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    <title>Erin's bookshelf: all</title>
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    <lastBuildDate>Fri, 18 Sep 2026 21:19:52 -0700</lastBuildDate>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 18 Sep 2026 21:19:52 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>She&apos;s Come Undone</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8957166408?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>166104</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[In this New York Times bestselling extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.<br /><br />"Mine is a story of an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered...."<br /><br />Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.<br /><br />In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She's Come Undone includes a you will never forget Dolores Price.]]></book_description>
    <book id="166104">
      <num_pages>465</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Wally Lamb</author_name>
    <isbn>0671003755</isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Fri, 18 Sep 2026 21:19:52 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>currently-reading</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
    <book_published>1992</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/166104.She_s_Come_Undone?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="She&#39;s Come Undone" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326512668l/166104._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Wally Lamb<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.87<br/>
                                      book published: 1992<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/09/18<br/>
                                      shelves: currently-reading<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8489299430?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:36:43 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8489299430?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>231108670</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<i>It was a great love story, one for the ages. The speed of our beginning and the speed of our ending felt like matching bookends. They both came out of nowhere. He wanted it, he wanted me. And then he didn’t.</i><br /><br />In March 2020, Belle Burden was safe and secure with her family at their house on Martha’s Vineyard, navigating the early days of the pandemic together—building fires in the late afternoons, drinking whisky sours, making roast chicken. Then, with no warning or explanation, her husband of twenty years announced that he was leaving her. Overnight, her caring, steady partner became a man she hardly recognized. He exited his life with her like an actor shrugging off a costume.<br /><br />In <i>Strangers,</i> Burden revisits her marriage, searching for clues that her husband was not who she always thought he was. As she examines her relationship through a new lens, she reckons with her own family history and the lessons she intuited about how a woman is expected to behave in the face of betrayal. Through all of it, she is transformed. The discreet, compliant woman she once was—someone nicknamed “Belle the Good”—gives way to someone braver, someone determined to use her voice.<br /><br />With unflinching honesty and profound grace, Burden charts a path through heartbreak to show the power of a woman who refuses to give up on love. <i>Strangers</i> is a stunning, deeply moving, compulsively readable memoir heralding the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent.]]></book_description>
    <book id="231108670">
      <num_pages>241</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Belle Burden</author_name>
    <isbn>0593733312</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:36:43 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves><![CDATA[audiobook, memoir, non-fiction, currently-reading]]></user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.02</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231108670-strangers?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1749266330l/231108670._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Belle Burden<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.02<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/09/15<br/>
                                      shelves: audiobook, memoir, non-fiction, currently-reading<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7097616982?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:31:14 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Nice Girls Don't Win: How I Burned It All Down to Claim My Power]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7097616982?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>220239090</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A bold, eye-opening memoir about survival, trauma, and healing from one of reality television’s most talked-about stars</b><br /><br />At twenty-five years old, Parvati Shallow was plunged into fame and fortune after becoming the $1 million winner of the reality television series<i> Survivor. </i>But despite her success, the ghosts of her traumatic past, coupled with the harsh glare of the public eye, kept her locked in a survival cycle of fear and shame that sabotaged her self-confidence and eroded her self-trust. It wasn’t until a series of painful life events, including the death of her younger brother and a challenging divorce, that she found herself on a path of healing that would awaken her to her true power and reset the course of her life.<br /><br />In <i>Nice Girls Don't Win </i>Shallow shares the stories that allowed her to transform her most difficult moments into powerful catalysts for empowerment. From her childhood growing up in a Florida commune run by a tyrannical female guru, to her journey out of the South and inside the L.A. casting rooms that would eventually drop her into the lush but brutal landscapes of <i>Survivor, </i>Shallow shows readers what it took to build herself into the ultimate survivor—for better, and more often, for worse. And then she reveals what it took rebuild herself into something much greater.<br /><br />As harrowing as it is healing, Shallow’s story is a testament to the profound lessons that can be found in radical self-acceptance and self-love.]]></book_description>
    <book id="220239090">
      <num_pages>256</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Parvati Shallow</author_name>
    <isbn>0593730577</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:31:14 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 18 Dec 2024 15:39:43 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves><![CDATA[audiobook, memoir, non-fiction]]></user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.72</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220239090-nice-girls-don-t-win?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Nice Girls Don&#39;t Win: How I Burned It All Down to Claim My Power" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1734551906l/220239090._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Parvati Shallow<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.72<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/09/14<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/09/14<br/>
                                      shelves: audiobook, memoir, non-fiction<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8696442728?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 12 Sep 2026 07:55:59 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Yesteryear</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8696442728?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>238226942</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle – and her followers are sick with envy. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy, her homemade sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What her followers don’t know won’t hurt them.<br /><br />Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? Natalie knows just two things for sure: this isn't her perfect life, and she must escape, by any means possible.<br /><br />As darkly funny as it is shocking and gripping, Yesteryear is an electrifying examination of tradition, fame, faith and the grand performance of womanhood, from a thrilling new talent in fiction.]]></book_description>
    <book id="238226942">
      <num_pages>400</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Caro Claire Burke</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 12 Sep 2026 07:55:59 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Thu, 18 Jun 2026 05:05:25 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>literary-fiction</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.83</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/238226942-yesteryear?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Yesteryear" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1753932705l/238226942._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Caro Claire Burke<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.83<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/09/12<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/09/12<br/>
                                      shelves: literary-fiction<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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  <item>
    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8934703134?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:52:04 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8934703134?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>53124873</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Tom Franklin's narrative power and flair for characterization have been compared to the likes of Harper Lee, Flannery O'Connor, Elmore Leonard, and Cormac McCarthy. <p>Now the Edgar Award-winning author returns with his most accomplished and resonant novel so far—an atmospheric drama set in rural Mississippi. In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town. </p><p>More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they've buried and ignored for decades. </p><p></p>]]></book_description>
    <book id="53124873">
      <num_pages>289</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Tom Franklin</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:52:04 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Thu, 10 Sep 2026 07:52:04 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.27</average_rating>
    <book_published>2010</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53124873-crooked-letter-crooked-letter?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568262620l/53124873._SX50_SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Tom Franklin<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.27<br/>
                                      book published: 2010<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/09/10<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8927497823?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:15:06 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Perfume: The Story of a Murderer]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8927497823?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>231565</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Set in eighteenth-century France, the classic novel that provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man’s indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.<br /><br />In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the “ultimate perfume”—the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brilliance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity. <br /><br />Translated from the German by John E. Woods.]]></book_description>
    <book id="231565">
      <num_pages>255</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Patrick Süskind</author_name>
    <isbn>0375725849</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:15:06 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:15:06 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.88</average_rating>
    <book_published>1985</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/231565.Perfume?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1787580433l/231565._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Patrick Süskind<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.88<br/>
                                      book published: 1985<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/09/07<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 02 Sep 2026 19:50:55 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7495925983?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>63193458</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<i>An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61984850-tiny-beautiful-things" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.</i><br /><br /><b>An anniversary edition of the bestselling collection of <i>Dear Sugar</i> advice columns written by the author of #1 <i>New York Times</i> bestseller <i>Wild</i>--featuring a new preface and six additional columns. Soon to be a Hulu Original series.</b><br /><br />For more than a decade, thousands of people have sought advice from Dear Sugar--the pseudonym of bestselling author Cheryl Strayed--first through her online column at The Rumpus, later through her hit podcast, <i>Dear Sugars</i>, and now through her popular Substack newsletter. <i>Tiny Beautiful Things</i> collects the best of <i>Dear Sugar</i> in one volume, bringing her wisdom to many more readers. This tenth-anniversary edition features six new columns and a new preface by Strayed. Rich with humor, insight, compassion--and absolute honesty--this book is a balm for everything life throws our way.]]></book_description>
    <book id="63193458">
      <num_pages>400</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Cheryl Strayed</author_name>
    <isbn>0593685210</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>5</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Sun, 20 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
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    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Thu, 17 Apr 2025 07:27:04 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves><![CDATA[non-fiction, currently-reading]]></user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.96</average_rating>
    <book_published>2012</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63193458-tiny-beautiful-things?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice from Dear Sugar" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1667322306l/63193458._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Cheryl Strayed<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.96<br/>
                                      book published: 2012<br/>
                                      rating: 5<br/>
                                      read at: 2025/04/20<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/09/02<br/>
                                      shelves: non-fiction, currently-reading<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8910636466?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:18:36 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Talking at Night</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8910636466?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>62583508</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Will and Rosie meet as teenagers.<br /><br />They’re opposites in every way. She overthinks everything; he is her twin brother’s wild and unpredictable friend. But over secret walks home and late-night phone calls, they become closer—destined to be one another’s great love story.<br /><br />Until, one day, tragedy strikes, and their future together is shattered.<br /><br />But as the years roll on, Will and Rosie can’t help but find their way back to each other. Time and again, they come close to rekindling what might have been.<br /><br />What do you do when the one person you should forget is the one you just can’t let go?]]></book_description>
    <book id="62583508">
      <num_pages>400</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Claire Daverley</author_name>
    <isbn>0593653483</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:18:36 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.86</average_rating>
    <book_published>2023</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Claire Daverley<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.86<br/>
                                      book published: 2023<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/09/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 31 Aug 2026 14:59:09 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Penance</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8907855146?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>62898932</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<i>Do you know what happened already?</i><br /><i>Did you know her?</i><br /><i>Did you see it on the internet? </i><br /><i>Did you listen to a podcast? </i><br /><i>Did the hosts make jokes?</i><br /><br /><i>Did you see the pictures of the body?</i><br /><br /><i>Did you look for them?</i><br /><br />It's been nearly a decade since the horrifying murder of sixteen-year-old Joan Wilson rocked Crow-on-Sea, and the events of that terrible night are now being published for the first time.<br /><br />That story is <i>Penance,</i> a dizzying feat of masterful storytelling, where Eliza Clark manoeuvres us through accounts from the inhabitants of this small seaside town. Placing us in the capable hands of journalist Alec Z. Carelli, Clark allows him to construct what he claims is the 'definitive account' of the murder - and what led up to it. Built on hours of interviews with witnesses and family members, painstaking historical research, and most notably, correspondence with the killers themselves, the result is a riveting snapshot of lives rocked by tragedy, and a town left in turmoil.<br /><br />The only question is: how much of it is true?]]></book_description>
    <book id="62898932">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Eliza  Clark</author_name>
    <isbn>0571371795</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
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    <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
    <book_published>2023</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Eliza  Clark<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.87<br/>
                                      book published: 2023<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/31<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8907817672?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 31 Aug 2026 14:44:21 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Decomposition Book</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8907817672?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>240963185</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>An emotional, electrifying, and darkly hilarious debut about a woman who finds a dead body and can’t give up its ghost, for fans of Mona Awad, <i>Yellowjackets</i>, and weird girl fiction.</b><br /><br />Spiraling from a disastrous falling-out with her best friend, Savannah retreats to her parents’ empty lake house in upstate New York to tend her wounds. Isolated and reeling from rejection, she spends her days in a fog, drinking and overthinking in equal worrisome measure. Until she wakes up one morning in the woods behind the house—next to a dead body.<br /><br />Instead of calling the police, Savannah reads the journal she finds nearby, reliving the last desperate months of this woman’s life lost in the wilderness, fighting for survival. Ava, as it turns out, is more than just a cold, lonely corpse. She was funny. She was smart. And Savannah has finally found someone she can talk to…<br /><br />As she pushes deeper into Ava’s harrowing story, Savannah notices a change, a shift in her reality. Each page brings her closer to the Ava from the journal…and the ghost before her now. Before long, Savannah feels something for Ava she hasn’t felt for anyone else—and there’s a good chance letting go would haunt her for the rest of her life.<br /><br />Is Savannah finally losing her grip? Or has she found the friend she’s needed all along?]]></book_description>
    <book id="240963185">
      <num_pages>320</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Sara van Os</author_name>
    <isbn>1335001891</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 31 Aug 2026 14:44:21 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.69</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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                                      author: Sara van Os<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.69<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/31<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8907390241?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:09:14 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Yeehaw Junction</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8907390241?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>236108870</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA["Welcome to Yeehaw Junction, Florida. I'm Skeet. The date is June-something, 1999 and I'm gonna be a school shooter when I grow up." When a family of thieves and runaways joins the search for a missing girl in rural Florida, they're drawn into a chemical conspiracy that extends far beyond their worst nightmares.<br /><br />About the author: Kayli Scholz is the author of Saint Grit (Ghoulish Books, 2023) and Black Rain Season (Curious Corvid Publishing, 2024). Her short fiction has appeared in Dark Moon Digest, A Formal Invitation, and others. Kayli lives and writes in the wilds of Florida.]]></book_description>
    <book id="236108870">
      <num_pages>180</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Kayli Scholz</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:09:14 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
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    <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
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                                      author: Kayli Scholz<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.05<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/31<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:31:48 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Catherine House</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8900836600?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>51934838</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A story about a dangerously curious young undergraduate whose rebelliousness leads her to discover a shocking secret involving an exclusive circle of students . . . and the dark truth beneath her school’s promise of prestige.</b><br /><br /><i>You are in the house and the house is in the woods.<br />You are in the house and the house is in you . . .</i> <br /><br />Catherine House is a school of higher learning like no other. Hidden deep in the woods of rural Pennsylvania, this crucible of reformist liberal arts study with its experimental curriculum, wildly selective admissions policy, and formidable endowment, has produced some of the world’s best minds: prize-winning authors, artists, inventors, Supreme Court justices, presidents. For those lucky few selected, tuition, room, and board are free. But acceptance comes with a price. Students are required to give the House three years—summers included—completely removed from the outside world. Family, friends, television, music, even their clothing must be left behind. In return, the school promises its graduates a future of sublime power and prestige, and that they can become anything or anyone they desire.<br /><br />Among this year’s incoming class is Ines, who expects to trade blurry nights of parties, pills, cruel friends, and dangerous men for rigorous intellectual discipline—only to discover an environment of sanctioned revelry. The school’s enigmatic director, Viktória, encourages the students to explore, to expand their minds, to find themselves and their place within the formidable black iron gates of Catherine. <br /><br />For Ines, Catherine is the closest thing to a home she’s ever had, and her serious, timid roommate, Baby, soon becomes an unlikely friend. Yet the House’s strange protocols make this refuge, with its worn velvet and weathered leather, feel increasingly like a gilded prison. And when Baby’s obsessive desire for acceptance ends in tragedy, Ines begins to suspect that the school—in all its shabby splendor, hallowed history, advanced theories, and controlled decadence—might be hiding a dangerous agenda that is connected to a secretive, tightly knit group of students selected to study its most promising and mysterious curriculum.]]></book_description>
    <book id="51934838">
      <num_pages>311</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Elisabeth    Thomas</author_name>
    <isbn>0062905651</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 29 Aug 2026 08:31:48 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <average_rating>3.09</average_rating>
    <book_published>2020</book_published>
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                                      author: Elisabeth    Thomas<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.09<br/>
                                      book published: 2020<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/29<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8899158882?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:10:58 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>I Might Be in Trouble</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8899158882?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>210331628</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A suspenseful, satirical dark comedy about a struggling writer who wakes up to find his date from the night before dead—and must then decide how far he’s willing to go to spin the misadventure into his next big book.</b><br /><br />A few years ago, David Alvarez had it all: a six-figure book deal, a loving boyfriend, and an exciting writing career. His debut novel was a resounding success, which made the publication of his second book—a total flop—all the more devastating. Now, David is single, lonely, and desperately trying to come up with the next great idea for his third manuscript, one that will redeem him in the eyes of readers, reviewers…and maybe even his ex-boyfriend.<br /><br />The issue is, good ideas are hard to come by, and the mounting pressure of a near-empty bank account isn’t helping. But when David connects with a sexy stranger on a dating app, he figures a wild night out in New York City may be just what he needs to find inspiration. Lucky for him, his date turns out to be handsome, confident, and wealthy, not to mention the perfect distraction from yet another evening staring at a blank screen.<br /><br />After one of the best nights of his life, David wakes up hungover but giddy—only to find prince charming dead next to him in bed. Horrified, completely confused, and suddenly faced with the implausible-but-somehow-plausible idea that he may have actually <i>killed</i> his date, David calls the only person he can trust in a moment of crisis: his literary agent, Stacey.<br /><br />Together, David and Stacey must untangle the events of the previous night, cover their tracks, and spin the entire misadventure into David’s career-defining novel—if only they can figure out what to do with the body first.]]></book_description>
    <book id="210331628">
      <num_pages>329</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Daniel  Aleman</author_name>
    <isbn>1538766345</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:10:58 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.55</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210331628-i-might-be-in-trouble?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="I Might Be in Trouble" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1712254950l/210331628._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Daniel  Aleman<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.55<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/28<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8899154313?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:08:45 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Treasure Island!!!</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8899154313?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>12358020</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317495168l/12358020._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[When a college graduate with a history of hapless jobs (ice cream scooper; gift wrapper; laziest ever part-time clerk at The Pet Library) reads Robert Louis Stevenson's novel <i>Treasure Island</i>, she is dumbstruck by the timid design of her life. When had she ever dreamed a scheme? When had she ever done a foolish, overbold act? When had she ever, like Jim Hawkins, broke from her friends, raced for the beach, stolen a boat, killed a man, and eliminated an obstacle that stood in the way of her getting a hunk of gold? <p><br /><br />Convinced that Stevenson's book is cosmically intended for her, she redesigns her life according to its Core Values: boldness, resolution, independence and horn-blowing. Accompanied by her mother, her sister, and a hostile Amazon parrot that refuses to follow the script, our heroine embarks on a domestic adventure more frightening than anything she'd originally planned. </p><p><i>Treasure Island!!!</i> is the story of a ferocious obsession, told by an original voice-intelligent, perverse, relentlessly self- extricating, and funny.</p>]]></book_description>
    <book id="12358020">
      <num_pages>172</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Sara Levine</author_name>
    <isbn>1609450612</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:08:45 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:08:44 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
    <book_published>2011</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12358020-treasure-island?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Treasure Island!!!" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317495168l/12358020._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Sara Levine<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.39<br/>
                                      book published: 2011<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/28<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8890963554?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 25 Aug 2026 13:13:24 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Incidents Around the House</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8890963554?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>229269154</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1747931274l/229269154._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”<br /><br />When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.<br /><br />Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.<br /><br />But Other Mommy needs an answer.<br /><br />Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror about a family as haunted as their home.]]></book_description>
    <book id="229269154">
      <num_pages>399</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Josh Malerman</author_name>
    <isbn>0593723147</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 25 Aug 2026 13:13:24 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229269154-incidents-around-the-house?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Incidents Around the House" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1747931274l/229269154._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Josh Malerman<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.58<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/25<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8885368187?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 23 Aug 2026 13:57:03 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>House of Beth</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8885368187?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>220161437</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1728673819l/220161437._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A haunting and seductive tale of a young career woman who slides quickly into the role of stepmother, in a life that may still belong to someone else.</b><br /><br />After a heart-wrenching breakup and a shocking incident at her job as an overworked assistant at a literary agency, Cassie retreats to her hometown in New Jersey, along the Delaware River. There, she reconnects with her high school best friend, Eli, now a widowed father of two. Their bond reignites, and within a few short months, Cassie is trading her bustling New York City life for homeschooling, nature walks, and cooking lessons with her reserved neighbor, Joan.<br /><br />But Cassie’s fresh start is anything but peaceful. She still misses her ex-girlfriend and she grapples with harm OCD, her mind haunted by graphic and gory images. In their secluded house nestled in the woods, she tries to find solace. But the shadow of Beth, Eli’s late spouse, a committed homemaker and traditional wife, looms large, permeating every corner of their home—from the décor to the rhythms of daily life.<br /><br />Soon, Cassie starts hearing a voice narrating the house’s secrets. This mysterious presence grows stronger, guiding Cassie down a path to uncover the truth about Beth’s untimely death.<br /><br /><i>House of Beth</i> is a beautifully crafted novel that blends modern literary charm with gothic mystery and speculative elements. Perfect for fans of <i>Bunny</i> by Mona Awad or <i>Nightbitch</i> by Rachel Yoder, this thought-provoking novel probes the boundaries of our minds and bodies, the stories we tell ourselves about who we’re meant to be, and the thoughts, beliefs, and desires we aren’t always brave enough to name.]]></book_description>
    <book id="220161437">
      <num_pages>240</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Kerry Cullen</author_name>
    <isbn>1668074591</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sun, 23 Aug 2026 13:57:03 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.41</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220161437-house-of-beth?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="House of Beth" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1728673819l/220161437._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Kerry Cullen<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.41<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/23<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8808251448?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:14:47 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8808251448?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>199415360</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1697053102l/199415360._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<i>A magical house. A secret past. A summons that could change everything.</i><br /><br />Arthur Parnassus lives a good life built on the ashes of a bad one.<br /><br />He’s the master of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six dangerous and magical children who live there.<br /><br />Arthur works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. He is not alone: joining him is the love of his life, Linus Baker, a former caseworker in the Department In Charge of Magical Youth. And there’s the island’s sprite, Zoe Chapelwhite, and her girlfriend, Mayor Helen Webb. Together, they will do anything to protect the children.<br /><br />But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve.<br /><br />And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home—one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name that Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from—Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.<br /><br />Welcome back to Marsyas Island. This is Arthur’s story.<br /><br /><em>Somewhere Beyond the Sea</em> is a story of resistance, lovingly told, about the daunting experience of fighting for the life you want to live and doing the work to keep it.]]></book_description>
    <book id="199415360">
      <num_pages>410</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>T.J. Klune</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>2</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:14:47 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 27 Jul 2026 21:04:37 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>fantasy</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.16</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199415360-somewhere-beyond-the-sea?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1697053102l/199415360._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: T.J. Klune<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.16<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 2<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/08/21<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/21<br/>
                                      shelves: fantasy<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4623859161?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:35:18 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[So You've Been Publicly Shamed]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4623859161?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>22571552</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413749614l/22571552._SX50_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us - people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and the next thing they know they're being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job. People are using shame as a form of social control.]]></book_description>
    <book id="22571552">
      <num_pages>290</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Jon Ronson</author_name>
    <isbn>1594487138</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 17 Aug 2026 04:35:18 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Tue, 22 Mar 2022 12:57:20 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>audiobook, non-fiction</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.91</average_rating>
    <book_published>2015</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22571552-so-you-ve-been-publicly-shamed?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="So You&#39;ve Been Publicly Shamed" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1413749614l/22571552._SX50_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Jon Ronson<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.91<br/>
                                      book published: 2015<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/08/17<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/17<br/>
                                      shelves: audiobook, non-fiction<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8850938361?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:12:03 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>We Love You, Bunny</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8850938361?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>248336880</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1778782365l/248336880._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[In the cult classic novel <i>Bunny</i>, Samatha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with deadly and wondrous consequences.<br /><br /><i>When We Love You, Bunny</i> opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story. One by one, they take turns holding the axe, and recount the birth throes of their unholy alliance, their discovery of their unusual creative powers—and the phantasmagoric adventure of conjuring their first creation. With a bound and gagged Sam, we embark on a wickedly intoxicating journey into the heart of dark academia: a fairy tale slasher that explores the wonder and horror of creation itself. Not to mention the transformative powers of love and friendship, Bunny.<br /><br /><i>Frankenstein</i> by way of <i>Heathers</i>, <i>We Love You, Bunny</i> is both a prequel and a sequel, and an unabashedly wild and totally complete stand-alone novel. Open your hearts, Bunny, to another dazzlingly original and darkly hilarious romp in the Bunny-verse from the queen of the fever-dream, Mona Awad.]]></book_description>
    <book id="248336880">
      <num_pages>512</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Mona Awad</author_name>
    <isbn>1668059878</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:12:03 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:12:02 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.50</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/248336880-we-love-you-bunny?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="We Love You, Bunny" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1778782365l/248336880._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Mona Awad<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.50<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/11<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821523419?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:49:25 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821523419?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>242975495</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Travis is Death in the modern world. He wears jeans and a T-shirt and lives in a small, grey town. His job is to offer people comfort in their final hours of life. He’s stoic, gentle, and a little naive, despite everything he knows. He’s young and handsome, despite who he is. Each death he witnesses is meaningful to him; he listens, never judges, and most importantly, never tries to change anyone’s fate. He knows that every life must eventually end to maintain the balance of the universe and he respects the cycle.<br /><br />Then he meets Dalia, a midwife, and her boisterous eight-year-old daughter Layla, who live across the hall. As Dalia and Layla come to embrace Travis, it becomes more difficult to maintain the detachment that’s allowed him to function for so long. Their time together teaches him what’s truly important in life—and what might be irrevocably lost in death.<br /><br />Written with radiant warmth, wisdom, and compassion, Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is a timeless story about appreciating life, accepting its end, and finding our place in the universe—especially when it feels most impossible—that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost or worried at time’s passing.]]></book_description>
    <book id="242975495">
      <num_pages>256</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Ben   Reeves</author_name>
    <isbn>1668216361</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.94</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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                                      author: Ben   Reeves<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.94<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:53:22 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>A Fate Worse than Drowning</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821373748?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>223665358</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<em>One deal with the devil makes a fool. Two? A villain...</em><br /><br />A year ago, Elle made a deal with the devil to save her sister. Now, they live on a desolate spit of land beyond Halifax harbor. Elle, as lighthouse keeper, steers unsuspecting sailors to their destruction; those are the terms of her bargain. Liney need never know the cost. Her safety is worth every drop of blood.<br /><br />But a sinner’s pact is not so simple. When the devil returns, demanding more – more shipwrecks, no survivors – Elle knows what she must do to keep Liney safe...<br /><br /><em>Another ship. Another crew killed in the devil’s name.</em><br /><br />Then a woman washes ashore. Is she a soul to be sacrificed, or part of a darker design? As Liney and the stranger grow closer, Elle faces an impossible choice: kill, and break Liney’s heart, or forfeit her own soul.<br /><br />Danger arises from all sides: the merciless sea, ruthless men on the mainland, and the infernal bargain itself…<br /><br /><strong>Souls and sisterhood, fate and fire – what must be sacrificed for the devil to get his due?</strong>]]></book_description>
    <book id="223665358">
      <num_pages>368</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Sarah L. Hawthorn</author_name>
    <isbn>1464238146</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.56</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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                                      author: Sarah L. Hawthorn<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.56<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:52:47 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Carry Me to My Grave</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821371769?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>240019523</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[From New York Times bestselling author Christopher Golden comes a high concept horror novel about a man trying to protect his dead mother's body from the evil that is hunting them.<br /><br />Maggie Wise will take your eyes.<br /><br />When Malcolm was growing up, the local kids made up that chant about his mother, claiming she was a witch. He and his siblings did their best to ignore it. Now, Maggie is dying, and those same siblings have left Malcolm and his sister-in-law Violet to hold a vigil at her bedside.<br /><br />But they’re not as alone as they think they are. A dark figure waits and watches from beneath the willow tree across the street. Hundreds of miles away, an ancient evil stirs in its burrow under a farmer’s cornfield. Across the country, other buried things begin to dream in anticipation of Maggie’s demise. On her deathbed, the old woman elicits a promise from Malcolm, her youngest child―when she dies, he and Violet must return her body to her birthplace in Shediak, Maine.<br /><br />From the moment she takes her last breath, before her remains are even loaded aboard the baggage car of the Imperial Limited, there are forces trying to stop Malcolm from fulfilling that promise. Violence erupts on the train, evil preys on its passengers, and once the sun goes down, those long-buried things are coming to make Maggie Wise pay for her past. God help anyone who stands in their way.]]></book_description>
    <book id="240019523">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Christopher Golden</author_name>
    <isbn>1250404525</isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.66</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Christopher Golden<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.66<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:51:50 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821368902?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>241096353</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A groundbreaking account of how the legal system punishes those it purports to protect, told through the deeply reported stories of three unforgettable women</b><br /><br />When award-winning journalist Justine van der Leun first reported on the issue of criminalized survival, she was astonished to see how women were being imprisoned for protecting themselves against abuse. She wondered how often survivors are targeted for prosecution. To find out, she began an intensive, years-long investigation—traveling coast to coast and collecting more than a thousand personal accounts from women’s prisons.<br /><br />In <i>Unreasonable Women</i>, van der Leun tells the propulsive, shocking, and intimate stories of three extraordinary women, caught in the direst circumstances, who had to kill to survive. Tanisha is a Michigan sex worker and fledgling entrepreneur determined to help detectives solve a cold case, whatever the consequences. Jema is a softhearted factory worker from Missouri, struggling to keep her family together as she navigates an increasingly dangerous relationship. TC is a bold Californian trying, along with her mother, to escape generations of trauma—and a toxic family environment. Each woman was abused in childhood, only to find that abuse replicated in adulthood, until they were ultimately forced to make an impossible choice.<br /><br />A work of literary reportage that feels like the most dynamic crime novel,<i> Unreasonable Women</i> is the result of seven years of intensive, unprecedented research and on-the-ground reporting in prisons across the United States. It is the story of women and violence in America—and a wake-up call about a system that would rather condemn a woman to life behind bars than face its failings. It is also the moving story of three women who find hope and humanity in the unlikeliest of places.]]></book_description>
    <book id="241096353">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Justine van der Leun</author_name>
    <isbn>0063241595</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>4.58</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Justine van der Leun<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.58<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:51:31 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[In Deep Water: A True Story of Sharks, Survival, and Courage]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821368056?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>241392695</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>The terrifying true story of a fight for survival for 28 hours in shark-infested waters.</b><br /><br />October, 8, 2022.<br /><br />Three friends are fishing for red snapper when their boat, tied to an oil rig, begins taking on water and sinks 15 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. Suddenly, the three men find themselves in a struggle for their lives. Their vessel succumbs to the building seas so quickly that the fisherman are unable send out a radio Mayday call, and their cell phones have no reception. They only have time to don their life jackets and hold onto a cooler as they are swept further out to sea.<br /><br />They vow to stay together no matter what and must make several life or death decisions. Suffering from hypothermia and severe stings from giant jelly fish, the men desperately try to stay afloat as they realize there are circling sharks below.<br /><br /><i>In Deep Water</i> is an hour by hour account of a desperate and determined struggle for survival, as well as the Coast Guard’s all-out effort to find the missing men. This fast-paced story has a number of surprising turns in both the survival ordeal and the rescue efforts. Based on interviews with the three survivors and the crew of the Jayhawk helicopter who rescue them, <i>In Deep Water</i> is a white-knuckle tale of bravery and brotherhood and a battle against the ocean's deadliest predators.]]></book_description>
    <book id="241392695">
      <num_pages>304</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Michael J. Tougias</author_name>
    <isbn>1250406226</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.94</average_rating>
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                                      author: Michael J. Tougias<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.94<br/>
                                      book published: <br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:50:51 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821366236?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>242765263</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>The gripping true story of a serial con man whose lies condemned a man to death row, by award-winning <i>New York Times Magazine </i>writer Pamela Colloff</b><br /><br />For more than three decades, Paul Skalnik roamed the Gulf Coast lying about who he was. He passed himself off as a fighter pilot, a high-rolling oilman, a criminal defense attorney, an undercover agent, and a terminal cancer patient. In these guises he married nine women—some at the same time.<br /><br />When Skalnik got caught, as he invariably did, he would run a different con. Locked up with other men awaiting trial, he claimed they confessed their crimes to him. Then he peddled those stories to prosecutors. In Pinellas County, Florida, he became a frequent witness for the state, thinking nothing of exaggerating men’s wrongdoing or implicating the innocent to help prosecutors win convictions. In return, the state rewarded him with his freedom, fueling his growing sense of invincibility. Soon he was not just committing fraud; he was preying on girls in their teens or barely into adolescence.<br /><br />In 1985, Jim Dailey, a down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran, was implicated in the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl and landed in the Pinellas County Jail with Skalnik. No forensic evidence or motive linked Dailey to the killing, but Skalnik’s account of his "confession" helped put Dailey on death row. Skalnik, meanwhile, walked free. More than three decades later, after another man took responsibility for the killing, Pamela Colloff, reporting for the <i>New York Times Magazine</i> and ProPublica, visited Skalnik and asked him if he would recant his testimony. He refused.<br /><br />By then, Skalnik had caused untold damage to the women and girls he exploited, to the dozens of men he helped imprison, and to Jim Dailey, who went on to receive an execution date. In this mesmerizing debut, Pamela Colloff spins a dark tale of a remorseless and brilliant liar made lethal by a system more concerned with winning convictions than finding the truth.]]></book_description>
    <book id="242765263">
      <num_pages>320</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Pamela Colloff</author_name>
    <isbn>0593230868</isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>4.15</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242765263-catch-the-devil?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1764056096l/242765263._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Pamela Colloff<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.15<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 09:49:48 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Monster of a Land: On the Road in Search of Modern America]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821363413?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>242381554</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>From <i>The New York Times</i> bestselling author of a <i>Leaving Isn't the Hardest Thing </i>comes an update of John Steinback’s trip in <i>Travels with Charley, </i>a cross-country journey exploring modern America with Lauren Hough’s signature observational wit, searing social commentary, and perspective as someone who knows what it’s like to truly exist on the margins in this country.</b><br /><br />Lauren Hough has always been haunted by the road trips she never got to take: no money, no vacation days, no car capable of making the trip. So, upon finally finding herself in a situation where such a trip might be possible—being a writer may not always pay better than being a bartender or a cable guy, but at least the schedule’s flexible—she leaps at the chance, refurbishing a ramshackle 2001 Dodge van and setting off from Austin, Texas with her Husky mix Woody by her side.<br /><br />Her influences feel obvious—but a lot has changed about the United States since the 1962 trip John Steinbeck chronicles in <i>Travels with Charley</i>. And Lauren Hough isn’t John Steinbeck—unless the Nobel Prize-winning author of <i>The Grapes of Wrath</i> had a secret past as a six-foot-tall lesbian and Air Force vet. But even better as a social lubricant than beer, a dog is the ultimate conversation starter. With Woody as wingman, Lauren chats—at gas stations and restaurants and auto shops and bars—with an incredible cross-section of Americans from all walks of life and every possible political perspective. And as she circumnavigates the country, she documents, with all-too-rare empathy, what it means to be poor, to be marginalized, and to be seen as Other in America.<br /><br />Part travelogue, part social commentary, and 100% Lauren Hough, <i>Monster of a Land</i> unites her poignant vulnerability, her hilarious narrative voice, and her razor-sharp insights into a journey that will show us how far we’ve come as a country, and how far we still have to go.]]></book_description>
    <book id="242381554">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Lauren  Hough</author_name>
    <isbn>0593686624</isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.13</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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                                      author: Lauren  Hough<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.13<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:12:09 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Voyagers</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821088137?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>241686756</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A story of fame, friendship and conspiracy, and the possibility of life beyond Earth</b><br /><br />When the Signal – a mysterious transmission pulsing from the edge of the solar system – arrives, the world changes overnight. Planes are grounded, satellites fail, and speculation abounds. With many believing it could be first contact with extraterrestrial life, humanity holds its breath. But for Alex, a thirtysomething lawyer who’s spent years distancing himself from the unexplainable, the Signal feels deeply personal – the opening of an old wound.<br /><br />Decades ago, Alex and a girl named Ana both vanished for thirty-six hours while on vacation in Palm Springs. When they returned, dazed but unharmed, the six-year-olds' account of the experience had all the hallmarks of an alien abduction. The media frenzy that followed made them famous, and the long months of child stardom, of talk shows and sitcom cameos, forged a seemingly unbreakable bond between them – until the mystery behind their disappearance began to tear them apart.<br /><br />Now, with the world on edge and the Signal growing stronger, Alex is drawn back to the one person who might have answers. Ana – now a professional advocate for experiencers of extraterrestrial contact – is leading a retreat near Palm Springs, a stone's throw from the site of their childhood disappearance. As the former best friends tentatively reunite, what starts as a quest to confront the reality of their original experience becomes a larger reckoning with friendship, faith, family, and truth itself – what it means to see the stories we tell ourselves for what they really are.<br /><br />With the imaginative soul and propulsive storytelling of <i>Station Eleven</i> and <i>The Ministry of Time, Voyagers</i> is a profoundly human, thrillingly original and brilliantly ambitious literary debut about friendship at the end of the world.]]></book_description>
    <book id="241686756">
      <num_pages>320</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Meg Charlton</author_name>
    <isbn>0063441217</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:12:09 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.63</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Meg Charlton<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.63<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:11:13 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Sixth Nik</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821085641?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>243080644</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Perfectly aligned for readers of Iain M. Banks’s The Culture series and Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”, <i>The Sixth Nik</i> is a galaxy spanning adventure from the <i>New York Times</i> bestselling and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of <i>Angel Down</i> and <i>Whalefall</i>.</b><br /><br />Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars <i>The Sickness</i>: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as “niks,” has boarded to investigate the enigma of Fém—a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue.<br /><br />The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and—most lethal of all—a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. <i>The Sickness</i> itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of Fém is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.]]></book_description>
    <book id="243080644">
      <num_pages>464</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Daniel Kraus</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:11:13 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.83</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243080644-the-sixth-nik?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Sixth Nik" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1761936968l/243080644._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Daniel Kraus<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.83<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:09:19 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Children</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821080415?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>241096327</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>An intoxicating, haunting new novel from New York Times bestselling author Melissa Albert, in which the estranged adult children of a legendary author, written into their dead mother’s beloved fantasy series, contend with the vine-like creep of legacy, memory, and magic.</b><br /><br />Guinevere Sharpe has two childhoods.<br /><br />In one, she lives in the wooded shadow of her family's isolated Vermont farmhouse; in the other, the pages of her mother’s world-famous Ninth City books, where her magical adventures have made her a household name. In reality, Guinevere's childhood isn't the enchanted idyll her mother’s readers imagine: she and her older brother are growing up near-feral, unwashed and underfed, escaping each day to the lichen-clotted woods they’ve made their playland. As Edith Sharpe’s books explode into epic popularity, the threats of a rural childhood give way to the escalating perils of fame—until the night it all goes up in flames, leaving Edith’s series unfinished and her children the sole survivors.<br /><br />Now an adult coasting on her mother's name, Guinevere is mid-promotion for a ghostwritten memoir when her estranged brother, an artist who has until now spurned his family's legacy, announces an upcoming installation titled <i>Mother</i>. As rumors swirl around a death connected to his last show, unsettling recollections from Guinevere’s childhood begin to surface. Her public facade starts to crack, forcing her to confront the questions she's spent the last twenty years running from: What really happened the night of the fire? And what dark history lies behind their mother’s creative genius?<br /><br />Wise to the mythic weight childhood memories gather over time, <i>The Children</i> whispers to you from the hallway outside your bedroom, lights flickering as you turn the pages of a book that didn't seem so scary a moment ago. It's a story for anyone who's ever revisited an old favorite and found it cast in a darker light, the line separating magic and memory blurring as the gap widens between the authors we imagined and the people they turn out to be.]]></book_description>
    <book id="241096327">
      <num_pages>398</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Melissa Albert</author_name>
    <isbn>0063487438</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:09:19 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.45</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Melissa Albert<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.45<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:04:31 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The New People</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8821067729?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>243502762</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A </b><b>searing and strikingly intimate</b><b> debut set in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, about a newly married lesbian couple who move into a flipped foreclosure, unaware that the former homeowners are still living in the attic.</b><br /><br /> Months after the housing bubble bursts, newlywed Chicagoans Emma and Rachel move into a charming little house in a conservative Indiana college town, hoping for a fresh start after a painful miscarriage. As Rachel immerses herself in her new role as a tenure-track professor and bestselling novelist, adjunct Emma struggles in the shadow of her wife’s success. Desperate to build something of her own, Emma secretly pursues IVF, even as Rachel insists they wait to have children. The house, initially a symbol of new beginnings, becomes a refuge for Emma from the town she’s convinced is set against her—until strange occurrences make her question whether she and her wife are truly alone.<br /><br /> They aren’t.<br /><br /> Charlotte and Dirk, the former homeowners, are secretly living in the attic above Emma and Rachel’s attached garage. Dispossessed by the recession and anxious about her husband’s declining health, Charlotte listens to the interlopers below, and her resentment steadily grows. What starts as small acts of defiance—missing food, flipped breakers in the fuse box, subtle scratches in the furniture—soon becomes sabotage. But when her campaign to drive out the couple goes too far, Charlotte’s and Emma’s stories converge in an explosive climax that will reveal the lengths people will go to reclaim what they’ve lost.]]></book_description>
    <book id="243502762">
      <num_pages>320</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Andrea Uptmor</author_name>
    <isbn>0316602213</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:04:31 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.85</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243502762-the-new-people?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The New People" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1773474181l/243502762._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Andrea Uptmor<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.85<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/08/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8670748198?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:29:53 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[The Last Wish (The Witcher, #0.5)]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8670748198?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>50362204</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1776835395l/50362204._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Introducing Geralt the Witcher - revered and hated - who holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in the bestselling series that inspired the Witcher video games and a major Netflix show.</b><br /><br />Geralt of Rivia is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers and lifelong training have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin.<br /><br />Yet he is no ordinary killer: he hunts the vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent.<br /><br />But not everything monstrous-looking is evil; not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.<br /><br /><b>Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. <i>The Last Wish</i> is the perfect introduction to this one-of-a-kind fantasy world.</b>]]></book_description>
    <book id="50362204">
      <num_pages>292</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Andrzej Sapkowski</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>3</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 29 Jul 2026 09:29:53 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:34:57 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>fantasy, book-club</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.11</average_rating>
    <book_published>1993</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50362204-the-last-wish?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Last Wish (The Witcher, #0.5)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1776835395l/50362204._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Andrzej Sapkowski<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.11<br/>
                                      book published: 1993<br/>
                                      rating: 3<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/07/22<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/29<br/>
                                      shelves: fantasy, book-club<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5977407925?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:32:35 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Leslie F*cking Jones</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5977407925?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>123027172</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Hey you guys, it’s Leslie. I’m excited to share my story with you.<br /><br />Now, I’m gonna be honest: Some of the details might be vague because a b*tch is fifty-five and she’s smoked a ton of weed. But while bits might be a touch hazy, I can promise you the underlying truth is REAL. Whether I’m talking about my childhood growing up in the South, my early stand-up days driving from gig to gig through the darkest parts of our country and praying I wouldn’t get murdered, what Chris Rock told Lorne Michaels, that time I wanted to shoot Whoopi Goldberg on SNL, and yeah, I’ll tell you all about Ghostbusters and the nudes and Supermarket Sweep and The Daily Show . . . I’m sharing it all in these pages. It’s not easy being a woman in comedy, especially when you’re a tall-*ss Black woman with a trumpet voice. I have to fight so that no one takes me for granted, and no one takes advantage. These are the stories that explain why. (Cue the Law &amp; Order theme.)]]></book_description>
    <book id="123027172">
      <num_pages>288</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Leslie     Jones</author_name>
    <isbn>1538706490</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Tue, 28 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:32:35 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Tue, 14 Nov 2023 17:22:41 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves><![CDATA[audiobook, memoir, non-fiction]]></user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.08</average_rating>
    <book_published>2023</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Leslie     Jones<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.08<br/>
                                      book published: 2023<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/07/28<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/28<br/>
                                      shelves: audiobook, memoir, non-fiction<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3062132578?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:35:10 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Secret History</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3062132578?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>29044</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Truly deserving of the accolade modern classic, Donna Tartt's novel is a remarkable achievement—both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.</b><br /><br />Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.]]></book_description>
    <book id="29044">
      <num_pages>559</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Donna Tartt</author_name>
    <isbn>1400031702</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Mon, 27 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:35:10 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 25 Nov 2019 14:10:26 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>mystery</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.15</average_rating>
    <book_published>1992</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29044.The_Secret_History?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Secret History" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1751820530l/29044._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Donna Tartt<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.15<br/>
                                      book published: 1992<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/07/27<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/27<br/>
                                      shelves: mystery<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8790941345?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:45:26 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Breathe In, Bleed Out</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8790941345?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>221490948</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Hannah has been running from her demons ever since she emerged from a harrowing wilderness trip without her fiancé. No one knows exactly what happened the day Ben died, and Hannah would like to keep it that way... even if his ghost still haunts her with vivid waking nightmares that are ruining her life. So when her friend group gets an exclusive invitation to a restorative spiritual retreat in Joshua Tree, Hannah reluctantly agrees in search of a fresh start.<br /><br />Despite her skepticism of the strange Guru Pax and his belief in the supernatural world, Hannah soon finds healing through all the yoga, sound baths, and hot springs offered at the tech-free haven. But this peaceful journey of self-discovery quickly descends into a violent fight for self-preservation when a mysterious killer starts picking off retreat attendees in increasingly gruesome ways. As the body count rises and Hannah's sanity frays, she'll have to confront her dark past and uncover the true nature of a ruthless monster hellbent on killing her vibe for good.]]></book_description>
    <book id="221490948">
      <num_pages>298</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Brian  McAuley</author_name>
    <isbn>1464238200</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:45:26 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.65</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221490948-breathe-in-bleed-out?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Breathe In, Bleed Out" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1740597995l/221490948._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Brian  McAuley<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.65<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/21<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8790937846?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:43:52 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>When the Wolf Comes Home</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8790937846?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>211004893</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[One night, Jess, a struggling actress, finds a five-year-old runaway hiding in the bushes outside her apartment. After a violent, bloody encounter with the boy's father, she and the boy find themselves running for their lives.<br /><br />As they attempt to evade the boy's increasingly desperate father, Jess slowly comes to a horrifying understanding of the butchery that follows them―the boy can turn his every fear into reality.<br /><br />And when the wolf finally comes home, no one will be spared.]]></book_description>
    <book id="211004893">
      <num_pages>304</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Nat Cassidy</author_name>
    <isbn>125035434X</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:43:52 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
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    <average_rating>4.06</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211004893-when-the-wolf-comes-home?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="When the Wolf Comes Home" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1716854520l/211004893._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Nat Cassidy<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.06<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/21<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:31:57 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[The Midnight Train (The Midnight World, #2)]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8790911142?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>242380266</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>When your life flashes before your eyes, where would you stop?</b><br /><br />No one can change the past, but the Midnight Train can take you there. The chance to re-live the moments that meant most. To see what kind of person you really were.<br /><br />For Wilbur his best days were with Maggie, the love of his life. On his honeymoon in Venice.<br /><br />Before he gave it all away.<br /><br />He wishes he could go back and live differently. But to do so risks everything . . .<br /><br />A magical, time-travelling love story, from the world of The Midnight Library.]]></book_description>
    <book id="242380266">
      <num_pages>296</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Matt Haig</author_name>
    <isbn>0593833376</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:31:57 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:31:57 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.93</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242380266-the-midnight-train?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Midnight Train (The Midnight World, #2)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1760153265l/242380266._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Matt Haig<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.93<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/21<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8790866332?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:12:53 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Famous Men</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8790866332?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>243039897</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[From the acclaimed author of the “wild, gorgeous” (San Francisco Chronicle) Marlena comes a novel about a young woman looking for a father and finding herself—a vivid, uncompromising exploration of sex, money, power, and art.<br /><br />The right book at the right time can change your life.<br /><br />Will Miles is trapped. Trapped in tiny Greening, Michigan, where a toxic high school rumor has turned her into a social exile. Trapped in the predictable routines of her mother, and under the unrelenting gaze of her mother’s increasingly sinister boyfriend. But when Will stumbles across the early poems of Nathaniel Fellow, a famous writer forty years her senior who also grew up in Greening, she feels she’s found a kindred spirit. A passing comment from her mother only adds to Will’s fascination: Is Nathaniel the father she's never known?<br /><br />Will orchestrates a plan to track Nathaniel down, following in his footsteps to New York City, where she learns he's not the answer to her past, not the way she imagined. But their meeting sparks a complicated, consuming relationship that gives Will sidelong access to a world she’s only ever imagined: of writers and intellectuals, a financial safety net, and, most intoxicatingly, a glimpse into her own potential. But who is Nathaniel Fellow, off the page? And what will shaping her life to suit his cost her? When a torrent of information about his past threatens not just her life with Nathaniel, but the story she tells herself about him, Will is faced with a choice that will change everything. <br /><br />A gripping novel about ambition, parents and children, and all the ways women still pay for men’s mistakes, Famous Men traces one woman’s journey to the truth of where she comes from, what she’s capable of, and how she might start again.]]></book_description>
    <book id="243039897">
      <num_pages>380</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Julie Buntin</author_name>
    <isbn>0593229959</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:12:53 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:12:52 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.01</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243039897-famous-men?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Famous Men" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1769610791l/243039897._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Julie Buntin<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.01<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/21<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6711612837?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:53:29 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Witchcraft for Wayward Girls</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6711612837?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>207611566</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>There’s power in a book…</b><br /> <br />They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.<br /> <br />Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who knows she’s going to go home and marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.<br /> <br />Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.<br /><br />In <i>Witchcraft for Wayward Girls</i>, the author of <i>How to Sell a Haunted House</i> and <i>The Final Girl Support Group</i> delivers another searing, completely original novel and further cements his status as a “horror master” (<i>NPR</i>).]]></book_description>
    <book id="207611566">
      <num_pages>482</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Grady Hendrix</author_name>
    <isbn>0593548981</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>5</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:53:29 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 29 Jul 2024 07:32:09 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>horror, book-club, favorites</user_shelves>
    <user_review><![CDATA[I need a sequel or a prequel or both.]]></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207611566-witchcraft-for-wayward-girls?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Witchcraft for Wayward Girls" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1728319448l/207611566._SX50_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Grady Hendrix<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.87<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 5<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/05/27<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/09<br/>
                                      shelves: horror, book-club, favorites<br/>
                                      review: <br/>I need a sequel or a prequel or both.<br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4559339273?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:45:36 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Haunting of Hill House</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4559339273?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>89717</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>“Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within. . . .”</b><br /><br />Four seekers have arrived at the rambling old pile known as Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of psychic phenomena; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Luke, the adventurous future inheritor of the estate; and Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman with a dark past. As they begin to cope with chilling, even horrifying occurrences beyond their control or understanding, they cannot possibly know what lies ahead. For Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.]]></book_description>
    <book id="89717">
      <num_pages>182</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Shirley Jackson</author_name>
    <isbn>0143039989</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>5</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:45:36 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Fri, 18 Feb 2022 18:10:40 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>book-club, horror, favorites</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.84</average_rating>
    <book_published>1959</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89717.The_Haunting_of_Hill_House?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Haunting of Hill House" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327871336l/89717._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Shirley Jackson<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.84<br/>
                                      book published: 1959<br/>
                                      rating: 5<br/>
                                      read at: 2022/06/21<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/09<br/>
                                      shelves: book-club, horror, favorites<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4470914708?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:45:15 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[In the Land of Good Living: A Journey to the Heart of Florida]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4470914708?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>53104585</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A wickedly smart, funny, and irresistibly off-kilter account of an improbable thousand-mile journey on foot into the heart of modern Florida, the state that Russell calls "America Concentrate."</b><br /><br />In the summer of 2016, Kent Russell--broke, at loose ends, hungry for adventure--set off to walk across Florida. Mythic, superficial, soaked in contradictions, maligned by cultural elites, segregated from the South, and literally vanishing into the sea, Florida (or, as he calls it: "America Concentrate") seemed to Russell to embody America's divided soul. The journey, with two friends intent on filming the ensuing mayhem, quickly reduces the trio to filthy drifters pushing a shopping cart of camera equipment. They get waylaid by a concerned citizen bearing a rifle; buy cocaine from an ex-wrestler; visit a spiritual medium; attend a cuckold party. The narrative overflows with historical detail about how modern Florida came into being after World War II, and how it came to be a petri dish for life in a suddenly, increasingly diverse new land of minority-majority cities and of unrivaled ethnic and religious variety. Russell has taken it all in with his incomparably focused lens and delivered a book that is both an inspired travelogue and a profound rumination on the nation's soul--and his own. It is a book that is wildly vivid, encyclopedic, erudite, and ferociously irreverent--a deeply ambivalent love letter to his sprawling, brazenly varied home state.]]></book_description>
    <book id="53104585">
      <num_pages>320</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Kent Russell</author_name>
    <isbn>0525521380</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>5</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Thu, 26 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:45:15 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 12 Jan 2022 13:03:39 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves><![CDATA[audiobook, non-fiction, memoir, favorites]]></user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.42</average_rating>
    <book_published>2020</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Kent Russell<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.42<br/>
                                      book published: 2020<br/>
                                      rating: 5<br/>
                                      read at: 2022/05/26<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/09<br/>
                                      shelves: audiobook, non-fiction, memoir, favorites<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8753285062?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:37:55 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Among Friends</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8753285062?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>242057486</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>The announcement of a major literary debut: What begins as a celebration takes a sudden turn when a shocking betrayal shatters the trust between families.</b><br /><br />It’s an autumn weekend at a comfortable New York country house where two deeply intertwined families have gathered to mark the host’s fifty-second birthday.<br /><br />Together, the group forms an enviable portrait of middle age. The wives and husbands have been friends for over thirty years, their teenage daughters have grown up together, and the drinks, dinners, rituals, and games that form their days all reflect the rich bonds between them.<br /><br />This weekend, however, something is different. An unforeseen curdling of envy and resentment will erupt into an unspeakable act, the ramifications of which are enormous. Accusations, denials, and shattered illusions follow, driving wedges between friends, spouses, children and parents, and exposing the treacherous fault lines on which these families have dwelt.<br /><br />Written with hypnotic elegance and molten precision, and announcing the arrival of a major literary talent, Hal Ebbott’s <i>Among Friends</i> examines the aftermath of betrayal within the sanctuary of a defining relationship. It explores themes of class, marriage, friendship, and power, as well as the things we tell ourselves to preserve our finely made worlds.]]></book_description>
    <book id="242057486">
      <num_pages>320</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Hal Ebbott</author_name>
    <isbn>0593854217</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:37:55 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.00</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242057486-among-friends?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Among Friends" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1764840948l/242057486._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Hal Ebbott<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.00<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/08<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8737243293?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:28:22 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Freakslaw</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8737243293?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>216684507</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1729788167l/216684507._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>In this riotous horror debut, a traveling carnival of troublemakers arrive in a small Scottish town and perform their favorite pastime: revenge.</b><br /><br />It is the summer of ‘97 and the repressed Scottish town of Pitlaw is itching for change.<br /><br />Enter the Freakslaw—a travelling carnival of deviant queers and architects of mayhem. There’s Gloria, fortune teller and worm charmer; her daughter Nancy, a contortionist witch; big-hearted tightrope walker, Werewolf Louie; not to mention illusionists and conjoined twins, Cass and Henry, and tattooed human pincushion, Pin Gal. Against Pitlaw’s miserably grey landscape, the carnival shines electric and bright, and it doesn’t take long for the town’s teenagers to be seduced by its neon charms and the possibility of escape.<br /><br />But beneath it all, these newcomers are harboring a darker desire: revenge. Revenge for being cast out, never allowed to settle, punished for purely existing. And as tensions reach fever pitch between the stoic, unwelcoming locals and the dazzling intruders, a violence that has been bubbling for centuries is about to be unleashed . . .<br /><br />Katherine Dunn’s <i>Geek Love</i> meets Angela Carter’s <i>Nights at the Circus</i> in this sizzling debut by a writer as captivating as she is incisive, as wild as she is precise. Read this and try not to run away with the Freakslaw. Go on. We dare you.]]></book_description>
    <book id="216684507">
      <num_pages>354</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Jane Flett</author_name>
    <isbn>1638932662</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:28:22 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:28:21 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.45</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216684507-freakslaw?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Freakslaw" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1729788167l/216684507._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Jane Flett<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.45<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8737242002?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:27:45 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>How Bad Things Can Get</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8737242002?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>220481345</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1738658596l/220481345._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[It was supposed to be the party of the century: miles of idyllic white sand beaches, lush jungle foliage...and a dark legend nobody dreamed might be all too true.<br /><br />When an online influencer and several hundred of his most loyal fans land on Prosperity Island, the plan is simple: five days of elaborate games, drinking, and suntanned fun.<br /><br />A week in paradise should have been a welcome respite. The only survivor of an infamous cult, Ruth wants nothing more than to keep her head down and not draw attention. She's spent decades outrunning her blood-soaked childhood, and her identity is a closely held secret.<br /><br />But then the true history of the island is revealed…along with its sinister connection to Ruth's past. As guests go missing and games turn deadly, Ruth and the rest of the attendees are forced to question whether they've really been invited to paradise...or whether something much darker―and far bloodier―is waiting for them just beyond the bonfire's light.]]></book_description>
    <book id="220481345">
      <num_pages>384</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Darcy Coates</author_name>
    <isbn>172827026X</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:27:45 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:27:45 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.66</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/220481345-how-bad-things-can-get?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="How Bad Things Can Get" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1738658596l/220481345._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Darcy Coates<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.66<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8737240208?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:26:54 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Rest Stop</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8737240208?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>204260268</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[From the author of MARY and NESTLINGS . . . A young musician finds himself locked inside a gas station bathroom in the middle of the night by an unseen assailant, caught between the horrors on the other side of the door and the horrors rapidly skittering down the walls inside.]]></book_description>
    <book id="204260268">
      <num_pages>128</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Nat Cassidy</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:26:54 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Jul 2026 18:26:54 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.70</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204260268-rest-stop?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Rest Stop" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1720381012l/204260268._SX50_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Nat Cassidy<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.70<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8733845792?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 01 Jul 2026 15:30:55 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8733845792?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>246179532</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>**A <i>Guardian, </i><i>Observer</i> &amp; Waterstones Nonfiction Book of 2024**</b><br /><br /><b>What begins as an eccentric English love story turns into one of the most dramatic adventures ever recorded...</b><br /><br />Maurice and Maralyn couldn't be more different. He is as cautious and awkward as she is charismatic and forceful. It seems an unlikely romance, but it works.<br /><br />Bored of 1970s suburban life, Maralyn has an sell the house, build a boat, leave England -- and its oil crisis, industrial strikes and inflation -- forever. It is hard work, turning dreams into reality, but finally they set sail for New Zealand. Then, halfway there, their beloved boat is struck by a whale and the pair are cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.<br /><br />On their tiny raft, their love is put to the test. When Maurice begins to withdraw into himself, it falls upon Maralyn to keep them both alive. Filled with danger, spirit, and tenderness, this is a book about human connection and the human condition; about how we survive -- not just at sea, but in life.]]></book_description>
    <book id="246179532">
      <num_pages>256</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Sophie Elmhirst</author_name>
    <isbn>0593854292</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 01 Jul 2026 15:30:55 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.74</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/246179532-a-marriage-at-sea?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1767679273l/246179532._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Sophie Elmhirst<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.74<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/07/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8612736221?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 20 Jun 2026 19:20:55 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Escape!</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8612736221?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>232206245</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A propulsive debut novel following a has-been reality TV star and a disgraced producer who get one last shot at redemption on a show set on a remote island, only to discover that the plot twists are beyond what they ever imagined.</b><br /><br /><i>Everyone gets the story arc they deserve.</i><br /><br />Kent Duvall, a faded reality show winner, just wants another chance at glory—to find his way out of his depressing life and back to his highlight reel. When a scandal is captured on camera at a charity event, he gets his shot, on a new jungle survival show with seven other contestants. Each of them has been cast as a type—Ruddy the bully, Miriam the nerd, Ashley the love interest—but everyone is more than they appear. <br /><br />The contestants’ goals seem simple—survive the wild, build a raft, win treasure. But Beck Bermann, a reality producer who suffered her own public shaming, sees them as characters in her redemption arc.<br /><br />As the schemes and strategies spiral out, breakout camps sabotage each other and rival producers struggle to control the storyline. Soon the question becomes less about who will win than who will make it out in one piece.]]></book_description>
    <book id="232206245">
      <num_pages>448</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Stephen  Fishbach</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 20 Jun 2026 19:20:55 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 18 May 2026 17:08:56 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>thriller</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.55</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/232206245-escape?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Escape!" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1754937496l/232206245._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Stephen  Fishbach<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.55<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/06/20<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/20<br/>
                                      shelves: thriller<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8701512227?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 20 Jun 2026 05:30:22 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Cackle</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8701512227?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>61058915</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[A darkly funny, frightening novel about a young woman learning how to take what she wants from a witch who may be too good to be true, from the author of <i>The Return</i>.<br /> <br />All her life, Annie has played it nice and safe. After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. She’s stunned by how perfect and picturesque the town is. The people are all friendly and warm. Her new apartment is dreamy too, minus the oddly persistent spider infestation.  <br /> <br />Then Annie meets Sophie. Beautiful, charming, magnetic Sophie, who takes a special interest in Annie, who wants to be her friend. More importantly, she wants Annie to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the townsfolk seem…a little afraid of her. And like, okay. There are some things. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power…but she couldn’t be…could she?]]></book_description>
    <book id="61058915">
      <num_pages>291</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Rachel   Harrison</author_name>
    <isbn>0593202031</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 20 Jun 2026 05:30:22 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Sat, 20 Jun 2026 05:30:21 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.70</average_rating>
    <book_published>2021</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61058915-cackle?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Cackle" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1656931038l/61058915._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Rachel   Harrison<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.70<br/>
                                      book published: 2021<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/20<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8422036455?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 18 Jun 2026 07:44:32 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Greenlights</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8422036455?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>52838315</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604281659l/52838315._SX50_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.<br /> <br />Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges - how to get relative with the <i>inevitable</i> - you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”<br /> <br />So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.<br /> <br />Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.<br /> <br />It’s a love letter. <b>To life.</b><br /> <br />It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights - and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.<br /> <br />Good luck.]]></book_description>
    <book id="52838315">
      <num_pages>289</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Matthew McConaughey</author_name>
    <isbn>0593139135</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>3</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 18 Jun 2026 07:44:32 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Sun, 08 Mar 2026 19:33:38 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves><![CDATA[memoir, non-fiction, book-club]]></user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.20</average_rating>
    <book_published>2020</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52838315-greenlights?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Greenlights" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1604281659l/52838315._SX50_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Matthew McConaughey<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.20<br/>
                                      book published: 2020<br/>
                                      rating: 3<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/03/21<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/18<br/>
                                      shelves: memoir, non-fiction, book-club<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8694363454?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:00:18 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>We Hexed the Moon</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8694363454?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>242970540</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>
  <i>Bunny</i>
</b><b> meets <i>The Craft</i> in this speculative debut about four best friends who perform a ritual on the moon in a last-ditch attempt to hold onto one another but are forced to reckon with the consequences.</b><br /><br />It is the summer after high school graduation, and four island-grown best friends are about to be forced apart by their Plans for the Future. Rather than process the world of expectations bearing down on them or the secrets they’ve kept hidden even from one another, they perform a ritual on the moon in an impulsive fit of teen bravado.<br /> <br />They don’t expect it to actually work.<br /> <br />But suddenly the moon is gone from the sky and at their sleepover, and she’s not interested in going back where she came from. As the balmy August night unfolds, the girls scramble to find a human sacrifice to replace the moon before their world is plunged into chaos.<br /> <br />Equally tender and biting, <i>We Hexed the Moon</i> is coming-of-age at its best, cutting to the very quick of girlhood to reveal hilarious and brutally honest insights about friendship, gender, and desire.]]></book_description>
    <book id="242970540">
      <num_pages>224</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Mollyhall Seeley</author_name>
    <isbn>1668099233</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:00:18 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 10:00:17 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.49</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242970540-we-hexed-the-moon?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="We Hexed the Moon" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1760888370l/242970540._SX50_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Mollyhall Seeley<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.49<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/17<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8694269863?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:19:08 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Last One</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8694269863?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>27245997</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Survival is the name of the game as the line blurs between reality TV and reality itself in Alexandra Oliva’s fast-paced novel of suspense.<br /><br />She wanted an adventure. She never imagined it would go this far.<br /> <br />It begins with a reality TV show. Twelve contestants are sent into the woods to face challenges that will test the limits of their endurance. While they are out there, something terrible happens—but how widespread is the destruction, and has it occurred naturally or is it human-made? Cut off from society, the contestants know nothing of it. When one of them—a young woman the show’s producers call Zoo—stumbles across the devastation, she can imagine only that it is part of the game.<br /> <br />Alone and disoriented, Zoo is heavy with doubt regarding the life—and husband—she left behind, but she refuses to quit. Staggering countless miles across unfamiliar territory, Zoo must summon all her survival skills—and learn new ones as she goes.<br /> <br />But as her emotional and physical reserves dwindle, she grasps that the real world might have been altered in terrifying ways—and her ability to parse the charade will be either her triumph or her undoing.<br /> <br />Sophisticated and provocative, The Last One is a novel that forces us to confront the role that media plays in our perception of what is real: how readily we cast our judgments, how easily we are manipulated.]]></book_description>
    <book id="27245997">
      <num_pages>295</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Alexandra Oliva</author_name>
    <isbn>1101965088</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:19:08 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:19:07 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.60</average_rating>
    <book_published>2016</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27245997-the-last-one?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Last One" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1465634920l/27245997._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Alexandra Oliva<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.60<br/>
                                      book published: 2016<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/17<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8694268775?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:18:39 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Murder on Sex Island (Luella van Horn #1)]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8694268775?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>221115921</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[When a cast member goes missing from the hit reality show Sex Island, producers ask the mysterious detective Luella van Horn to go undercover as a contestant and solve the case. What the producers don't know is that Luella van Horn is actually a woman named Marie Jones, a divorced ex-social worker attempting to lead a double life as a glamorous private eye. Unable to resist the opportunity to be a part of her favorite trashy reality show, Marie-as-Luella takes the case. But the more she learns about Sex Island's dark underbelly, the harder it gets to make it out alive. She encounters shady producers, sleazy directors, and contestants willing to do whatever it takes to win the $100,000 grand prize. Will she find the killer? Will she find herself? Will she find... love? Find out now, in Sex Island's most dramatic season yet.]]></book_description>
    <book id="221115921">
      <num_pages>241</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Jo Firestone</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:18:39 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 17 Jun 2026 09:18:38 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221115921-murder-on-sex-island?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Murder on Sex Island (Luella van Horn #1)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1732113920l/221115921._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Jo Firestone<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.39<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/17<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8680161604?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:16:11 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>All the World Can Hold</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8680161604?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>235991949</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Three passengers from different backgrounds board a cruise ship shortly after 9/11 and discover they can’t outrun their regrets about risks not taken.</b><br /><br />It’s Sunday, September 16, 2001. Franny and her husband have traded in their elegant Park Avenue co-op for a suite on board the Sonata, a once-glittering cruise ship with a complicated history now long past its prime. Although they’re not “cruise people,” Franny is determined to host the trip as planned because it’s her mother’s seventieth birthday, or chilsun, a major rite of passage celebrated by Korean families. But as her husband keeps pointing out, Franny and her mother aren’t close, and it’s surreal, even wrong, to be on a cruise as the death toll from the attacks on 9/11 continues to rise.<br /><br />Also on board is Doug, an ageing actor and former star of <i>Starlight Voyages</i>, the hit <i>Love Boat</i>–style television series famously filmed on the Sonata. <br /><br />Meanwhile, Lucy, the only Black female graduate student in her department at MIT, has uncharacteristically accepted an invitation to join her roommate on the cruise at a time when tech companies are trying to hire her. <br /><br /><i>All the World Can Hold</i> explores how we balance our needs, our wants, and regrets. While the great world spins, interpersonal dramas don’t cease, even as more dire ones play out in the larger world.]]></book_description>
    <book id="235991949">
      <num_pages>352</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Jung Yun</author_name>
    <isbn>1668200597</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.62</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Jung Yun<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.62<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/12<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:14:31 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>One Perfect Couple</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8680158389?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>199798953</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b> Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic <i>And Then There Were None</i>, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.</b><br /><br />Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, <i>The Perfect Couple</i>, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.<br /><br />But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.<br /><br />A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.]]></book_description>
    <book id="199798953">
      <num_pages>385</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Ruth Ware</author_name>
    <isbn>1668025590</isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.58</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Ruth Ware<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.58<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/12<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:12:48 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Small Game</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8680155074?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>60277011</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<br /> <strong>A gripping debut novel about a survival reality show gone wrong that leaves a group of strangers stranded in the northern wilds</strong><br /><br /> Four strangers and six weeks: this is all that separates Mara from one life-changing payday. She was surprised when reality TV producers came knocking at Primal Instinct—the survival school where she teaches rich clients not to die during a night outdoors—and even more shocked to be cast in their new show, <em>Civilization</em>. Now she just has to live off the land with her fellow survivors for long enough to get the prize money.<br /><br />Whisked by helicopter to an undisclosed location, Mara meets her teammates: The grizzled outdoorsman. The Eagle Scout. The white-collar professional. And Ashley, the beautiful but inexperienced one who just wants to be famous. Mara’s unusual, rugged childhood has prepared her for the discomforts and hard work ahead. But trusting her fellow survivors? Not part of Mara’s skill set.<br /><br />When the cast wakes one morning to find something has gone horribly wrong, fear ripples through the group. Are the producers giving them an extra challenge? Or are they wrapped up in something more dangerous? Soon Mara and the others face terrifying decisions as “survival” becomes more than a game.<br /><br />A provocative exploration of the comforts, rituals, and connections we depend upon, <em>Small Game </em>is a gripping page-turner and a poignant story about finding the courage to build a new life from the ground up.]]></book_description>
    <book id="60277011">
      <num_pages>288</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Blair Braverman</author_name>
    <isbn>0063066173</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:12:48 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.42</average_rating>
    <book_published>2022</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Blair Braverman<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.42<br/>
                                      book published: 2022<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/12<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 10 Jun 2026 05:42:58 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[The Light We Lost (Lost Light, #1)]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8674866007?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>57521023</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>The sun gives life. It is also capable of profound destruction.</b><br />With little warning, a solar super flare erupts from the sun. A billion tons of superheated plasma hurtles through space toward Earth…<br /><br /><b>When all lights fail, who will save you?</b><br />Thirteen-year-old Shiloh wakes with a dead body beside her, her brother missing, and no memory of what happened. As fiery northern lights blaze across the sky, she sets out into the night, determined to find him.<br /><br />Haunted by the past, Undersheriff Jackson Cross vows to catch a vicious killer. But every clue he uncovers leads him further into a darkness he fears he cannot defeat.<br /><br />Eli Pope has just been released from prison. Wrongly convicted of murder, the former Ranger has but one goal: exact vengeance upon those who betrayed him.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Search-and-Rescue first responder Lena Easton begins a harrowing 1600-mile journey to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to find the children of the one person she couldn’t save.<br /><br />As multiple solar storms strike Earth, transformers explode, the power grid fails, and communication networks collapse. Half the world goes dark, thrusting the planet into utter chaos.<br /><br />With society crumbling around them, the survivors must fight not only for their lives, but for everything they hold dear--hope amid devastation, justice in the face of depravity, and ultimately, the perseverance of the human spirit against all odds.<br /><br />The Light We Lost is a post-apocalyptic survival thriller exploring the destructive power of coronal mass ejections. This brand new series from USA Today Bestselling Author Kyla Stone features flawed characters and high-octane, nerve-shredding thrills.]]></book_description>
    <book id="57521023">
      <num_pages>394</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Kyla Stone</author_name>
    <isbn>1945410728</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 10 Jun 2026 05:42:58 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.38</average_rating>
    <book_published>2022</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57521023-the-light-we-lost?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Light We Lost (Lost Light, #1)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1640252672l/57521023._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Kyla Stone<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.38<br/>
                                      book published: 2022<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/10<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8670746629?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:34:14 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[I Don't Want to Wait: My Life on Dawson's Creek]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8670746629?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>249265612</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A season-by-season deep dive into <i>Dawson’s Creek</i>, “one of the biggest teen dramas of all time,” (<i>Variety</i>) full of never-before-heard stories and behind-the-scenes insight into fan-favorite characters, from one of the show's stars, Kerr Smith. </b><br /><br /> Welcome back to <i>Dawson’s Creek</i>, where the banter is fast-paced, soulful pop music underscores all emotional moments, and friendships could always turn into something more. This nostalgic look back at one of the hottest, most paradigm-shifting shows – written by one of its stars – will transport fans right back to Capeside, MA, revealing all the fun, romances, friendships, and drama, that happened in that small town – on and off the screen.<br />  <br /> From episode deep dives to never-before-heard stories of crazy days on set and crazier nights after filming wrapped, <i>Dawson’s </i>star Kerr Smith takes us behind the scenes of the classic show that kickstarted the teen TV revolution of the late 90s and early 2000s. Featuring interviews with his fellow cast members, crew, and the writing team, Kerr Smith has written the ultimate yearbook for Capeside High, revealing the origin stories of Dawson, Pacey, Joey, Jen, and others, insights on how the drama-filled storylines came to be – and a few that almost didn’t – and his own personal story, from growing up in a small town of his own to what it was like to be part of the first passionate gay kiss on American primetime.<br />  <br /> I DON’T WANT TO WAIT is the ultimate chronicle of a show that fans can’t help but come back to, time and time again. In Joey’s words, “Things change. People change.” But <i>Dawson’s Creek</i> is forever.]]></book_description>
    <book id="249265612">
      <num_pages></num_pages>
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    <author_name>Kerr Smith</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
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    <average_rating>4.25</average_rating>
    <book_published></book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Kerr Smith<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.25<br/>
                                      book published: <br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/08<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/944632813?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 07 Jun 2026 22:29:10 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Long Walk</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/944632813?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>9014</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Against the wishes of his mother, sixteen-year-old Ray Garraty is about to compete in the annual grueling match of stamina and wits known as The Long Walk. One hundred boys must keep a steady pace of four miles per hour without ever stopping... with the winner being awarded "The Prize"—anything he wants for the rest of his life. But, as part of this national tournament that sweeps through a dystopian America year after year, there are some harsh rules that Garraty and ninety-nine others must adhere to in order to beat out the rest. There is no finish line—the winner is the last man standing. Contestants cannot receive any outside aid whatsoever. Slow down under the speed limit and you're given a warning. Three warnings and you're out of the game—permanently...]]></book_description>
    <book id="9014">
      <num_pages>370</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Richard  Bachman</author_name>
    <isbn>0451196716</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>3</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Sun, 7 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sun, 07 Jun 2026 22:29:10 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 21 May 2014 22:45:26 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>horror</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.02</average_rating>
    <book_published>1979</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9014.The_Long_Walk?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Long Walk" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1309212400l/9014._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Richard  Bachman<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.02<br/>
                                      book published: 1979<br/>
                                      rating: 3<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/06/07<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/07<br/>
                                      shelves: horror<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8649353755?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 01 Jun 2026 04:41:14 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>We Burned So Bright</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8649353755?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>231126885</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A heart-wrenching standalone novel by #1 <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author TJ Klune, <i>We Burned So Bright</i> follows an older queer couple on an end-of-the-world road-trip.</b><br /><br /><i>The road stretched out before them. No other cars, just the headlights on the blacktop. Above, the cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky….</i><br /><br />Husbands Don and Rodney have lived a good long life. Together they’ve experienced the highest highs of love and family, and lows so low that they felt like the end of the world.<br /><br />Now, the world is ending for real. A wandering black hole is coming for Earth and in a month everything and everyone they’ve ever known will be gone.<br /><br />Suddenly, after 40 years together, Don and Rodney are out of time. They’re in a race against the clock to make it from Maine to Washington State to take care of some unfinished business before it’s all over.<br /><br />On the road they meet those who refuse to believe death is coming and those who rush to meet it. But there are also people living their final days as best they know how—impromptu weddings, bright burning bonfires, shared meals, and new friends.<br /><br />And as the black hole draws near, among ball lightning and under a cracked moon in a kaleidoscope sky, Don and Rodney will look back on their lives and ask if their best was good enough.<br /><br />Is it enough to burn bright if nothing comes from the ashes?]]></book_description>
    <book id="231126885">
      <num_pages>170</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>T.J. Klune</author_name>
    <isbn>1250881234</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
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    <average_rating>4.17</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: T.J. Klune<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.17<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/06/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8242878350?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 30 May 2026 11:43:28 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Half His Age</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8242878350?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>240424526</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>From the #1 <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>I’m Glad My Mom Died</i> comes a sad, funny, thrilling novel about sex, consumerism, class, desire, loneliness, the internet, rage, intimacy, power, and the (oftentimes misguided) lengths we’ll go to in order to get what we want.</b><br /><br />Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And the thing she wants most of all: Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher with the wife and the kid and the mortgage and the bills, with the dead dreams and the atrophied looks and the growing paunch. She doesn’t know why she wants him. Is it his passion? His life experience? The fact that he knows books and films and things that she doesn’t? Or is it purer than that, rooted in their unlikely connection, their kindred spirits, the similar filter with which they each take in the world around them? Or, perhaps, it’s just enough that he sees her when no one else does.<br /><br />Startlingly perceptive, mordantly funny, and keenly poignant, <i>Half His Age</i> is a rich character study of a yearning seventeen-year-old who disregards all obstacles—or attempts to overcome them—in her effort to be seen, to be desired, to be loved.]]></book_description>
    <book id="240424526">
      <num_pages>288</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Jennette McCurdy</author_name>
    <isbn>0593723732</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Thu, 7 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 30 May 2026 11:43:28 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Fri, 09 Jan 2026 08:58:14 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>contemporary</user_shelves>
    <user_review>Gross! (compliment)</user_review>
    <average_rating>3.20</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/240424526-half-his-age?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Half His Age" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1765907278l/240424526._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Jennette McCurdy<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.20<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/05/07<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/30<br/>
                                      shelves: contemporary<br/>
                                      review: <br/>Gross! (compliment)<br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
  </item>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8525320249?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 29 May 2026 21:49:46 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Book Lovers</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8525320249?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>58690308</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn't see coming....</b><br /><br />Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.<br /><br />Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small-town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.<br /><br />If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.]]></book_description>
    <book id="58690308">
      <num_pages>377</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Emily Henry</author_name>
    <isbn>0593334833</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>1</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Fri, 29 May 2026 21:49:46 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:55:19 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>contemporary, romance</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.06</average_rating>
    <book_published>2022</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58690308-book-lovers?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Book Lovers" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1638867089l/58690308._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Emily Henry<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.06<br/>
                                      book published: 2022<br/>
                                      rating: 1<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/05/29<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/29<br/>
                                      shelves: contemporary, romance<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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  <item>
    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8619698834?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 21 May 2026 08:01:42 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Crushmore: Essays on Love, Loss, and Coming-of-Age]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8619698834?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>230563682</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1743145439l/230563682._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Known for spotlighting your favorite artists' tween stories of self-discovery on their podcast, Penn, Sophie, and Nava turn inward to share their own experiences for the first time. Penn, a twelve-year-old, Discman-toting introvert, starts in the solitude of his only-child household, where he danced like no one was watching (because no one was watching) before embarking on a neon-lit journey to Hollywood. Sophie takes us to her middle school<br />in Beijing, where she had to ward off rumors of a boob job, and to the moment loosening her choke hold on love brought her husband straight into her living room. Nava traces the emotional aftershocks of losing her mother and guides us through the whimsical world of an imaginationship, where nothing is ever as it seems.<br /><br />With compassion, humor, and insight, <i>Crushmore </i>charts the often cringey, sometimes luminous path from adolescence to adulthood. Together, these essays remind us that we can find healing-and even inspiration-from our awkward adolescent selves long after we thought we left them behind.]]></book_description>
    <book id="230563682">
      <num_pages>267</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Penn Badgley</author_name>
    <isbn>1035423235</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 21 May 2026 08:01:42 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Thu, 21 May 2026 08:01:41 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.03</average_rating>
    <book_published></book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/230563682-crushmore?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Crushmore: Essays on Love, Loss, and Coming-of-Age" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1743145439l/230563682._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Penn Badgley<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.03<br/>
                                      book published: <br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/21<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8616677088?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 20 May 2026 05:15:06 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Kill Your Darlings</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8616677088?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>242232435</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1778782265l/242232435._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[From the <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of <i>The Kind Worth Killing</i> and <i>Eight Perfect Murders</i> comes an inventive, utterly propulsive murder-mystery in reverse, tracing a marriage back in time to uncover the dark secret at its heart.]]></book_description>
    <book id="242232435">
      <num_pages>288</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Peter  Swanson</author_name>
    <isbn>006343363X</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 20 May 2026 05:15:06 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 20 May 2026 05:15:05 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.31</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242232435-kill-your-darlings?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Kill Your Darlings" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1778782265l/242232435._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Peter  Swanson<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.31<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/20<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8611397147?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 18 May 2026 07:42:17 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Saving Noah</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8611397147?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>250024826</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1774448344l/250024826._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<strong>“One of the best books I’ve ever read.” —Lisa Jewell, #1 <em>New York Times</em> bestselling author</strong><br /><br /><strong>A mother's love is supposed to be unconditional.</strong><br /><br /><strong>But what if it shouldn't be?</strong><br /><br />Noah is the boy everyone admires—an honor student, a champion swimmer, a hometown success story. Until he confesses to sexually abusing young girls during swim practice. In a single moment, his future evaporates, and his family shoulders the fallout.<br /><br />After eighteen months in a juvenile sexual rehabilitation center, Noah returns home. But the town recoils, and his father refuses to let him back into their family's life. Noah's mom, Adrianne, is forced into an impossible role: the mother of a child no one believes deserves saving.<br /><br />Loving Noah means losing everything else—her marriage, her community, and her certainty about right and wrong. As devastating truths emerge, Adrianne must confront the darkest question of all: when does standing by your child become a betrayal of everyone around you?<br /><br />Brutally honest and deeply unsettling, <em>Saving Noah</em> explores one of society's last untouchable taboos and the terrifying gray area between compassion and accountability. This gripping, emotional novel by bestselling author Lucinda Berry refuses easy answers and will keep readers up late at night questioning beliefs they once thought were true.]]></book_description>
    <book id="250024826">
      <num_pages>272</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Lucinda Berry</author_name>
    <isbn>1464292132</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 18 May 2026 07:42:17 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 18 May 2026 07:42:17 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.93</average_rating>
    <book_published>2017</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/250024826-saving-noah?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Saving Noah" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1774448344l/250024826._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Lucinda Berry<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.93<br/>
                                      book published: 2017<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/18<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
  </item>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8577342801?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 05 May 2026 06:14:29 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>All Fours</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8577342801?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>197798168</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>An irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious, and surprising novel about a woman upending her life.</b><br /><br />A semifamous artist announces her plan to drive cross-country, from LA to New York. Twenty minutes after leaving her husband and child at home, she spontaneously exits the freeway, beds down in a nondescript motel, and immerses herself in a temporary reinvention that turns out to be the start of an entirely different journey.<br /><br />Miranda July’s second novel confirms the brilliance of her unique approach to fiction. With July’s wry voice, perfect comic timing, unabashed curiosity about human intimacy, and palpable delight in pushing boundaries, <i>All Fours</i> tells the story of one woman’s quest for a new kind of freedom. Part absurd entertainment, part tender reinvention of the sexual, romantic, and domestic life of a forty-five-year-old female artist, <i>All Fours</i> transcends expectation while excavating our beliefs about life lived as a woman. Once again, July hijacks the familiar and turns it into something new and thrillingly, profoundly alive.]]></book_description>
    <book id="197798168">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Miranda July</author_name>
    <isbn>0593190262</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 05 May 2026 06:14:29 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Tue, 05 May 2026 06:14:29 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.39</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/197798168-all-fours?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="All Fours" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1695913995l/197798168._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Miranda July<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.39<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/05<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
  </item>
  <item>
    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8570999613?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 21:18:51 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Plans I Have for You</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8570999613?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>235991889</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1749393974l/235991889._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Feminine rage, cancel culture, and suffocating societal pressure—a cutting and brazen thriller about two Asian American women on a quest for revenge after a public shaming pushes them to the limit, for fans of <i>Yellowface</i> and <i>Counterfeit</i>.</b><br /><br />When a conflict with a fellow passenger on the subway spirals into a humiliating breakdown, Shelley Hu’s life is over. The incident goes viral, costing Shelley her prestigious Manhattan law firm internship, her spot at Columbia Law, and her plan to build a better life for herself and her mother.<br /> <br />Months later, Shelley is back in Kissimmee, Florida, working the night shift at a kitschy motel near Disney World—the very same job she held in high school. Shelley’s life is a black hole until, one night, the beautiful, enigmatic Sophia Moon checks in with her husband and young son. But Sophia’s appearance is far from random.<br /> <br />It turns out that, once upon a time, Sophia suffered her own episode of public shaming. Since then, Sophia has rebuilt a new life, and she promises to help Shelley do the same. More importantly, Sophia vows to help Shelley enact revenge on the three people responsible for the worst day of her life with a precise set of plans.<br /> <br />Shelley returns to New York with a new identity and plans that start off well. But when the situation soon spirals out of control, Shelley is forced to reckon with Sophia’s unspeakably dark side—though it may be too late.]]></book_description>
    <book id="235991889">
      <num_pages>352</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Lai Sanders</author_name>
    <isbn>1668087928</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 21:18:51 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 21:18:51 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.38</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/235991889-the-plans-i-have-for-you?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Plans I Have for You" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1749393974l/235991889._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Lai Sanders<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.38<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 21:16:45 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Boring Asian Female</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8570996114?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>239433082</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<i>
  <b>“Thank you for your interest in our school, but we regret to inform you that…”</b>
</i> you’re not special. You’re too average. You’re too <i>boring.</i><br /><br />Well, in that case, she’ll have to show them just how interesting she can be.<br /><br />Elizabeth Zhang is well aware of her place in the world. She’s in the tenth percentile for likability, the seventieth percentile for attractiveness, and the ninety-ninth percentile for academics. While she’s never been the most beautiful or the most liked, she knows she has the intelligence and ambition to achieve her greatest dream: Harvard Law School. But when Harvard rejects Elizabeth for not standing out enough—which she knows means she's just another boring Asian female—her carefully constructed life falls apart. What shocks her even more is that Laura Kim, a classmate at Columbia, got in. Elizabeth can’t figure out how this could have happened. Why was Laura accepted? What makes her so interesting?<br /><br />At first, she follows her because she’s just curious. What Laura orders for lunch. Where Laura shops. What Laura’s hobbies are. All of these things must contribute to her overall package, what makes her an acceptable person to Harvard. But still, Elizabeth just can’t see it. The only thing she sees is that Laura has taken her spot.<br /><br />A spot that she knows she deserves after working so hard. A spot that she’ll simply have to take back.<br /><br />Layered and subversive, this novel brings to light how, in the face of societal expectations and self-inflicted pressures, a person can unlock the darkest parts of themselves and show how far they’re willing to go to achieve their vision of success.]]></book_description>
    <book id="239433082">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Canwen Xu</author_name>
    <isbn>0593954580</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.72</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/239433082-boring-asian-female?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Boring Asian Female" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1753758053l/239433082._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Canwen Xu<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.72<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 19:31:09 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Bel Canto</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8570788014?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>5826</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Somewhere in South America, at the home of the country's vice president, a lavish birthday party is being held in honor of the powerful businessman Mr. Hosokawa. Roxane Coss, opera's most revered soprano, has mesmerized the international guests with her singing. It is a perfect evening—until a band of gun-wielding terrorists takes the entire party hostage. But what begins as a panicked, life-threatening scenario slowly evolves into something quite different, a moment of great beauty, as terrorists and hostages forge unexpected bonds and people from different continents become compatriots, intimate friends, and lovers.]]></book_description>
    <book id="5826">
      <num_pages>318</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Ann Patchett</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 19:31:09 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.93</average_rating>
    <book_published>2001</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5826.Bel_Canto?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Bel Canto" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1352997328l/5826._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Ann Patchett<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.93<br/>
                                      book published: 2001<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 19:09:11 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8570739891?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>223736287</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[From the <em>New York Times</em> best-selling author of <em>Stiff</em> and <em>Fuzz</em>, a rollicking exploration of the quest to re-create the impossible complexities of human anatomy.<br /><br />The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what’s available—sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet canopies and breasts from petroleum by-products. Today we’re attempting to grow body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3D printers. How are we doing? Are we there yet?<br /><br />In <em>Replaceable You</em>, Mary Roach explores the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings. When and how does a person decide they’d be better off with a prosthetic than their existing limb? Can a donated heart be made to beat forever? Can an intestine provide a workable substitute for a vagina?<br /><br />Roach dives in with her characteristic verve and infectious wit. Her travels take her to the OR at a legendary burn unit in Boston, a “superclean” xeno-pigsty in China, and a stem cell “hair nursery” in the San Diego tech hub. She talks with researchers and surgeons, amputees and ostomates, printers of kidneys and designers of wearable organs. She spends time in a working iron lung from the 1950s, stays up all night with recovery techs as they disassemble and reassemble a tissue donor, and travels across Mongolia with the cataract surgeons of Orbis International.<br /><br />Irrepressible and accessible, <em>Replaceable You</em> immerses readers in the wondrous, improbable, and surreal quest to build a new you.]]></book_description>
    <book id="223736287">
      <num_pages>288</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Mary Roach</author_name>
    <isbn>1324050624</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 19:09:11 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.02</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223736287-replaceable-you?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1749647448l/223736287._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Mary Roach<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.02<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 02 May 2026 19:08:03 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8570737346?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>222376732</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>In 2001, John J. Lennon killed a man on a Brooklyn Street. Now he’s a journalist, working from behind bars, trying to make sense of it all.</b><br /><br /><i>The Tragedy of True Crime</i> is a first-person journalistic account of the lives of four men who have killed, written by a man who has killed. Lennon entered the New York prison system with a sentence of 28 years to life but after he stepped into a writing workshop at Attica Correctional Facility, his whole life changed. Reporting from the cell block and the prison yard, Lennon challenges our obsession with true crime by telling the full life stories of men now serving time for the lives they took.<br /><br />These men have completely different backgrounds — Robert Chambers, a preppy Manhattanite turned true crime celebrity; Milton E. Jones, a seventeen-year-old coaxed from burglary into something far darker; and Michael Shane Hale, a gay man caught in a crime of passion — and all are searching to find meaning and redemption behind bars. Lennon’s reporting is intertwined with his own story, from a young man seduced by the infamous gangster culture of New York City to a celebrated prison journalist. The same desire echoes throughout the lives of these four to become more than murderers.<br /><br />A first-of-its-kind book of immersive prison journalism, <i>The Tragedy of True Crime</i> poses fundamental questions about the stories we tell and who gets to tell them. What essential truth do we lose when we don’t consider all that comes before an act of unthinkable violence? And what happens to the convicted after the cell gate locks?]]></book_description>
    <book id="222376732">
      <num_pages>368</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>John J.  Lennon</author_name>
    <isbn>1250858240</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.83</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222376732-the-tragedy-of-true-crime?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories That Define Us" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1742015751l/222376732._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: John J.  Lennon<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.83<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 01 May 2026 11:36:29 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Too Much Happiness: Stories</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5627426595?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>6464937</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[In these ten stories, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often transcend what happens in their lives.<br /><br />Ten superb new stories by one of our most beloved and admired writers—the winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize. <br /><br />In the first story a young wife and mother receives release from the unbearable pain of losing her three children from a most surprising source. In another, a young woman, in the aftermath of an unusual and humiliating seduction, reacts in a clever if less-than-admirable fashion. Other stories uncover the “deep-holes” in a marriage, the unsuspected cruelty of children, and how a boy’s disfigured face provides both the good things in his life and the bad. And in the long title story, we accompany Sophia Kovalevsky—a late-nineteenth-century Russian émigré and mathematician—on a winter journey that takes her from the Riviera, where she visits her lover, to Paris, Germany, and, Denmark, where she has a fateful meeting with a local doctor, and finally to Sweden, where she teaches at the only university in Europe willing to employ a female mathematician. <br /><br />With clarity and ease, Alice Munro once again renders complex, difficult events and emotions into stories that shed light on the unpredictable ways in which men and women accommodate and often transcend what happens in their lives.<br /><br />Dimensions --<br />Fiction --<br />Wenlock edge --<br />Deep-holes --<br />Free radicals --<br />Face --<br />Some women --<br />Child's play --<br />Wood --<br />Too much happiness]]></book_description>
    <book id="6464937">
      <num_pages>304</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Alice Munro</author_name>
    <isbn>0307269760</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>2</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Fri, 1 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
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    <user_shelves>short-stories</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.87</average_rating>
    <book_published>2009</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Alice Munro<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.87<br/>
                                      book published: 2009<br/>
                                      rating: 2<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/05/01<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/01<br/>
                                      shelves: short-stories<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8566797147?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 01 May 2026 09:30:54 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Best Offer Wins</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8566797147?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>231126811</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>An insanely competitive housing market. A desperate buyer on the edge. In Marisa Kashino’s darkly humorous debut novel, <i>Best Offer Wins</i>, the white picket fence becomes the ultimate symbol of success—and obsession. How far would you go for the house of your dreams?</b><br /><br />Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian — and in turn, get their marriage, plan to have a baby, and whole life back on track — Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed and the masses descend (with unbeatable, all-cash offers in hand).<br /><br />A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged—but just when she thinks she’s won them over, she hits a snag in her plan. Undeterred, Margo will prove again and again that there’s no boundary she won’t cross to seize the dream life she’s been chasing. The most unsettling part? You’ll root for her, even as you gasp in disbelief.<br /><br />Dark, biting, and laugh-out-loud funny, <i>Best Offer Wins</i> is a propulsive debut and a razor-sharp exploration of class, ambition, and the modern housing crisis.]]></book_description>
    <book id="231126811">
      <num_pages>275</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Marisa Kashino</author_name>
    <isbn>1250400546</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.67</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
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                                      author: Marisa Kashino<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.67<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 01 May 2026 09:27:24 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Old Soul</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8566788196?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>211178725</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[In Osaka, two strangers, Jake and Mariko, miss a flight, and over dinner, discover they’ve both brutally lost loved ones whose paths crossed with the same beguiling woman no one has seen since.<br /><br />Following traces this mysterious person left behind, Jake travels from country to country gathering chilling testimonies from others who encountered her across the decades—a trail of shattered souls that eventually leads him to Theo, a dying sculptor in rural New Mexico, who knows the woman better than anyone—and might just hold the key to who, or what, she is.<br /><br />Part horror, part western, part thriller, Old Soul is a fearlessly bold and genre-defying tale about predation, morality and free will, and one man’s quest to bring a centuries-long chain of human devastation to an end.]]></book_description>
    <book id="211178725">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Susan  Barker</author_name>
    <isbn>0593718291</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.73</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
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                                      author: Susan  Barker<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.73<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 01 May 2026 09:25:17 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Flashlight</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8566782730?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>219743621</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A novel tracing a father’s disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of <i>Trust Exercise</i>.<br /></b><br />One summer night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the breakwater. Her father is carrying a flashlight. He cannot swim. Later, Louisa is found on the beach, soaked to the skin, barely alive. Her father is gone. She is ten years old.<br /><br />Louisa is an only child of parents who have severed themselves from the past. Her father, Serk, is Korean, but was born and raised in Japan; he lost touch with his family when they bought into the promises of postwar Pyongyang and relocated to North Korea. Her American mother, Anne, is estranged from her Midwestern family after a reckless adventure in her youth. And then there is Tobias, Anne’s illegitimate son, whose reappearance in their lives will have astonishing consequences.<br /><br />But now it is just Anne and Louisa, Louisa and Anne, adrift and facing the challenges of ordinary life in the wake of great loss. United, separated, and also repelled by their mutual grief, they attempt to move on. But they cannot escape the echoes of that night. What really happened to Louisa’s father?<br /><br />Shifting perspectives across time and character and turning back again and again to that night by the sea, <i>Flashlight </i>chases the shock waves of one family’s catastrophe, even as they are swept up in the invisible currents of history.<br /><br />A monumental new novel from the National Book Award winner Susan Choi, <i>Flashlight </i>spans decades and continents in a spellbinding, heartgripping investigation of family, loss, memory, and the ways in which we are shaped by what we cannot see.]]></book_description>
    <book id="219743621">
      <num_pages>464</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Susan Choi</author_name>
    <isbn>037461637X</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.84</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
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                                      author: Susan Choi<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.84<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 01 May 2026 05:35:02 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Five</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8566206690?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>239779272</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Five lives. Five stories. Four will live—one will die. Who it will be? In this slow-burn masterpiece of psychological fiction, the choice is all yours.</b><br /><br />Have you ever tried to pass the time by imagining the lives of the strangers standing next to you? Ilona Bannister’s <i>Five</i> introduces readers to five seemingly random people waiting for a train. But these are not just any five people. From the beginning we know that one of them is going to die soon. Very soon. In five minutes the next train to London will arrive, killing one of them. But before this happens you will learn their stories.<br /><br />None of these people are saints. Readers might fall in love with the beautiful young man who is on the verge of gambling his life away. They may pity the cantankerous old woman who has fallen to the ground yet is refusing help. Perhaps readers will look away from the child throwing a tantrum. Or judge his mother, who must surely be to blame. And some will be curiously compelled by the successful and damaged businessman orbiting them all.<br /><br />These are the candidates for this morning’s misfortune. But they don’t know it. Only you know. And you, our complicit reader, will not be able to resist deciding who deserves to walk away, and who deserves only five more minutes to live.<br /><br />An incredibly original novel that breaks the fourth wall and asks the reader to be judge, jury, and executioner, <i>Five</i> looks at some of the most complicated issues of contemporary life: motherhood, disability, addiction. Every stranger has a story. And in Ilona Bannister’s skillful hands, five people’s stories come together to create an unforgettable novel.]]></book_description>
    <book id="239779272">
      <num_pages>240</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Ilona Bannister</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.72</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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                                      author: Ilona Bannister<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.72<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/05/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5926118950?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:04:07 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Razorblade Tears</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5926118950?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>54860585</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A Black father. A white father. </b><b>Two murdered sons. </b><b>A quest for vengeance.</b><br /><br />Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.<br /><br />The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss. <br /><br />Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.<br /><br />Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.<br /><br />Alternate cover edition of ISBN <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57660923-razorblade-tears" rel="nofollow noopener">9781250252708</a>]]></book_description>
    <book id="54860585">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>S.A. Cosby</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>1</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:04:07 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Sun, 22 Oct 2023 16:18:47 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves><![CDATA[contemporary, mystery, thriller]]></user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.09</average_rating>
    <book_published>2021</book_published>
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                                      author: S.A. Cosby<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.09<br/>
                                      book published: 2021<br/>
                                      rating: 1<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/04/30<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/30<br/>
                                      shelves: contemporary, mystery, thriller<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8561036293?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 29 Apr 2026 06:30:30 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Chase Darkness with Me: How One True-Crime Writer Started Solving Murders]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8561036293?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>42366217</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Have you ever wanted to solve a murder? Gather the clues the police overlooked? Put together the pieces? Identify the suspect?<br /><br />Journalist Billy Jensen spent fifteen years investigating unsolved murders, fighting for the families of victims. Every story he wrote had one thing in common―they didn't have an ending. The killer was still out there.<br /><br />But after the sudden death of a friend, crime writer and author of I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara, Billy became fed up. Following a dark night, he came up with a plan. A plan to investigate past the point when the cops had given up. A plan to solve the murders himself.<br /><br />You'll ride shotgun as Billy identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You'll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle McNamara's pursuit of the Golden State Killer and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown Four. And Billy gives you the tools―and the rules―to help solve murders yourself.<br /><br />Gripping, complex, unforgettable, Chase Darkness with Me is an examination of the evil forces that walk among us, illustrating a novel way to catch those killers, and a true-crime narrative unlike any you've read before.]]></book_description>
    <book id="42366217">
      <num_pages>336</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Billy Jensen</author_name>
    <isbn>1492685852</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 29 Apr 2026 06:30:30 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Wed, 29 Apr 2026 06:30:29 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
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    <average_rating>4.05</average_rating>
    <book_published>2019</book_published>
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                                      author: Billy Jensen<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.05<br/>
                                      book published: 2019<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/29<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8372674686?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:17:15 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Telephone</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8372674686?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>51541232</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Zach Wells is a perpetually dissatisfied geologist-slash-paleobiologist. Expert in a very narrow area—the geological history of a cave forty-four meters above the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon—he is a laconic man who plays chess with his daughter, trades puns with his wife while she does yoga, and dodges committee work at the college where he teaches.<br /><br />After a field trip to the desert yields nothing more than a colleague with a tenure problem and a student with an unwelcome crush on him, Wells returns home to find his world crumbling. His daughter has lost her edge at chess, she has developed mysterious eye problems, and her memory has lost its grasp. Powerless in the face of his daughter’s slow deterioration, he finds a mysterious note asking for help tucked into the pocket of a jacket he’s ordered off eBay. Desperate for someone to save, he sets off to New Mexico in secret on a quixotic rescue mission.<br /><br />A deeply affecting story about the lengths to which loss and grief will drive us, <i>Telephone </i>is a Percival Everett novel we should have seen coming all along, one that will shake you to the core as it asks questions about the power of narrative to save.]]></book_description>
    <book id="51541232">
      <num_pages>216</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Percival Everett</author_name>
    <isbn>1644450224</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>2</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 28 Apr 2026 20:17:15 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:20:34 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves><![CDATA[contemporary, literary-fiction]]></user_shelves>
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    <average_rating>3.95</average_rating>
    <book_published>2020</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Percival Everett<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.95<br/>
                                      book published: 2020<br/>
                                      rating: 2<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/03/30<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/28<br/>
                                      shelves: contemporary, literary-fiction<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5681081508?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Apr 2026 17:48:44 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5681081508?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>33670466</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Written in dead letters... and covered in blood! <br /><br />Demonic possession! Haunted condominiums! Murderous babies! Man-eating moths! No plot was too ludicrous, no cover art too appalling, no evil too despicable for the <i>Paperbacks from Hell</i>. <br /><br />Where did they come from? Where did they go? Horror author Grady Hendrix risks his soul and sanity (not to mention yours) to relate the true, untold story of the <i>Paperbacks from Hell</i>. <br /><br />Shocking story summaries! Incredible cover art! And true tales of writers, artists, and publishers who violated every literary law but one: never be boring. All this awaits, if you dare experience the <i>Paperbacks from Hell</i>.]]></book_description>
    <book id="33670466">
      <num_pages>254</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Grady Hendrix</author_name>
    <isbn>1594749817</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>5</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Tue, 21 Apr 2026 17:48:44 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Sun, 09 Jul 2023 20:50:56 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>non-fiction</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.27</average_rating>
    <book_published>2017</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33670466-paperbacks-from-hell?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of &#39;70s and &#39;80s Horror Fiction" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504436657l/33670466._SX50_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Grady Hendrix<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.27<br/>
                                      book published: 2017<br/>
                                      rating: 5<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/04/21<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/21<br/>
                                      shelves: non-fiction<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8530751763?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:49:49 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Singer Distance</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8530751763?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>60583990</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>For fans of <i>Station Eleven</i> and <i>Light from Other Stars</i>, Ethan Chatagnier’s propulsive, genre-bending debut novel asks: What happens when we discover intelligent life just next door? And what does it really mean to know we’re not alone in the universe?</b><br /><br />The odds of the planet next door hosting intelligent life are―that’s not luck. That’s a miracle. It means something.<br /><br />In December 1960, Crystal Singer, her boyfriend Rick, and three other MIT grad students take a cross-country road trip from Boston to Arizona to paint a message in the desert. Mars has been silent for thirty years, since the last time Earth solved one of the mathematical proofs the Martian civilization carved onto its surface. The latest proof, which seems to assert contradictory truths about distance, has resisted human understanding for decades. Crystal thinks she’s solved it, and Rick is intent on putting her answer to the test―if he can keep her from cracking under the pressure on the way. But Crystal’s disappearance after the experiment will set him on a different path than he expected, forever changing the distance between them.<br /><br />Filled with mystery and wonder, Ethan Chatagnier’s Singer Distance is a novel about ambition, loneliness, exploration, and love―about how far we’re willing to go to communicate with a distant civilization, and the great lengths we’ll travel to connect with each other here on Earth.]]></book_description>
    <book id="60583990">
      <num_pages>288</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Ethan Chatagnier</author_name>
    <isbn>1953534430</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Fri, 17 Apr 2026 18:49:49 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.89</average_rating>
    <book_published>2022</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
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                                      author: Ethan Chatagnier<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.89<br/>
                                      book published: 2022<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/17<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6018523461?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:21:33 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6018523461?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>45299992</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood<br /><br />After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word <i>mom</i>, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.<p>For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.</p>]]></book_description>
    <book id="45299992">
      <num_pages>431</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Gregg Olsen</author_name>
    <isbn>1542005248</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:21:33 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Sat, 02 Dec 2023 07:15:27 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>non-fiction, audiobook</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.98</average_rating>
    <book_published>2019</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45299992-if-you-tell?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="If You Tell: A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1556171767l/45299992._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Gregg Olsen<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.98<br/>
                                      book published: 2019<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/04/15<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/15<br/>
                                      shelves: non-fiction, audiobook<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8518249365?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:37:25 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Devil in the White City</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8518249365?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>21996</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[二十世紀初，芝加哥擊敗了美國其他的城市<br />爭取到世界博覽會的主辦資格，<br />兩個懷抱不凡技能與企圖的男人，也決定在這個夢幻城市裡大展身手。<br />他們都有雙明亮的藍眼睛，相貌英挺<br />他們都才智出眾、企圖心旺盛<br />一位是博覽會建築師，公開運籌耀眼輝煌的白城奇蹟，<br />一個是連續殺人犯，祕密打造毛骨悚然的魔鬼基地。<br />他們分別主導的事件，一個萬眾矚目，另一個不知不覺，<br />交錯在芝加哥博覽會前後的時空，混搭著璀璨風華與厄夜謎團。]]></book_description>
    <book id="21996">
      <num_pages>496</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Erik Larson</author_name>
    <isbn>0739303406</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:37:25 -0700]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:37:19 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>did-not-finish</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.99</average_rating>
    <book_published>2003</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21996.The_Devil_in_the_White_City?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Devil in the White City" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1312066724l/21996._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Erik Larson<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.99<br/>
                                      book published: 2003<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/12<br/>
                                      shelves: did-not-finish<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8518237880?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 12 Apr 2026 20:31:45 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Famesick</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8518237880?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>239475633</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<strong>In this rowdy, frank reflection on illness, fame, sex, and everything in between, the remarkable mind behind the hit series <em>Girls </em>and the bestselling author of <em>Not That Kind of Girl </em>asks whether fulfilling her creative ambitions has been worth the pain.</strong><br /><br />For the last decade, as she’s spent countless hours in doctor’s waiting rooms searching for diagnoses, treatments, and relief, being the owner and operator of Lena Dunham’s body has felt, as she puts it, 'like towing a wrecked car across town at midnight.' It’s not easy dragging a wrecked car anywhere, much less to the Met Gala while sewn into a gold lamé corset. Or to the set of the hit show that you – as a twenty-five-year-old – are writing, directing, producing, and starring in. Or to the White House, the Golden Globes, or your publicist’s office to discuss the latest internet disaster. But Dunham does it – even if it means interminable hospital stays, vomiting in the bathroom when she’s meant to be meeting Oprah, or terrifying those closest to her – because she can no longer tell the difference between fighting to do what she loves and being a servant to her own ambition. All the while, she is holding out for a love that can withstand her personal and public challenges and, more than anything, yearning to feel like herself again – if only she could remember who that self was.<br /><br />As Dunham takes us through her journey, tracking her rise to fame – from selling the pilot of <em>Girls </em>to the present – in three acts, it becomes clear that the spotlight casts long shadows, distorting the relationships she once held dear and isolating everyone in its glare. When an endless supply of drugs can’t protect you from pain – and begins to control your every move – being famous doesn’t stand a chance against the darker corners of the human experience.<br /><br />In <em>Famesick</em>, Dunham asks herself what the cost of fulfilling her dreams has really been, and whether it was worth it. What she finds is deeper than physical relief, and more lasting, as she learns to live with what she can’t change and turn her regrets into wisdom that can carry her forward, as she reconnects to what, and who, she loves.]]></book_description>
    <book id="239475633">
      <num_pages>416</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Lena Dunham</author_name>
    <isbn>0593129326</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.24</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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                                      author: Lena Dunham<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.24<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/12<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8488828468?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:34:46 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>Battleborn: Stories</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8488828468?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>16043734</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Winner of the 2012 Story Prize<br /> Recipient of the 2012 American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Foundation Award<br /> A National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" fiction writer of 2012</b><br /><br /> Like the work of Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx, <i>Battleborn </i>represents a near-perfect confluence of sensibility and setting, and the introduction of an exceptionally powerful and original literary voice. In each of these ten unforgettable stories, Claire Vaye Watkins writes her way fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, utterly reimagining it. Her characters orbit around the region's vast spaces, winning redemption despite - and often because of - the hardship and violence they endure. The arrival of a foreigner transforms the exchange of eroticism and emotion at a prostitution ranch. A prospecting hermit discovers the limits of his rugged individualism when he tries to rescue an abused teenager. Decades after she led her best friend into a degrading encounter in a Vegas hotel room, a woman feels the aftershock. Most bravely of all, Watkins takes on – and reinvents – her own troubled legacy in a story that emerges from the mayhem and destruction of Helter Skelter. Arcing from the sweeping and sublime to the minute and personal, from Gold Rush to ghost town to desert to brothel, the collection echoes not only in its title but also in its fierce, undefeated spirit the motto of her home state. ]]></book_description>
    <book id="16043734">
      <num_pages>305</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Claire Vaye Watkins</author_name>
    <isbn>159463145X</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Thu, 02 Apr 2026 05:34:46 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.21</average_rating>
    <book_published>2012</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16043734-battleborn?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Battleborn: Stories" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356194052l/16043734._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Claire Vaye Watkins<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.21<br/>
                                      book published: 2012<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8485612641?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Wed, 01 Apr 2026 04:50:15 -0700]]></pubDate>
    <title>The One (Dark Future #1)</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8485612641?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>241689584</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>This updated edition of <i>The One</i> comes complete with an exclusive letter from the author, and five never-seen-before bonus chapters catching up with all the key characters ten years later.<br />___<br /><br />"A mind blowing journey with nonstop thrills until the very last page."—<i>Freida McFadden</i><br />___<br /><br />How far would you go to find The One?</b><br /><br />A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner—the one you’re genetically made for.<br /><br />That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.<br /><br />Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…]]></book_description>
    <book id="241689584">
      <num_pages>496</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>John Marrs</author_name>
    <isbn>1335002324</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Wed, 01 Apr 2026 04:50:15 -0700]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>4.09</average_rating>
    <book_published>2016</book_published>
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      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/241689584-the-one?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The One (Dark Future #1)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1772136909l/241689584._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: John Marrs<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.09<br/>
                                      book published: 2016<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/04/01<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8405866818?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:12:59 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>Starter for Ten</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8405866818?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>107896</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[The year is 1985. Brian Jackson, a working-class kid on full scholarship, has started his first term at university. He has a dark secret—a long-held, burning ambition to appear on the wildly popular British TV quiz show <i>University Challenge</i>—and now, finally, it seems the dream is about to become reality. He's made the school team, and they've completed the qualifying rounds and are limbering up for their first televised match. (And, what's more, he's fallen head over heels for one of his teammates, the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly posh Alice Harbinson.) Life seems perfect and triumph inevitable—but as his world opens up, Brian learns that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.]]></book_description>
    <book id="107896">
      <num_pages>338</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>David Nicholls</author_name>
    <isbn>0345498127</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:12:59 -0800]]></user_date_added>
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    <average_rating>3.66</average_rating>
    <book_published>2003</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/107896.Starter_for_Ten?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Starter for Ten" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348794628l/107896._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: David Nicholls<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.66<br/>
                                      book published: 2003<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/03/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:12:53 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>You Are Here</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8405866511?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>201465867</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Sometimes you need to get lost to find your way . . .<br /><br />Michael is coming undone. Adrift after his wife's departure, he has begun taking himself on long, solitary walks across the English countryside. Becoming ever more reclusive, he’ll do anything to avoid his empty house.<br /><br />Marnie, on the other hand, is stuck. Hiding alone in her London flat, she avoids old friends and any reminders of her rotten, selfish ex-husband. Curled up with a good book, she’s battling the long afternoons of a life that feels like it’s passing her by.<br /><br />When a persistent mutual friend and some very unpredictable weather conspire to toss Michael and Marnie together on the most epic of ten-day hikes, neither of them can think of anything worse. Until, of course, they discover exactly what they’ve been looking for.<br /><br />Michael and Marnie are on the precipice of a bright future . . . if they can survive the journey.]]></book_description>
    <book id="201465867">
      <num_pages>368</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>David Nicholls</author_name>
    <isbn>0063394057</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.94</average_rating>
    <book_published>2024</book_published>
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                                      author: David Nicholls<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.94<br/>
                                      book published: 2024<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/03/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:44:11 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Girls Who Grew Big</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8320323075?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>219520677</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>From the author of Oprah's Book Club pick and <i>New York Times</i> best seller <i>Nightcrawling, </i>here is an astonishing new novel about the joys and entanglements of a fierce group of teenage mothers in a small town on the Florida panhandle.</b><br /><br />Adela Woods is sixteen years old and pregnant. Her parents banish her from her comfortable upbringing in Indiana to her grandmother’s home in the small town of Padua Beach, Florida. When she arrives, Adela meets Emory, who brings her newborn to high school, determined to graduate despite the odds; Simone, mother of four-year-old twins, weighs her options when she finds herself pregnant again; and the rest of the Girls, a group of outcast young moms who raise their growing brood in the back of Simone’s red truck.<br /><br />The town thinks the Girls have lost their way, but really they are finding it: looking for love, making and breaking friendships, and navigating the miracle of motherhood and the paradox of girlhood.<br /><br />Full of heart and life and hope, set against the shifting sands of these friends’ secrets and betrayals, <i>The Girls Who Grew Big</i> confirms Leila Mottley’s promise and offers an explosive new perspective on what it means to be a young woman.]]></book_description>
    <book id="219520677">
      <num_pages>352</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Leila Mottley</author_name>
    <isbn>0593801121</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>4</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Mon, 2 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
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    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Sun, 01 Feb 2026 04:27:54 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves><![CDATA[contemporary, literary-fiction]]></user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.97</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219520677-the-girls-who-grew-big?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="The Girls Who Grew Big" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1734707534l/219520677._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Leila Mottley<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.97<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 4<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/03/02<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/03/02<br/>
                                      shelves: contemporary, literary-fiction<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8405498411?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:56:35 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[There Is No Antimemetics Division]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8405498411?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>54870256</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people from spreading it. Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams... But anomalous antimemes are another matter entirely. How do you contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight a war against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when you can never even know that you're at war? Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day.]]></book_description>
    <book id="54870256">
      <num_pages>220</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>qntm</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:56:35 -0800]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:56:35 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.98</average_rating>
    <book_published>2020</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54870256-there-is-no-antimemetics-division?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="There Is No Antimemetics Division" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1597056415l/54870256._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: qntm<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.98<br/>
                                      book published: 2020<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/03/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:55:50 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls (I Found Horror)]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8405496652?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>177119189</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Can you tell me how to get... out alive?</b><br /><br />Johnny awakes. A puppet looms over his bed.<br /><br />He recognizes the furry Grandpa was its puppeteer on the children’s television show <i>R-City Street</i>. But Grandpa went missing a year ago. He disappeared from this very apartment building, which was converted from the old <i>R-City Street </i>studio.<br /><br />Desperate to see Grandpa again, Johnny follows the puppet inside the building’s walls, ever deeper into a puppet-infested labyrinth...<br /><br /><i>I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls</i> is a horror tale from the “darkly inventive” purveyor of uncanny places and wondrous evils, Ben Farthing.<br /><br />Each book in the <i>I Found Horror</i> series is a STANDALONE. They can be read in any order.]]></book_description>
    <book id="177119189">
      <num_pages>160</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Ben Farthing</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:55:50 -0800]]></user_date_added>
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    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.65</average_rating>
    <book_published></book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/177119189-i-found-puppets-living-in-my-apartment-walls?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls (I Found Horror)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1786940661l/177119189._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Ben Farthing<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.65<br/>
                                      book published: <br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/03/02<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6654385865?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 01 Mar 2026 07:31:18 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title><![CDATA[Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6654385865?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>56769577</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Come comportarsi quando un alce ci attraversa la strada? Quando sorprendiamo un orso entrare in casa? O ci troviamo di fronte a un albero “pericoloso”? Non siamo mai stati troppo bravi, come specie, a condividere il Pianeta... Nell’antichità, quando gli animali “infrangevano la legge” venivano affidati ad avvocati e portati a processo. Esemplare il caso dei bruchi che nel 1659 furono denunciati per aver sconfinato, rubando dai frutteti della gente (ai bruchi fu ordinato di comparire in tribunale in un giorno prestabilito, dove sarebbe stata assegnata loro la rappresentanza legale. Ovviamente nessun bruco si presentò, ma il caso andò avanti lo stesso...); o del maiale processato per omicidio; o del giudice che nel XVI secolo concesse clemenza a una famiglia di talpe con prole a carico. In passato, le specie “criminali” venivano semplicemente sterminate attraverso sanguinose e arroganti campagne per eliminare “parassiti” come corvi o coyote. Iniziative moralmente dubbie, che si rivelarono anche inefficaci e costose. Oggi, questi casi vengono affidati a ecologisti e agenzie governative, chiamati a risolvere professionalmente i conflitti. Per raccontarci questo viaggio in un mondo pressoché sconosciuto, Mary Roach ha trascorso molto tempo con esperti che lavorano su tecnologie ingegnose e talvolta inquietanti: laser per respingere i gabbiani reali in Vaticano, luci speciali per spaventare i cervi sulle strade, ingegneria genetica applicata alle popolazioni di topi in maniera da produrre solo cuccioli maschi. Non mancano ovviamente gli episodi divertenti, anche se a volte sconcertanti, come uno studio che suggerisce che potrebbe essere più sicuro guidare dritto contro un cervo piuttosto che frenare (più sicuro per il guidatore, cioè, non per il cervo). Naturalmente non si può davvero parlare di animali che infrangono le leggi umane: gli animali fanno semplicemente quello che devono fare ed è la nostra stessa incursione nel loro spazio a creare il conflitto...]]></book_description>
    <book id="56769577">
      <num_pages>308</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Mary Roach</author_name>
    <isbn>1324001933</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>5</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Sun, 1 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Sun, 01 Mar 2026 07:31:18 -0800]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Tue, 09 Jul 2024 05:24:47 -0700]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>audiobook, non-fiction</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.81</average_rating>
    <book_published>2021</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56769577-fuzz?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1619615618l/56769577._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Mary Roach<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.81<br/>
                                      book published: 2021<br/>
                                      rating: 5<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/03/01<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/03/01<br/>
                                      shelves: audiobook, non-fiction<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
                                      ]]>
    </description>
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    <guid><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8383982112?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></guid>
    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:03:11 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>Walking Practice</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8383982112?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>61150781</book_id>
    <book_image_url><![CDATA[https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1658587049l/61150781._SY75_.jpg]]></book_image_url>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<strong><em>Squid Game</em> meets <em>The Left Hand of Darkness</em> meets <em>Under the Skin</em> in this radical literary sensation from South Korea about an alien's hunt for food that transforms into an existential crisis about what it means to be human.</strong><br /><br />After crashing their spacecraft in the middle of nowhere, a shapeshifting alien find themself stranded on an unfamiliar planet and disabled by Earth's gravity. To survive, they will need to practice walking. And what better way than to hunt for food? As they discover, humans are delicious.<br /><br />Intelligent, clever, and adaptable, the alien shift their gender, appearance, and conduct to suit a prey's sexual preference, then attack at the pivotal moment of their encounter. They use a variety of hunting tools, including a popular dating app, to target the juiciest prey and carry a backpack filled with torturous instruments and cleaning equipment. But the alien's existence begins to unravel one night when they fail to kill their latest meal.<br /><br />Thrust into an ill-fated chase across the city, the alien is confronted with the psychological and physical tolls their experience on Earth has taken. Questioning what they must do to sustain their own survival, they begin to understand why humans also fight to live. But their hunger is insatiable, and the alien once again targets a new prey, not knowing what awaits. . . .<br /><br />Dolki Min's haunting debut novel is part psychological thriller, part searing critique of the social structures that marginalize those who are different--the disabled, queer, and nonconformist. <em>Walking Practice</em> uncovers humanity in who we consider to be alien, and illuminates how alienation can shape the human experience.<br /><br /><em>Walking Practice </em>features 21 black-and-white line drawings throughout.<br /><br />Translated from the Korean by Victoria Caudle]]></book_description>
    <book id="61150781">
      <num_pages>166</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Dolki Min</author_name>
    <isbn>0063258617</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
    <user_read_at></user_read_at>
    <user_date_added><![CDATA[Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:03:11 -0800]]></user_date_added>
    <user_date_created><![CDATA[Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:03:11 -0800]]></user_date_created>
    <user_shelves>to-read</user_shelves>
    <user_review></user_review>
    <average_rating>3.59</average_rating>
    <book_published>2022</book_published>
    <description>
      <![CDATA[
      <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61150781-walking-practice?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=rss"><img alt="Walking Practice" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1658587049l/61150781._SY75_.jpg" /></a><br/>
                                      author: Dolki Min<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.59<br/>
                                      book published: 2022<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/02/23<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:02:05 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>Light from Uncommon Stars</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8383980188?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>56179360</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.<br /><br />Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.<br /><br />When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.<br /><br />But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.<br /><br />As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.]]></book_description>
    <book id="56179360">
      <num_pages>384</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Ryka Aoki</author_name>
    <isbn>1250789060</isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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                                      author: Ryka Aoki<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.00<br/>
                                      book published: 2021<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/02/23<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:01:16 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>Pretend I&apos;m Dead</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8383978808?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>36373223</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Miranda July meets Mary Karr in this brilliant debut novel from Jen Beagin, Whiting Award winner and “one of the freshest voices I've read in years—funny, wise, whip-smart and compassionate” (Jami Attenberg, author of <i>The Middlesteins</i>), about a cleaning lady on a quest for self-acceptance after her relationship with a loveable junkie goes awry.<br /><br />Jen Beagin’s quirky, moving, “frank and unflinching” (Josh Ferris) debut novel introduces an unforgettable character, Mona—almost twenty-four, emotionally adrift, and cleaning houses to get by. Handing out clean needles to drug addicts, she falls for a recipient she calls Mr. Disgusting, who proceeds to break her heart in unimaginable ways.<br /><br /> In search of healing, Mona decamps to Taos, New Mexico, for a fresh start, where she finds a community of seekers and cast-offs, all of whom have one or two things to teach her—the pajama-wearing, blissed-out New Agers, the slightly creepy client with peculiar tastes in controlled substances, the psychic who might really be psychic. But always lurking just beneath the surface are her memories of growing up in a chaotic, destructive family from which she’s trying to disentangle herself, and the larger legacy of the past she left behind.<br /><br /> The story of Mona’s journey to find her place in this working-class American world is at once hilarious and wonderfully strange, true to life and boldly human, and introduces a stunningly one-of-a-kind new voice in American fiction.]]></book_description>
    <book id="36373223">
      <num_pages>240</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Jen Beagin</author_name>
    <isbn>1501183931</isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <book_published>2015</book_published>
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                                      author: Jen Beagin<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.71<br/>
                                      book published: 2015<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/02/23<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sat, 21 Feb 2026 08:16:52 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>Hamnet</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5538194686?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>43890641</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[Drawing on Maggie O'Farrell's long-term fascination with the little-known story behind Shakespeare's most enigmatic play, <i>Hamnet</i> is a luminous portrait of a marriage, at its heart the loss of a beloved child. <br /><br />Warwickshire in the 1580s. Agnes is a woman as feared as she is sought after for her unusual gifts. She settles with her husband in Henley street, Stratford, and has three children: a daughter, Susanna, and then twins, Hamnet and Judith. The boy, Hamnet, dies in 1596, aged eleven. Four years or so later, the husband writes a play called Hamlet. <br /><br />Award-winning author Maggie O'Farrell's new novel breathes full-blooded life into the story of a loss usually consigned to literary footnotes, and provides an unforgettable vindication of Agnes, a woman intriguingly absent from history.<br /><br />A <em>New York Times</em> Notable Book (2020), Best Book of 2020: <em>Guardian</em>, <em>Financial Times</em>, <em>Literary Hub</em>, and <em>NPR</em>.]]></book_description>
    <book id="43890641">
      <num_pages>372</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Maggie O&apos;Farrell</author_name>
    <isbn>1472223799</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>3</user_rating>
    <user_read_at><![CDATA[Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000]]></user_read_at>
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    <average_rating>4.18</average_rating>
    <book_published>2020</book_published>
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                                      author: Maggie O'Farrell<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.18<br/>
                                      book published: 2020<br/>
                                      rating: 3<br/>
                                      read at: 2026/02/21<br/>
                                      date added: 2026/02/21<br/>
                                      shelves: <br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:21:58 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>Angel Down</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8372677025?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>220160849</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>AMID THE CARNAGE OF WAR, FIVE MEN MUST DECIDE WHETHER A FALLEN ANGEL IS THEIR REDEMPTION – OR THEIR RUIN.</b><br /><br />Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade.<br /> <br />What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed, and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.<br /> <br /><i>Angel Down </i>plunges you into the heart of World War I and weaves a polyphonic tale of survival, supernatural wonder, and moral conflict.]]></book_description>
    <book id="220160849">
      <num_pages>285</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Daniel Kraus</author_name>
    <isbn></isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>4.02</average_rating>
    <book_published>2025</book_published>
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                                      author: Daniel Kraus<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.02<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/02/19<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Mon, 16 Feb 2026 09:05:10 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>Discipline</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8364064939?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>231681778</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A taut, electrifying debut about a woman forced to confront unsettling truths about herself, her past, and the life she rebuilt following a ruinous affair with her former mentor, from a “lit world phenom” (<i>Harper’s Bazaar</i>).</b><br /><br /><i>I have the sense that something is being drawn between us. Not drawn as in line but as in arrow pulled back. But I don’t know which of us holds the bow, and which of us faces the arrow.</i><br /><b> </b><br />Christine is on tour for her novel, a revenge fantasy based on a real-life relationship gone bad with an older professor ten years prior. Now on the road, Christine is seeking answers—about how to live a good life and what it means to make art—through intimate conversations with strangers, past lovers and friends.<br /><br />But when the antagonist of her novel—her old painting professor—reaches out in a series of sly communiques after years of silence to tell her he's read her book, Christine must reckon with what it means to lose the reins of a narrative she wrote precisely to maintain control. When her professor invites her to join him at his cabin, deep in the woods of Maine, what she encounters threatens to change the very foundations of her life as she's imagined it. <br /><br />A delicately explosive high-wire act about the fictions we construct for ourselves just to survive, <i>Discipline </i>is a terse triumph about art-making and rigor, intimacy and attention, punishment and release.]]></book_description>
    <book id="231681778">
      <num_pages>224</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Larissa Pham</author_name>
    <isbn>0593979648</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.51</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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                                      author: Larissa Pham<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.51<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/02/16<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 15 Feb 2026 19:03:40 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>The Country Under Heaven</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8362506591?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>217455539</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>Louis L’Amour meets H.P. Lovecraft in this thrilling western epic about a former Civil War soldier following enigmatic visions that started coming to him after he survived one of the war's bloodiest battles . . .</b><br /><br />Set in the 1880s, the story follows Ovid Vesper, a former Union soldier who has been having enigmatic visions after an explosion at the Battle of Antietam. As he travels across the country following those visions, he finds himself in stranger and increasingly more dangerous encounters with other worlds hidden in the spaces of his own. <br /><br />Ovid brings his steady calm and compassion as he helps the people of a broken country, rapidly changing but still reeling and wounded from its Civil War two decades earlier. He assists with matters of all sorts, from odd jobs around the house, to guiding children back to their own universe, to hunting down unnatural creatures that stalk the night--all the while seeking his own personal resolution and peace from his visions and the war that changed his life.<br /><br />This epic journey across the American West with Ovid and a surprising cast of characters blends elements of the classic Western with historical fantasy in a way like no other.]]></book_description>
    <book id="217455539">
      <num_pages>321</num_pages>
    </book>
    <author_name>Frederic S. Durbin</author_name>
    <isbn>1685891691</isbn>
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    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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                                      author: Frederic S. Durbin<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 4.03<br/>
                                      book published: 2025<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/02/15<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
                                      review: <br/><br/>
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    <pubDate><![CDATA[Sun, 15 Feb 2026 19:01:45 -0800]]></pubDate>
    <title>Cleaner</title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8362501234?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>241736397</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>“Forget the rock and roll, this debut is about sex, drugs and a serious obsession with cleaning.” —<i>ELLE</i></b><br /> <br /><b>“[A] gem of a debut novel...funny, vibrant, and utterly</b> <b>unpredictable.” —<i>Service95</i></b><br /> <br /><b>A disaffected young woman’s work as a cleaner takes her on an increasingly surreal search for a creative fulfillment, gainful employment, and the meaning of life in this sharp, tragicomic debut—perfect for fans of Melissa Broder, Jen Beagin, and Alexandra Tanner.</b><br /><br />A young artist returns to her childhood home, with a host of degrees and diplomas in her back pocket. But when forced to confront the reality that the world sees no use for her scholarly exploits, she must find a job—and quickly.<br /> <br />Overqualified, underemployed, and idle, she starts a job as a cleaner for a gallery, where she meets another aspiring artist—Isabella—and they begin a passionate affair. Isabella could not be more different from the she’s elegant, successful…and living with her filthy rich boyfriend Paul.<br /> <br />Isabella sneaks the cleaner into her life by hiring her to scrub the apartment she shares with Paul. Little by little, the cleaner relaxes into the comfort of her new surroundings. But when Isabella leaves the apartment one day and doesn’t come back, the cleaner is left to decide whether to back to her old life—or stay and step into Isabella’s.]]></book_description>
    <book id="241736397">
      <num_pages>224</num_pages>
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    <author_name>Jess Shannon</author_name>
    <isbn>1668223082</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.06</average_rating>
    <book_published>2026</book_published>
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                                      author: Jess Shannon<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.06<br/>
                                      book published: 2026<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
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                                      date added: 2026/02/15<br/>
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    <title><![CDATA[We'll Prescribe You a Cat (We'll Prescribe You a Cat, #1)]]></title>
    <link><![CDATA[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8362491897?utm_medium=api&utm_source=rss]]></link>
    <book_id>209891170</book_id>
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    <book_description><![CDATA[<b>A cat a day keeps the doctor away….<br /><br /><i>Discover this utterly charming, vibrant celebration of the healing power of cats in the award-winning, bestselling Japanese novel that has become an international sensation.</i></b><br /><br />Tucked away on the fifth floor of an old building at the end of a narrow alley in Kyoto, the Nakagyō Kokoro Clinic for the Soul can be found only by people who are struggling in their lives and who genuinely need help. The mysterious clinic offers a unique treatment to those who find their way there: it prescribes cats as medication. Patients are often puzzled by this unconventional prescription, but when they “take” their cat for the recommended duration, they witness profound transformations in their lives, guided by the playful, empathetic, and occasionally challenging yet endearing cats.<br /><br />Throughout these pages, the power of the human-animal bond is revealed as a disheartened businessman finds unexpected joy in physical labor, a middle-aged man struggles to stay relevant at work and home, a young girl navigates the complexities of elementary school cliques, a hardened handbag designer seeks emotional balance, and a geisha learns to move on from the memory of her lost cat. As the clinic’s patients grapple with their inner turmoil and seek resolution, their feline companions lead them toward healing, self-discovery, and newfound hope.]]></book_description>
    <book id="209891170">
      <num_pages>297</num_pages>
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    <author_name>Syou Ishida</author_name>
    <isbn>0593818741</isbn>
    <user_name>Erin</user_name>
    <user_rating>0</user_rating>
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    <average_rating>3.73</average_rating>
    <book_published>2023</book_published>
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                                      author: Syou Ishida<br/>
                                      name: Erin<br/>
                                      average rating: 3.73<br/>
                                      book published: 2023<br/>
                                      rating: 0<br/>
                                      read at: <br/>
                                      date added: 2026/02/15<br/>
                                      shelves: to-read<br/>
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