Amanda's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 22 Sep 2026 03:35:37 -0700 60 Amanda's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Eureka: Finding the Line between Desire and Contentment, then Riding It North American Edition]]> 40857804 a street demonstration against someone else's government, or sticks their arm between the
jaws of a wild mountain wolf-dog?
After the success of his fi rst book In Search of Greener Grass, Graham Field hits the road again
with his bargain-basement KLR650, recording his experiences in his inimitable and revealingly
honest diary style. The Caucasus region is often overlooked by travellers, but Graham may
inadvertently be about to change all that.
A single pivotal event can transform any journey, and accepting rather than fi ghting that
moment can have glorious consequences for the traveller. In this instant the result ensures a
fantastic exploration of eastern Europe and beyond, the discovery of a hidden gem in Georgia,
and meanderings that leave us all much richer.
Ultimately, Eureka is an almost accidental realization that we cannot control our mood on the
road, but merely embracing it can be the most enlightening travel experience of all.]]> 370 Graham Field 1890623563 Amanda 4 audible 4.44 Eureka: Finding the Line between Desire and Contentment, then Riding It North American Edition
author: Graham Field
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2026/09/22
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Motorcycle Dream Ride: My Alabama to Alaska Adventure]]> 59775893 — Darren (a reader in New York)

This book isn’t just for motorcyclists. It’s for anyone who DREAMS of doing something magical but gets stuck in EXCUSES and SELF-DOUBTS. It’s for anyone who needs encouragement to do that SOMETHING they’ve always wanted to do but haven’t.]]> 358 David Mixson 1732453241 Amanda 0 to-read 4.61 2021 Motorcycle Dream Ride: My Alabama to Alaska Adventure
author: David Mixson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/07/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Magician King (The Magicians, #2)]]> 10079321 432 Lev Grossman 043402080X Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 3.91 2011 The Magician King (The Magicians, #2)
author: Lev Grossman
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> The Starless Sea 43575115 From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus, a timeless love story set in a secret underground world—a place of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.]]> 498 Erin Morgenstern 038554121X Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 3.80 2019 The Starless Sea
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 13496
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.]]> 835 George R.R. Martin Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.45 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl]]> 40961608 In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan’s National Book Award–winning story rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows.   The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Timothy Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, he does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes, “the stoic, long-suffering men and women whose lives he opens up with urgency and respect” (New York Times). In an era that promises ever-greater natural disasters, The Worst Hard Time is “arguably the best nonfiction book yet” (Austin Statesman Journal) on the greatest environmental disaster ever to be visited upon our land and a powerful reminder about the dangers of trifling with nature.]]> 352 Timothy Egan 0547347774 Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.10 2005 The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
author: Timothy Egan
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Living History: Experiencing Great Events of the Ancient and Medieval Worlds]]> 27388891
Constantinople, 532 C.E. - The Byzantine Emperor Justinian nearly abandons the city to an angry mob until his wife, Theodora, persuades him to stay.

France, 1095 C.E. - Pope Urban II gives a speech that inspires thousands of his subjects to embark on a crusade to Jerusalem.

Time and again, moments shape history. We often examine history from a distant vantage, zooming in on a few kings and battles. But history is made up of individuals who were as alive in their time as we are today. Pausing on a few key individuals and magnifying specific moments in their lives allows us to experience history in a whole new way-as a vibrant story, full of life.

Living History: Great Events of the Ancient and Medieval Worlds takes you back in time and throws a spotlight on two dozen turning points where the tide of history changes irrevocably. These 24 dramatic lectures examine key events from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome to medieval Europe and Asia. Spanning thousands of years and three continents, this course illuminates fascinating historical dramas on the individual scale.

More than covering great events that change the contours of history, Professor Garland takes you into the scene and allows you to hear what he terms the "heartbeat of history". Rather than merely reviewing the facts of events such as the Battle of Marathon, the arrest and trial of Jesus, and the coronation of Charlemagne, you'll engage with a variety of firsthand accounts and authentic primary and secondary sources to experience what it was like to live these events as they occurred. From reports by historians such as Herodotus and Livy to official scrolls and administrative records, these eyewitness sources and ancient documents take you back in time through the eyes of people who were there.

Listening Length: 12 hours and 38 minutes]]> 13 Robert Garland Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 3.97 2015 Living History: Experiencing Great Events of the Ancient and Medieval Worlds
author: Robert Garland
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Quests for Glory (The School for Good and Evil: The Camelot Years, #1)]]> 31212082
The students at the School for Good and Evil thought they had found their final Ever After when they vanquished the malevolent School Master. Now, on their required fourth-year quests, the students face obstacles both dangerous and unpredictable, and the stakes are high: success brings eternal adoration, and failure means obscurity forever.

For their quests, Agatha and Tedros are trying to return Camelot to its former splendor as queen and king. For her quest, Dean Sophie seeks to mold Evil in her own image. But soon they all feel themselves growing more isolated and alone. When their classmates’ quests plunge into chaos, however, someone must lead the charge to save them...]]> 18 Soman Chainani Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.13 2017 Quests for Glory (The School for Good and Evil: The Camelot Years, #1)
author: Soman Chainani
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> The Complete Sherlock Holmes 188572
The sign of four --

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes : A scandal in Bohemia ; The red-headed league ; A case of identity ; The Boscombe Valley mystery ; The five orange pips ; The man with the twisted lip ; The adventure of the blue carbuncle ; The adventure of the speckled band ; The adventure of the engineer's thumb ; The adventure of the noble bachelor ; The adventure of the beryl coronet ; The adventure of the copper beeches --

Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes : Silver blaze ; The yellow face ; The stock-broker's clerk ; The "Gloria Scott" ; The Musgrave ritual ; The Reigate puzzle ; The crooked man ; The resident patient ; The Greek interpreter ; The naval treaty ; The final problem --

The return of Sherlock Holmes : The adventure of the empty house ; The adventure of the Norwood builder ; The adventure of the dancing men ; The adventure of the solitary cyclist ; The adventure of the priory school ; The adventure of Black Peter ; The adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton ; The adventure of the six Napoleons ; The adventure of the three students ; The adventure of the golden pince-nez ; The adventure of the missing three-quarter ; The adventure of the abbey grange ; The adventure of the second stain.

Volume 2. Introduction / by Loren D. Estleman --

The hound of the Baskervilles --

The valley of fear --

His last bow : The adventure of Wisteria Lodge : The singular experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles ; The tiger of San Pedro ; The adventure of the cardboard box ; The adventure of the red circle ; The adventure of the Bruce-Partington plans ; The adventure of the dying detective ; The disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax ; The adventure of the devil's foot ; His last bow --

The case-book of Sherlock Holmes : The adventure of the illustrious client ; The adventure of the blanched soldier ; The adventure of the Mazarin stone ; The adventure of the three gables ; The adventure of the Sussex vampire ; The adventure of the three Garridebs ; The problem of Thor Bridge ; The adventure of the creeping man ; The adventure of the lion's mane ; The adventure of the veiled lodger ; The adventure of Shoscombe old place ; The adventure of the retired colourman.]]> 1796 Arthur Conan Doyle Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.50 1887 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1887
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> The Medieval World 30654540
These 36 lectures provide a different perspective on the society and culture of the Middle Ages - one that entrenches you in the daily human experience of living during this underappreciated era. Drawing on history, literature, the arts, technology, and science, these lectures will deepen the way you understand not only the Middle Ages but everything that came afterward: From the Renaissance, to the Enlightenment, to your own world.

Filled with amazing insights, this series brings you closer than ever before to life as it was lived and felt. You'll meet the likes of William Caxton, England's first printer who not only printed and distributed a variety of works but also often had to translate them himself; learn about Hugh of Payns and the role of his Knights Templar - organized for the protection of pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem - in the creation of the first modern bank; see how communities dealt with marriage in a time when the church had not yet drawn this institution into its orbit; and much more.

Rich with information and period detail (including revealing examples of medieval literature from the English, French, Norse, Icelandic, and Italian worlds), these lectures will dramatically increase your understanding of how lives in the Middle Ages were really lived.]]> 6 Dorsey Armstrong Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.25 2009 The Medieval World
author: Dorsey Armstrong
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Food: A Cultural Culinary History]]> 18306118
In fact, civilization itself began in the quest for food. Humanity's transition to agriculture was not only the greatest social revolution in history, but it directly produced the structures and institutions we call "civilization."

In 36 fascinating lectures, award-winning Professor Albala puts this extraordinary subject on the table, taking you on an enthralling journey into the human relationship to food. With this innovative course, you'll travel the world discovering fascinating food lore and culture of all regions and eras - as an eye-opening lesson in history as well as a unique window on what we eat today.]]> 19 Ken Albala Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.32 2013 Food: A Cultural Culinary History
author: Ken Albala
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> The Hunchback of Notre-Dame 30597
The novel has been described as a key text in French literature[1] and has been adapted for film over a dozen times, in addition to numerous television and stage adaptations, such as a 1923 silent film with Lon Chaney, a 1939 sound film with Charles Laughton, and a 1996 Disney animated film with Tom Hulce (both as Quasimodo).

The novel sought to preserve values of French culture in a time period of great change, which resulted in the destruction of many French Gothic structures. The novel made Notre-Dame de Paris a national icon and served as a catalyst for renewed interest in the restoration of Gothic form.]]> 510 Victor Hugo 0451527887 Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.02 1831 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
author: Victor Hugo
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1831
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters]]> 6425725 340 Ben H. Winters 1594744424 Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 3.29 2009 Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
author: Ben H. Winters
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> Lady Thief (Scarlet, #2) 16181630 312 A.C. Gaughen 0802736149 Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.04 2014 Lady Thief (Scarlet, #2)
author: A.C. Gaughen
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> Captain Blood 158446 Short Description: Peter Blood, an Irish physician and soldier in England in the 1680's, is wrongly convicted of treason and sentenced to indentured slavery in the Caribbean. He escapes and becomes the most feared pirate captain on the Spanish Main, but all the glory of his adventures cannot help him, for the woman he loves cannot love a thief and pirate. Even when he destroys England's enemies, even at his most triumphant...but wait! What's that...

Long Description: Peter Blood, an Irish physician and former soldier is happily settled, in the 1680's, as the doctor in an English town, when the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth catches him by accident. He saves a man's life, as a doctor must try to do, but the man is a rebel and the hanging Judge Jeffreys sentences him to ten years as an indentured slave in the Caribbean colonies. Once there, his knowledge as a physician is recognized, and thus he meets and falls in love with the daughter of the man who own his servitude; not likely to be a successful love story! A Spanish ship attacks the town, and while the Spaniards celebrate their victory he boldly steals their ship, and he and his fellow convicts sail off to become the boldest and most fearless of pirates among the islands and on the Spanish Main. But all the glory of his adventures cannot help him, for the woman he loves cannot love a thief and pirate. Even when he destroys England's enemies, even at his most triumphant...but wait! Is that... The classic novel of adventure and romance, and one of Sabatini's best.]]> 236 Rafael Sabatini 1406800163 Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.17 1922 Captain Blood
author: Rafael Sabatini
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1922
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Far and Away: A Prize Every Time]]> 10349111
Following in the tradition of Ghost Rider and Traveling Music, Rush drummer Neil Peart lets us ride with him along the backroads of North America, Europe, and South America, sharing his experiences in personal reflections and full-color photos. Spanning almost four years, these twenty-two stories are open letters that recount adventures both personal and universal?from the challenges and accomplishments in the professional life of an artist to the birth of a child. These popular stories, originally posted on Neil?s website, are now collected and contextualized with a new introduction and conclusion in this beautifully designed collector?s volume.

Fans will discover a more intimate side to Neil?s very private personal life, and will enjoy his observations of natural phenomena. At one point, he anxiously describes the birth of two hummingbirds in his backyard; at the same time, his wife is preparing for the birth of their daughter ? a striking synchronicity tenderly related to readers.

A love of drumming, nature, art, and the open road threads through the narrative, as Neil explores new horizons, both physical and spiritual. This is the personal, introspective travelogue of rock?s foremost drummer, enthusiastic biker, and sensitive husband and father. Far and Away is a book to be enjoyed again and again, like letters from a distant friend.
]]> 312 Neil Peart 1770410589 Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 4.29 2011 Far and Away: A Prize Every Time
author: Neil Peart
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work]]> 6261332
Called "the sleeper hit of the publishing season" (The Boston Globe), Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant bestseller, attracting readers with its radical (and timely) reappraisal of the merits of skilled manual labor. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a "knowledge worker," based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing. Using his own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford presents a wonderfully articulated call for self-reliance and a moving reflection on how we can live concretely in an ever more abstract world.]]> 241 Matthew B. Crawford 1594202230 Amanda 1 audible, did-not-finish 3.73 2009 Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work
author: Matthew B. Crawford
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2009
rating: 1
read at: 2022/02/20
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:
While I agree with the greater point of there being value in real work, this book felt like a well thought out argument in a bar that was then padded out and elongated to make a book. The thoughts and arguments could be mulled down to a one hour conversation at most. It did not need a whole book, or at least not the way this was presented.
]]> <![CDATA[Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes]]> 21046525 256 Alastair Humphreys 0007548036 Amanda 0 audible, did-not-finish 3.82 2014 Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes
author: Alastair Humphreys
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: audible, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Embrace the Cow: How to Ride Around the World on a Budget]]> 34226143
Sprinkled amongst her adventures and funny experiences from around the world is advice on how to start planning, fund-raising, promoting and organising your own trip, including top tips from other renowned riders like Sam Manicom, Lois Pryce and Nick Sanders. Steph Jeavons offers advice on topics such as transporting your bike, border crossings, choosing your kit, your route and beyond.

From leaving London in 2014, she's ridden into the chaos of a Hindu pilgrimage, been the first Brit to ride on Antarctica, crossed Death Road and more. This book whets the appetite of those yearning for the trip of a lifetime, as well as those who think it's something that just happens to others. It's filled with rich photographs and uplifting quotes and is an optimistic book, making you think anything is possible.

This great read is for those seeking inspiration on how to get their own trip together, for those yearning for a way out of the ordinary life and into the realms of possible new life choices, or for those armchair adventurers who enjoy soaking up the adventures of others.

Steph's story proves anything is possible.]]> 228 Steph Jeavons Amanda 0 kindle, did-not-finish 4.03 Embrace the Cow: How to Ride Around the World on a Budget
author: Steph Jeavons
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.03
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/03/09
shelves: kindle, did-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Long Ride Home: From Sydney to London (The Postman Book 1)]]> 18893708
The book was originally released by HarperCollins in Australia where it is known as Going Postal. This is the international release, with a few changes to the text and a list of images and videos at the end. Hope you enjoy.]]> 240 Nathan Millward Amanda 0 4.51 2011 The Long Ride Home: From Sydney to London (The Postman Book 1)
author: Nathan Millward
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/02/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Circling The Sun (1 Woman, 1 Motorcycle, 1 World)]]> 20614468 Benka Pulko Amanda 0 to-read 4.55 2011 Circling The Sun (1 Woman, 1 Motorcycle, 1 World)
author: Benka Pulko
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Where Angels Fear to Tread 8082436
The book begins when Linda has a chance meeting with a fellow musician, Georgia. She is an attractive blonde Canadian who is overcoming her midlife crisis by setting out on a physical and spiritual exploration of Europe and Africa. They begin their shared adventure by leaving for Morocco on Linda´s 18 year old BMW motorcycle complete with Georgia´s Celtic harp and Linda´s tin whistle.

After many varied experiences, including a hike amongst the Berbers in the high Atlas mountains they part company in the south and Georgia continues her journey solo to face the dangers of the Mauritanian desert.

Linda returns briefly to her new home in a smugglers village in Andalucia but is soon on the road again. After a brief visit to her family in England to help with the unexpected death of her mother, she completes a lone motorcycle trip of over 7,000 miles to the Ukraine. During this journey she dodges bandits in Rumania and whistles her way through politically sensitive areas of Moldova and the Crimea.

Finally after a frightening experience in her own home, she takes a Greyhound bus in midwinter across the USA to Canada to meet Georgia again 16 months after their parting in Morocco.

During their time apart Georgia and Linda kept in touch by post and excepts from Georgiaâ s letters are included. These provide not only detailed accounts of life in West Africa but also a continuity and tension to Lindaâ s tale. Their friendship across the miles supported them both in the joys, sorrows, problems and dangers that they each faced, candidly described in the text.

A further dimension is the inclusion of poems and songs composed and used during the period. these combined with the variety of people and places over the short time span give a fast yet sensitive pace to the story.
]]> 232 Linda Bootherstone 1441579311 Amanda 0 to-read 3.17 2010 Where Angels Fear to Tread
author: Linda Bootherstone
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Into Africa With a Smile 29966093 The events and people met are described with honesty and humour and the rich tapestry of the political history of Africa, at that time, is woven into the story.]]> 295 Linda Bootherstone Amanda 0 to-read 3.50 Into Africa With a Smile
author: Linda Bootherstone
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Three Wandering Poms 32163428 Their adventures over two and half years include flatting in the notorious Kings Cross and travelling by motorcycle all over Australia.
Two of the girls had never ridden before and yet they tackled a variety of road conditions, including the then unsealed Nullarbor and Mount Isa roads and met a wealth of outback characters. Their exploits will keep you laughing and remind you if you have the will there is a way; it's just a matter of following your dreams.]]> 164 Linda Bootherstone Amanda 0 to-read 2.80 2014 Three Wandering Poms
author: Linda Bootherstone
name: Amanda
average rating: 2.80
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Kappa 876637 144 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 080483251X Amanda 4 kindle 3.78 1927 Kappa
author: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1927
rating: 4
read at: 2025/11/10
date added: 2025/11/10
shelves: kindle
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bugatti Queen: In Search of a French Racing Legend]]> 1821864
Transcending her provincial background, and taking the name “Hellé Nice,” Hélène Delangle made her way into the Parisian demimonde of the 1920s as a nude model, ballerina, and cabaret dancer. But it was on the racetrack, thrilled by the combination of machinery and speed, that Nice would realize her destiny, becoming the “fastest woman in the world.”

Catching the attention of the formidable Ettore Bugatti, designer of the world’s most desirable cars, Nice gained admission to the exclusive male club of drivers. Her readiness to pose for the camera with seductively half-closed eyes and a radiant smile, coupled with her willingness to risk her life for a record or a win, made Hellé Nice an irresistible commodity for Bugatti’s marque. Impenitently promiscuous, her many lovers ranged from engineers and mechanics to aristocrats of the racing world such as Baron Philippe de Rothschild and Count Bruno d’Harcourt.

A racer of thrilling audacity, Hellé Nice competed in numerous Grand Prix, was the only woman to drive the treacherous American dirt tracks and speedbowls in the 1930s, and set new land-speed records until a notorious accident in Brazil nearly ended her racing career. Her comeback impeded by the war, she lived out the Occupation in the South of France. In 1949, she was mysteriously denounced by a hostile fellow driver as a Gestapo agent. Eventually, Hellé Nice would die in obscurity, the shadow on her reputation causing her name to be written out of racing history.

Drawn from a remarkable cache of newly discovered papers, Miranda Seymour’s Bugatti Queen sheds new light on both the treacherous world of international racing and life in Occupied France, while revealing the story of a fearless and passionate woman who lived for challenge.]]> 352 Miranda Seymour 1400061687 Amanda 0 to-read 3.77 2004 Bugatti Queen: In Search of a French Racing Legend
author: Miranda Seymour
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Zimbabwean Psychiatrist's Hat]]> 73730608 Traverse the mighty Amazon Ghost Road, meet a naked Polish cameraman, scale volcanoes and ford rivers, confront Venezuelan Cartel bosses, witness the Dakar Rally and the quest to cross the Darien jungle Gap.
Experience and embrace euphoria, despair, danger, unpredictability, life threatening crashes, lunar landscapes and landslides .Enjoy or endure; Love Motels, malaria attacks, tarantula soup and Guinea Pig dinners.
Savour the beauty of South America on this rollercoaster motorcycling odyssey. Encounter the exotic and bizarre and mix with characters from the extreme fringes of society.
Spencer's writing is fast paced and emotional, as the allure and wonder, the desperate and shocking, unfold in a raw, brutally honest style, tempered by Spencer's distinctive humour.
Twenty three individually crafted stories from a circumnavigation of South America with over a hundred thought provoking and stunning photographs.]]> 362 Spencer James Conway Amanda 0 to-read 4.50 The Zimbabwean Psychiatrist's Hat
author: Spencer James Conway
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA['The Japanese-Speaking Curtain Maker']]> 50525577 310 Spencer James Conway 099562903X Amanda 0 to-read 4.61 'The Japanese-Speaking Curtain Maker'
author: Spencer James Conway
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.61
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail]]> 22303431 “Recipes for hikers seeking an alternative to the expensive, often boring, freeze-dried prepared meals that are sold in stores.” —Library Journal   Improve your backpacking experience by creating the delicious and healthy home-dried meals and snacks featured in this book. Easy to rehydrate in camp and lighter than lugging ingredients and extra fuel, these foods are perfect for backpackers. Updated with twenty brand-new recipes, including Sesame Lasagna, Stuffed Cabbage Soup, San Antonio Special, and Backpacker’s Cincinnati Chili, this new edition also has the most up-to-date information on dehydrators and stoves, water purification, and food storage, making it the perfect handbook for nutritious—and delectable—dining on the trail.   ·       Over 180 recipes for casseroles, pastas, soups, stews, chowders, beans, pilafs, dried fruits, trail mixes, bars, and cookies ·       Tips on drying food in a dehydrator or oven ·       Includes vegetarian and low-fat recipes ·      Recipes so tasty that you'll make them at home too!]]> 179 Linda Frederick Yaffe Amanda 0 just-for-research 4.19 2014 Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail
author: Linda Frederick Yaffe
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/03
shelves: just-for-research
review:

]]> Essential Fly Fishing 2197205 160 Tom Meade 1558213341 Amanda 0 physical-non-fiction, to-read 4.00 1994 Essential Fly Fishing
author: Tom Meade
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative]]> 13099738 160 Austin Kleon 0761169253 Amanda 0 audible, to-read 3.96 2012 Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
author: Austin Kleon
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/03
shelves: audible, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[You Deserve This Sh!t: Get Unstuck, Find Your Path, and Become the Best Version of Yourself]]> 58027656
In this authentic self-help book, Jordan Tarver, introspective author and world traveler, guides you on a journey of self-discovery. A near-death experience in 2013 and a soul-searching solo backpacking trip taught Jordan how to live. Since then, he's dedicated himself to living a life infused with meaning and empowering others to do the same.

He uses inspiring stories, workable tactics, understandable action steps, and simple language that help you:

① Get unstuck

② Find your path

③ Become the best version of yourself

As you progress through its pages, you’ll learn how to create positive change in your life NOW to live the life of your dreams FOREVER.

By the end of You Deserve This Sh!t, you’ll have a newfound awareness of yourself and the world around you, the courage to always go outside your comfort zone, and the passion for living an intentional life. You will feel empowered to make choices that align with your goals and feel deserving of the exact life you want to live.

Let your journey begin. This book is your nudge.

◆◆◆

BONUS: Enjoy free content at the end of the book to continue your journey of becoming the best version of yourself.]]> 230 Jordan Tarver Amanda 0 audible, to-read 3.45 You Deserve This Sh!t: Get Unstuck, Find Your Path, and Become the Best Version of Yourself
author: Jordan Tarver
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.45
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/03
shelves: audible, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mile 445: Hitched in Her Hiking Boots]]> 31626005 Not many people can say they met and married their spouse within thirty days of beginning to hike the Pacific Crest Trail.



But that’s exactly what happened to twenty-five-year-old Claire Henley Miller.



Mile 445 is the inspiring—and romantic—true story of how Miller left corporate life behind to embark on a 2,650-mile hike from Mexico to Canada. She is doing it alone, and the only gear she takes to survive the trek in the mountains of California, Oregon, and Washington fits inside her sixty-eight-liter backpack.



At the start of her five-month journey, she meets a handsome young man known on the trail as Big Spoon. Their paths keep crossing. The two quickly see a greater reason for their expedition than to explore the rigorous wilderness. They fall madly in love and get married. But their adventure is just beginning.



Told with rich vitality, Miller’s quest unfolds in mystical ways through deadly desert storms, 14,000-foot ascents, and decisions that will affect the rest of her life. This bold tale of courage and determination brims with humor and suspense as it reveals life, love, and loss in the rawness of the wild.

]]> 376 Claire Henley Miller Amanda 0 kindle, to-read 4.09 2016 Mile 445: Hitched in Her Hiking Boots
author: Claire Henley Miller
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/11/03
shelves: kindle, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs, and More (Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Blogs,)]]> 59055421 320 Dianne Jacob Amanda 4 4.24 Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs, and More (Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Blogs,)
author: Dianne Jacob
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/11/03
date added: 2025/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes]]> 8479145
From our foremost expert on the science of cooking, Harold McGee, Keys to Good Cooking is a concise and authoritative guide designed to help home cooks navigate the ever-expanding universe of ingredients, recipes, food safety, and appliances, and arrive at the promised land of a satisfying dish.

A work of astounding scholarship and originality, Keys to Good Cooking directly addresses the cook at work in the kitchen and in need of quick and reliable guidance. Cookbooks past and present frequently contradict one another about the best ways to prepare foods, and many contain erroneous information and advice.

Keys to Good Cooking distills the modern scientific understanding of cooking and translates it into immediately useful information. Looking at ingredients from the mundane to the exotic, McGee takes you from market to table, teaching, for example, how to spot the most delectable asparagus (choose thick spears); how to best prepare the vegetable (peel, don't snap, the fibrous ends; broiling is one effective cooking method for asparagus and other flat-lying vegetables); and how to present it (coat with butter or oil after cooking to avoid a wrinkled surface). This book will be a requisite countertop resource for all home chefs, as McGee's insights on kitchen safety in particular- reboil refrigerated meat or fish stocks every few days. (They're so perishable that they can spoil even in the refrigerator.); Don't put ice cubes or frozen gel packs on a burn. (Extreme cold can cause additional skin damage )-will save even the most knowledgeable home chefs from culinary disaster.

A companion volume to recipe books, a touchstone that helps cooks spot flawed recipes and make the best of them, Keys to Good Cooking will be of use to cooks of all to beginners who want to learn the basics, to weekend cooks who want a quick refresher in the basics, and to accomplished cooks who want to rethink a dish from the bottom up. With Keys to Good Cooking McGee has created an essential guide for food lovers everywhere.]]> 553 Harold McGee 1594202680 Amanda 0 kindle, to-read 4.06 2009 Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes
author: Harold McGee
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science]]> 25454364
Winner of the James Beard Award for General Cooking and the IACP Cookbook of the Year Award



"The one book you must have, no matter what you’re planning to cook or where your skill level falls."— New York Times Book Review
Ever wondered how to pan-fry a steak with a charred crust and an interior that's perfectly medium-rare from edge to edge when you cut into it? How to make homemade mac 'n' cheese that is as satisfyingly gooey and velvety-smooth as the blue box stuff, but far tastier? How to roast a succulent, moist turkey (forget about brining!)—and use a foolproof method that works every time?
As Serious Eats's culinary nerd-in-residence, J. Kenji López-Alt has pondered all these questions and more. In The Food Lab , Kenji focuses on the science behind beloved American dishes, delving into the interactions between heat, energy, and molecules that create great food. Kenji shows that often, conventional methods don’t work that well, and home cooks can achieve far better results using new—but simple—techniques. In hundreds of easy-to-make recipes with over 1,000 full-color images, you will find out how to make foolproof Hollandaise sauce in just two minutes, how to transform one simple tomato sauce into a half dozen dishes, how to make the crispiest, creamiest potato casserole ever conceived, and much more.]]> 962 J. Kenji López-Alt 0393249867 Amanda 0 4.58 2015 The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science
author: J. Kenji López-Alt
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2025/11/03
date added: 2025/11/03
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The One Hour Content Plan: The Solopreneur’s Guide to a Year’s Worth of Blog Post Ideas in 60 Minutes and Creating Content That Hooks and Sells]]> 36056948
Does any of this sound like you?1. You NEVER know what to write

On most days you struggle to come up with blog post ideas and haven’t planned in advance what your content is going to be about. You're always looking to fill a publishing queue.  

2. You chase after content trends

You go after what you think will make your post go viral or get more shares. There isn’t necessarily a thread in any of your content pieces.

3. Your content doesn’t have a strong link to the products or services you offer

You’re not sure how to create content to promote your products or services. 

If you’re nodding yes to any of the above, The 1- Hour Content Plan will help you generate COUNTLESS ideas. To be exact, a full year’s worth of traffic building and sales boosting content ideas in 60 minutes or less. 



Here’s what’s packed in this how-to  

Three core ways to INSTANTLY generate content ideas with ease. Ditch the content overwhelm and never ever struggle with what to write again. 5 types of content that will inch your subscriber towards becoming a buyer and sell your products and services with ease. (And why you need ALL five!) The fastest way to determine your BRAND VOICE so that you create content that fits you like a glove. No “whishy-washy” ideas. No guessing. 8 MUST-NOT neglect elements that either make or break your blog posts and how to optimize each of them. The trap that bloggers and solopreneurs fall into with producing content and how ways to HOOK more eyeballs on your content. Imagine for a minute how your blog and business would change if you NEVER run out of blog post ideas…

You know exactly what to create, when and what results it’ll drive.

Your offers (paid and free) become SEDUCTIVE magnets of YES! that readers cannot resist.



Every single piece of content has a purpose in growing your blog and business, sells your products and services for you and builds your online presence…

That’s the power of a content strategy and the promise behind the ‘One Hour Content Plan.’

Intrigued yet?Then scroll to the top and click or tap "Buy Now".

Get your content to work harder for you with the One Hour Content Plan!]]> 148 Meera Kothand Amanda 0 to-read 4.05 2017 The One Hour Content Plan: The Solopreneur’s Guide to a Year’s Worth of Blog Post Ideas in 60 Minutes and Creating Content That Hooks and Sells
author: Meera Kothand
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/11/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine]]> 54846187 The New York Times bestselling author of Fat Chance explains the eight pathologies that underlie all chronic disease, documents how processed food has impacted them to ruin our health, economy, and environment over the past 50 years, and proposes an urgent manifesto and strategy to cure both us and the planet.

Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric neuroendocrinologist who has long been on the cutting edge of medicine and science, challenges our current healthcare paradigm which has gone off the rails under the influence of Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government.

You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. One of Lustig’s singular gifts as a communicator is his ability to “connect the dots” for the general reader, in order to unpack the scientific data and concepts behind his arguments, as he tells the “real story of food” and “the story of real food.”

Metabolical weaves the interconnected strands of nutrition, health/disease, medicine, environment, and society into a completely new fabric by proving on a scientific basis a series of iconoclastic revelations, among them:

• Medicine for chronic disease treats symptoms, not the disease itself
• You can diagnose your own biochemical profile
• Chronic diseases are not "druggable," but they are "foodable"
• Processed food isn’t just toxic, it’s addictive
• The war between vegan and keto is a false war—the combatants are on the same side
• Big Food, Big Pharma, and Big Government are on the other side

Making the case that food is the only lever we have to effect biochemical change to improve our health, Lustig explains what to eat based on two novel criteria: protect the liver, and feed the gut. He insists that if we do not fix our food and change the way we eat, we will continue to court chronic disease, bankrupt healthcare, and threaten the planet. But there is hope: this book explains what’s needed to fix all three.]]> 416 Robert H. Lustig Amanda 0 to-read 4.38 2021 Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine
author: Robert H. Lustig
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> How to Take Smart Notes 34507927 The Take Smart Notes principle is based on established psychological insight and draws from a tried and tested note-taking-technique. This is the first comprehensive guide and description of this system in English, and not only does it explain how it works, but also why. It suits students and academics in the social sciences and humanities, nonfiction writers and others who are in the business of reading, thinking and writing.
Instead of wasting your time searching for notes, quotes or references, you can focus on what really thinking, understanding and developing new ideas in writing. It does not matter if you prefer taking notes with pen and paper or on a computer, be it Windows, Mac or Linux. And you can start right away.]]> 178 Sönke Ahrens Amanda 0 currently-reading, kindle 4.08 2017 How to Take Smart Notes
author: Sönke Ahrens
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/11/03
shelves: currently-reading, kindle
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Good Food, Healthy Planet: Your Kitchen Companion to Simple, Practical, Sustainable Cooking]]> 195473693 272 Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma 177151406X Amanda 0 currently-reading 3.67 Good Food, Healthy Planet: Your Kitchen Companion to Simple, Practical, Sustainable Cooking
author: Puneeta Chhitwal-Varma
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/11/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Alder Gulch Gold 33781595 137 James Willard Schultz Amanda 0 physical-fiction 4.17 Alder Gulch Gold
author: James Willard Schultz
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/19
shelves: physical-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau]]> 58470896

This is the first of six journeys taken by Shattuck, each one inspired by a walk once taken by Henry David Thoreau. After the Cape, Shattuck goes up Mount Katahdin and Mount Wachusett, down the coastline of his hometown, and then through the Allagash. Along the way, Shattuck encounters unexpected characters, landscapes, and stories, seeing for himself the restorative effects that walking can have on a dampened spirit. Over years of following Thoreau, Shattuck finds himself uncovering new insights about family, love, friendship, and fatherhood, and understanding more deeply the lessons walking can offer through life’s changing seasons.


Intimate, entertaining, and beautifully crafted, Six Walks is a resounding tribute to the ways walking in nature can inspire us all.]]> 280 Ben Shattuck 195353404X Amanda 0 to-read 3.84 2022 Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau
author: Ben Shattuck
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear]]> 24453082 Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.]]> 276 Elizabeth Gilbert 1594634718 Amanda 0 to-read 3.95 2015 Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
author: Elizabeth Gilbert
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/17
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]]> The War of the Worlds 8147103 180 H.G. Wells Amanda 0 kindle, currently-reading 4.09 1898 The War of the Worlds
author: H.G. Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1898
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/14
shelves: kindle, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Rose Field (The Book of Dust, #3)]]> 228587642 The Secret Commonwealth left off, this story finds Lyra alone in a city haunted by daemons, searching for her beloved Pan. Malcolm Polstead isn't far behind, searching for Lyra. And they are both racing toward the desert of Karamakan, following the trail of roses said to hold the secret of Dust.

Their allies and enemies are converging on the mysterious red building at the heart of the desert: Marcel Delamare and the military might of the Magisterium; the radical Men from the Mountains; scientists, scholars and spies; troops of witches and other people of the air. And awaiting them all is a previously unseen and chilling new threat that will change everything.

The intertwining odysseys of Malcolm and Lyra, their journeys both internal and external, will test their limits and challenge even their most dearly held beliefs.

As ever, Philip Pullman is using the language of fantasy to illuminate our world and to explore the deepest questions of what it means to be alive and awake to all the splendors and horrors around us. The extraordinary novels of The Book of Dust speak powerfully to today's readers and will take their place alongside the forever-favorites of His Dark Materials.]]> 657 Philip Pullman 0593306635 Amanda 0 to-read 3.44 2025 The Rose Field (The Book of Dust, #3)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/11
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy (The Murderbot Diaries, #2.5)]]> 237633725 34 Martha Wells 1250425360 Amanda 0 to-read 4.12 2025 Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy (The Murderbot Diaries, #2.5)
author: Martha Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso]]> 6656 This Everyman’s Library edition–containing in one volume all three cantos, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso–includes an introduction by Nobel Prize—winning poet Eugenio Montale, a chronology, notes, and a bibliography. Also included are forty-two drawings selected from Botticelli’s marvelous late-fifteenth-century series of illustrations.

Translated in this edition by Allen Mandelbaum, The Divine Comedy begins in a shadowed forest on Good Friday in the year 1300. It proceeds on a journey that, in its intense recreation of the depths and the heights of human experience, has become the key with which Western civilization has sought to unlock the mystery of its own identity.

Mandelbaum’s astonishingly Dantean translation, which captures so much of the life of the original, renders whole for us the masterpiece of that genius whom our greatest poets have recognized as a central model for all poets.]]> 798 Dante Alighieri 0679433139 Amanda 0 to-read 4.09 1304 The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
author: Dante Alighieri
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1304
rating: 0
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]]> Macbeth: Moment by Moment 43913694 214 William Shakespeare 0998809101 Amanda 0 to-read 3.87 1623 Macbeth: Moment by Moment
author: William Shakespeare
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1623
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/11
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]]> Meditations 30659 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. While the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation and encouragement, Marcus Aurelius also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a timeless collection that has been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and readers throughout the centuries.]]> 254 Marcus Aurelius 0140449337 Amanda 0 to-read 4.29 180 Meditations
author: Marcus Aurelius
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.29
book published: 180
rating: 0
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]]> Don Quixote 3836
With its experimental form and literary playfulness, Don Quixote has been generally recognized as the first modern novel. The book has been enormously influential on a host of writers, from Fielding and Sterne to Flaubert, Dickens, Melville, and Faulkner, who reread it once a year, "just as some people read the Bible."]]> 1023 Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra Amanda 0 to-read 3.87 1605 Don Quixote
author: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1605
rating: 0
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]]> Paradise Lost 15997 Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his band of rebel angels plot their revenge against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, who are motivated by all too human temptations but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love.

Marked by Milton's characteristic erudition, Paradise Lost is a work epic both in scale and, notoriously, in ambition. For nearly 350 years, it has held generation upon generation of audiences in rapt attention, and its profound influence can be seen in almost every corner of Western culture.]]> 453 John Milton 0140424393 Amanda 0 to-read 3.85 1667 Paradise Lost
author: John Milton
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1667
rating: 0
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]]> The Arabian Nights 93101
The tales told by Shahrazad over a thousand and one nights to delay her execution by the vengeful King Shahriyar have become among the most popular in both Eastern and Western literature, as recounted by Sir Francis Burton. From the epic adventures of "Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp" to the farcical "Young Woman and her Five Lovers" and the social criticism of "The Tale of the Hunchback", the stories depict a fabulous world of all-powerful sorcerers, jinns imprisoned in bottles and enchanting princesses. But despite their imaginative extravagance, the Tales are anchored to everyday life by their realism, providing a full and intimate record of medieval Islam.']]> 1049 Anonymous 0812972147 Amanda 0 to-read 4.06 800 The Arabian Nights
author: Anonymous
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 800
rating: 0
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]]> Fahrenheit 451 13079982
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 249 Ray Bradbury Amanda 0 libro 3.97 1963 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at: 2025/10/10
date added: 2025/10/10
shelves: libro
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition]]> 537375
Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, Caroline Alexander gives us a riveting account of Shackleton's expedition--one of history's greatest epics of survival. And she presents the astonishing work of Frank Hurley, the Australian photographer whose visual record of the adventure has never before been published comprehensively. Together, text and image re-create the terrible beauty of Antarctica, the awful destruction of the ship, and the crew's heroic daily struggle to stay alive, a miracle achieved largely through Shackleton's inspiring leadership.

The survival of Hurley's remarkable images is scarcely less miraculous: The original glass plate negatives, from which most of the book's illustrations are superbly reproduced, were stored in hermetically sealed cannisters that survived months on the ice floes, a week in an open boat on the polar seas, and several more months buried in the snows of a rocky outcrop called Elephant Island. Finally Hurley was forced to abandon his professional equipment; he captured some of the most unforgettable images of the struggle with a pocket camera and three rolls of Kodak film.

Published in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History's landmark exhibition on Shackleton's journey, The Endurance thrillingly recounts one of the last great adventures in the Heroic Age of exploration--perhaps the greatest of them all.]]> 211 Caroline Alexander 0375404031 Amanda 0 to-read 4.34 1998 The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
author: Caroline Alexander
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon]]> 15803144
In the tradition of The Perfect Storm and Seabiscuit , the engrossing tale of the fastest boat ride ever down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.

In the winter of 1983, the largest El Niño event on record—a chain of “superstorms” that swept in from the Pacific Ocean—battered the entire West. That spring, a massive snowmelt sent runoff racing down the Colorado River toward the Glen Canyon Dam, a 710-foot-high wall of concrete that sat at the head of the most iconic landscape feature in America, the Grand Canyon. As the water clawed toward the parapet of the dam, worried federal officials desperately scrambled to avoid a worst-case one of the most dramatic dam failures in history.

In the midst of this crisis, beneath the light of a full moon, a trio of river guides secretly launched a small, hand-built wooden boat, a dory named the Emerald Mile, into the Colorado just below the dam’s base and rocketed toward the dark chasm downstream, where the torrents of water released by the dam engineers had created a rock-walled maelstrom so powerful it shifted giant boulders and created bizarre hydraulic features never previously seen. The river was already choked with the wreckage of commercial rafting injured passengers clung to the remnants of three-ton motorboats that had been turned upside down and torn to pieces. The chaos had claimed its first fatality, further launches were forbidden, and rangers were conducting the largest helicopter evacuation in the history of Grand Canyon National Park.

An insurgent river run under such conditions seemed to border on the suicidal, but Kenton Grua, the captain of that dory, was on an unusual a gesture of defiance unlike anything the river world had ever seen. His aim was to use the flood as a hydraulic slingshot that would hurl him and two companions through 277 miles of some of the most ferocious white water in North America and, if everything went as planned, catapult the Emerald Mile into legend as the fastest boat ever propelled—by oar, by motor, or by the grace of God—through the heart of the Grand Canyon.

Grua himself was already something of a mythic figure, a fearless boatman obsessed with the mysteries of the canyon. His quest embraced not only the trials of the speed run itself but also the larger story of his the men who had first discovered the canyon and pioneered its exploration, as well as those who waged a landmark battle to prevent it from being hog-tied by a series of massive hydroelectric dams—a conflict that continues to this day.

A writer who has worked as a river guide himself and is intimately familiar with the canyon’s many secrets, Kevin Fedarko is the ideal narrator for this American epic. The saga of The Emerald Mile is a thrilling adventure, as well as a magisterial portrait of the hidden kingdom of white water at the bottom of the greatest river canyon on earth. This book announces Fedarko as a major writing talent and at last sets forth the full story of an American legend—the legend of The Emerald Mile .]]> 432 Kevin Fedarko 1439159858 Amanda 0 to-read 4.41 2013 The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon
author: Kevin Fedarko
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/10/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Inside: One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage]]> 39022092 288 Susan Marie Conrad Amanda 5 kindle 4.45 2016 Inside: One Woman's Journey Through the Inside Passage
author: Susan Marie Conrad
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/10/08
date added: 2025/10/08
shelves: kindle
review:

]]> Ruins 238354988 From the critically-acclaimed, bestselling author of The Light Pirate, comes a sweeping, deeply resonant novel about an archeologist in search of an ancient artifact that could not only change her life, but upend the story of civilization itself.

Professor Ember Agni is a rising star in archeology, trying to balance an unfulfilling career in academia and a crumbling marriage, all while pursuing her true passion: unearthing a lost empire that no one else believes existed. Just as she’s about to give up on the ambitious expedition she spent a decade trying to fund, a message arrives from overseas. A former student claims to have found something extraordinary—an artifact that hints at the forgotten world lying beneath history’s tidy surface.

With vindication finally within reach, Ember risks everything for the sake of discovery and undertakes an odyssey that will either make her name or ruin her. Driven by unwavering faith in her vision of the past, she challenges the limits of her nation, her colleagues, and herself in order to exhume the missing pieces of how humanity began. But as she journeys deep into an untouched wilderness, in dogged pursuit of a dead civilization, she collides with the wreckage of her own life. On the brink of either discovery or destruction, Ember must choose who she wants to be, and to what kind of world she wants to belong.]]> 389 Lily Brooks-Dalton 1538770520 Amanda 0 to-read 3.64 2026 Ruins
author: Lily Brooks-Dalton
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2026
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Light Pirate 60468332 Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda—a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane—as she navigates a rapidly changing world.

Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before.

As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature.

Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time—The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness.

Includes a Reading Group Guide.]]> 325 Lily Brooks-Dalton 1538708272 Amanda 0 to-read 4.00 2022 The Light Pirate
author: Lily Brooks-Dalton
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Good Morning, Midnight 27405160
At the same time, Mission Specialist Sullivan is aboard the Aether on its return flight from Jupiter. The astronauts are the first human beings to delve this deep into space, and Sully has made peace with the sacrifices required of her: a daughter left behind, a marriage ended. So far the journey has been a success, but when Mission Control falls inexplicably silent, Sully and her crew mates are forced to wonder if they will ever get home.

As Augustine and Sully each face an uncertain future against forbidding yet beautiful landscapes, their stories gradually intertwine in a profound and unexpected conclusion. In crystalline prose, Good Morning, Midnight poses the most important questions: What endures at the end of the world? How do we make sense of our lives?]]> 218 Lily Brooks-Dalton 0812998901 Amanda 5 audible 3.87 2016 Good Morning, Midnight
author: Lily Brooks-Dalton
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[THE OREGON TRAIL DIARY OF 1852 : Join the Pioneer’s Wagon trains on the adventure of a lifetime!]]> 202533805 RELIVE THE WAGON TRAIN OF 1852. A day by day documentation by Esther Belle Hanna, a new wife of 27 years old. She is a Godly woman and puts great detail into her pages. The diaries of other wagon trains are put in as well. Some ahead and some behind, giving multiple viewpoints of the travels. Some written by kids and teenagers and others by adults. The diaries are so vivid that you will feel as though you are in the adventure. Some dates have multilple diaries written of the exact same days.

People always think of the past as just that, so how can a book bring a past event back?
That was the goal of this work. To use their own words from over 170 years ago, that are written in the present tense, along with actual paintings, early photos and drawings, to bring their journey back to life on that wagon As if they are alive right now.

So take a travel in time and see the Frontier the way it really is, for you are there now - in these pages - as it’s happening.
BUT WHEN YOU HEAR
“CIRCLE THE WAGONS THE INDIANS ARE COMING!"
WHAT WILL YOU DO? What are some of the global reviews saying about this new GOODREADS
5 out of 5 stars.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
December 4, 2023
SUCH A DELIGHTFUL STORY, the children, teenagers and Esther Belle have the best outlooks on their daily travels through the wild frontier. Athough the wagon travel is rough they still take time to document the beauty of the views and country, describing the Indian tribes and even trading and buying from them, the good times, the weather and what a travel it was. OR IS I should say because the book has been written in a way that is in the present so that was amazing to me. American west history at its best in this work of art. I laughed and I was on the edge of my wagon seat at times LOL. The ending is powerful I won't give any spoilers away. I really loved it. I dont think i will ever forget it

BARNES AND NOBEL
5 out of 5 stars.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
· 16 days ago
THE BOOK TOOK ME ON THE WAGON TRAIL. OMG!I felt like i was there in 1852. The book is a first hand account of the woman named Esther Hanna. All the added photos and paintings from that time really brought to life what was being mentioned in the diary unbelievably well. The other diaries from adults and teenagers and even 10 and 11 year olds are mixed in with Esther’s and many are written on the same dates as hers. It was very emotional at times for me, i am just like that. It was very fun and happy with many struggles and then joyous at times. Some of the situations that the people were in seemed impossible to get out of. What a true life documentary. Not made up fiction. That isn’t even needed here. That woman went through all of this in real life and she wrote every single day of her journey. It should become a movie or something on the screen. When I was done reading I had some tears of happiness. I don’t know why. Maybe I felt her feelings. Amazing writing skills for all involved.

BOOKS A MILLION
5 out of 5 stars.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
MY TOP BOOK PICK OF THE YEARSubmitted 6 days ago

By Julie

From Elmhurst IL

Verified Reviewer

I heard a lot about this new release so I was really expecting someth]]> 169 Johnny Vincento Amanda 4 4.41 THE OREGON TRAIL DIARY OF 1852 : Join the Pioneer’s Wagon trains on the adventure of a lifetime!
author: Johnny Vincento
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road]]> 41155177 you are different, woken up in new ways by the mile."

As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she most craved--that of a generalist explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and philosopher--had gone extinct. From her small-town home in Ontario, it seemed as if Marco Polo, Magellan and their like had long ago mapped the whole earth. So she vowed to become a scientist and go to Mars.
To pass the time before she could launch into outer space, Kate set off by bicycle down a short section of the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel Yule, then settled down to study at Oxford and MIT. Eventually the truth dawned on her: an explorer, in any day and age, is by definition the kind of person who refuses to live between the lines. And Harris had soared most fully out of bounds right here on Earth, travelling a bygone trading route on her bicycle. So she quit the laboratory and hit the Silk Road again with Mel, this time determined to bike it from the beginning to end.
Like Rebecca Solnit and Pico Iyer before her, Kate Harris offers a travel narrative at once exuberant and meditative, wry and rapturous. Weaving adventure and deep reflection with the history of science and exploration, Lands of Lost Borders explores the nature of limits and the wildness of a world that, like the self and like the stars, can never be fully mapped.]]> 300 Kate Harris 0345816781 Amanda 3 libro 3.81 2018 Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road
author: Kate Harris
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: libro
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle]]> 42397849
Burnout. Many women in America have experienced it. What’s expected of women and what it’s really like to be a woman in today’s world are two very different things—and women exhaust themselves trying to close the gap between them. How can you “love your body” when every magazine cover has ten diet tips for becoming “your best self”? How do you “lean in” at work when you’re already operating at 110 percent and aren’t recognized for it? How can you live happily and healthily in a sexist world that is constantly telling you you’re too fat, too needy, too noisy, and too selfish?

Sisters Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA, are here to help end the cycle of feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Instead of asking us to ignore the very real obstacles and societal pressures that stand between women and well-being, they explain with compassion and optimism what we’re up against—and show us how to fight back. In these pages you’ll learn

• what you can do to complete the biological stress cycle—and return your body to a state of relaxation
• how to manage the “monitor” in your brain that regulates the emotion of frustration
• how the Bikini Industrial Complex makes it difficult for women to love their bodies—and how to defend yourself against it
• why rest, human connection, and befriending your inner critic are keys to recovering and preventing burnout

With the help of eye-opening science, prescriptive advice, and helpful worksheets and exercises, all women will find something transformative in these pages—and will be empowered to create positive change. Emily and Amelia aren’t here to preach the broad platitudes of expensive self-care or insist that we strive for the impossible goal of “having it all.” Instead, they tell us that we are enough, just as we are—and that wellness, true wellness, is within our reach.]]> 277 Emily Nagoski 198481706X Amanda 2 audible 3.90 2019 Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
author: Emily Nagoski
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/05/26
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2)]]> 40376072
Long ago, Earth's terraforming program sent ships out to build new homes for humanity among the stars and made an unexpected discovery: a planet with life. But the scientists were unaware that the alien ecosystem was more developed than the primitive life forms originally discovered.

Now, thousands of years later, the Portiids and their humans have sent an exploration vessel following fragmentary radio signals. They discover a system in crisis, warring factions trying to recover from an apocalyptic catastrophe arising from what the early terraformers awoke all those years before.]]> 597 Adrian Tchaikovsky Amanda 4 audible 4.01 2019 Children of Ruin (Children of Time, #2)
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Children of Memory (Children of Time, #3)]]> 60850767
Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost.

Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology – and they've arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers' help may be the colony itself.

Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.]]> 486 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1529087201 Amanda 4 audible 3.96 2022 Children of Memory (Children of Time, #3)
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> Alone in Wonderland 55879258 Alone in Wonderland is a story about backpacking. But it's also a story about Independence, Love, Grief, Freedom, Adventure, Family, Chosen Family, Challenging Societal Norms, Safety, Feminism, Trauma, Overcoming, Letting Go, Letting In, Self-Knowledge, Self-Acceptance.

Debut author, Christine Reed, takes you on an 11-day solo backpacking trip around Mt. Rainier on the stunning 93-mile Wonderland Trail. She comes face to face with the challenges of long-distance trekking, the backpacking community, and the wildlife of the Pacific Northwest. Throughout the journey she asks questions about female independence in life and the outdoors. She challenges pre-conceived notions about fear and safety. She is raw and honest about grief and trauma and tells a truly inspiring story about overcoming.

Not to be missed by any adventure seeker!

AWARDS:
Alone in Wonderland has been awarded the National Indie Excellence Award for the Nonfiction Category, as well as The Book Excellence Award in the Adventure Non-Fiction Category.
It was also chosen as a Distinguished Favorite by the Independent Press Award in the New Nonfiction Category and Honorable Mention by the Foreword Indies in the Adventure Category.]]> 266 Christine Reed 173484180X Amanda 3 audible 3.77 Alone in Wonderland
author: Christine Reed
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Amanda 5 audible 4.08 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2025/06/01
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)]]> 36223860 original cover of ISBN 9781250186928

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself Murderbot. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the A stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks...

Cover illustration by Jaime Jones]]> 158 Martha Wells Amanda 5 audible 4.21 2018 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
author: Martha Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)]]> 35519101
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

Cover illustration by Jaime Jones]]> 158 Martha Wells 1250191785 Amanda 5 audible 4.19 2018 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
author: Martha Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)]]> 35519109
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?]]> 172 Martha Wells Amanda 5 audible 4.36 2018 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)
author: Martha Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)]]> 52381770
It worries about the fragile human crew who've grown to trust it, but only where no one can see.

It tells itself that they're only a professional obligation, but when they're captured and an old friend from the past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

Illustrator cover artist: Micah Epstein]]> 350 Martha Wells Amanda 5 audible 4.42 2020 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
author: Martha Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)]]> 65211701 Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast.

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.]]> 245 Martha Wells 1250826977 Amanda 5 audible 4.20 2023 System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)
author: Martha Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6)]]> 53205854
When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people — who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

Cover illustration by Jaime Jones]]> 168 Martha Wells 1250765374 Amanda 5 audible 4.23 2021 Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6)
author: Martha Wells
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> Cloud Atlas 49628
Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.

But the story doesn't end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.]]> 509 David Mitchell 0375507256 Amanda 4 audible 4.02 2004 Cloud Atlas
author: David Mitchell
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> Us in Ruins 199531937 Margot is on the quest to uncover and reassemble an ancient—and cursed—vase, with the help of a boy who went missing in 1932, because it's the only way to put back together her broken heart in this stand-alone adventure rom-com, perfect for fans of What the River Knows and The Lost City.

The mythical Vase of Venus Aurelia hasn’t been seen since 1932, but Margot Rhodes is determined to change that.

Drawn by the vase’s supposed magical properties, Margot embarks on her school’s archaeological trip to Pompeii. Sure, it’s her first time holding a shovel, but she’s got something no one else does: lost teenage explorer Van Keane’s journal.

Poring over the poetic entries that serve as a map to the vase’s missing shards, Margot finds herself falling in love with the boy who wrote it a century ago. She’s shocked when her search leads her to a statue that looks exactly like Van, and then the statue comes to life.

Catapulted into the present, Van is nothing like the wordsmith Margot imagined. He’s all sharp edges, intent on retrieving the relic for all the wrong reasons. But it takes two to survive Venus’s death-defying challenges, and, together, Margot and Van must excavate the treasure—and their buried pasts—before their story ends in ruins.

With a blend of humor, magic, and love, Rachel Moore crafts another stand-alone adventure rom-com full of double- and triple-crosses, hilarious shenanigans, and frustration-fueled banter, where the best treasure is true love.]]> 358 Rachel Moore 0063284685 Amanda 4 audible 3.52 2024 Us in Ruins
author: Rachel Moore
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World]]> 75484380
In a thrilling, colourful narrative enriched with the latest archaeological discoveries, bestselling historian Bettany Hughes walks through the landscapes of both ancient and modern time; on a journey whose purpose is to ask why we wonder, why we create, why we choose to remember the wonder of others. She explores traces of the Wonders themselves, and the traces they have left in history. A majestic work of historical storytelling, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World reinforces the exciting, and nourishing, notion that humans can make the impossible happen.]]> 416 Bettany Hughes 1474610358 Amanda 4 audible 3.87 2024 The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
author: Bettany Hughes
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

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

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

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

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

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments--and lifetimes--of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.]]> 406 Rick Rubin 0593652886 Amanda 3 audible 3.93 2023 The Creative Act: A Way of Being
author: Rick Rubin
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations]]> 214151727 From Alton Brown, the New York Times bestselling cookbook author and beloved culinary food personality, a debut collection of personal essays defined by his flair, wit, and insight.

From cameraman to chef, musician to food scientist, Alton Brown has had a diverse and remarkable career. His work on the Food Network, including creating Good Eats and hosting Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, has resonated with countless viewers and home cooks. Now, he shares exactly what’s on his mind, mixing compelling anecdotes from his personal and professional life with in-depth observations on the culinary world, film, personal style, defining meals of his lifetime, and much more.

With his whip-smart and engaging voice, Brown explores everything from wrestling a dumpster full of dough to culinary cultural appropriation to his ultimate quest for the perfect roast chicken. Deliciously candid and full of behind-the-scenes stories fans will love, Food for Thought is the ultimate reading experience for anyone who appreciates food and the people that prepare it.]]> 304 Alton Brown 1668064219 Amanda 5 audible 4.10 2025 Food for Thought: Essays and Ruminations
author: Alton Brown
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wagon Wheel Kitchens: Food on the Oregon Trail]]> 4032156 248 Jacqueline B. Williams 0700606092 Amanda 3 physical-non-fiction 3.93 1993 Wagon Wheel Kitchens: Food on the Oregon Trail
author: Jacqueline B. Williams
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: physical-non-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying]]> 40383078 The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying] is an inestimable gift.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

A newly revised and updated edition of the internationally bestselling spiritual classic, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, written by Sogyal Rinpoche, is the ultimate introduction to Tibetan Buddhist wisdom. An enlightening, inspiring, and comforting manual for life and death that the New York Times calls, “The Tibetan equivalent of [Dante’s] The Divine Comedy,” this is the essential work that moved Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions, to proclaim, “I have encountered no book on the interplay of life and death that is more comprehensive, practical, and wise.”
]]> 425 Sogyal Rinpoche Amanda 0 currently-reading, kindle 4.15 1992 The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
author: Sogyal Rinpoche
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/10/07
shelves: currently-reading, kindle
review:

]]> Little Women 49961264 1529 Louisa May Alcott Amanda 4 4.32 1868 Little Women
author: Louisa May Alcott
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1868
rating: 4
read at: 2025/08/26
date added: 2025/08/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]> 44279110
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522131 Amanda 0 to-read 3.59 2018 My Year of Rest and Relaxation
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/06/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)]]> 25499718
WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?]]> 600 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1447273281 Amanda 4 audible 4.28 2015 Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/22
date added: 2025/05/26
shelves: audible
review:

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

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

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

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

Because some doors should never be opened.]]> 418 Gareth Brown 1787637247 Amanda 5 audible 4.01 2024 The Book of Doors
author: Gareth Brown
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/19
date added: 2025/05/26
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games)]]> 214331246
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 Amanda 4 audible 4.49 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/14
date added: 2025/05/26
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Talk to Me: How to Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro]]> 38376049
From respected journalist, professor, and founder of the Writer's Symposium by the Sea, an indispensable guide to the subtle art of the interview guaranteed to afford readers with the skills and confidence they need the next time they say, "talk to me."

Interviewing is the single most important way journalists (and doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, human resources staff, and, really, all of us) get information. Yet to many, the perfect interview feels more like luck than skill—a rare confluence of rapport, topic, and timing. But the thing is, great interviews aren’t the result of serendipity and intuition, but rather the result of careful planning and good journalistic habits. And Dean Nelson is here to show you how to nail the perfect interview every time. 

Drawing on forty-years of award-winning journalism and his experience as the founder and host of the Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, Nelson walks readers through each step of the journey from deciding whom to interview and structuring questions, to the nitty gritty of how to use a recording device and effective note-taking strategies, to the ethical dilemmas of interviewing people you love (and loathe). He also includes case studies of famous interviews to show readers how these principles play out in real time.

Chock full of comprehensive, time-tested, gold-standard advice, Talk to Me is a book that demystifies the art and science of interviewing, in the vein of On Writing Well or How to Read Literature Like a Professor.]]> 386 Dean Nelson 0062825216 Amanda 4 4.05 Talk to Me: How to Ask Better Questions, Get Better Answers, and Interview Anyone Like a Pro
author: Dean Nelson
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/23
date added: 2025/05/26
shelves:
review:

]]> The Snow Leopard 764165 338 Peter Matthiessen 0140255087 Amanda 2 audible 4.06 1978 The Snow Leopard
author: Peter Matthiessen
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1978
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/05/26
shelves: audible
review:

]]> Sea of Tranquility 58446227 Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 Amanda 5 libro 4.02 2022 Sea of Tranquility
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: libro
review:

]]> Infinite (Infinite, #1) 35128447 SEARCHING FOR A NEW HOME...

The Galahad, a faster-than-light spacecraft, carries fifty scientists and engineers on a mission to prepare Kepler 452b, Earth's nearest habitable neighbor at 1400 light years away. With Earth no longer habitable and the Mars colony slowly failing, they are humanity's best hope.

After ten years in a failed cryogenic bed--body asleep, mind awake--William Chanokh's torture comes to an end as the fog clears, the hatch opens, and his friend and fellow hacker, Tom, greets him...by stabbing a screwdriver into his heart. This is the first time William dies.

It is not the last.

When he wakes from death, William discovers that all but one crew member--Capria Dixon--is either dead at Tom's hands, or escaped to the surface of Kepler 452b. This dire situation is made worse when Tom attacks again--and is killed. Driven mad by a rare reaction to extended cryo-sleep, Tom hacked the Galahad's navigation system and locked the ship on a faster-than-light journey through the universe, destination: nowhere. Ever.

Mysteriously immortal, William is taken on a journey with no end, where he encounters solitary desperation, strange and violent lifeforms, a forbidden love, and the nature of reality itself.

...HE DISCOVERS THE INFINITE.

Jeremy Robinson, the master of fast-paced and highly original stories seamlessly blending elements of horror, science fiction, and thrillers, tackles his most ambitious subject matter to date: reality itself. An amalgam of the works of J.J. Abrams and Ridley Scott, Infinite is a bold science fiction novel exploring the vastness of space and a man's desire to exist, find love, and alter the course of his life.]]> 400 Jeremy Robinson Amanda 3 audible 3.98 2017 Infinite (Infinite, #1)
author: Jeremy Robinson
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Midnight Library (The Midnight World, #1)]]> 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 Amanda 5 audible 3.95 2020 The Midnight Library (The Midnight World, #1)
author: Matt Haig
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: audible
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection]]> 220341389
In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year.

In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 198 John Green 0525556575 Amanda 0 to-read 4.31 2025 Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
author: John Green
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Meals in a Jar: Quick and Easy, Just-Add-Water, Homemade Recipes]]> 19092985 Stock your pantry with shelf-stable, homemade meals you can serve in no time with this unique and practical recipe book.With Julie Languille’s Meals in a Jar, all you have to do is pull one off the shelf, mix with water, cook, and serve. It’s as quick and easy as preparing a box of mac and cheese—but it’s not store-bought junk, it’s your favorite dishes made from scratch. With Julie’s easy-to-follow recipes and a little planning, you’ll have your pantry stocked with healthy, delicious ready-to-cook meals, • Tomato Soup with Cheese• Cheddar Garlic Biscuits• Cornmeal Pancakes with Syrup• Breakfast Burritos• Chicken Chipotle Soup• Carnitas• Braised Short Ribs• Turkey Pot Pie• Coq Au Vin• Rustic Fruit PieMeals in a Jar is packed with step-by-step instructions for natural breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts that allow even the most inexperienced chefs to make scrumptious, nutritious dishes. Not only are the recipes in this book perfect for carry-along camping fare or rushed weeknight dinners, they can also be life-savers in times of disasters like fires, blackouts or hurricanes.]]> 335 Julie Languille 1612432034 Amanda 0 3.64 2013 Meals in a Jar: Quick and Easy, Just-Add-Water, Homemade Recipes
author: Julie Languille
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> How High We Go in the Dark 57850265
Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.]]> 293 Sequoia Nagamatsu 0063072645 Amanda 4 libro
More of a collection of linked short stories, and heavily heavily revolves around processing death through the lens of semi dystopian scifi with a rather unexpected twist at the end that links all the stories more together than you initially thought. ]]> 3.80 2022 How High We Go in the Dark
author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: libro
review:
Still thinking about this.

More of a collection of linked short stories, and heavily heavily revolves around processing death through the lens of semi dystopian scifi with a rather unexpected twist at the end that links all the stories more together than you initially thought.
]]> <![CDATA[The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller]]> 213909983 Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all of his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby's own unique approach for how to build an effective, multifaceted narrative. Truby's method for constructing a story is at once insightful and practical, focusing on the hero's moral and emotional growth. As a result, writers will dig deep within and explore their own values and worldviews in order to create an effective story. Writers will come away with an extremely precise set of tools to work with--specific, useful techniques to make the audience care about their characters, and that make their characters grow in meaningful ways. They will construct a surprising plot that is unique to their particular concept, and they will learn how to express a moral vision that can genuinely move an audience.


The foundations of story that Truby lays out are so fundamental they are applicable--and essential--to all writers, from novelists and short-story writers to journalists, memoirists, and writers of narrative non-fiction.]]> 461 John Truby Amanda 0 4.29 2007 The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
author: John Truby
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: physical-non-fiction, currently-reading
review:

]]> Iron Widow (Iron Widow, #1) 52459864
When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.​

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed.]]> 400 Xiran Jay Zhao 0735269939 Amanda 5 4.00 2021 Iron Widow (Iron Widow, #1)
author: Xiran Jay Zhao
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: audible, kindle, physical-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Calm Your Mind with Food: A Revolutionary Guide to Controlling Your Anxiety]]> 126851442 Relieve your anxiety through food with this "groundbreaking," full-body approach to mental health (Mark Hyman, MD), from bestselling author and nutritional psychiatrist Uma Naidoo, MD

In this groundbreaking guide, Dr. Uma Naidoo presents cutting-edge research about the ways anxiety is rooted in the brain, gut, immune system, and metabolism. Drawing on the latest science on the connection between diet and anxiety, Dr. Naidoo shows us how to effectively use food and nutrition as essential tools for calming the mind.

In Calm Your Mind with Food, you’ll How inflammation affects everything from anxiety and depression to Alzheimer’s disease How the trillions of bacteria living in your gut are key to controlling anxiety The six pillars for calming the mind What to eat to balance leptin, a key link between the central nervous system and metabolic processes How to incorporate anxiety-busting foods into your diet, from the obscure (ashwagandha) to the ubiquitous (vitamin C)   The best diets for managing symptoms of anxiety and depression  
Along with guidelines for creating your own personal anti-anxiety meal plan and dozens of supernutrient-forward, delicious recipes, Calm Your Mind with Food will help you boost your immunity, reduce anxiety, and enhance your overall mental well-being.]]> 279 Uma Naidoo 0316502308 Amanda 0 4.10 Calm Your Mind with Food: A Revolutionary Guide to Controlling Your Anxiety
author: Uma Naidoo
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, #2)]]> 52934483 Zetian must balance dangerous politics with a new quest for vengeance in the sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller Iron Widow.

Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.

After suffering devastating loss and making drastic decisions, Zetian finds herself on the seat of power in Huaxia, but she has also learned that her world is not as it seems. Revelations about an enemy who dangles one of her loved ones as a hostage force Zetian to share power with a dangerous man she cannot simply depose. Despite their mutual dislike and distrust, the two must work together to take down their common enemy and stoke a revolution against the systems of exploitation that plague their world.

However, power is not so easy to wield once seized, and a revolution is not so easy to control once unleashed. As Huaxia’s former elites strike back and the common people’s fervor for justice turns bloody and paranoid, can Zetian remain a fair and just ruler? Or will she be forced to rely on fear and violence and succumb to her darker instincts in her quest for vengeance and liberation?]]> 540 Xiran Jay Zhao Amanda 5 audible, kindle 3.75 2024 Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow, #2)
author: Xiran Jay Zhao
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: audible, kindle
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Surviving the Oregon Trail, 1852: As Told by Mary Ann and Willis Boatman and Augmented with Accounts by other Overland Travelers]]> 122770 256 Weldon W. Rau 0874222389 Amanda 3 physical-non-fiction 3.86 2001 Surviving the Oregon Trail, 1852: As Told by Mary Ann and Willis Boatman and Augmented with Accounts by other Overland Travelers
author: Weldon W. Rau
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
shelves: physical-non-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[CROWDFUNDED: The Proven Crowdfunding System For Launching Products, Raising Millions, And Scaling Brands Using Indiegogo And Kickstarter]]> 53261499 226 Mark Pecota Amanda 4 audible, kindle 4.25 CROWDFUNDED: The Proven Crowdfunding System For Launching Products, Raising Millions, And Scaling Brands Using Indiegogo And Kickstarter
author: Mark Pecota
name: Amanda
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/05
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: audible, kindle
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Food, Science and the Human Body]]> 40529986
In these 36 lectures, get eye-opening answers to these and other perplexing questions about the evolution of the human diet and its relationship to our bodies. Bringing together insights from a range of fields including history, anthropology, nutrition, economics, biology, and sociology, this exciting partnership between The Great Courses and National Geographic lays bare what science can teach us about food.

Taking you far beyond the supermarket and the laboratory, these lectures cross cultures, span time, and hop around the world from the most underfed to the most overfed human societies. Bringing a broad range of disciplines to these lectures, Dr. Crittenden offers an intriguing and illuminating catalog of some of the most pressing questions and concerns.

You'll compare and contrast food-related crises from mass starvation to obesity. You'll explore food trends and ideas, from the Mediterranean and MIND diets to the farm-to-table movement and the controversy surrounding GMOs. You'll bust common myths about how food acts on the body and mind. And you'll gain powerful scientific insights that will always be there in the back of your mind, every time you get hungry.

Listening Length: 17 hours and 47 minutes]]> 18 Alyssa Crittenden Amanda 5 audible 3.83 Food, Science and the Human Body
author: Alyssa Crittenden
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/07
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: audible
review:

]]> Angel Mage 41951611
A seemingly impossible quest, but Liliath is one of the greatest practitioners of angelic magic to have ever lived, summoning angels and forcing them to do her bidding.

Liliath knew that most of the inhabitants of Ystara died from the Ash Blood plague or were transformed into beastlings, and she herself led the survivors who fled into neighboring Sarance. Now she learns that angels shun the Ystaran’s descendants. If they are touched by angelic magic, their blood will turn to ash. They are known as Refusers, and can only live the most lowly lives.

But Liliath cares nothing for the descendants of her people, save how they can serve her. It is four young Sarancians who hold her interest: Simeon, a studious doctor-in-training; Henri, a dedicated fortune hunter; Agnez, an adventurous musketeer cadet; and Dorotea, an icon-maker and scholar of angelic magic. They are the key to her quest.

The four feel a strange kinship from the moment they meet, but do not know why, or suspect their importance. All become pawns in Liliath’s grand scheme to fulfill her destiny and be united with the love of her life. No matter the cost to everyone else. . .]]> 496 Garth Nix 0062683241 Amanda 5 audible 3.62 2019 Angel Mage
author: Garth Nix
name: Amanda
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: audible
review:

]]>