Allie's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 14 Sep 2026 13:52:32 -0700 60 Allie's bookshelf: all 144 41 https://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Subtle Art of Folding Space]]> 231127269 The Subtle Art of Folding Space , is the exhilarating debut science fiction novel from Nebula and Hugo-winning author John Chu channels unhinged physics, generational trauma, and the comfort of really good dim sum. This isn't your usual jaunt through quantum physics.

Ellie’s universe, and this one, is falling apart. Her ailing mother is in a coma; her sister, Chris, accuses her of being insufficiently Chinese between assassination attempts; and a shadowy cabal of engineers is trying to hijack the skunkworks, the machinery that keeps the physics of each universe working the way it’s supposed to.

Daniel, Ellie's cousin, has found an illicit device in the skunkworks—one that keeps Ellie's comatose mother alive while also creating destabilizing bugs in the physics of this universe. It's not a good day.

If she can confront her mother’s legacy and overcome her family’s generational trauma, she just might find a way to preserve the skunkworks and reconcile with her sister…but digging into her family’s past is thornier than it seems, and the secrets she uncovers will force Ellie to choose between her family and the universe itself.]]> 227 John Chu 1250425409 Allie 2 3.11 2026 The Subtle Art of Folding Space
author: John Chu
name: Allie
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2026
rating: 2
read at: 2026/09/14
date added: 2026/09/14
shelves:
review:
Absolutely the weirdest family dynamics I've ever read (insult). She thinks her cousin is the hottest guy of all time, her sister is trying to assassinate her over really typical family resentment, and her Mom knew the sister was evil and just kept trying to make her happy?
]]> <![CDATA[Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next)]]> 54654726
Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable.

Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid.

This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.

Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.]]> 152 Dean Spade 1839762128 Allie 3 4.25 2020 Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (And the Next)
author: Dean Spade
name: Allie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2026/09/11
date added: 2026/09/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games)]]> 214331246
As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

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

When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.]]> 387 Suzanne Collins 1546171460 Allie 3 4.49 2025 Sunrise on the Reaping (The Hunger Games)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Allie
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2026/07/13
date added: 2026/07/13
shelves:
review:
Most lopsided book ever. The parts in 12 are as others have said in their reviews: cheesy, fanfiction, unnecessary, and unbelievable. The parts in the arena are some of the most introspective and heartbreaking in the entire series. We have real stakes! I care not only about the protagonist but all of the tributes! I have whiplash from everywhere this book goes. The saddest moment to me of the entire series when he returns to their orange apartment alone and no one has cleaned up the remnants of their last sleepover to the cheesiest and most unbelievable moment of the entire series when Lenore eats a blood covered gum drop she randomly found in the meadow and then draws out her death to make Haymitch swear in a folksy way that he'll end the games someday? 🤨 What. Are. We. Doing? I still don't know. I cried, I rolled my eyes really hard. It evens out to a 3 I guess.
]]> <![CDATA[Every Cook Can Govern and What Is Happening Every Day: 1985 Conversations]]> 1061432 60 C.L.R. James 0961636203 Allie 0 to-read 3.84 1956 Every Cook Can Govern and What Is Happening Every Day: 1985 Conversations
author: C.L.R. James
name: Allie
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1956
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/06/30
shelves: to-read
review:

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

In Everything Is Tuberculosis, John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.]]> 198 John Green 0525556575 Allie 4 4.31 2025 Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
author: John Green
name: Allie
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2026/06/28
date added: 2026/06/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation]]> 53121662 A scholar of American Christianity presents a seventy-five-year history of evangelicalism that identifies the forces that have turned Donald Trump into a hero of the Religious Right.

How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate’s staunchest supporters? These are among the questions acclaimed historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez asks in Jesus and John Wayne, which delves beyond facile headlines to explain how white evangelicals have brought us to our fractured political moment. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the "moral majority" backed Donald Trump for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Donald Trump in fact represents the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals' most deeply held values.

Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism, or in the words of one modern chaplain, with "a spiritual badass." As Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the role of culture in modern American evangelicalism. Many of today's evangelicals may not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they've read John Eldredge's Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical popular culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of "Christian America." Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done.

Trump, in other words, is hardly the first flashy celebrity to capture evangelicals' hearts and minds, nor is he the first strongman to promise evangelicals protection and power. Indeed, the values and viewpoints at the heart of white evangelicalism today—patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community—are likely to persist long after Trump leaves office.

A much-needed reexamination, Jesus and John Wayne explains why evangelicals have rallied behind the least-Christian president in American history and how they have transformed their faith in the process, with enduring consequences for all of us.]]> 356 Kristin Kobes Du Mez 1631495739 Allie 0 could-not-finish 4.23 2020 Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
author: Kristin Kobes Du Mez
name: Allie
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/05/31
shelves: could-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light]]> 233182349 Meet the alien species that put the humanity into human beings
Discover the fate of Slefonia III once warp travel became obsolete
Visit the Mind Library to commune with the dead

Kim Choyeop became an instant literary sensation in Korea with her debut short story collection. Each of these bitesize speculative masterpieces represents a journey into the unknown, guided by a writer blessed with a boundless imagination.

From alternative futures to distant alien planets, in the company of scientists, space explorers and ordinary citizens in extraordinary situations, Kim Choyeop revels in making the impossible seem not only possible but somehow inevitable.

Each story focuses on an specific issue of discrimination against women or other marginalised groups, adding a mind-bending twist to hold a mirror to modern society and its everyday iniquities.

Translated from the Korean by Anton Hur]]> 192 Kim Cho-yeop 1529447623 Allie 3 4.00 2019 If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light
author: Kim Cho-yeop
name: Allie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2026/05/30
date added: 2026/05/30
shelves:
review:
I would read a 600 page book about the first story "Symbiosis"
]]> The Secret Agent 86658
Based on the text which Conrad's first English readers enjoyed, this new edition includes a full and up-to-date bibliography, a comprehensive chronology and a critical introduction which describes Conrad's great London novel as the realization of a "monstrous town," a place of idiocy, madness, criminality, and savage butchery. It also discusses contemporary anarchist activity in the UK, imperialism, and Conrad's narrative techniques.]]> 304 Joseph Conrad 0192801694 Allie 1 3.60 1907 The Secret Agent
author: Joseph Conrad
name: Allie
average rating: 3.60
book published: 1907
rating: 1
read at: 2026/05/23
date added: 2026/05/23
shelves:
review:
This put me in the longest reading slump of my life, and for what? The revelation that anarchist men have no real politics and no real human connection? Duh. I'm stupid for continuing on with this read.
]]> <![CDATA[The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel]]> 60141389 528 Meredith Bagby 0063141973 Allie 0 to-read 4.57 2023 The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel
author: Meredith Bagby
name: Allie
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2026/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sense of an Ending 10746542 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse.

This intense novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about - until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he'd left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he'd understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.]]> 150 Julian Barnes 0224094157 Allie 3 3.74 2011 The Sense of an Ending
author: Julian Barnes
name: Allie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/09/24
date added: 2025/09/24
shelves:
review:

]]> A Streetcar Named Desire 12222
Who better than America's elder statesman of the theater, Williams' contemporary Arthur Miller, to write as a witness to the lightning that struck American culture in the form of A Streetcar Named Desire ? Miller's rich perspective on Williams' singular style of poetic dialogue, sensitive characters, and dramatic violence makes this a unique and valuable new edition of A Streetcar Named Desire . This definitive new edition will also include Williams' essay "The World I Live In," and a brief chronology of the author's life.]]> 192 Tennessee Williams 0811216020 Allie 1 3.94 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Allie
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1947
rating: 1
read at: 2020/08/15
date added: 2025/08/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Love's Labor's Lost 187450 Folger Shakespeare Library

The world's leading center for Shakespeare studies

• Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

• Scene-by-scene plot summaries

• A key to famous lines and phrases

• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

• An essay by leading Shakespeare scholar, William C. Carroll, providing a modern perspective on the play

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs.

]]> 291 William Shakespeare 0743484924 Allie 2 3.39 1598 Love's Labor's Lost
author: William Shakespeare
name: Allie
average rating: 3.39
book published: 1598
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2025/07/02
shelves:
review:
Didn't quite hit me in the feels, what can I say?
]]> The Hike 27833803 From the author of The Postmortal, a fantasy saga unlike any you’ve read before, weaving elements of folk tale and video game into a riveting, unforgettable adventure of what a man will endure to return to his family
 
When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects.
 
On a quest of epic, life-or-death proportions, Ben finds help comes in some of the most unexpected forms, including a profane crustacean and a variety of magical objects, tools, and potions. Desperate to return to his family, Ben is determined to track down the “Producer,” the creator of the world in which he is being held hostage and the only one who can free him from the path.
 
At once bitingly funny and emotionally absorbing, Magary’s novel is a remarkably unique addition to the contemporary fantasy genre, one that draws as easily from the world of classic folk tales as it does from video games. In The Hike, Magary takes readers on a daring odyssey away from our day-to-day grind and transports them into an enthralling world propelled by heart, imagination, and survival.]]> 278 Drew Magary 0399563857 Allie 2 3.95 2016 The Hike
author: Drew Magary
name: Allie
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/27
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves:
review:
I wanted there to be a point, I guess. Maybe I need to stop reading Odessy remakes written by men.
]]> Are Prisons Obsolete? 108428
In Are Prisons Obsolete?, Professor Davis seeks to illustrate that the time for the prison is approaching an end. She argues forthrightly for "decarceration", and argues for the transformation of the society as a whole.]]> 128 Angela Y. Davis 1583225811 Allie 4 This will wake you up. 4.51 2003 Are Prisons Obsolete?
author: Angela Y. Davis
name: Allie
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
This will wake you up.
]]> <![CDATA[Hobson's Island (British Literature)]]> 1110846 196 Stefan Themerson 1564784177 Allie 3 4.00 1988 Hobson's Island (British Literature)
author: Stefan Themerson
name: Allie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves:
review:
This book was smart, and I'm going to have to keep thinking about it. The rating could go up.
]]> <![CDATA[Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping]]> 26792277 An irreverent history of American camping

From the Sierras to the Adirondacks and the Everglades, Dan White travels the nation to experience firsthand—and sometimes face first—how the American wilderness transformed from the devil’s playground into a source of adventure, relaxation, and renewal.

Whether he’s camping nude in cougar country, being attacked by wildlife while “glamping,” or crashing a girls-only adventure for urban teens, Dan White seeks to animate the evolution of outdoor recreation. In the process, he demonstrates how the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, Roosevelt, and Muir—along with visionaries such as Adirondack Murray, Horace Kephart, and Juliette Gordon Low—helped blaze a trail from Transcendentalism to Leave No Trace.

Wide-ranging in research, enthusiasm, and geography, Under the Stars reveals a vast population of nature seekers, a country still in love with its wild places.]]> 416 Dan White 1627791957 Allie 3 3.71 Under the Stars: How America Fell in Love with Camping
author: Dan White
name: Allie
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
review:
I LOVED the memoir parts, but the historical accounts could be pretty dry other than the chapter about the founder of the girl scouts. I think after the transcendentalists, camping history is largely what I thought it would be? The first person stories about trying different types of camping were so gripping and funny and beautiful, but like camping history after WWII just seems like a crazy post industrial arms race to make the best gear and that part is so boring to me as someone who is not super in the know about the best tech or gear. Not the author's fault per se. I appreciated the chapters about the gender imbalance in camping and how segregated campgrounds were- a lot of guys who are into camping ignore this.
]]> <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Allie 5
In particular, I recall crying at the line where Alice is scared not at the existence of bears but at the thought of their extinction, the moment where John realizes that the boy he thought died in a horrible accident was really continuing on living and using very cheesy snap chat filters, the review about rock paper scissors where John describes that deserving is not really the right frame of mind for the human existence, how important putting art on the wall is to fight depression, and of course, how one scientist thought that existing during the siege of Leningrad was impossible but refraining from eating the seeds that would someday re-build the world's population after WWII was the easiest thing in the world.

These stories aren't just things I've read and heard; these stories are now part of me living and breathing in the world because they have fundamentally changed me. Well, not really the Diet Doctor Pepper one (they can't all be winners haha). Regardless, I really mean that this isn't just a book to me- this is a collection of stories that have stopped being stories and become living art in me. I'll pass some of these ideas on, and then they'll live in someone else.

I am thankful for the all the members of the Anthropocene who find beauty in these stories, and I am thankful for the member who took the time to pen them in the first place.

I give the Anthropocene Reviewed 5 Stars.]]> 4.35 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Allie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/18
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves:
review:
I was driving to my first adult job, listening to this podcast before it was a book, when I heard John Green describe sports as a religion to some people. I am not generally a lover of sports, so this statement hit me square in the face. Of course people should get to regard something as holy that brings so much love, emotion, and meaning to their lives. Listening to the Anthropocene Reviewed every morning at 8:30 began to be my religion. I would laugh, cry, and have my world completely challenged before even really starting my day.

In particular, I recall crying at the line where Alice is scared not at the existence of bears but at the thought of their extinction, the moment where John realizes that the boy he thought died in a horrible accident was really continuing on living and using very cheesy snap chat filters, the review about rock paper scissors where John describes that deserving is not really the right frame of mind for the human existence, how important putting art on the wall is to fight depression, and of course, how one scientist thought that existing during the siege of Leningrad was impossible but refraining from eating the seeds that would someday re-build the world's population after WWII was the easiest thing in the world.

These stories aren't just things I've read and heard; these stories are now part of me living and breathing in the world because they have fundamentally changed me. Well, not really the Diet Doctor Pepper one (they can't all be winners haha). Regardless, I really mean that this isn't just a book to me- this is a collection of stories that have stopped being stories and become living art in me. I'll pass some of these ideas on, and then they'll live in someone else.

I am thankful for the all the members of the Anthropocene who find beauty in these stories, and I am thankful for the member who took the time to pen them in the first place.

I give the Anthropocene Reviewed 5 Stars.
]]> <![CDATA[What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence (What We Don't Talk About, #1)]]> 42201997 ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019

*Most Anticipated Reads of 2019 by Publishers Weekly, BuzzFeed, The Rumpus, Lit Hub, The Week, and Elle.com*

Fifteen brilliant writers explore what we don’t talk to our mothers about, and how it affects us, for better or for worse.

As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize what she was actually trying to write: how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. The outpouring of responses gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers.

While some of the writers in this book are estranged from their mothers, others are extremely close. Leslie Jamison writes about trying to discover who her seemingly perfect mother was before ever becoming a mom. In Cathi Hanauer’s hilarious piece, she finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her mother that isn’t interrupted by her domineering (but lovable) father. André Aciman writes about what it was like to have a deaf mother. Melissa Febos uses mythology as a lens to look at her close-knit relationship with her psychotherapist mother. And Julianna Baggott talks about having a mom who tells her everything.

As Filgate writes, “Our mothers are our first homes, and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them.” There’s relief in breaking the silence. Acknowledging what we couldn’t say for so long is one way to heal our relationships with others and, perhaps most important, with ourselves.

Contributors include Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.]]> 288 Michele Filgate 1982107340 Allie 0 to-read 3.74 2019 What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence (What We Don't Talk About, #1)
author: Michele Filgate
name: Allie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Yellowface 62047984
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? This piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller. That is what June believes, and The New York Times bestseller list agrees.

But June cannot escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens her stolen success. As she races to protect her secret she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.]]> 319 R.F. Kuang Allie 3 All in all, just didn't work for me.]]> 3.67 2023 Yellowface
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Allie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves:
review:
I LOVE the discussion about who should tell a story. The little bit the delved into that where she rode the train to go speak to a local Chinese group and felt both insane guilt that they thought she was Chinese because of her deceit and pride and how she had told a story that deserved to be told by someone- that was getting so good. However, most of the book was not like that. Most of the book consisted of way too meta discussions about Twitter (which is the same problem I had with An Absolutely Remarkable Thing) and a cartoonishly evil protagonist. I just wish the protagonist had been less of a loser and obvious bad person so we really had to think critically about how easy it is for the average white person to profit from racism in society. It made it seem like the people who would do this have no friends and no talent and are on the periphery of society when we know that in fact the wealthiest and most celebrated people often have gotten their fame and following by profiting off of racism. Alternatively, a different ending could have redeemed a lot of the story for me. If June had not been held accountable and continued to get rich, it would have been like DAMN! This is what happens! People just get away with this level of racism!
All in all, just didn't work for me.
]]> <![CDATA[Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Essays and Poems]]> 36355617
"Lorde seems prophetic, perhaps alive right now, writing in and about the US of 2017 in which a misogynist with white supremacist followers is president. But she was born in 1934, published her first book of poetry in 1968, and died in 1992. Black, lesbian and feminist; the child of immigrant parents; poet and essayist, writer and activist, Lorde knew about harbouring multitudes. Political antagonists tried, for instance, to discredit her among black students by announcing her sexuality, and she decided: “The only way you can head people off from using who you are against you is to be honest and open first, to talk about yourself before they talk about you.” Over and over again, in the essays, speeches and poems collected in Your Silence Will Not Protect You, Lorde emphasises how important it is to speak up. To give witness: “What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?” ']]> 229 Audre Lorde 0995716226 Allie 0 to-read 4.63 2017 Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Essays and Poems
author: Audre Lorde
name: Allie
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fire Next Time 464260 The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,” The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.]]> 106 James Baldwin 067974472X Allie 4 4.56 1963 The Fire Next Time
author: James Baldwin
name: Allie
average rating: 4.56
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/11/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)]]> 52397
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.

When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.]]> 368 Octavia E. Butler 0446675504 Allie 1 could-not-finish 4.19 1993 Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Allie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1993
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: could-not-finish
review:
DNFed at 28%. This is not science fiction; this is every horrible thing that can and does happen in our world described over and over until you feel physically ill. You aren't meant to learn anything from it other than society is bad. I have a strong stomach, and I loved the Handmaid’s tale. However, this is not even really a story as it's just the most upsetting rape scenes over and over and over with a pseudo religion that we are supposed to appreciate formed in response to all the rape and killing. I beg you to save your time and read literally anything else. The famous author and close friends who recommended this come from the right place in their heart but should've chosen an adjacent book to recommend. I quit because another reviewer said how desperately they wished they had, and it made me feel free. I am now giving you the same liberation to quit or avoid this book altogether. Please go read Margaret Atwood or Toni Morrison or watch cartoons or anything that's less torture.
]]> October Sky (Coalwood #1) 124862
So begins Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr.'s extraordinary memoir of life in Coalwood, West Virginia - a hard-scrabble little mining company town where the only things that mattered were coal mining and high school football and where the future was regarded with more fear than hope.

Looking back after a distinguished NASA career, Hickam shares the story of his youth, taking readers into the life of the little mining town of Coalwood and the boys who would come to embody its dreams.

In 1957 a young man watched the Soviet satellite Sputnik shoot across the Appalachian sky and soon found his future in the stars. 'Sonny' and a handful of his friends, Roy Lee Cook, Sherman O'Dell and Quentin Wilson were inspired to start designing and launching the home-made rockets that would change their lives forever.

Step by step, with the help (and occasional hindrance) of a collection of unforgettable characters, the boys learn not only how to turn scrap into sophisticated rockets that fly miles into the sky, but how to sustain their dreams as they dared to imagine a life beyond its borders in a town that the postwar boom was passing by.

A powerful story of growing up and of getting out, of a mother's love and a father's fears, Homer Hickam's memoir Rocket Boys proves, like Angela's Ashes and Russell Baker's Growing Up before it, that the right storyteller and the right story can touch readers' hearts and enchant their souls.

A uniquely endearing book with universal themes of class, family, coming of age, and the thrill of discovery, Homer Hickam's Rocket Boys is evocative, vivid storytelling at its most magical.

In 1999, Rocket Boys was made into a Hollywood movie named October Sky starring Chris Cooper, Jake Gyllenhaal and Laura Dern. October Sky is an anagram of Rocket Boys. It is also used in a period radio broadcast describing Sputnik 1 as it crossed the 'October sky'. Homer Hickam stated that "Universal Studios marketing people got involved and they just had to change the title because, according to their research, women over thirty would never see a movie titled Rocket Boys" so Universal Pictures changed the title to be more inviting to a wider audience. The book was later re-released with the name October Sky in order to capitalize on interest in the movie.]]> 428 Homer Hickam 0440235502 Allie 5 4.15 1998 October Sky (Coalwood #1)
author: Homer Hickam
name: Allie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2012/10/01
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic – the Hierarchy – may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus – what they call Will – to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 640 James Islington 1982141190 Allie 0 to-read 4.56 2023 The Will of the Many (Hierarchy, #1)
author: James Islington
name: Allie
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

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

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

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

Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, this work from one of the country’s most important writers is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive nationalist myths that shape our world—and our own souls—and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.]]> 232 Ta-Nehisi Coates 0593230388 Allie 0 to-read 4.48 2024 The Message
author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
name: Allie
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Clockwork Orange 227463 A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. And when the state undertakes to reform Alex to "redeem" him, the novel asks, "At what cost?"

This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."]]> 192 Anthony Burgess Allie 3 3.98 1962 A Clockwork Orange
author: Anthony Burgess
name: Allie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves:
review:
I don't want to make this about gender, but I feel like it's truly revolutionary for young men and just like.... yeah duh 🤷🏼‍♀️ for women. Very interesting concepts like how important is good behavior vs accountability? Which do we value more? How does our approach to the correctional system reflect these values? Super interesting, I just think men probably get their brains rocked a little more by this character arch than women.
]]> <![CDATA[We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice]]> 56019003
What if social transformation and liberation isn't about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle.

With chapters on seeking justice beyond the punishment system, transforming how we deal with harm and accountability, and finding hope in collective struggle for abolition, Kaba's work is deeply rooted in the relentless belief that we can fundamentally change the world. As Kaba writes, "Nothing that we do that is worthwhile is done alone."]]> 240 Mariame Kaba 164259525X Allie 0 to-read 4.63 2021 We Do This 'til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice
author: Mariame Kaba
name: Allie
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Men Have Called Her Crazy 203931803 A powerful memoir that reckons with mental health as well as the insidious ways men impact the lives of women.

In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs, such as when a doctor noted, “There is a you inside that feels invisible to those looking at you from the outside.”

In Men Have Called Her Crazy, Tendler recounts her hospital experience as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed. As the title suggests, many of these moments are impacted by men: unrequited love in high school; the twenty-eight-year-old she lost her virginity to when she was sixteen; the frustrations and absurdities of dating in her mid-thirties; and her decision to freeze her eggs as all her friends were starting families.

This stunning literary self-portrait examines the unreasonable expectations and pressures women face in the 21st century. Yet overwhelming and despairing as that can feel, Tendler ultimately offers a message hope. Early in her stay in the hospital, she says, “My wish for myself is that one day I’ll reach a place where I can face hardship without trying to destroy myself.” By the end of the book, she fulfills that wish.]]> 304 Anna Marie Tendler 1668032341 Allie 4
This was like a modern Bell Jar but much more readable TO ME.]]> 3.40 2024 Men Have Called Her Crazy
author: Anna Marie Tendler
name: Allie
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/19
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves:
review:
Once again, the haters are woefully misguided. I think people slammed this book because they don't like how many privileges and opportunities Anna has experienced, and in their mind, her inability to deal with mental health issues while having these opportunities deluded any journey she went on or conclusions she came to. BUT DON'T YOU SEE!? This is about the mundanity of depression! This is about how no amount of proximity to power can save you from the structural violence of patriarchy. You can be rich, you can be beautiful, but you cannot escape how the patriarchy will use you and rob you of your autonomy and thoughts.

This was like a modern Bell Jar but much more readable TO ME.
]]> Flaubert's Parrot 2176 Flaubert's Parrot deals with Flaubert, parrots, bears and railways; with our sense of the past and our sense of abroad; with France and England, life and art, sex and death, George Sand and Louise Colet, aesthetics and redcurrant jam; and with its enigmatic narrator, a retired English doctor, whose life and secrets are slowly revealed.

A compelling weave of fiction and imaginatively ordered fact, Flaubert's Parrot is by turns moving and entertaining, witty and scholarly, and a tour de force of seductive originality]]> 190 Julian Barnes 0679731369 Allie 3 3.67 1984 Flaubert's Parrot
author: Julian Barnes
name: Allie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/29
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves:
review:
Love Julian Barnes, read this just because he wrote it, but this is probably my least favorite of his works. As far as pseudo biographies go, it's pretty unique and entertaining. Many parts of it were extremely thought provoking and witty, but it really is SO MUCH Flaubert. Like, too much Flaubert. If you haven't read the entire anthology of his work, it's really not going to speak to you- which was the case for me. I also thought the Parrot metaphor was amazing but did not have follow through i expected. Sure, I'm fulfilling here all the criticism of literary critics described in the book, but I'm not trying to be original; I'm simply saying it was too much Flaubert. I think Flaubert would agree with that sentiment far more than the praise he receives.
]]> <![CDATA[Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster]]> 871781
Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild. On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world. A rangy, thirty-five-year-old New Zealander, Hall had]]> 293 Jon Krakauer 0679457526 Allie 5 4.32 1997 Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Allie
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/07
date added: 2024/08/18
shelves:
review:
This is not necessarily a 5 star from a literary point of view, but it was 5 star captivating, and I learned so much about those who lost their lives on Everest as well as how expeditions work in general.
]]> <![CDATA[Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart]]> 15962 here.

Joyce Carol Oates adds to her extraordinary body of work with this stunning novel of violence and love. At the heart of the story are two people, Iris Courtney, who is white, and handsome Jinx Fairchild, the black basketball player who, in protecting Iris, kills a white man.

Iris is the only witness to the crime.

The two of them are growing up in the early 1950s in a New York industrial town where racial boundaries keep people apart - or bring them together in explosive scenes of fear or desire. The secret link between Iris and Jinx is not only their attraction to each other, but a murder...and a bond of passion and guilt is formed between them. How this one irrevocable, tragic act shapes their lives and alters their destinies becomes Joyce Carol Oate's finest, emotion-packed novel - a work the critics are calling a masterpiece, the best work of America's best writer of contemporary realism.]]> 416 Joyce Carol Oates 0452265819 Allie 2 3.90 1990 Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart
author: Joyce Carol Oates
name: Allie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1990
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Greenglass House (Greenglass House, #1)]]> 18222716 384 Kate Milford 0544052706 Allie 4 3.99 2014 Greenglass House (Greenglass House, #1)
author: Kate Milford
name: Allie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/16
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves:
review:
So cozy. Yes, I did have a genuine moment of shock and a genuine tear welling up in my eye moment.
]]> Fever 1793 781110 252 Laurie Halse Anderson 0689848919 Allie 0 to-read 3.93 2000 Fever 1793
author: Laurie Halse Anderson
name: Allie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)]]> 42074525
Every city has a soul. Some are as ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York City? She's got five.

But every city also has a dark side. A roiling, ancient evil stirs beneath the earth, threatening to destroy the city and her five protectors unless they can come together and stop it once and for all.]]> 437 N.K. Jemisin Allie 0 could-not-finish 3.81 2020 The City We Became (Great Cities, #1)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Allie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves: could-not-finish
review:

]]> Fourteen Days 58311985 Fourteen Days is a surprising and irresistibly propulsive novel with an unusual twist: each character in this diverse, eccentric cast of New York neighbours has been secretly written by a different, major literary voice—from Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston to Tommy Orange and Celeste Ng.

One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbours gather, bringing chairs and milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants—some of whom have barely spoken to each other—become real neighbours. In this Decameron-like serial novel, general editor Margaret Atwood, Authors Guild president Douglas Preston, and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn't get away from the city when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming and ultimately surprising narrative, Fourteen Days reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger.

Includes writing from:
Margaret Atwood, Douglas Preston, Celeste Ng, Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers, John Grisham, Diana Gabaldon, Ishmael Reed, Meg Wolitzer, Luis Alberto Urrea, James Shapiro, Sylvia Day, Mary Pope Osborne, Monique Truong, Hampton Sides, R. L. Stine, Scott Turow, Tommy Orange, and more!]]> 363 Margaret Atwood 0358616387 Allie 0 to-read 3.11 2024 Fourteen Days
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Allie
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> Invisible Man 16981 Invisible Man is one of those rare novels that have changed the shape of American literature. For not only does Ralph Ellison's nightmare journey across the racial divide tell unparalleled truths about the nature of bigotry and its effects on the minds of both victims and perpetrators, it gives us an entirely new model of what a novel can be.

As he journeys from the Deep South to the streets and basements of Harlem, from a horrifying "battle royal" where black men are reduced to fighting animals, to a Communist rally where they are elevated to the status of trophies, Ralph Ellison's nameless protagonist ushers readers into a parallel universe that throws our own into harsh and even hilarious relief. Suspenseful and sardonic, narrated in a voice that takes in the symphonic range of the American language, black and white, Invisible Man is one of the most audacious and dazzling novels of our century.]]> 581 Ralph Ellison Allie 4 3.92 1952 Invisible Man
author: Ralph Ellison
name: Allie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/26
date added: 2024/06/26
shelves:
review:
Reminded me a lot of S. and Ruby Fruit Jungle but obviously a masterpiece in its own right.
]]> <![CDATA[The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas]]> 87262 The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas is written as an autobiography, a chronicle of the erotic misadventures of its narrator, Brás Cubas--who happens to be dead. In pursuit of love and progeny, Cubas rejects the women who want him and aspires to the ones who reject him. In the end, he dies unloved and without heirs, yet he somehow manages to turn this bitter pill into a victory of sorts. What makes Memoirs stand up 100 years after the book was written is Machado's biting humor, brilliant prose, and profound understanding of all the vagaries of human behavior.]]> 240 Machado de Assis 0195101707 Allie 0 to-read 3.96 1881 The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
author: Machado de Assis
name: Allie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1881
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Americanah 15796700 477 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Allie 4 4.31 2013 Americanah
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Allie
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/17
date added: 2024/05/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other Classic Novels]]> 15762322
Five weeks in a balloon --
Journey to the center of the earth --
From the earth to the moon --
Round the moon --
Twenty thousand leagues under the sea --
Around the world in eighty days.]]> 739 Jules Verne 1435141822 Allie 2 3.87 2012 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and other Classic Novels
author: Jules Verne
name: Allie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/07
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves:
review:
The themes here are super deep, but I could have gleaned them from a few hundred less pages of literally nothing but descriptions of fish.
]]> Know My Name 50196744
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.

Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.]]> 384 Chanel Miller 0735223718 Allie 5 4.67 2019 Know My Name
author: Chanel Miller
name: Allie
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/15
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics]]> 53496557 A bold call for the American Left to extend their politics to the issues of Israel-Palestine, from a New York Times bestselling author and an expert on U.S. policy in the region

In this major work of daring criticism and analysis, scholar and political commentator Marc Lamont Hill and Israel-Palestine expert Mitchell Plitnick spotlight how holding fast to one-sided and unwaveringly pro-Israel policies reflects the truth-bending grip of authoritarianism on both Israel and the United States. Except for Palestine deftly argues that progressives and liberals who oppose regressive policies on immigration, racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ rights, and other issues must extend these core principles to the oppression of Palestinians. In doing so, the authors take seriously the political concerns and well-being of both Israelis and Palestinians, demonstrating the extent to which U.S. policy has made peace harder to attain. They also unravel the conflation of advocacy for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.

Hill and Plitnick provide a timely and essential intervention by examining multiple dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian conversation, including Israel's growing disdain for democracy, the effects of occupation on Palestine, the siege of Gaza, diminishing American funding for Palestinian relief, and the campaign to stigmatize any critique of Israeli occupation. Except for Palestine is a searing polemic and a cri de coeur for elected officials, activists, and everyday citizens alike to align their beliefs and politics with their values.]]> 227 Marc Lamont Hill 1620975920 Allie 4 4.19 2021 Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics
author: Marc Lamont Hill
name: Allie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/09
date added: 2024/04/09
shelves:
review:
I learned quite a bit specifically regarding the current laws that would appear to outlaw BDS boycotts (Federal courts have held up the right to boycott for political reasons) and general tracking of who said what in politics over the last several decades. The four star rating is just because I reserve five stars for life altering books- not because I disagreed with anything presented. Progressives in the US need to put Palestine and the genocide in Gaza in particular at the forefront of political issues.
]]> <![CDATA[A History of the World in 10½ Chapters]]> 43980 Beginning with an unlikely stowaway's account of life on board Noah's Ark, A History of the World in 10½ Chapters presents a surprising, subversive, fictional history of earth told from several kaleidoscopic perspectives. Noah disembarks from his ark but he and his Voyage are not forgotten: they are revisited in on other centuries and other climes - by a Victorian spinster mourning her father, by an American astronaut on an obsessive personal mission. We journey to the Titanic, to the Amazon, to the raft of the Medusa, and to an ecclesiastical court in medieval France where a bizarre case is about to begin...

This is no ordinary history, but something stranger, a challenge and a delight for the reader's imagination. Ambitious yet accessible, witty and playfully serious, this is the work of a brilliant novelist.

]]> 320 Julian Barnes 0679731377 Allie 5 favorite-books-of-all-time 3.90 1989 A History of the World in 10½ Chapters
author: Julian Barnes
name: Allie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/14
date added: 2024/04/04
shelves: favorite-books-of-all-time
review:
I have to say this book is brilliant. The crazy thing is that I didn't even get it all until Chapter 7! At the end of Chapter 7, the clouds parted and I totally saw how all the stories were connected and what Barnes was saying. It was in fact the line that in the end the MS St. Louis had been at sea for 40 days and 40 nights. Mind blown. A real Noah's Ark, and no one would save them. So crazy smart, and I almost missed it because there were parts the the woodworm trial where I felt like maybe putting down the book. In the end, I give this book 5 stars because I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about it for a long, long, long time.
]]> <![CDATA[Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy]]> 58141198 Vanity Fair, Best Books of 2022
Booklist, Best Books of 2022

Singer. Actress. Beauty. Spy. During WWII, Josephine Baker, the world's richest and most glamorous entertainer, was an Allied spy in Occupied France. 

Prior to World War II, Josephine Baker was a music-hall diva renowned for her singing and dancing, her beauty and sexuality; she was the highest-paid female performer in Europe. When the Nazis seized her adopted city, Paris, she was banned from the stage, along with all “negroes and Jews.” Yet instead of returning to America, she vowed to stay and to fight the Nazi evil. Overnight, she went from performer to Resistance spy. 

In  Agent Josephine , bestselling author Damien Lewis uncovers this little-known history of the famous singer’s life. During the war years, as a member of the French Nurse paratroopers—a cover for her spying work—Baker participated in numerous clandestine activities and emerged as a formidable spy. In turn, she was a hero of the three countries in whose name she served—the US, France, and Britain. 
 
Drawing on a plethora of new historical material and rigorous research, including previously undisclosed letters and journals, Lewis upends the conventional story of Josephine Baker, explaining why she fully deserves her unique place in the French Panthéon.]]> 496 Damien Lewis 154170066X Allie 0 to-read 3.67 2022 Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy
author: Damien Lewis
name: Allie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)]]> 23168277
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.]]> 384 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0802123457 Allie 4 3.99 2015 The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)
author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Allie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/22
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves:
review:

]]> The Keeper of Lost Things 30363088 A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles—Found, on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September.

Bone china cup and saucer—Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October.

Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidentally left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.

Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.

As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice’s redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest?

Full of character, wit, and wisdom, The Keeper of Lost Things is heartwarming tale that will enchant fans of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Garden Spells, Mrs Queen Takes the Train, and The Silver Linings Playbook.]]> 288 Ruth Hogan Allie 2 🤷🏼‍♀️ 3.70 2017 The Keeper of Lost Things
author: Ruth Hogan
name: Allie
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/24
date added: 2024/02/24
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🤷🏼‍♀️
]]> Midnight’s Children 14836 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.

This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Twenty-five years after its publication, Midnight’ s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.]]> 647 Salman Rushdie 0099578514 Allie 2 3.98 1981 Midnight’s Children
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Allie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1981
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/20
date added: 2024/02/20
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I really enjoyed learning about some Indian and Pakistani history, but a lot of this was just too much for me. The magical realism didn't happen until literally halfway through the book, and then he has a surgery very young that takes away all his connection to it? That was kind of the selling point of the book, and it's a miniscule part of it. The end also vexes me. I know there are a lot of powerful metaphors there about like the death of old generations of India and hope or curses for the new ones, but it was too complicated for me to nail down.
]]> Sincerely, 53052684 Sincerely was born. It carries messages of positivity, hope, and most of all, true love.]]> 160 F.S. Yousaf 1771681926 Allie 3 3.88 Sincerely,
author: F.S. Yousaf
name: Allie
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/28
date added: 2024/01/28
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]]> The Hobbit 15809993 The Lord of the Rings. This charming deluxe pocket-sized edition contains the complete unabridged text and features a beautiful leatherette cover and gilt-edging. The perfect gift for little Hobbits everywhere! Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.

]]> 300 J.R.R. Tolkien 0544045521 Allie 3 4.49 1937 The Hobbit
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Allie
average rating: 4.49
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/01/25
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I did cry, but there were so many dead ponies.
]]> There Are 3 Women & 4 Men 204967663
That is precisely the reason why he is the most famous art curator of the 20th century and why the Fontaine Museum of Art has more success than any other museum has ever seen. That is, of course, until he shuts it down.

When Laurent’s wife, Marie, is found dead during an exhibition opening at the museum in 1967, the police are quick to determine suicide. Laurent is quick to determine otherwise.

He promptly closes his historic building and halts his highly coveted life in the arts to dedicate the next ten years to one thing: finding the person who killed Marie.

In 1977, exactly ten years after the tragedy, Laurent invites who he found to be the six most likely suspects back into his museum, breaking his silence for the first time in a decade. With the event disguised as a “Grand Reopening,” the guests arrive, and Laurent reveals the truth: none of these misfortunate people will be leaving his palace until justice is served.

But, Laurent Fontaine has an obsession. Is this truly justice, or is there spectacle hidden in revenge? Is this truly an investigation, or is this emperor of art putting on one last performance? How far can Laurent morally push his grand finale?]]> 418 Jaden Payne Allie 0 to-read 3.59 There Are 3 Women & 4 Men
author: Jaden Payne
name: Allie
average rating: 3.59
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness]]> 44287149 it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologist named David Rosenhan and seven other people -- sane, normal, well-adjusted members of society -- went undercover into asylums around America to test the legitimacy of psychiatry's labels. Forced to remain inside until they'd "proven" themselves sane, all eight emerged with alarming diagnoses and even more troubling stories of their treatment. Rosenhan's study broke open the field of psychiatry, closing down institutions and changing mental health diagnosis forever.

But, as Cahalan's new research shows, very little in this saga is exactly as it seems. What really happened behind those closed asylum doors, and what does it mean for our understanding of mental illness today?]]> 382 Susannah Cahalan 1538715287 Allie 4 3.64 2019 The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness
author: Susannah Cahalan
name: Allie
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/10
date added: 2024/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement]]> 25330108
Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.

Facing a world of outrageous injustice, Davis challenges us to imagine and build the movement for human liberation. And in doing so, she reminds us that "Freedom is a constant struggle."]]> 158 Angela Y. Davis 1608465640 Allie 4 4.45 2015 Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement
author: Angela Y. Davis
name: Allie
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/30
date added: 2023/12/30
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]]> Children of Paradise 60450976 200 Camilla Grudova 183895631X Allie 3 3.46 2022 Children of Paradise
author: Camilla Grudova
name: Allie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/27
date added: 2023/12/27
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]]> Outlawed 50997696 In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw.

The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows.

She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.

Featuring an irresistibly no-nonsense, courageous, and determined heroine, Outlawed dusts off the myth of the old West and reignites the glimmering promise of the frontier with an entirely new set of feminist stakes. Anna North has crafted a pulse-racing, page-turning saga about the search for hope in the wake of death, and for truth in a climate of small-mindedness and fear.]]> 261 Anna North Allie 2 3.46 2021 Outlawed
author: Anna North
name: Allie
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2023/12/19
date added: 2023/12/19
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]]> <![CDATA[All Quiet on the Western Front]]> 355697
In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war’. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier’ experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.]]> 296 Erich Maria Remarque 0449213943 Allie 4 4.07 1928 All Quiet on the Western Front
author: Erich Maria Remarque
name: Allie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/18
date added: 2023/12/18
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Someone dig up Hemingway and tell him this is how you write a book about WWI.
]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of a mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, alive with unforgettable men and women, and with a truth and understanding that strike the soul. One Hundred Years of Solitude is a masterpiece of the art of fiction.]]> 417 Gabriel García Márquez Allie 0 could-not-finish 4.10 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Allie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/11
shelves: could-not-finish
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]]> S. 17860739 One book. Two readers. A world of mystery, menace, and desire.

A young woman picks up a book left behind by a stranger. Inside it are his margin notes, which reveal a reader entranced by the story and by its mysterious author. She responds with notes of her own, leaving the book for the stranger, and so begins an unlikely conversation that plunges them both into the unknown.

THE BOOK: Ship of Theseus, the final novel by a prolific but enigmatic writer named V. M. Straka, in which a man with no past is shanghaied onto a strange ship with a monstrous crew and launched onto a disorienting and perilous journey.

THE WRITER: Straka, the incendiary and secretive subject of one of the world’s greatest mysteries, a revolutionary about whom the world knows nothing apart from the words he wrote and the rumours that swirl around him.

THE READERS: Jennifer and Eric, a college senior and a disgraced grad student, both facing crucial decisions about who they are, who they might become, and how much they’re willing to trust another person with their passions, hurts, and fears.

S. , conceived by filmmaker J. J. Abrams and written by award-winning novelist Doug Dorst, is the chronicle of two readers finding each other in the margins of a book and enmeshing themselves in a deadly struggle between forces they don’t understand. It is also Abrams and Dorst’s love letter to the written word.
]]> 469 J.J. Abrams 0316201642 Allie 4 3.85 2013 S.
author: J.J. Abrams
name: Allie
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/10
date added: 2023/12/10
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]]> Brave New World 3286217 Brave New World is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English author Aldous Huxley. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist.]]> 237 Aldous Huxley 3883891738 Allie 3 3.86 1932 Brave New World
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Allie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1932
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/03
date added: 2023/12/03
shelves:
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]]> Rifqa 57653182 Rifqa is Mohammed El-Kurd’s debut collection of poetry, written in the tradition of Ghassan Kanfani’s Palestinian Resistance Literature. The book narrates the author’s own experience of dispossession in Sheikh Jarrah—an infamous neighborhood in Jerusalem, Palestine, whose population of refugees continues to live on the brink of homelessness at the hands of the Israeli government and US-based settler organizations. The book, named after the author’s late grandmother who was forced to flee from Haifa upon the genocidal establishment of Israel, makes the observation that home takeovers and demolitions across historical Palestine are not reminiscent of 1948 Nakba, but are in fact a continuation of it: a legalized, ideologically-driven practice of ethnic cleansing.]]> 100 Mohammed El-Kurd 1642595861 Allie 4 4.64 2021 Rifqa
author: Mohammed El-Kurd
name: Allie
average rating: 4.64
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/30
date added: 2023/11/30
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"What do you say to the children for whom the Red Sea does not part?"
]]> The City & the City 4703581
Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.]]> 336 China Miéville 0345497511 Allie 0 could-not-finish 3.90 2009 The City & the City
author: China Miéville
name: Allie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/26
shelves: could-not-finish
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]]> Lord of the Flies 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 Allie 3
The actual story itself was pretty dry with only a moment of character complexity (ie breaking out of a general archetype) when Jack is sad he isn't voted chief and tells everyone that he doesn't even want to "play with them anymore." There was also a lot of needless description that did not aid my understanding of the book or give me some poetic depth. Basically, I didn't have fun reading this.

YET, a small notes on the book section at the end gave me a ton to think about. It spoke of the terror of the island not really being contained to the island as they are just going to grow into adults who live these same lives over and over. So I do think there is a lot here to chew on; it is not a book devoid of deep themes and meaning. That excerpt was not written by Golding, however. So......

Am I to rate this book on its potential for thought or it's literal product as a 202 page paperback?

Thought provoking source is 4ish stars,
Source is 2ish.]]> 3.71 1954 Lord of the Flies
author: William Golding
name: Allie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1954
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/25
date added: 2023/11/26
shelves:
review:
I'm at a loss for what to rate this.

The actual story itself was pretty dry with only a moment of character complexity (ie breaking out of a general archetype) when Jack is sad he isn't voted chief and tells everyone that he doesn't even want to "play with them anymore." There was also a lot of needless description that did not aid my understanding of the book or give me some poetic depth. Basically, I didn't have fun reading this.

YET, a small notes on the book section at the end gave me a ton to think about. It spoke of the terror of the island not really being contained to the island as they are just going to grow into adults who live these same lives over and over. So I do think there is a lot here to chew on; it is not a book devoid of deep themes and meaning. That excerpt was not written by Golding, however. So......

Am I to rate this book on its potential for thought or it's literal product as a 202 page paperback?

Thought provoking source is 4ish stars,
Source is 2ish.
]]> <![CDATA[When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir]]> 34964998
Raised by a single mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Los Angeles, Patrisse Khan-Cullors experienced firsthand the prejudice and persecution Black Americans endure at the hands of law enforcement. For Patrisse, the most vulnerable people in the country are Black people. Deliberately and ruthlessly targeted by a criminal justice system serving a white privilege agenda, Black people are subjected to unjustifiable racial profiling and police brutality. In 2013, when Trayvon Martin’s killer went free, Patrisse’s outrage led her to co-found Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.

Condemned as terrorists and as a threat to America, these loving women founded a hashtag that birthed the movement to demand accountability from the authorities who continually turn a blind eye to the injustices inflicted upon people of Black and Brown skin.

Championing human rights in the face of violent racism, Patrisse is a survivor. She transformed her personal pain into political power, giving voice to a people suffering in equality and a movement fueled by her strength and love to tell the country—and the world—that Black Lives Matter.

When They Call You a Terrorist is Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele’s reflection on humanity. It is an empowering account of survival, strength and resilience and a call to action to change the culture that declares innocent Black life expendable.]]> 257 Patrisse Khan-Cullors 1250171083 Allie 3 4.48 2018 When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
author: Patrisse Khan-Cullors
name: Allie
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/25
date added: 2023/11/25
shelves:
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100% respect the author and content. I learned a ton and underlined many passages. It just dragged on for a while at the end, especially talking about all the personal romance aspects.
]]> <![CDATA[A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (The Carls, #2)]]> 49003616 An Absolutely Remarkable Thing.

The Carls disappeared the same way they appeared, in an instant. While they were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction without ever lifting a finger. Well, that’s not exactly true. Part of their maelstrom was the sudden viral fame and untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into Carl’s path, giving them their name, becoming their advocate, and putting herself in the middle of an avalanche of conspiracy theories.

Months later, the world is as confused as ever. Andy has picked up April’s mantle of fame, speaking at conferences and online about the world post-Carl; Maya, ravaged by grief, begins to follow a string of mysteries that she is convinced will lead her to April; and Miranda infiltrates a new scientific operation . . . one that might have repercussions beyond anyone’s comprehension.

As they each get further down their own paths, a series of clues arrive—mysterious books that seem to predict the future and control the actions of their readers; unexplained internet outages; and more—which seem to suggest April may be very much alive. In the midst of the gang's possible reunion is a growing force, something that wants to capture our consciousness and even control our reality.

A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is the bold and brilliant follow-up to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. It’s a fast-paced adventure that is also a biting social commentary, asking hard, urgent questions. How will we live online? What powers over our lives are we giving away for free? Who has the right to change the world forever? And how do we find comfort in an increasingly isolated world?]]> 452 Hank Green 152474347X Allie 3 4.21 2020 A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (The Carls, #2)
author: Hank Green
name: Allie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/11/25
date added: 2023/11/25
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]]> The Secret History 29044 Truly deserving of the accolade modern classic, Donna Tartt's novel is a remarkable achievement—both compelling and elegant, dramatic and playful.

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.]]> 559 Donna Tartt 1400031702 Allie 3 4.15 1992 The Secret History
author: Donna Tartt
name: Allie
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/15
date added: 2023/11/17
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]]> City of Thieves 1971304
By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.]]> 258 David Benioff 0670018708 Allie 5 4.28 2008 City of Thieves
author: David Benioff
name: Allie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2023/11/16
date added: 2023/11/17
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]]> God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater 33290408 Slaughterhouse-Five in the Vonnegut canon in its prominence and influence, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater(1965) presents Eliot Rosewater, an itinerant, semi-crazed millionaire wandering the country in search of heritage and philanthropic outcome, introducing the science fiction writer Kilgore Trout to the world and Vonnegut to the collegiate audience which would soon make him a cult writer. Trout, modeled according to Vonnegut on the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon (with whom Vonnegut had an occasional relationship) is a desperate, impoverished but visionary hack writer who functions for Eliot Rosewater as both conscience and horrid example. Rosewater, seeking to put his inheritance to some meaningful use (his father was an entrepreneur), tries to do good within the context of almost illimitable cynicism and corruption. It is in this novel that Rosewater wanders into a science fiction conference — an actual annual event in Milford, Pennsylvania — and at the motel delivers his famous monologue evoked by science fiction writers and critics for almost half a century: "None of you can write for sour apples... but you're the only people trying to come to terms with the really terrific things which are happening today." Money does not drive Mr. Rosewater (or the corrupt lawyer who tries to shape the Rosewater fortune) so much as outrage at the human condition. The novel is primarily an episodic collection of Eliot's interactions with the citizens of Rosewater County punctuated by episodes from the point of view of the corrupt lawyer, Mushari, as he tries to enrich himself. The interactions reveal different hypocrisies of humankind in a darkly humorous fashion.
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater was adapted as a musical by Alan Menken in 1979.]]> 290 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Allie 2 4.03 1965 God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Allie
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1965
rating: 2
read at: 2023/09/25
date added: 2023/11/13
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]]> If Birds Fly Back 34601342
Sebastian can tell you how many galaxies there are, and knows how much plutonium weighs. But the one thing he can’t figure out is the identity of his birth father.

They’ve never met, but Linny and Sebastian have one thing in common: an obsession with famous novelist and filmmaker Alvaro Herrera, who went missing three years ago and has just reappeared. As they learn more about the mystery of Alvaro, Linny and Sebastian uncover the answers they’ve been searching for.]]> 448 Carlie Sorosiak 0062563963 Allie 3 3.81 2017 If Birds Fly Back
author: Carlie Sorosiak
name: Allie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/26
date added: 2023/11/13
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]]> The Guest List 51933429
On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. As the champagne is popped and the festivities begin, resentments and petty jealousies begin to mingle with the reminiscences and well wishes. The groomsmen begin the drinking game from their school days. The bridesmaid not-so-accidentally ruins her dress. The bride’s oldest (male) friend gives an uncomfortably caring toast.

And then someone turns up dead. Who didn’t wish the happy couple well? And perhaps more important, why?]]> 330 Lucy Foley Allie 3 3.63 2020 The Guest List
author: Lucy Foley
name: Allie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/30
date added: 2023/11/13
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]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky Allie 4 4.27 1866 Crime and Punishment
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Allie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1866
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/13
date added: 2023/11/13
shelves:
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]]> On Palestine 23129811 On Palestine is the sequel to their acclaimed book Gaza in Crisis.]]> 220 Noam Chomsky 1608464709 Allie 4 4.26 2015 On Palestine
author: Noam Chomsky
name: Allie
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/10
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017]]> 41812831 In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, former mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to transform Palestine into a Jewish state, wrote a letter aimed at Theodore Herzl: the country had an indigenous people who would not easily accept their own displacement. He warned of the perils ahead, ending his note, “In the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.” Thus Rashid Khalidi, al-Khalidi’s great-great-nephew, begins this sweeping history, the first general account of the conflict told from an explicitly Palestinian perspective.

Accepted interpretations of the conflict tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same land. Drawing on archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—judges, scholars, diplomats, and writers—who were present at key events, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine instead shows this war has always been colonial in nature, waged against the native population first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. Khalidi highlights crucial episodes in this long colonial campaign, from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from the war of 1967 to Israel’s recent assaults on Gaza.

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In this lively, original, and important history, Khalidi points to the resistance of Palestinians in the face of the heaviest odds and offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.

"This is the first true people's history of the hundred-year struggle of the Palestine people, a beautifully written text and a call for justice and self-determination." — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States]]> 319 Rashid Khalidi 1627798552 Allie 0 to-read 4.49 2020 The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017
author: Rashid Khalidi
name: Allie
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #1)]]> 7108001 Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.]]> 336 Seth Grahame-Smith 0446563080 Allie 4 3.72 2010 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #1)
author: Seth Grahame-Smith
name: Allie
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/18
date added: 2023/10/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design]]> 13330588 Charles Montgomery’s Happy City will revolutionize the way we think about urban life.

After decades of unchecked sprawl, more people than ever are moving back to the city. Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks and condo towers an improvement on the car-dependence of sprawl?

The award-winning journalist Charles Montgomery finds answers to such questions at the intersection between urban design and the emerging science of happiness, during an exhilarating journey through some of the world’s most dynamic cities. He meets the visionary mayor who introduced a “sexy” bus to ease status anxiety in Bogotá; the architect who brought the lessons of medieval Tuscan hill towns to modern-day New York City; the activist who turned Paris’s urban freeways into beaches; and an army of American suburbanites who have hacked the design of their own streets and neighborhoods.

Rich with new insights from psychology, neuroscience and Montgomery’s own urban experiments, Happy City reveals how our cities can shape our thoughts as well as our behavior. The message is as surprising as it is hopeful: by retrofitting cities and our own lives for happiness, we can tackle the urgent challenges of our age. The happy city can save the world--and all of us can help build it. ]]> 368 Charles Montgomery 0385669127 Allie 3 4.35 2012 Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
author: Charles Montgomery
name: Allie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/16
date added: 2023/10/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde & Other Tales (Flame Tree Collector's Editions)]]> 54482295
Three of Stevenson’s other dark tales reveal him to be a shrewd and skillful storyteller – 'The Body Snatcher', 'The Pavilion on the Links', 'The Story of a Lie'.

Flame Tree Collector's Editions present the foundations of speculative fiction, authors without whom the imaginative literature of the twentieth century would not exist, bringing the best and most influential writers into a striking and collectable library. Each book features a new introduction, a short biography and a glossary of Literary, Gothic and Victorian terms.]]> 352 Robert Louis Stevenson 1839644761 Allie 2 3.21 2006 The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde & Other Tales (Flame Tree Collector's Editions)
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Allie
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2023/07/04
date added: 2023/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> Counting the Cost 167770288
Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn’t possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family’s way of life. She was the responsible, second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle’s nineteen kids; always with a baby on her hip and happy to wear the modest ankle-length dresses with throat-high necklines. She didn’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married.

But as Jill got older, married Derick, and they embarked on their own lives, the red flags became too obvious to ignore. For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members — they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets. Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.]]> 288 Jill Duggar Allie 3 3.98 2023 Counting the Cost
author: Jill Duggar
name: Allie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/20
date added: 2023/09/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The Big Bang Symphony: A Novel of Antarctica]]> 7616904     At least that’s how thirty-year-old Rosie Moore views it as she flies in for her third season on the Ice. She plans to avoid all entanglements, romantic and otherwise, and do her work as a galley cook. But when her flight crash-lands, so do all her plans.
    Mikala Wilbo, a brilliant young composer whose heart—and music—have been frozen since the death of her partner, is also on that flight. She has come to the Ice as an artist-in-residence, to write music, but also to secretly check out the astrophysicist father she has never met.
    Arriving a few weeks later, Alice Neilson, a graduate student in geology who thinks in charts and equations, is thrilled to leave her dependent mother and begin her career at last. But from the start she is aware that her post-doc advisor, with whom she will work in Antarctica, expects much more from their relationship.
    As the three women become increasingly involved in each other’s lives, they find themselves deeply transformed by their time on the Ice. Each falls in love. Each faces challenges she never thought she would meet. And ultimately, each finds redemption in a depth and quality of friendship that only the harsh beauty of Antarctica can engender.  Finalist, Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, awarded by the Publishing Triangle Finalist, Northern California Independent Booksellers Association Honorable Mention, Foreword Magazine ’s Gay/Lesbian Fiction Book of the Year Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association]]> 333 Lucy Jane Bledsoe 0299235009 Allie 3 3.48 2010 The Big Bang Symphony: A Novel of Antarctica
author: Lucy Jane Bledsoe
name: Allie
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/17
date added: 2023/09/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)]]> 45047384 A magical island. A dangerous task. A burning secret.

Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 393 T.J. Klune Allie 0 could-not-finish 4.33 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Allie
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/27
shelves: could-not-finish
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]]> <![CDATA[An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)]]> 42074840
Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity, and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.

Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring from the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye.]]> 352 Hank Green 1524744646 Allie 4 4.04 2018 An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (The Carls, #1)
author: Hank Green
name: Allie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/08/25
date added: 2023/08/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Sunnis and Shi'a: A Political History]]> 51801282 A compelling history of the ancient schism that continues to divide the Islamic world

When Muhammad died in 632 without a male heir, Sunnis contended that the choice of a successor should fall to his closest companions, but Shi'a believed that God had inspired the Prophet to appoint his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as leader. So began a schism that is nearly as old as Islam itself. Laurence Lou�r tells the story of this ancient rivalry, taking readers from the last days of Muhammad to the political and doctrinal clashes of Sunnis and Shi'a today.

In a sweeping historical narrative spanning the Islamic world, Lou�r shows how the Sunni-Shi'a divide was never just a dispute over succession--at issue are questions about the very nature of Islamic political authority. She challenges the widespread perception of Sunnis and Shi'a as bitter enemies who are perpetually at war with each other, demonstrating how they have coexisted peacefully at various periods throughout the history of Islam. Lou�r traces how sectarian tensions have been inflamed or calmed depending on the political contingencies of the moment, whether to consolidate the rule of elites, assert clerical control over the state, or defy the powers that be.

Timely and provocative, Sunnis and Shi'a provides needed perspective on the historical roots of today's conflicts and reveals how both branches of Islam have influenced and emulated each other in unexpected ways. This compelling and accessible book also examines the diverse regional contexts of the Sunni-Shi'a divide, examining how it has shaped societies and politics in countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Yemen, and Lebanon.]]> 248 Laurence Louër 0691186618 Allie 3 3.79 Sunnis and Shi'a: A Political History
author: Laurence Louër
name: Allie
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/22
date added: 2023/08/22
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]]> Nine Stories 4009
The stories

"A Perfect Day for Bananafish"
"Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut"
"Just Before the War with the Eskimos"
"The Laughing Man"
"Down at the Dinghy"
"For Esmé – with Love and Squalor"
"Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes"
"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period"
"Teddy"]]> 302 J.D. Salinger 0316767727 Allie 3 4.20 1948 Nine Stories
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Allie
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1948
rating: 3
read at: 2023/08/05
date added: 2023/08/05
shelves:
review:
'A Perfect Day for Banana Fish' and 'Teddy' were 5 stars and the rest were 1 or 2. Random made up math in my head says it evens out to about 3 as a collection.
]]> One Last Stop 49882806 New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a new romantic comedy that puts a queer spin on Kate & Leopold.

A 23-year-old realises her subway crush is displaced from 1970's Brooklyn, and she must do everything in her power to help her - and try not to fall in love with the girl lost in time - before it's too late . . .]]> 384 Casey McQuiston 0349428271 Allie 0 could-not-finish 4.11 2021 One Last Stop
author: Casey McQuiston
name: Allie
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: could-not-finish
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]]> <![CDATA[Beyond the Wand: The Magic & Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard]]> 61062194 From the magical moments on set as Draco Malfoy to the challenges of growing up in the spotlight, get a backstage pass into Tom Felton’s life on and off the big screen in this #1 New York Times bestseller.

Tom Felton’s adolescence was anything but ordinary. His early rise to fame in beloved films like The Borrowers catapulted him into the limelight, but nothing could prepare him for what was to come after he landed the iconic role of the Draco Malfoy, the bleached blonde villain of the Harry Potter movies. For the next ten years, he was at the center of a huge pop culture phenomenon and yet, in between filming, he would go back to being a normal teenager trying to fit into a normal school.

Speaking with great candor and his signature humor, Tom shares his experience growing up as part of the wizarding world while also trying to navigate the muggle world. He tells stories from his early days in the business like his first acting gig where he was mistaken for fellow blonde child actor Macaulay Culkin and his Harry Potter audition where, in a very Draco-like move, he fudged how well he knew the books the series was based on (not at all). He reflects on his experiences working with cinematic greats such as Alan Rickman, Sir Michael Gambon, Dame Maggie Smith, and Ralph Fiennes (including that awkward Voldemort hug). And, perhaps most poignantly, he discusses the lasting relationships he made over that decade of filming, including with Emma Watson, who started out as a pesky nine-year-old whom he mocked for not knowing what a boom mic was but who soon grew into one of his dearest friends. Then, of course, there are the highs and lows of fame and navigating life after such a momentous and life-changing experience.

Tom Felton’s Beyond the Wand is an entertaining, funny, and poignant must-read for any Harry Potter fan. Prepare to meet a real-life wizard.]]> 288 Tom Felton 1538741369 Allie 2 4.27 2022 Beyond the Wand: The Magic & Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard
author: Tom Felton
name: Allie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/07/27
date added: 2023/07/27
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]]> Steal This Book 184085 Steal This Book captures Hoffman's puckish tone and became a cult classic with over 200,000 copies sold. Outrageously illustrated by R. Crumb, it nevertheless conveys a serious message to all would-be revolutionaries: You don't have to take it anymore. "All Power to the Imagination was his credo. Abbie was the best." —Studs Terkel]]> 352 Abbie Hoffman 156858217X Allie 0 to-read 3.62 1971 Steal This Book
author: Abbie Hoffman
name: Allie
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Tempest 12985 • Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

• Scene-by-scene plot summaries

• A key to famous lines and phrases

• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

• An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books


Alternate Cover/publisher Edition ISBN 0743482832 (ISBN13: 9780743482837)]]> 218 William Shakespeare Allie 3 3.78 1611 The Tempest
author: William Shakespeare
name: Allie
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1611
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/30
date added: 2023/07/15
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]]> <![CDATA[To Rise Again at a Decent Hour]]> 18453074 A big, brilliant, profoundly observed novel about the mysteries of modern life by National Book Award Finalist Joshua Ferris, one of the most exciting voices of his generation

Paul O'Rourke is a man made of contradictions: he loves the world, but doesn't know how to live in it. He's a Luddite addicted to his iPhone, a dentist with a nicotine habit, a rabid Red Sox fan devastated by their victories, and an atheist not quite willing to let go of God.

Then someone begins to impersonate Paul online, and he watches in horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name. What begins as an outrageous violation of his privacy soon becomes something more soul-frightening: the possibility that the online "Paul" might be a better version of the real thing. As Paul's quest to learn why his identity has been stolen deepens, he is forced to confront his troubled past and his uncertain future in a life disturbingly split between the real and the virtual.

At once laugh-out-loud funny about the absurdities of the modern world, and indelibly profound about the eternal questions of the meaning of life, love and truth, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is a deeply moving and constantly surprising tour de force.]]> 352 Joshua Ferris 0316033979 Allie 0 could-not-finish 3.08 2014 To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
author: Joshua Ferris
name: Allie
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/08
shelves: could-not-finish
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse]]> 35068760 From the bestselling author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor comes this essential primer to reading poetry like a professor that unlocks the keys to enjoying works from Lord Byron to the Beatles.

No literary form is as admired and feared as poetry. Admired for its lengthy pedigree—a line of poets extending back to a time before recorded history—and a ubiquitous presence in virtually all cultures, poetry is also revered for its great beauty and the powerful emotions it evokes. But the form has also instilled trepidation in its many admirers mainly because of a lack of familiarity and knowledge.

Poetry demands more from readers—intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually—than other literary forms. Most of us started out loving poetry because it filled our beloved children's books from Dr. Seuss to Robert Louis Stevenson. Eventually, our reading shifted to prose and later when we encountered poetry again, we had no recent experience to make it feel familiar. But reading poetry doesn’t need to be so overwhelming. In an entertaining and engaging voice, Thomas C. Foster shows readers how to overcome their fear of poetry and learn to enjoy it once more.

From classic poets such as Shakespeare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Edna St. Vincent Millay to later poets such as E.E. Cummings, Billy Collins, and Seamus Heaney, How to Read Poetry Like a Professor examines a wide array of poems and teaches readers:


How to read a poem to understand its primary meaning.
The different technical elements of poetry such as meter, diction, rhyme, line structures, length, order, regularity, and how to learn to see these elements as allies rather than adversaries.
How to listen for a poem’s secondary meaning by paying attention to the echoes that the language of poetry summons up.
How to hear the music in poems—and the poetry in songs!
With How to Read Poetry Like a Professor, readers can rediscover poetry and reap its many rewards.
]]> 194 Thomas C. Foster 006268406X Allie 3 3.66 2018 How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse
author: Thomas C. Foster
name: Allie
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/29
date added: 2023/06/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life]]> 50887097 A wondrous debut from an extraordinary new voice in nonfiction, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and—possibly—even murder.

David Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake—which sent more than a thousand of his discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. In an instant, his life’s work was shattered.

Many might have given up, given in to despair. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world.

When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool—a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. What she would unearth about his life would transform her understanding of history, morality, and the world beneath her feet.

Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don’t Exist reads like a fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.]]> 225 Lulu Miller Allie 5 4.12 2020 Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
author: Lulu Miller
name: Allie
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/21
date added: 2023/06/21
shelves:
review:
I was wrong. Damnit, this book changed my life.
]]> Normal People 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Allie 0 could-not-finish 3.81 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: Allie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/21
shelves: could-not-finish
review:

]]> Someone Somewhere Maybe 75718251
Poignant and beautifully written, TikTok fan favorite Sophie Diener’s debut poetry collection takes readers on an introspective journey through first love, first heartbreak, first loss, identity, and self-worth. Filled with honesty and warmth, each poem reveals something new about the human condition, and brilliantly captures what growing up feels like, in a way that is both relatable and affirming.

Someone Somewhere Maybe is the perfect companion for a rainy day, curling up in bed with a cup of tea, sitting on the porch with a glass of lemonade, or lying on the beach watching the waves. It offers readers hope, healing, understanding, and the certainty that they are not alone.]]> 176 Sophie Diener 1250892716 Allie 0 to-read 4.02 Someone Somewhere Maybe
author: Sophie Diener
name: Allie
average rating: 4.02
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Book Eaters 58724745
Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.]]> 298 Sunyi Dean 1250810183 Allie 0 could-not-finish 3.59 2022 The Book Eaters
author: Sunyi Dean
name: Allie
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/12
shelves: could-not-finish
review:

]]> When I Am On Your Shoulders 59031093 Peter Parker/Johnny Storm
James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
165,191 words]]> Lady_Blackwater Allie 4 2.67 When I Am On Your Shoulders
author: Lady_Blackwater
name: Allie
average rating: 2.67
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/08
date added: 2023/06/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Outdoor Lives)]]> 13594211 262 Suzanne Roberts 0803240120 Allie 3 3.82 2012 Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Outdoor Lives)
author: Suzanne Roberts
name: Allie
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2023/06/05
date added: 2023/06/05
shelves:
review:

]]> I'm Glad My Mom Died 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 Allie 5 4.36 2022 I'm Glad My Mom Died
author: Jennette McCurdy
name: Allie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/06
date added: 2023/06/04
shelves:
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]]> Educated 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 Allie 2 4.45 2018 Educated
author: Tara Westover
name: Allie
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2023/05/07
date added: 2023/05/25
shelves:
review:
I fully believe Tara's recounting of her life. Other negative reviewers have said her life is too extraordinary to be true, but that's not an issue at all for me. I believe her, and because of that, this falls a little flat for me. This memoir is in some ways similar to "Unfollow" by Megan Phelps-Roper with the high level of education and discovery leading her to reject her extremist upbringing. Both women hold the possibility of reconciliation with their families in their hearts which I think shows how complex and painful family issues are- but the real issue is that Megan fully renounces the beliefs that her family has and apologizes for the pain they have caused and Tara seems to want us to make assumptions based on the extent of her trauma? But we don't know at all how she feels. She hints for a few sentences about how she doesn't condem or sanctify mormonism anymore, and how she viewed it academically as a scholar would for her research. Every healing journey is long and messy, but it just seems like she is merely hurt that her family had untreated mental illness that led to abuse and not at all that their religion encouraged and still encourages similar abuse. I'm not blaming her own journey, she is a million times more tough than I am, but this story doesn't seem to make sense as an inspirational or thoughtful memoir when she never truly sees her abuse for what it was or makes statements to indicate she doesn't support it being done to others. I guess it feels like if she waited another decade, this story would make sense, but she wrote it before a lot of meaningful healing and inner reflection was finished.
]]> Speak 23215488
In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive.

A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friend's mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley Wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls.

Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gaps — to estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hall explores how the chasm between computer and human — shrinking rapidly with today's technological advances — echoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard, or understood.]]> 336 Louisa Hall 0062391194 Allie 5 3.58 2015 Speak
author: Louisa Hall
name: Allie
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/25
date added: 2023/05/25
shelves:
review:
That's how you tell a story, folks.
]]> Fahrenheit 451 13079982
Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 249 Ray Bradbury Allie 5 favorite-books-of-all-time 3.97 1963 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Allie
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/05/24
shelves: favorite-books-of-all-time
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #0)]]> 13152282
Now he's being sent to a new orphanage, where he will encounter vicious bullies, selfish adults, strange circumstances – and a mystery that could change his life forever. Luckily, he does have one thing in his favor: He's a a genius.

On his quest to solve the mystery, Nicholas finds enemies around every corner, but also friends in unexpected places – and discovers along the way that the greatest puzzle of all is himself.]]> 14 Trenton Lee Stewart 0307968316 Allie 2 4.37 2012 The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict (The Mysterious Benedict Society, #0)
author: Trenton Lee Stewart
name: Allie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2023/05/02
date added: 2023/05/02
shelves:
review:
If I had read this when I was younger, I think I would have liked it a lot. I predicted nearly every twist very early on, but it did have a cute ending.
]]> Spare 62296528
For Harry, this is that story at last.

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

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

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

For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.]]> 410 Prince Harry 0593593804 Allie 5 3.77 2023 Spare
author: Prince Harry
name: Allie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/29
date added: 2023/04/29
shelves:
review:
The only people who read this incredible, heartbreaking, and inspiring book and dislike it or think he's lying are British crown worshippers. 😂 Seriously moved me. They don't owe us anything, but I feel like my life is richer for the wisdom he did give here. "I had been avoiding healing because the pain of losing my mother was all I had left of her." Absolutely wrecked me. I hope Harry and Meghan find peace and happiness and know we support them.
]]> The Snow Collectors 53120955 At the center of the mystery is Franklin’s wife, the indomitable Lady Jane. Henna’s investigation draws her into a gothic landscape of locked towers, dream-like nights of snow and ice, and a crumbling mansion rife with hidden passageways and carrion birds. But it soon becomes clear that someone is watching her—someone who is determined to prevent the truth from coming out.

Suspenseful and atmospheric, The Snow Collectors sketches the ghosts of Victorian exploration against the eerie beauty of a world on the edge of environmental collapse.]]> 224 Tina May Hall 1950539040 Allie 2 3.53 2020 The Snow Collectors
author: Tina May Hall
name: Allie
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2023/04/11
date added: 2023/04/11
shelves:
review:
The first half of the book was excellent. The second half was so weird and unfulfilling. Why does such a smart woman with an interesting backstory have to fall for every horrible man in this tiny village? If the romance was cut out and her grief was explored more, it could have been so good.
]]> The Sellout 22237161 A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant.


Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens—on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles—the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family's financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that's left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.Fuelled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident—the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins—he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.


]]> 289 Paul Beatty 0374260508 Allie 4 3.74 2015 The Sellout
author: Paul Beatty
name: Allie
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/02
date added: 2023/04/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning]]> 58438513 An NPR Best Book of the Year.

The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship's remains.

Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide evidence of the crime, allowing the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation's most important historical artifacts.

Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ship's perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities—the descendants of those transported into slavery, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendants of their American enslavers. This connection binds these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda's journey lived nearby—where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown.

From these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continue to this day. And yet, at its heart, The Last Slave Ship remains optimistic—an epic tale of one community's triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds.]]> 304 Ben Raines 1982136049 Allie 5 4.31 2022 The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning
author: Ben Raines
name: Allie
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/30
date added: 2023/03/30
shelves:
review:

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