the Germans invade.
Fifteen-year-old Themis comes from a family divided by these political differences. The Nazi occupation deepens the fault-lines between those she loves just as it reduces Greece to destitution. She watches friends die in the ensuing famine and is moved to commit acts of resistance.

In the civil war that follows the end of the occupation, Themis joins the Communist army, where she experiences the extremes of love and hatred and the paradoxes presented by a war in which Greek fights Greek.

Eventually imprisoned on the infamous islands of exile, Makronisos and then Trikeri, Themis encounters another prisoner whose life will entwine with her own in ways neither can foresee. And finds she must weigh her principles against her desire to escape and live.

As she looks back on her life, Themis realises how tightly the personal and political can become entangled. While some wounds heal, others deepen.]]> 480 Victoria Hislop 1472223241 Lereesa 5 4.02 2019
author: Victoria Hislop
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/02/29
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]]> 54770859

*THE FIGURINE, the brand-new novel from Victoria Hislop, is available to order now.*'Excellent as ever. Victoria Hislop at her best.' Reader review'Within a few pages I was back in Greece and almost feeling the sun on my face.' Reader reviewBeloved author Victoria Hislop returns to Crete in this long-anticipated sequel to her multi-million-copy Number One bestseller, The Island.25th August 1957. The island of Spinalonga closes its leper colony. And a moment of violence has devastating consequences.When time stops dead for Maria Petrakis and her sister, Anna, two families splinter apart and, for the people of Plaka, the closure of Spinalonga is forever coloured with tragedy.In the aftermath, the question of how to resume life looms large. Stigma and scandal need to be confronted and somehow, for those impacted, a future built from the ruins of the past.Number one bestselling author Victoria Hislop returns to the world and characters she created in The Island - the award-winning novel that remains one of the biggest selling reading group novels of the century. It is finally time to be reunited with Anna, Maria, Manolis and Andreas in the weeks leading up to the evacuation of the island... and beyond.'A return to Hislop's thyme-scented, Aegean-lapped fictional Greece' The Sunday TimesDiscover for yourself why ten million readers worldwide love the novels of Victoria Hislop...'This dramatic, absorbing and good-natured novel abounds Greek Island atmosphere'Daily Mail on One August Night'Immersive storytelling sweeps you along'Mail on Sunday on One August Night'A dramatic story of love, betrayal and allegiances . . . Hislop evokes Greece beautifully'Woman & Home on One August Night'Hislop's love for Greece shines through this wonderfully descriptive and compelling tale'Sunday Express on One August Night'This love letter to Greece will sweep you away to another time and place'The Sunday Mirror on One August Night'Hislop expertly delves into the complex history of a fascinating country in this beautifully written family saga'Daily Mirror on One August Night'Compelling and moving, this is a real page turner'Woman's Weekly on One August Night'The descriptions of Greece leave you feeling like you're right there'Good Housekeeping on One August Night'A beautifully written story that will enchant the reader'The Express ]]> 307 Victoria Hislop 1472278429 Lereesa 4 3.79 2020
author: Victoria Hislop
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2020
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/02/10
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]]> 922991
Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone's throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip...]]> 473 Victoria Hislop 0755309510 Lereesa 5 4.08 2005
author: Victoria Hislop
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/02/07
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]]> 74794726
A Most Anticipated Title according to Sydney Morning Herald , Salon , NB Magazine and SheReads

Four lives, entwined forever by decisions made in a time of conflict. But what happens decades later when they unexpectedly converge once more?

Trang and sisters who leave their rural village for the bustling city of Saigon, desperate to find work to help their impoverished parents. When they take jobs as � bar girls�, paid to flirt with American GIs, they must decide whether they are willing to turn their backs on the people they used to be.

Phong : one of the thousands of mixed-race children abandoned by their American fathers and Vietnamese mothers. Phong grows up surrounded by rejection, insulted as a ‘Black American imperialist�, and a ‘child of the enemy�. But he never gives up hope of finding his parents and proving he is more than a ‘bui doi�: more than the ‘dust of life�.

Dan : A former American helicopter pilot still plagued by regrets about his actions during the Việt Nam war. Now he has returned in the hope of confronting the demons that refuse to fall silent.

Set between the Việt Nam war and the present day, Dust Child is a sweeping epic of family secrets and hidden heartache, from an internationally celebrated author.

'Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai is one of the most unique storytellers of our time.' Natalie Jenner, internationally bestselling-author of The Jane Austen Society]]> 353 Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai Lereesa 0 to-read 4.26 2023
author: Nguyễn Phan Qu� Mai
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 123164836
Scottish Highlands, 1727.

In the aftermath of a tragic fire that kills her father, Aila and her mother, Janet , move to the remote parish of Loth, north-west of Inverness. Blending in does not come easily to the Aila was badly burned in the fire and left with visible injuries, while her mother struggles to maintain her grip on reality. When a temporary minister is appointed in the area, rather than welcome the two women, he develops a strange curiosity for them that sets them even further apart from the community.

Then arrives a motley troupe of travelling entertainers from Edinburgh, led by the charismatic but mysterious Jack . It is just the distraction Janet, and particularly Aila, for the first time in a long while, their lives are filling with joy and friendship, and a kind of hope Aila hasn't known since her father's death. But in this small community, faith is more powerful than truth, and whispers more dangerous even than fire.

Haunting and deeply moving, The Last Witch of Scotland is a story of love, loyalty and sacrifice, inspired by the true story of the last person to be executed for witchcraft in Britain.

Perfect for fans of Outlander , The Mercies and The Witches of Vardo , or for anyone with an interest in the history of witchcraft, late renaissance Scotland and Highland history.]]> 306 Philip Paris 1785304518 Lereesa 0 3.90 2023
author: Philip Paris
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/10
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]]> 92074165

After three decades of marriage, Brenda Jones has decided to leave her husband, just as soon as they both return from a mystery trip with their daughter Zara. But she has no idea that Zara is flying them to Las Vegas to renew their vows.

Zara Jones has recreated almost every detail of her parent’s original wedding - now her only challenge is tracking down the two friends who were pictured with her mum and dad back in 1993.



Aiden Gregg is dealing with his own relationship woes when he receives an unexpected message from a complete stranger. With the help of Facebook, Zara has tracked him down and is asking if his parents are the other couple in the old photo? And if so, could he bring them to Vegas for a surprise reunion?

What Zara and Aiden don’t know is that thirty years ago, One Moment In Time changed everything.

Will rewinding the clock right the wrongs of the past?

Or are they all counting down to a rendezvous with disaster?]]> 300 Shari Low 1804268704 Lereesa 4 4.18 2023
author: Shari Low
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/01/08
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]]> 50497964 14.20 hours
Narrated by Jasmine Blackborow]]> 15 Tracy Rees Lereesa 5 4.15 2018
author: Tracy Rees
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/01/04
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]]> 6692041 In the refugee camp of Jenin, Amal is born into a world of loss—of home, country, and heritage. Her Palestinian family was driven from their ancestral village by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948. As the villagers fled that day, Amal's older brother, just a baby, was stolen away by an Israeli soldier. In Jenin, the adults subsist on memories, waiting to return to the homes they love. Amal's mother has walled away her heart with grief, and her father labors all day. But in the fleeting peacefulness of dawn, he reads to his young daughter daily, and she can feel his love for her, "as big as the ocean and all its fishes." On those quiet mornings, they dream together of a brighter future.

This is Amal's story, the story of one family's struggle and survival through over sixty years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, carrying us from Jenin to Jerusalem, to Lebanon and the anonymity of America. It is a story shaped by scars and fear, but also by the transformative intimacy of marriage and the fierce protectiveness of motherhood. It is a story of faith, forgiveness, and life-sustaining love.

Mornings in Jenin is haunting and heart-wrenching, a novel of vital contemporary importance. Lending human voices to the headlines, it forces us to take a fresh look at one of the defining political conflicts of our lifetimes.]]> 331 Susan Abulhawa 1608190463 Lereesa 5 4.49 2006
author: Susan Abulhawa
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/03
date added: 2024/01/03
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]]> 60430405 We'll see each other again one day, but until we do, take good care of yourself.
Live a good life.
Now go, my love."

From the author of Silver Darlings comes LK Wilde's captivating portrayal of the life of Queenie Read.
Heart warming and breaking in equal measure, Queenie of Norwich is perfect for fans of The Foundling, Where the Crawdads Sing, and The Smallest Man.

People say you get one life, but I've lived three.

I was born Ellen Hardy in 1900, dragged up in Queen Caroline's Yard, Norwich.
There was nothing royal about our yard, and Mum was no queen.

At six years old Mum sold me. I became Nellie Westrop, roaming the country in a showman's wagon, learning the art of the fair.

And I've been the infamous Queenie of Norwich, moving up in the world by any means, legal or not.

I've been heart broken, abandoned, bought and sold, but I've never, ever given up.

After all, it's not where you start that's important, but where you end up.

Based on a true story, Queenie of Norwich is the compelling tale of one remarkable girl's journey to womanhood.
Spanning the first half of the 20th century, Queenie's story is one of heartbreak and triumph, love and loss and the power of family.
It is a story of redemption, and how, with grit and determination, anything is possible.]]> 294 L.K. Wilde Lereesa 5 4.41 2022
author: L.K. Wilde
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/12/28
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]]> 60210035
'A marvel, by an inspiring and deeply humane writer' - Philippe Sands

A home is important because it offers sanctuary and privacy. It can help improve mental health and emotional resilience, and it can help break people out of cycles of poverty. Yet in the past 30 years we've seen home ownership dwindle as council housing stocks deplete and more of us are caught in insecure tenancies. And it's not just London - there isn't a single major city in the world today not suffering from an affordable housing crisis. Why does this matter - and what can be done?

Drawing on his own history of housing insecurity and his professional career as a planning barrister, Hashi Mohamed examines the myriad aspects of housing - from Right-to-Buy to Grenfell, slums and evictions to the Bank of Mum and Dad. A Home of One's Own is a deeply personal study of the crisis confronting global metropoles - and an exploration of the ways we can remove barriers, improve equality and create cities where more people have a place to call their own.]]> 160 Hashi Mohamed 1800811268 Lereesa 0 to-read 3.76
author: Hashi Mohamed
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/13
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]]> 77265029 World champion runner Caster Semenya offers an empowering account of her extraordinary life and career, and her trailblazing battle to compete on her own terms.

Banned from the sport she loved because she was labelled 'different', Olympic and World Champion Caster Semenya is finally ready to share the vivid and blisteringly honest story of how the world came to know her name. Thrust into the spotlight after winning the 2009 World Championships Caster Semenya quickly became the centre of a debate which still continues today about gender in sports, and the right to compete as you are.

Told with blistering candour and captivating speed, The Race To Be Myself is a journey through innocence, ambition, defiance, and acceptance. From her rural beginnings running in the dust, to crushing her opponents on the track. To the falsehoods spread about her name, and the many trials she has been forced to endure publicly and privately. This is Caster's time to set the record straight and share her story of how she became a defiant champion.

Throughout it all Caster has found triumph in her strong will, her community and her family. Caster's story is our story, and testimony to anyone forced to stop doing what they love.]]> 309 Caster Semenya 1324035781 Lereesa 0 to-read 4.23 2023
author: Caster Semenya
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/11/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 Lereesa 0 to-read 4.39 2017
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/10/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 75531772 'This book is a glowing achievement by one of the best essayists of her generation' Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff




‘Witty, fresh and full of life� Liv Little



Kimberly McIntosh has lived a full life, with a loving family, messy friendships, mind-expanding travel and all-night parties. She’s also spent that life wondering why such opportunities aren’t always available to people who look like her.


Stemming from years of social policy research and campaign work, this essay collection brings together all that Kimberly has learned; whether that’s dismantling the myth of social mobility for those who toe the line, to understanding why her teenage Facebook posts are quite so cringe. In it, she uses her own experiences to reveal how systematic injustice impacts us all, from the pressure of nuclear families, to enduring toxic friendships, to how painful it can be to watch Love Island.


Perfect for fans of Slay In Your Lane, Trick Mirror, and Bad Feminist, this dazzling debut collection brilliantly melds the personal and political to not only tell the story of a life, but what that life might teach us.


‘Kim’s writing is a joy. Her take on sex, British politics, mental health, intimacy, and race are some of the truest words I’ve read on these issues in a long time. You can see your real self in Kim’s words. And guess what? It doesn't feel too frightening. A delicious and wonderfully written collection� Derek Bardowell]]> 240 Kimberly McIntosh 0008477043 Lereesa 0 to-read 3.96
author: Kimberly McIntosh
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.96
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 60393672 Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favorite Atlas’s side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the “glorious and touching� (USA TODAY) #1 New York Times bestseller It Ends with Us.

Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil coparenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas, again. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date.

But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life—and Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life.

Switching between the perspectives of Lily and Atlas, It Starts with Us picks up right where the epilogue for the “gripping, pulse-pounding� (Sarah Pekkanen, author of Perfect Neighbors) bestselling phenomenon It Ends with Us left off. Revealing more about Atlas’s past and following Lily as she embraces a second chance at true love while navigating a jealous ex-husband, it proves that “no one delivers an emotional read like Colleen Hoover� (Anna Todd, New York Times bestselling author).]]> 323 Colleen Hoover 1668001225 Lereesa 3 3.80 2022
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/09/11
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]]> 27362503
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up � she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

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

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan � her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]> 386 Colleen Hoover 1668021048 Lereesa 3 4.11 2016
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 3
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date added: 2023/09/07
shelves:
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]]> 63028672 I wore a dress on the night I first met Ming.

It begins as your typical boy meets boy. While out with friends at their local university drag night, Tom buys Ming a drink. Confident and witty, a magnetic young playwright, Ming is the perfect antidote to Tom’s awkward energy, and their connection is instant. Tom finds himself deeply and desperately drawn into Ming’s orbit, and on the cusp of graduation, he’s already mapped out their future together. But shortly after they move to London to start their next chapter, Ming announces her intention to transition.

From London to Kuala Lumpur, New York to Cologne, we follow Tom and Ming as they face tectonic shifts in their relationship and friend circle in the wake of Ming’s transition. Through a spiral of unforeseen crises—some personal, some professional, some life-altering—Tom and Ming are forced to confront the vastly different shapes their lives have taken since graduating, and each must answer the essential question: Is it worth losing a part of yourself to become who you are?

Buoyed by a voice as tender, effervescent and wryly funny as the cast of characters it centers, µþ±ð±ô±ô¾±±ð²õÌýis an unforgettable story of youth, intimacy, hunger and heartbreak, at once boldly original yet fiercely familiar, which unabashedly holds a mirror up to our most vulnerable selves and desires.]]> 368 Nicola Dinan 1335490884 Lereesa 5 4.02 2023
author: Nicola Dinan
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/09/04
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review:

]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

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

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Lereesa 5 4.12 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/08/17
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]]> 67353385 Listening time: 10 hours and 16 minutes.

As a society, there is a tendency to elevate romantic love. But what about friendships? Aren't they just as � if not more � important? So why is it hard to find the right words to express what these uniquely complex bonds mean to us? In Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict, Elizabeth Day embarks on a journey to answer these questions.

Growing up, Elizabeth wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health.

Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of many who were forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them � with the crisis came a dawning realisation: her truest friends were not always the ones she had been spending most time with. Why was this? Could she rebalance it? Was there such thing as…too many friends? And was she really the friend she thought she was?

Friendaholic unpacks the significance and evolution of friendship. From exploring her own personal friendships and the distinct importance of each of them in her life, to the unique and powerful insights of others across the globe, Elizabeth asks why there isn’t yet a language that can express its crucial influence on our world.

From ghosting and frenemies to social media and seismic life events, Elizabeth leaves no stone unturned. Friendaholic is the book you buy for the people you love but it's also the book you read to become a better friend to yourself.]]> 416 Elizabeth Day 0008374902 Lereesa 5 3.75
author: Elizabeth Day
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.75
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/07/16
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]]> 59357120
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 329 R.F. Kuang Lereesa 5 3.84 2023
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/11
date added: 2023/07/11
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]]> 50253429 New York Times bestselling author of American Wife and Eligible, a novel that imagines a deeply compelling what-might-have-been: What if Hillary Rodham hadn’t married Bill Clinton?

In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise: Life magazine has covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she’s attending Yale Law School, and she’s on the forefront of student activism and the women’s rights movement. And then she meets Bill Clinton. A handsome, charismatic southerner and fellow law student, Bill is already planning his political career. In each other, the two find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced.

In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times; although she said no more than once, as we all know, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton.

But in Curtis Sittenfeld’s powerfully imagined tour-de-force of fiction, Hillary takes a different road. Feeling doubt about the prospective marriage, she endures their devastating breakup and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail—one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the tradeoffs all of us must make in building a life.

Brilliantly weaving a riveting fictional tale into actual historical events, Curtis Sittenfeld delivers an uncannily astute and witty story for our times. In exploring the loneliness, moral ambivalence, and iron determination that characterize the quest for political power, as well as both the exhilaration and painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world still run mostly by men, Rodham is a singular and unforgettable novel.]]> 420 Curtis Sittenfeld 0399590919 Lereesa 4 3.81 2020
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/02
shelves:
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]]> 62971668 A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars.

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?

Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.

That’s because Sam Kemp � in the bleakest point of her life � has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag--she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself.

Full of Jojo Moyes� signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.]]> 438 Jojo Moyes 1984879294 Lereesa 4 3.88 2023
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/06/30
shelves:
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]]> 62605504
Zigri's daughter Ingeborg sets off into the wilderness to try to bring her mother back home. Accompanying her on this quest is Maren - herself the daughter of a witch ­- whose wild nature and unconquerable spirit gives Ingeborg the courage to venture into the unknown, and to risk all she has to save her family.

Also captive in the fortress is Anna Rhodius, once the King of Denmark's mistress, who has been sent to Vardø in disgrace. What will she do - and who will she betray - to return to her privileged life at court?

These Witches of Vardø are stronger than even the King of Denmark. In an age weighted against them they refuse to be victims. They will have their justice. All they need do is show their power.]]> 400 Anya Bergman 1786581914 Lereesa 4 3.87 2023
author: Anya Bergman
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/28
date added: 2023/06/28
shelves:
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]]> 61634104
After taking a deep look at her own journey, and interviewing many other successful people on her podcast Ctrl, Alt, Delete, she realized that our overly celebrated and traditional version of success is making us lonely, unfulfilled and dispirited. Now she has worked out a way to do things differently, and here Emma shares her hard-won lessons, A manifesto to craft work (and life) on your own terms, The Success Myth will give you the belief and tools to walk away from 'having it all', uncovering your individual path to fulfillment.]]> 336 Emma Gannon 1911709208 Lereesa 5 4.00
author: Emma Gannon
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/07
date added: 2023/06/07
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]]> 59912428 A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.

Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .

Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.]]> 464 Jodi Picoult 1984818384 Lereesa 4 4.05 2022
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/06/01
shelves:
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]]> 75654363 UNDERSTAND YOUR BODY TO EMPOWER YOURSELF FOR LIFE.

This book will help you create healthy habits that consider all aspects of female health at every life stage, including how

* harness your hormones to improve your cycle symptoms, work productivity and exercise habits
* fuel your body to have the energy you need to smash your goals
* exceed your personal best for fun, fitness or competition
* exercise safely and build strength to benefit your long-term health
* equip you with the knowledge to manage injuries that women are more prone to than men
* change the language used to talk to adolescent girls about their bodies and give them the confidence to advocate for themselves
* confidently communicate with your health and fitness practitioners, friends, partners or colleagues about health issues you may be facing

Merging the latest science with the combined experience of its three expert NHS doctor Bella Smith, sports research scientist Dr Emma Ross and athletic coach Baz Moffat, The Female Body Bible busts the myths and taboos that persist around women's bodies.

This isn't just a book, it's a movement - a call to action. Every woman deserves to know more about her body and everyone, regardless of their sex, needs to know more about women's bodies to remove the vestiges of secrecy and shame once and for all. This is the playbook of all the elements that go into getting the most out of your body, and a selection of strategies that you can try to find out what works for you and your incredible body.

Instead of prioritising how a body looks, we need to focus on how it feels and functions. When we listen to our body, understand how it works and embrace and nurture it, health, fitness and happiness will follow.]]> 383 Emma Ross 1529194040 Lereesa 0 4.19
author: Emma Ross
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.19
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]]> 59948520 A haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during a time of war.

It's 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting.

Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle--an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood--without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt's family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt's horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next.

An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.]]> 382 Alice Winn 0593534565 Lereesa 5 4.51 2023
author: Alice Winn
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/15
date added: 2023/04/15
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]]> 75582857 as a nation our mental health is in crisis. But what most don't know is that a critical ingredient in this debate, and a crucial part of the solution - what we eat - is being ignored.

Nutrition has more influence on what we feel, who we become and how we behave than we could ever have imagined. It affects everything from our decision-making to aggression and violence. Yet mental health disorders are overwhelmingly treated as 'mind' problems as if the physical brain - and how we feed it - is irrelevant. Someone suffering from depression is more likely to be asked about their relationship with their mother than their relationship with food.

In this eye-opening and impassioned book, psychologist Kimberley Wilson draws on startling new research - as well as her own work in prisons, schools and hospitals around the country - to reveal the role of food and nutrients in brain development and mental health: from how the food a woman eats during pregnancy influences the size of her baby's brain, and hunger makes you mean; to how nutrient deficiencies change your personality.

We must also recognise poor nutrition as a social injustice, with the poorest and most vulnerable being systematically ignored. We need to talk about what our food is doing to our brains. And we need decisive action, not over rehearsed soundbites and empty promises, from those in power - because if we don't, things can only get worse.]]> 282 Kimberley Wilson Lereesa 5 4.16
author: Kimberley Wilson
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.16
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]]> 40653191
Ninety per cent of women experience symptoms of PMS, a syndrome which features a wide range of signs and symptoms and yet there’s an enduring lack of understanding about what it actually is, and a disappointingly meager range of treatment options.

So many of us have a Jekyll and Hyde experience of our lives; we feel on top of the world, capable, confident and sexy for part of each month, then find ourselves in a state of physical and emotional discomfort and fatigue, wanting nothing more than to collapse on the sofa in front of Netflix. But what if instead of just trying to plan for our dark days, women were equipped with ways to improve them? What if our desire to improve ourselves could be combined with our need to know just what our womb and ovaries are getting up to every month? Not to mention how to take advantage of the natural superpowers that sit in each phase of our cycle, so that we can plan our month to perform at our best.

Maisie Hill is uniquely placed, as an acupuncturist, women’s health practitioner and doula, to explain just how we can achieve this, as well as focusing on particular milestones that require an altered approach, such as coming off hormonal birth control, infertility, pregnancy, motherhood and the perimenopausal years. Using what Hill calls the cycle strategy--a woman’s secret weapon when it comes to improving her relationships, career and health--she will apply the principles of Eastern and Western medicine to give women all they need to make sense of their cycles, as well as accessible and practical suggestions through which readers can improve their physical symptoms, and stop berating themselves because of the way that they evolve through each menstrual month.]]> 352 Maisie Hill 147296361X Lereesa 5 4.09 2019
author: Maisie Hill
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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]]> 42660463 here.

Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas is the hilarious, poignant and entertaining story of the life of a junior doctor at the most challenging time of the year. With twenty-five tales of intriguing, shocking and incredible Christmas incidents, the British public will finally appreciate the sacrifices made and the challenges faced by the unsung heroes of the NHS.

Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas will be fully illustrated (as tastefully as possible) and will delight all of Adam’s fans throughout the festive period of Christmas 2019 and for many years to come.]]> 144 Adam Kay Lereesa 4 4.09 2019
author: Adam Kay
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2019
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/02/07
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]]> 62296528
For Harry, this is that story at last.

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

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

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

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.]]> 410 Prince Harry 0593593804 Lereesa 5 3.78 2023
author: Prince Harry
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/27
date added: 2023/01/27
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]]> 59807961 From Lynda Cohen Loigman, the bestselling author of The Two-Family House and The Wartime Sisters, comes a heartwarming story of two extraordinary women from two different eras who defy expectations to utilize their unique gift of seeing soulmates in the most unexpected places in The Matchmaker's Gift.

Is finding true love a calling or a curse?

Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?]]> 320 Lynda Cohen Loigman 1250278090 Lereesa 0 4.10 2022
author: Lynda Cohen Loigman
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/01/14
date added: 2023/01/14
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]]> 55994372
Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives.

As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593329825.]]> 400 Miranda Cowley Heller Lereesa 4 3.73 2021
author: Miranda Cowley Heller
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/04
date added: 2023/01/04
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]]> 56469793 At the World of Wonders, Europe's most magnificent travelling circus, every moment is full of magic, and nothing is as it seems--especially for the people who put on the show

Lena Papadopoulos has never quite found her place within the circus, even as the daughter of the extraordinary headlining illusionist, Theo. Brilliant and curious, Lena yearns for the real-world magic of science and medicine, despite her father's overprotection and the limits her world places on her because she is disabled. Her unconventional life takes an exciting turn when she rescues Alexandre, an orphan with his own secrets and a mysterious past. Over several years, as their friendship flourishes and Alexandre trains as the illusionist's apprentice, World War II escalates around them. When Theo and Alexandre are contracted to work and perform in a model town for Jews set up by the Nazis, Lena becomes separated from everything she knows. Forced to make her own way, Lena must confront her doubts and dare to believe in the impossible--herself.

A must-read for fans of The Night Circus and Water for Elephants, The Circus Train will take readers on a heart-wrenching and spectacular two-decade journey across Europe. When all is lost, how do you find the courage to keep moving forward?

]]> 352 Amita Parikh Lereesa 5 4.02 2022
author: Amita Parikh
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
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]]> 58170552
Every house has its secrets . . .

For twelve-year-old Ottilie Finch, London is an exciting playground to explore. Her family have recently arrived in Hampstead from Durham, under a cloud of scandal that Otty is blissfully unaware of. The only shadow over her days is her mother’s mysterious illness, which keeps her to her room.

When young local girl Mabs is offered the chance to become Mrs Finch’s companion, it saves her from a desperate life on the canals. Little does she know that all is not as picture-perfect as it seems. Mabs is about to become tangled in the secrets that chased the Finches from their last home, and trapped in an impossible dilemma . . .

‘Tracy Rees is a natural storyteller . . . What a treat it is!� � Rachel Hore, author of A Gathering Storm .

'In this engrossing novel Tracy Rees takes the reader directly into the drama and action . . . the roles and attitudes to women at the end of the Victorian period and the emerging women’s movement were riveting. Totally unputdownable' � Dinah Jefferies, author of The Tea-Planter’s Wife .]]> 322 Tracy Rees 1529046386 Lereesa 5 4.22 2021
author: Tracy Rees
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2021
rating: 5
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]]> 61753839 1897. Rowena Blythe is wealthy, entitled and beautiful. As her twenty-fourth birthday approaches, she’s expected to marry � and to marry well.

An unsuitable match . . .
Her parents commission a portrait of Rowena to help cement her reputation as a great society beauty. However, Bartek, the artist’s young assistant, is unlike any man Rowena has met before � wild, romantic and Bohemian. While society at large awaits the announcement of Rowena’s engagement, it is Bartek who captures Rowena’s heart along with her likeness.

A scandal in society . . .
Rowena knows her parents would never approve of Bartek, who in their eyes is nothing but a penniless foreigner. As her feelings grow, she has no-one to turn to. Dare she risk everything for love?]]> 432 Tracy Rees 1529098645 Lereesa 5 4.24
author: Tracy Rees
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.24
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rating: 5
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]]> 53542416 1939. Seventeen-year-old Nora Jennings has spent her life secure in the certainty of a bright, happy future - until one night of passion has more catastrophic consequences than she ever could have anticipated. Labelled a moral defective and sectioned under the Mental Deficiency Act, she is forced to endure years of unspeakable cruelty at the hands of those who are supposed to care for her.

1981. When psychiatrist Janet Humphreys comes across Nora, heavily institutionalised and still living in the hospital more than forty years after her incarceration, she knows that she must be the one to help Nora rediscover what it is to live. But as she works to help Nora overcome her past, Janet realises she must finally face her own.]]> 346 Brenda Davies 1529374553 Lereesa 5 4.52 2020
author: Brenda Davies
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/12/17
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]]> 52578297
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

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

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?]]> 288 Matt Haig 0525559477 Lereesa 5 3.96 2020
author: Matt Haig
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/12/07
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]]> 45152372 "She smiled a soft, troubled smile and I felt the whole world slipping away, and I wanted to slip with it, to go wherever she was going... I had existed whole years without her, but that was all it had been. An existence. A book with no words."

Tom Hazard has just moved back to London, his old home, to settle down and become a high school history teacher. And on his first day at school, he meets a captivating French teacher at his school who seems fascinated by him. But Tom has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history--performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life.

Unfortunately for Tom, the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him. Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present.

How to Stop Time tells a love story across the ages--and for the ages--about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live. It is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Benedict Cumberbatch.]]> 339 Matt Haig 0525522891 Lereesa 0 to-read 3.78 2018
author: Matt Haig
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/07
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]]> 60459297
Alinor’s son, Rob, is determined to stay clear of the war, but when he and his nephew set out to free Ned from execution for treason and Rowan from a convict deportation to Barbados, they find themselves enmeshed in the creation of an imposter Prince of Wales—a surrogate baby to the queen.

From the last battle in the desolate Somerset Levels to the hidden caves on the slave island of Barbados, this third volume of an epic story follows a family from one end of the empire to another, to find a new dawn in a world which is opening up before them with greater rewards and dangers than ever before.]]> 526 Philippa Gregory 150118721X Lereesa 5 3.91 2022
author: Philippa Gregory
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/11/29
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]]> 53902254
In the summer of 1944, Eva Mozes Kor and her family arrived at Auschwitz.

Within thirty minutes, they were separated. Her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, while Eva and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man who became known as the Angel of Death: Dr. Josef Mengele. They were 10 years old.

While twins at Auschwitz were granted the 'privileges' of keeping their own clothes and hair, they were also subjected to Mengele's sadistic medical experiments. They were forced to fight daily for their own survival and many died as a result of the experiments, or from the disease and hunger rife in the concentration camp.

In a narrative told simply, with emotion and astonishing restraint, The Twins of Auschwitz shares the inspirational story of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil.

Also included is an epilogue on Eva's incredible recovery and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis. Through her museum and her lectures, she dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and worked toward goals of forgiveness, peace, and the elimination of hatred and prejudice in the world.]]> 240 Eva Mozes Kor 1913183572 Lereesa 5 4.22 2020
author: Eva Mozes Kor
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/11/05
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]]> 57636551 Three women, a nation seduced by a madman, and the Nazi breeding program to create a so-called master race.

At Heim Hochland, a Nazi breeding home in Bavaria, three women's fates are irrevocably intertwined. Gundi is a pregnant university student from Berlin. An Aryan beauty, she's secretly a member of a resistance group. Hilde, only eighteen, is a true believer in the cause and is thrilled to carry a Nazi official's child. And Irma, a 44-year-old nurse, is desperate to build a new life for herself after personal devastation. All three have everything to lose.

Based on untold historical events, this novel brings us intimately inside the Lebensborn Society maternity homes that actually existed in several countries during World War II, where thousands of "racially fit" babies were bred and taken from their mothers to be raised as part of the new Germany. But it proves that in a dark period of history, the connections women forge can carry us through, even driving us to heroism we didn't know we had within us.]]> 320 Jennifer Coburn 1728250749 Lereesa 4 3.93 2022
author: Jennifer Coburn
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/10/22
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]]> 58691596
Since her spell in rehab, though, she's come a long way on the road to recovery - and now, she's ready to go back to where it all began. But this time, the student has become the teacher. She used to hate the staff in charge of treating her addiction. Now, she's one of them.

Rachel's finally got herself on track - but life never stops being messy.

And when an old flame resurfaces, will she go back to who she once was? Or nearing fifty, can she find herself all over again?]]> 577 Marian Keyes 0241441137 Lereesa 4 4.20 2022
author: Marian Keyes
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/10/18
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]]> 57773248
Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him.

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

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.]]> 306 Danya Kukafka 0063052733 Lereesa 5 4.04 2022
author: Danya Kukafka
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/11
date added: 2022/09/11
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]]> 58939848
Berlin, 1930 —When a wave of change sweeps a radical political party to power, Sofie von Meyer Rhodes’s academic husband benefits from the ambitions of its newly elected chancellor. Although Sofie and Jürgen do not share the social views growing popular in Hitler’s Germany, Jürgen’s position with its burgeoning rocket program changes their diminishing fortunes for the better. But as Sofie watches helplessly, her beloved Berlin begins to transform, forcing her to consider what they must sacrifice morally for their young family’s security, and what the price for their neutrality will be.

Twenty years later, Jürgen is one of the many German scientists offered pardons for their part in the war, and taken to America to work for its fledgling space program. For Sofie, this is the chance to exorcise the ghosts that have followed her across the ocean, and make a fresh start in her adopted country. But her neighbors aren’t as welcoming or as understanding as she had hoped. When scandalous rumors about the Rhodes family’s affiliation with Hitler’s regime spreads, idle gossip turns to bitter rage, and the act of violence that results will tear apart Sofie’s community and her family before the truth is finally revealed.]]> 464 Kelly Rimmer 1525811436 Lereesa 5 4.35 2022
author: Kelly Rimmer
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/09/05
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]]> 60581739
In the 1930s, Stalin’s activists marched through the Soviet Union, espousing the greatness of collective farming. It was the first step in creating a man-made famine that, in Ukraine, stole almost 4 million lives. Inspired by the history the world forgot, and the Russian government denies, Erin Litteken reimagines their story.
In 1929, Katya is 16 years old, surrounded by family and in love with the boy next door. When Stalin’s activists arrive in her village, it’s just a few, a little pressure to join the collective. But soon neighbors disappear, those who speak out are never seen again and every new day is uncertain.

Resistance has a price, and as desperate hunger grips the countryside, survival seems more a dream than a possibility. But, even in the darkest times, love beckons.

Seventy years later, a young widow discovers her grandmother’s journal, one that will reveal the long-buried secrets of her family’s haunted past.

This is a story of the resilience of the human spirit, the love that sees us through our darkest hours and the true horror of what happened during the Holodomor.

"I never imagined the release of my novel on a past oppression of the Ukrainian people would coincide with such a parallel tragedy." Erin Litteken

A share of proceeds will be donated to DEC's Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

May we never forget, lest history repeat itself.]]> 373 Erin Litteken 1804157589 Lereesa 4 4.46 2022
author: Erin Litteken
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/03
date added: 2022/09/03
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]]> 53239311 Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you.

Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp.

Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on a Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country.

Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom and living his best possible life. He now believes he is the 'happiest man on earth'.

Published as Eddie turns 100, this is a powerful, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times.]]> 208 Eddie Jaku 1760980080 Lereesa 5 4.59 2020
author: Eddie Jaku
name: Lereesa
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/08/28
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]]> 58492104 From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghosted comes a love story wrapped in a mystery: an up-all-night page-turner with a dark secret at its core

I have held you at night for ten years and I didn't even know your name. We have a child together. A dog, a house.

Who are you?

Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she's told them about herself is a lie.

And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer; Emma a well-known marine biologist. When she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best � researching and writing about his wife’s life. But as he starts to unravel the truth, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name isn’t real.

When the very darkest moments of Emma’s past finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was . . .

But first, she must tell him about the other love of her life.]]> 372 Rosie Walsh 0593296990 Lereesa 4 3.77 2022
author: Rosie Walsh
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/08/27
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]]> 48890225 A whipsmart debut about three women—transgender and cisgender—whose lives collide after an unexpected pregnancy forces them to confront their deepest desires around gender, motherhood, and sex.

Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.

Ames isn't happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames's boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she's pregnant with his baby—and that she's not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he's been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?

This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can't reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.]]> 337 Torrey Peters 0593133374 Lereesa 4 3.94 2021
author: Torrey Peters
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/08/25
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]]> 2545533 160 Otto Rosenberg 1902809025 Lereesa 5 3.85 2000
author: Otto Rosenberg
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2000
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/08/22
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]]> 37912970 378 Harriet Tyce 1472252756 Lereesa 4 3.72 2019
author: Harriet Tyce
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2019
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/08/21
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]]> 56801374
Maud Lovell has been at Angelton Lunatic Asylum for five years. She is not sure how she came to be there and knows nothing beyond its four walls. She is hysterical, distressed, untrustworthy. Badly unstable and prone to violence. Or so she has been told.

When a new doctor arrives, keen to experiment with the revolutionary practice of medical hypnosis, Maud's lack of history makes her the perfect case study. But as Doctor Dimmond delves deeper into the past, it becomes clear that confinement and high doses are there to keep her silent.

When Maud finally remembers what has been done to her, and by whom, her mind turns to her past and to revenge.]]> 352 Karen Coles 1787395154 Lereesa 4 3.90 2021
author: Karen Coles
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/08/18
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]]> 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

Augustus Everett is an acclaimed author of literary fiction. January Andrews writes bestselling romance. When she pens a happily ever after, he kills off his entire cast.

They’re polar opposites.

In fact, the only thing they have in common is that for the next three months, they’re living in neighboring beach houses, broke, and bogged down with writer’s block.

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]> 371 Emily Henry 1984806734 Lereesa 3 3.99 2020
author: Emily Henry
name: Lereesa
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 3
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date added: 2022/08/18
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