en-US Wed, 14 Jan 2026 10:10:18 -0800 60 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Mary 0 currently-reading 4.50 2021
author: Andy Weir
name: Mary
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2026/01/14
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 223436601
Now you can read her award-winning story. Candid and entertaining, Wynn-Williams’ account pulls back the curtain on Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and the global elite. She exposes the true cost of Silicon Valley’s ambition, from outrageous schemes cooked up on private jets to the alarming consequences of Facebook’s aggressive pursuit of global dominance.

Careless People is an ordinary woman's gripping and darkly funny memoir that will forever change how you view the technology that runs our lives – and the unchecked power of those who control it.]]> 382 Sarah Wynn-Williams 1250391237 Mary 5
I stand on the precipice of beginning my professional career and feel a gut in my stomach that I will find myself working for Daisy and Tom. I lament thinking that my career could be an uphill fight. I didn’t join this industry to become Sisyphus but to alleviate others from their holders only to understand in its entirety my job is to trick the user that they must carry this burden and we must deal with it because what can we do?

My capstone is on Deceptive Design Pattern and will attempt to continue this fight on a different front. This work matters and it can’t change without a lot of people understanding. This book is a wonderful and important step to helping people like myself understand and I hope to return the favor through my work. ]]> 4.10 2025
author: Sarah Wynn-Williams
name: Mary
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2026/01/02
date added: 2026/01/02
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Down to a traumatic animal attack as a child (although I was but by a Copperhead snake) I understand Sarah. As a student in tech I often feel dismissed for voicing my concerns in the teach industry. I am a UX researcher and see so many things that make me uncomfortable from teaching userous topics and concepts because that’s what the industry is looking for, professionals that raise questionable at best visions for AI, and seeing political issues intertwined with design but not allowed to discuss.

I stand on the precipice of beginning my professional career and feel a gut in my stomach that I will find myself working for Daisy and Tom. I lament thinking that my career could be an uphill fight. I didn’t join this industry to become Sisyphus but to alleviate others from their holders only to understand in its entirety my job is to trick the user that they must carry this burden and we must deal with it because what can we do?

My capstone is on Deceptive Design Pattern and will attempt to continue this fight on a different front. This work matters and it can’t change without a lot of people understanding. This book is a wonderful and important step to helping people like myself understand and I hope to return the favor through my work.
]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn's luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the `80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn's story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique's own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 Mary 3 I didn’t mind it 4.38 2017
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Mary
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2025/07/22
date added: 2025/12/28
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I didn’t mind it
]]> 28954189 Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

An alternate cover edition of ISBN: 9781442472426]]> 435 Neal Shusterman Mary 0 to-read 4.31 2016
author: Neal Shusterman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/11/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 59808316 In the vein of Educated and The Glass Castle, Daniella Mestyanek Young's Uncultured is more than a memoir about an exceptional upbringing, but about a woman who, no matter the lack of tools given to her, is determined to overcome.

Behind the tall, foreboding gates of a commune in Brazil, Daniella Mestyanek Young was raised in the religious cult The Children of God, also known as The Family, as the daughter of high-ranking members. Her great-grandmother donated land for one of The Family’s first communes in Texas. Her mother, at thirteen, was forced to marry the leader and served as his secretary for many years. Beholden to The Family’s strict rules, Daniella suffers physical, emotional, and sexual abuse—masked as godly discipline and divine love—and is forbidden from getting a traditional education.

At fifteen years old, fed up with The Family and determined to build a better and freer life for herself, Daniella escapes to Texas. There, she bravely enrolls herself in high school and excels, later graduating as valedictorian of her college class, then electing to join the military to begin a career as an intelligence officer, where she believes she will finally belong.

But she soon learns that her new world—surrounded by men on the sands of Afghanistan—looks remarkably similar to the one she desperately tried to leave behind.

Told in a beautiful, propulsive voice and with clear-eyed honesty, Uncultured explores the dangers unleashed when harmful group mentality goes unrecognized, and is emblematic of the many ways women have to contort themselves to survive.]]> 339 Daniella Mestyanek Young 1250280117 Mary 3 4.12 2022
author: Daniella Mestyanek Young
name: Mary
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/07/22
date added: 2025/07/28
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]]> 469571 302 Cormac McCarthy 0679744398 Mary 3 4.06 1992
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Mary
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2025/06/21
date added: 2025/07/28
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]]> 99561 Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .
After. Nothing is ever the same.]]> 221 John Green 1435249151 Mary 4 3.97 2005
author: John Green
name: Mary
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/07/28
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]]> 3479476 With a New Foreword

In So Damn Much Money, veteran Washington Post editor and correspondent Robert Kaiser gives a detailed account of how the boom in political lobbying since the 1970s has shaped American politics by empowering special interests, undermining effective legislation, and discouraging the country’s best citizens from serving in office. Kaiser traces this dramatic change in our political system through the colorful story of Gerald S. J. Cassidy, one of Washington’s most successful lobbyists. Superbly told, it’s an illuminating dissection of a political system badly in need of reform.]]> 360 Robert G. Kaiser 0307266540 Mary 0 to-read 3.83 2009
author: Robert G. Kaiser
name: Mary
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 35668862
"This book is for people who are angry with the ways things are and want to do something about it; for people who are frustrated with the system, or worried about the direction the country is going. Maybe they've been on a march, posted their opinions on social media, or shouted angrily at something they've seen on the news but don't feel like it's making any difference. It is for people who want to make a change but they're not sure how." -- Matthew Bolton]]> 176 Matthew Bolton 1408892723 Mary 0 to-read 4.13 2017
author: Matthew Bolton
name: Mary
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 58516991 Racial justice without shame or blame.

Road-tested tools to start making a difference today.

“A uniquely accessible combination of personal observations and scientific evidence… [this] framework is both original and needed.”—Mahzarin R. Banaji, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

In Deep Diversity, award-winning racial justice educator Shakil Choudhury explores the emotionally loaded topic of racism using a compassionate, scientific approach that everyone can understand—whether you are Black, Indigenous, a person of color (BIPOC), or white.

With clear language and engaging stories that will appeal to readers of Brené Brown and Malcom Gladwell, Choudhury explains how and why well-intentioned people can perpetuate systems of oppression, often unconsciously. Using a trauma-informed approach that removes shame or blame, he offers us the tools to recognize, take authentic responsibility, and enact deep change. In easy-to-absorb chapters, Choudhury interweaves research into the brain and studies on human behavior with hard-won lessons from his career of helping organizations and CEOs create more inclusive environments. He models vulnerability and mistake-making, sharing examples of his own bias-missteps so readers are encouraged into their own racial justice journey without judgment.

Readers will come away from the book with practical tools and an understanding of:

• How to becomes a systems thinker by developing “racial pattern recognition” skills in order to challenge racism and other forms of systemic discrimination when we encounter them, while minimizing the tendency to shame or blame ourselves or others.

• How to recognize when the unconscious influence of bias, identity, emotions, or power contradict our beliefs about equality, and how to realign our thoughts/words/actions.

• How to break the racial “prejudice habits” we have all been socialized into since birth, using research-based strategies.

• How the rise in authoritarianism and income inequality (among other factors) contribute to a rise in hate crimes and racial discrimination, and what to do about it.

Traditional approaches to anti-racism overly rely on analyzing history to explain systemic discrimination, which only tells us a part of the story. What’s missing, Choudhury argues, is to understand why humans do what we do, the evolutionary impulses underlying our group-ish nature and our struggles with power, bias, and social dominance. This is why psychology and neuroscience perspectives are critical to integrate into anti-racist work, as is practicing compassion for ourselves and for others. Deep Diversity is a unique, evidence-based approach to racial justice that seeks to overcome feelings of shame that so often block our progress and prevent deep change at individual and systemic levels.

Deep Diversity meets you where you’re at, regardless of your identity, class, ability, or belief system, and invites you to come along on a journey of self-discovery, social awareness, and lifelong learning.

It’s only just begun.

“Choudhury draws on heart-touching stories, research on the brain, and hard-won lessons from real-world interventions to offer useful strategies to know ourselves, and others better.” — New York Times -bestselling author of Buddha’s Brain, Rick Hanson]]> 240 Shakil Choudhury 1771649011 Mary 0 to-read 4.42
author: Shakil Choudhury
name: Mary
average rating: 4.42
book published:
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]]> 20483102
Youthful, ambitious Peter Schoeffer is on the verge of professional success as a scribe in Paris when his foster father, wealthy merchant and bookseller Johann Fust, summons him home to corrupt, feud-plagued Mainz to meet “a most amazing man.”

Johann Gutenberg, a driven and caustic inventor, has devised a revolutionary—and to some, blasphemous—method of bookmaking: a machine he calls a printing press. Fust is financing Gutenberg’s workshop and he orders Peter, his adopted son, to become Gutenberg’s apprentice. Resentful at having to abandon a prestigious career as a scribe, Peter begins his education in the “darkest art.”

As his skill grows, so, too, does his admiration for Gutenberg and his dedication to their daring venture: copies of the Holy Bible. But mechanical difficulties and the crushing power of the Catholic Church threaten their work. As outside forces align against them, Peter finds himself torn between two father figures: the generous Fust, who saved him from poverty after his mother died; and the brilliant, mercurial Gutenberg, who inspires Peter to achieve his own mastery.

Caught between the genius and the merchant, the old ways and the new, Peter and the men he admires must work together to prevail against overwhelming obstacles—a battle that will change history . . . and irrevocably transform them.]]> 406 Alix Christie 0062336010 Mary 3 3.42 2014
author: Alix Christie
name: Mary
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2024/12/31
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As someone who uses chat GPT I know how exactly how Peter felt.
]]> 6646927 Slaves to Fashion is a pioneering cultural history of the black dandy, from his emergence in Enlightenment England to his contemporary incarnations in the cosmopolitan art worlds of London and New York. It is populated by sartorial impresarios such as Julius Soubise, a freed slave who sometimes wore diamond-buckled, red-heeled shoes as he circulated through the social scene of eighteenth-century London, and Yinka Shonibare, a prominent Afro-British artist who not only styles himself as a fop but also creates ironic commentaries on black dandyism in his work. Interpreting performances and representations of black dandyism in particular cultural settings and literary and visual texts, Monica L. Miller emphasizes the importance of sartorial style to black identity formation in the Atlantic diaspora.

Dandyism was initially imposed on black men in eighteenth-century England, as the Atlantic slave trade and an emerging culture of conspicuous consumption generated a vogue in dandified black servants. “Luxury slaves” tweaked and reworked their uniforms, and were soon known for their sartorial novelty and sometimes flamboyant personalities. Tracing the history of the black dandy forward to contemporary celebrity incarnations such as Andre 3000 and Sean Combs, Miller explains how black people became arbiters of style and how they have historically used the dandy’s signature tools—clothing, gesture, and wit—to break down limiting identity markers and propose new ways of fashioning political and social possibility in the black Atlantic world. With an aplomb worthy of her iconographic subject, she considers the black dandy in relation to nineteenth-century American literature and drama, W. E. B. Du Bois’s reflections on black masculinity and cultural nationalism, the modernist aesthetics of the Harlem Renaissance, and representations of black cosmopolitanism in contemporary visual art.]]> 408 Monica L. Miller 0822346036 Mary 0 to-read 3.93 2009
author: Monica L. Miller
name: Mary
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 32409430 73 Jonathan Haidt 0525433783 Mary 0 to-read 4.12
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Mary
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 171681821 From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the play-based childhood began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the phone-based childhood in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this great rewiring of childhood has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the collective action problems that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]> 385 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Mary 0 to-read 4.30 2024
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Mary
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 50659467
At least, he’s not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1635575567 Mary 3
The plot is a little thin for me. Very sound and had a great twist or two but it felt a little too perfect chosen one for the plot but I wasn’t upset by it and I’m not comparing or saying it has to have Sanderson level lore for it to be a good book but I’d like to see a little more world building.

Will be sat for the second book ]]> 4.13 2015
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Mary
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/13
date added: 2024/12/12
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It’s a 3.7 for me. It’s a great story and I was going into this skeptic because I’m more high fantasy but also a sucker for a good romance. But while the Feyre has a little MC syndrome in her I found her very endearing. Rhysand is the star of the show for me and had me gasping every time he was in a scene.

The plot is a little thin for me. Very sound and had a great twist or two but it felt a little too perfect chosen one for the plot but I wasn’t upset by it and I’m not comparing or saying it has to have Sanderson level lore for it to be a good book but I’d like to see a little more world building.

Will be sat for the second book
]]> 35133922 #1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.]]> 352 Tara Westover 0399590501 Mary 0 currently-reading 4.45 2018
author: Tara Westover
name: Mary
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/25
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]]> 15751404 The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell has explored the ways we understand and change our world. Now he looks at the complex and surprising ways the weak can defeat the strong, the small can match up against the giant, and how our goals (often culturally determined) can make a huge difference in our ultimate sense of success. Drawing upon examples from the world of business, sports, culture, cutting-edge psychology, and an array of unforgettable characters around the world, David and Goliath is in many ways the most practical and provocative book Malcolm Gladwell has ever written.]]> 305 Malcolm Gladwell 0316204366 Mary 4 3.97 2013
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Mary
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/12
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]]> 23500254 Show Up and Let Yourself be Seen

Is vulnerability the same as weakness? “In our culture,” teaches Dr. Brené Brown, “we associate vulnerability with emotions we want to avoid such as fear, shame, and uncertainty. Yet we too often lose sight of the fact that vulnerability is also the birthplace of joy, belonging, creativity, authenticity, and love.” On The Power of Vulnerability, Dr. Brown offers an invitation and a promise - that when we dare to drop the armor that protects us from feeling vulnerable, we open ourselves to the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives. Here she dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and reveals that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage.
“The Power of Vulnerability is a very personal project for me,” Brené explains. “This is the first place that all of my work comes together. This audio course draws from all three of my books - it’s the culmination of everything I’ve learned over the past twelve years. I'm very excited to weave it all into a truly comprehensive form that shows what these findings and insights can mean in our lives.”

Guidance and Insights for Wholehearted Living

Over the past twelve years, Dr. Brené Brown has interviewed hundreds of people as part of an ongoing study of vulnerability. “The research shows that we try to ward disappointment with a shield of cynicism, disarm shame by numbing ourselves against joy, and circumvent grief by shutting off our willingness to love,” explains Dr. Brown. When we become aware of these patterns, she teaches, we begin to become conscious of how much we sacrifice in the name of self-defense -and how much richer our lives become when we open ourselves to vulnerability.
“In my research,” Dr. Brown says, “the word I use to describe people who can live from a place of vulnerability is wholehearted.” Being wholehearted is a practice—one that we can choose to cultivate through empathy, gratitude, and awareness of our vulnerability armor. Join this engaging and heartfelt teacher on The Power of Vulnerability as she offers profound insights on leaning into the full spectrum of emotions—so we can show up, let ourselves be seen, and truly be all in.

HIGHLIGHTS

Cultivating shame resilience—the key to developing a sense of worth and belonging.
Vulnerability as the origin point for innovation, adaptability, accountability, and visionary leadership.
Our emotional armory - how we use perfectionism, numbing, and other tactics to avoid feeling vulnerable.
The myths of vulnerability - common misconceptions about weakness, trust, and self-sufficiency.
Discovering your vulnerability armor - recognizing what makes us shut down, and how we can change.
The 10 guideposts of wholehearted living - essential skills for becoming fully engaged in life.
Six hours of stories, warm humor, and transformative insights for living a life of courage, authenticity, and compassion from Dr. Brené Brown.]]> 1 Brené Brown Mary 4 4.60 2013
author: Brené Brown
name: Mary
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/17
date added: 2024/11/12
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]]> 43763
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force --- a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of the extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.]]> 346 Anne Rice 0345476875 Mary 5 4.04 1976
author: Anne Rice
name: Mary
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves:
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It’s the perfect vampire book. Everyone’s reflection of this book is a confession of their character.
]]> 29780253
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.]]> 289 Trevor Noah 0385689225 Mary 5 4.47 2016
author: Trevor Noah
name: Mary
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves:
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Phenomenal writing and audio performance from Trevor Noah on his most original experience of anyone ever on life. But I must admit his mother was, undeniably the main character of this extraordinary book.
]]> 59366244
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.

Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.]]> 304 Jennette McCurdy 1982185821 Mary 4 4.36 2022
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Mary
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/13
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves:
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I’ve never loved something I’ve hated reading so much. It’s a good lesson to learn that it’s never too late to have a happy adulthood.
]]> 6294 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl's castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there's far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.]]> 448 Diana Wynne Jones 006441034X Mary 5 4.29 1986
author: Diana Wynne Jones
name: Mary
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/26
date added: 2024/10/26
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This is how I wish to fall in love. No more. No less.
]]> 11138 191 C.S. Lewis 0684823780 Mary 0 currently-reading 4.34 1952
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Mary
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 4671 here, here and here.

The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Mary 4 3.93 1925
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Mary
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/23
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
review:
Another on my journey through the classics and I’m so drawn to how this book reminds me of American politics. I read that He represents the American dream and that enough was never enough. That nostalgia blinded him and his obsession with how he saw daisy for how she was he never saw her for what she is. Nostalgia almost feels like misremembering now.
]]> 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Mary 5 4.26 1960
author: Harper Lee
name: Mary
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
review:
I’ve been trying to get into reading more and this book felt like one I always hear about but had no idea it was about. A great way to go into this book. I loved every second and so many moments kept me either on the edge of my seat wondering what’s going to happen next or sitting back contemplating all the lessons Scout was learning and how so many of them are STILL hold up to today. This book is so much more than a story. It’s about the human experience. These are the kinda books that make you a better person
]]> 101438 382 Ben R. Rich Mary 0 dnf 4.45 1994
author: Ben R. Rich
name: Mary
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: dnf
review:

]]> 198493739
Two former debate team champions who almost fell in love years ago are now stuck together on one wild wedding weekend. When bridesmaid Emma first sees groomsman Finn, she's reminded of all the mistakes she almost made with him—the date, the party, the kiss, that one night on the rooftop in New York. Each ended in heartbreak, and she would have been happy never to see Finn again.

But when the bride runs away, and both Emma and Finn are tasked with bringing her home in time to walk down the aisle, they end up on a whirlwind road trip down memory lane... and might just fall in love along the way. 

Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, MISTAKES WE NEVER MADE reminds us it’s never too late to risk falling in love, because being true to your heart is never a mistake. ]]> 336 Hannah Brown 1538756773 Mary 2
Her book: ⭐️⭐️

Chances this stay together: 65%

It’s one of those tragic moments when you’re desperately trying to love a book you physically can’t. The cringe was too strong and the conflict was too shallow for me. Now it’s a romance book, we aren’t trying to go for any Pulitzer Prizes but… I was left starved for substance . Too much conflict was built up at the end with so little resolution and not in a way that I feel like Hannah was trying to convey. For a book about braving into vulnerability I feel like it wasn’t vulnerable. Characters has secrets and KEPT them but not in a subtle way that still told the reader what happened. I genuinely kept rewinding to see if I missed anything, i didn’t. The ending was truly that unsatisfying.

Also quick rant. The main character would violently oscillate between being a jerk and pick me. I feel bad for Finn. He truly could do better.

]]> 3.34 2024
author: Hannah Brown
name: Mary
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/16
date added: 2024/05/16
shelves:
review:
Hannah Brown ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Her book: ⭐️⭐️

Chances this stay together: 65%

It’s one of those tragic moments when you’re desperately trying to love a book you physically can’t. The cringe was too strong and the conflict was too shallow for me. Now it’s a romance book, we aren’t trying to go for any Pulitzer Prizes but… I was left starved for substance . Too much conflict was built up at the end with so little resolution and not in a way that I feel like Hannah was trying to convey. For a book about braving into vulnerability I feel like it wasn’t vulnerable. Characters has secrets and KEPT them but not in a subtle way that still told the reader what happened. I genuinely kept rewinding to see if I missed anything, i didn’t. The ending was truly that unsatisfying.

Also quick rant. The main character would violently oscillate between being a jerk and pick me. I feel bad for Finn. He truly could do better.


]]> 2767793
Who is the Hero of Ages?

To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness—the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists—is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be doomed.

Having escaped death at the climax of The Well of Ascension only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. Vin can't even discuss it with Elend lest Ruin learn their plans!]]> 572 Brandon Sanderson 0765316897 Mary 5
I can’t recall the last time I was held so willingly captive by a book. I can’t even begin to imagine how Sanderson could tell a story that made you feel so tied to characters that you celebrated and mourned with them. I sat crying and awestruck for 30 minutes after finishing the book. After Mistborne I realized that I hadn’t finished anything but began reading what Sanderson has to offer. This series is a masterpiece and is worth its weight in gold or should I say… Atium ]]> 4.55 2008
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Mary
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/12
date added: 2024/02/12
shelves:
review:
5/5

I can’t recall the last time I was held so willingly captive by a book. I can’t even begin to imagine how Sanderson could tell a story that made you feel so tied to characters that you celebrated and mourned with them. I sat crying and awestruck for 30 minutes after finishing the book. After Mistborne I realized that I hadn’t finished anything but began reading what Sanderson has to offer. This series is a masterpiece and is worth its weight in gold or should I say… Atium
]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

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

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 399 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Mary 0 to-read 4.09 2022
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Mary
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 68429 Note: Description contains spoilers for previous book in the series

The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler—the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years—has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.

As Kelsier's protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.

Stopping assassins may keep Vin's Mistborn skills sharp, but it's the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn't run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier's crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won't get easier with three armies - one of them composed of ferocious giants - now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler's hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.

As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.]]> 590 Brandon Sanderson 0765316889 Mary 5 4.37 2007
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Mary
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/26
date added: 2023/07/28
shelves:
review:
I was worried going into this book because I read a few reviews that it suffered from middle book syndrome.... This book had me on the edge of my seat from the first page. I listened to the audiobooks which added to it's magnificence. Brandon Sanderson hit this one out of the book and once again affirmed why he is my favorite author.
]]> 38926444 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER


From the internationally bestselling author of Love Her Wild comes The Dark Between Stars, a new illustrated collection of heartfelt, whimsical, and romantic poems from Instagram poetry sensation, Atticus.

Atticus, has captured the hearts and minds of nearly 700k followers (including stars like Karlie Kloss, Emma Roberts, and Alicia Keys). In his second collection of poetry, The Dark Between Stars, he turns his attention to the dualities of our lived experiences—the inescapable connections between our highest highs and lowest lows. He captures the infectious energy of starting a relationship, the tumultuous realities of commitment, and the agonizing nostalgia of being alone again. While grappling with the question of how to live with purpose and find meaning in the journey, these poems offer both honest explorations of loneliness and our search for connection, as well as light-hearted, humorous observations. As Atticus writes poignantly about dancing, Paris, jazz clubs, sunsets, sharing a bottle of wine on the river, rainy days, creating, and destroying, he illustrates that we need moments of both beauty and pain—the darkness and the stars—to fully appreciate all that life and love have to offer.]]> 240 Atticus . 1982104864 Mary 2 3.95 2018
author: Atticus .
name: Mary
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2023/05/14
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X Mary 0 to-read 4.52 2007
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Mary
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 35031085
This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects of Shelley's original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by author and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson.]]> 260 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0143131842 Mary 5 4.05 1818
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Mary
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1818
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/12
date added: 2023/07/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 56732449 When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships—but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor—and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. And when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding. . . six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.]]> 373 Ali Hazelwood 0593336828 Mary 3 4.07 2021
author: Ali Hazelwood
name: Mary
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/14
date added: 2023/07/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
- Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
- Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- Design your environment to make success easier;
- Get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]> 319 James Clear Mary 4 4.31 2018
author: James Clear
name: Mary
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/05/12
date added: 2023/05/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. Just as Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.”

Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing — the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit — that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Mary 0 to-read 4.11 1969
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Mary
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 68428 What if the whole world were a dead, blasted wasteland?

Mistborn
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale-spinner and author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the prophesied hero failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins with the book in your hands. Fantasy will never be the same again.]]> 541 Brandon Sanderson Mary 5 4.47 2006
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Mary
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/10
date added: 2023/05/10
shelves:
review:
This book not only holds your attention because the quality of characters but the plot will leave you speechless and in awe how Sanderson defies all tropes to create new thrilling ones. I not only have a new favorite book but a favorite author.
]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 Mary 0 to-read 4.66 2010
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Mary
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 4929 Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom.

Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky.

There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle - yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.]]> 467 Haruki Murakami Mary 0 to-read 4.13 2002
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Mary
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38746485
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.]]> 448 Michelle Obama 1524763136 Mary 5 4.41 2018
author: Michelle Obama
name: Mary
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/08
date added: 2023/04/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 35099718 In this breakout book, Ijeoma Oluo explores the complex reality of today's racial landscape--from white privilege and police brutality to systemic discrimination and the Black Lives Matter movement--offering straightforward clarity that readers need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.

Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystalize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, and Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor's seminal essay "The Meaning of a Word."]]> 248 Ijeoma Oluo 1580056776 Mary 0 to-read 4.47 2018
author: Ijeoma Oluo
name: Mary
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 56805404 The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, Amanda Gorman’s remarkable new collection reveals an energizing and unforgettable voice in American poetry. Call Us What We Carry is Gorman at her finest. Including “The Hill We Climb,” the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, and bursting with musical language and exploring themes of identity, grief, and memory, this lyric of hope and healing captures an important moment in our country’s consciousness while being utterly timeless.

The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman.]]> 228 Amanda Gorman 0593465067 Mary 0 to-read 4.26 2021
author: Amanda Gorman
name: Mary
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 318431
Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in a Jewish firm in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s.

He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Herecounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account.]]> 656 Nelson Mandela 0316548189 Mary 0 to-read 4.35 1991
author: Nelson Mandela
name: Mary
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3869
Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,” of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.]]> 226 Stephen W. Hawking 0553380168 Mary 0 to-read 4.21 1988
author: Stephen W. Hawking
name: Mary
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 76705490 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

"A line that should never be crossed is about to be breached.

It puts this entire castle in jeopardy—and the life of your friend."

From the throne of glass rules a king with a fist of iron and a soul as black as pitch. Assassin Celaena Sardothien won a brutal contest to become his Champion. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown. She hides her secret vigilantly; she knows that the man she serves is bent on evil.

Keeping up the deadly charade becomes increasingly difficult when Celaena realizes she is not the only one seeking justice. As she tries to untangle the mysteries buried deep within the glass castle, her closest relationships suffer. It seems no one is above questioning her allegiances—not the Crown Prince Dorian; not Chaol, the Captain of the Guard; not even her best friend, Nehemia, a foreign princess with a rebel heart.

Then one terrible night, the secrets they have all been keeping lead to an unspeakable tragedy. As Celaena's world shatters, she will be forced to give up the very thing most precious to her and decide once and for all where her true loyalties lie... and whom she is ultimately willing to fight for.]]> 420 Sarah J. Maas 1639730966 Mary 4 4.34 2013
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Mary
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/04/03
shelves:
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]]> 40102 The Tipping Point a classic, Blink changes the way you'll understand every decision you make. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.

Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant - in the blink of an eye - that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work - in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing" - filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.]]> 296 Malcolm Gladwell 0316010669 Mary 5 3.97 2005
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Mary
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> 3130792 --Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., author of Getting the Love You Want and Keeping the Love You Find "Don't be part of the 'where-was-this-book-when-I-needed-it?' crowd. It's not too late--read it now!"
--Pat Love, Ed.D., author of The Truth About Love and Hot Monogamy Based on years of research on marital and premarital happiness, How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk (previously published in hardcover as How to Avoid Marrying a Jerk ) will help you break destructive dating patterns that have kept you from finding the love you deserve:]]> 336 John Van Epp 0071548424 Mary 4 4.13 2006
author: John Van Epp
name: Mary
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/04/03
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]]> 18243700 Contains all five novellas.

Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.]]> 448 Sarah J. Maas Mary 5 4.30 2014
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Mary
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2014
rating: 5
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]]> 28187 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.]]> 377 Rick Riordan 0786838655 Mary 5 4.31 2005
author: Rick Riordan
name: Mary
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> 28186
In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.]]> 279 Rick Riordan 0786856866 Mary 4 4.24 2006
author: Rick Riordan
name: Mary
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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]]> 44767458
When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.]]> 658 Frank Herbert 059309932X Mary 5 4.34 1965
author: Frank Herbert
name: Mary
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1965
rating: 5
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]]> 13214
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.]]> 289 Maya Angelou 0553279378 Mary 0 to-read 4.30 1969
author: Maya Angelou
name: Mary
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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]]> 17851885 I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.]]> 327 Malala Yousafzai 0316322407 Mary 0 to-read 4.16 2012
author: Malala Yousafzai
name: Mary
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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