Spandana's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 02 Jan 2025 21:03:05 -0800 60 Spandana's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 1984 61439040
Alternate cover edition can be found here.]]> 368 George Orwell 0452284236 Spandana 0 to-read 4.21 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 Spandana 0 to-read 4.01 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Less (Arthur Less, #1) 39927096 You are a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: your boyfriend of the past nine years now engaged to someone else. You can’t say yes--it would all be too awkward--and you can’t say no--it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of half-baked literary invitations you’ve received from around the world.

QUESTION: How do you arrange to skip town?

ANSWER: You accept them all.

If you are Arthur Less.

Thus begins an around-the-world-in-eighty-days fantasia that will take Arthur Less to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India and Japan and put thousands of miles between him and the problems he refuses to face. What could possibly go wrong?

Well: Arthur will almost fall in love in Paris, almost fall to his death in Berlin, barely escape to a Moroccan ski chalet from a Sahara sandstorm, accidentally book himself as the (only) writer-in-residence at a Christian Retreat Center in Southern India, and arrive in Japan too late for the cherry blossoms. In between: science fiction fans, crazed academics, emergency rooms, starlets, doctors, exes and, on a desert island in the Arabian Sea, the last person on Earth he wants to see. Somewhere in there: he will turn fifty. The second phase of life, as he thinks of it, falling behind him like the second phase of a rocket. There will be his first love. And there will be his last.

A love story, a satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, by an author The New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical,” “elegiac,” “ingenious,” as well as “too sappy by half,” Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy.]]> 273 Andrew Sean Greer Spandana 0 to-read 3.61 2017 Less (Arthur Less, #1)
author: Andrew Sean Greer
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> I've never been (Un)happier 42269208 Unwittingly known as Alia Bhatt’s older sister, screenwriter and fame-child Shaheen Bhatt has been a powerhouse of quiet restraint—until now. In a sweeping act of courage, she now invites you into her head.
Shaheen was diagnosed with depression at eighteen, after five years of already living with it. In this emotionally arresting memoir, she reveals the daily experiences and debilitating big picture of one of the most critically misinterpreted mental illnesses in the twenty-first century. Equal parts conundrum and enlightenment, Shaheen takes us through the personal pendulum of understanding and living with depression in her privileged circumstances. With honesty and a profound self-awareness, Shaheen lays claim to her sadness, finding it a home in the universal fabric of the human condition.
In this multi-dimensional, philosophical tell-all, Shaheen acknowledges, accepts and overcomes the peculiarities of this way of being alive. A topic of massive interest to anyone living with mental health disorders, I’ve Never Been (un)Happier stretches out its hand to gently provide solace and solidarity.]]> 88 Shaheen Bhatt 9353052149 Spandana 0 3.89 2018 I've never been (Un)happier
author: Shaheen Bhatt
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

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

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

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

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

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments--and lifetimes--of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.]]> 406 Rick Rubin 0593652886 Spandana 0 to-read 4.00 2023 The Creative Act: A Way of Being
author: Rick Rubin
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse]]> 43708884
Here, you will find them together in this book of Charlie's most-loved drawings, adventuring into the Wild and exploring the thoughts and feelings that unite us all.]]> 128 Charlie Mackesy 1529105102 Spandana 0 to-read 4.56 2019 The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
author: Charlie Mackesy
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Funny Story 194803835 A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancĂ©e’s ex... right?]]> 400 Emily Henry 0593441281 Spandana 0 to-read 4.17 2024 Funny Story
author: Emily Henry
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life]]> 124950497 208 HĂ©ctor GarcĂ­a Spandana 0 to-read 3.70 2016 Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
author: HĂ©ctor GarcĂ­a
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide]]> 783127 Being a teenager is both wonderful and challenging. In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, author Sean Covey applies the timeless principles of the 7 Habits to teens and the tough issues and life-changing decisions they face. In an entertaining style, Covey provides a step-by-step guide to help teens improve self-image, build friendships, resist peer pressure, achieve their goals, get along with their parents, and much more. In addition, this book is stuffed with cartoons, clever ideas, great quotes, and incredible stories about real teens from all over the world. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens will engage teenagers unlike any other book.

An indispensable book for teens, as well as parents, grandparents, and any adult who influences young people, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens is destined to become the last word on surviving and thriving as a teen and beyond.

]]> 268 Sean Covey 0684856093 Spandana 0 currently-reading 4.04 1997 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide
author: Sean Covey
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Greenlights 52838315 From the Academy Award¼–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights - and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.]]> 289 Matthew McConaughey 0593139135 Spandana 4 4.21 2020 Greenlights
author: Matthew McConaughey
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change your Life and Achieve Real Happiness]]> 43306206
The Courage to Be Disliked shows you how to unlock the power within yourself to become your best and truest self, change your future and find lasting happiness. Using the theories of Alfred Adler, one of the three giants of 19th-century psychology alongside Freud and Jung, the authors explain how we are all free to determine our own future free of the shackles of past experiences, doubts and the expectations of others. It’s a philosophy that’s profoundly liberating, allowing us to develop the courage to change, and to ignore the limitations that we and those around us can place on ourselves.

The result is a book that is both highly accessible and profound in its importance. Millions have already read and benefited from its wisdom. Now that The Courage to Be Disliked has been published for the first time in English, so can you.]]> 288 Ichiro Kishimi Spandana 0 to-read 3.89 2013 The Courage to Be Disliked: How to Free Yourself, Change your Life and Achieve Real Happiness
author: Ichiro Kishimi
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Right Move (Windy City, #2)]]> 84943172
She’s a distraction, that’s what she is.

I’m the newest Captain of the Devils, Chicago’s NBA team, and the last thing I needed this year was for Indy Ivers, my sister’s best friend, to move into my apartment. She’s messy, emotional, and way too tempting.

But when the team’s General Manager vocalizes his blatant disapproval of my promotion to Captain, referring to me as an unapproachable lone wolf with no work-life balance, I can’t think of a better way to convince him otherwise than pretending to date my outgoing roommate.

The only problem? Faking it feels far too natural.

Having a fake girlfriend wasn’t supposed to be messy but having Indy under my roof and in my bed is complicated, especially when she wants all the romantic parts of life that I could never give her.


INDY

I never imagined I’d be living with my best friend’s brother, NBA superstar Ryan Shay. Even more unbelievable? He needs me to act as his loving girlfriend who’s suddenly changed him into a friendly and approachable guy.

Because, well
he’s not. He’s controlling of his space and untrusting of others.

Our arrangement isn’t one-sided, though. I’m in a wedding coming up, one where every one of my childhood friends, including my ex-boyfriend, will be in attendance, and there’s no better date than my ex’s celebrity hero.

Blurred lines make it almost impossible to separate real from fake. Falling for my roommate was never part of the deal, especially when Ryan is quick to remind me that he doesn’t believe in love.

I’m a romantic and can’t help fantasizing that he’ll change, but soon enough, I find myself questioning if sharing a roof with my best friend’s brother was the right move after all]]> 499 Liz Tomforde Spandana 0 to-read 4.39 2023 The Right Move (Windy City, #2)
author: Liz Tomforde
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)]]> 16096824
Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.]]> 419 Sarah J. Maas 1619634449 Spandana 0 to-read 4.17 2015 A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beach Read 52867387 A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.

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

They’re polar opposites.

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

Until, one hazy evening, one thing leads to another and they strike a deal designed to force them out of their creative ruts: Augustus will spend the summer writing something happy, and January will pen the next Great American Novel. She’ll take him on field trips worthy of any rom-com montage, and he’ll take her to interview surviving members of a backwoods death cult (obviously). Everyone will finish a book and no-one will fall in love. Really.]]> 371 Emily Henry 1984806734 Spandana 0 to-read 3.99 2020 Beach Read
author: Emily Henry
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> One Child 28960224 304 Torey L. Hayden 0062564439 Spandana 0 to-read 4.45 1980 One Child
author: Torey L. Hayden
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Selection (The Selection, #1)]]> 10507293
But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn't want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she's made for herself—and realizes that the life she's always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.]]> 336 Kiera Cass 0062059939 Spandana 0 to-read 4.07 2012 The Selection (The Selection, #1)
author: Kiera Cass
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)]]> 26032825 Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.

And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.

Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.]]> 370 Holly Black 0316310271 Spandana 0 to-read 4.01 2018 The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1)
author: Holly Black
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born — a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam — and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 Spandana 0 to-read 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dear Mr. Henshaw (Leigh Botts, #1)]]> 105999 134 Beverly Cleary 0380709589 Spandana 0 3.78 1983 Dear Mr. Henshaw (Leigh Botts, #1)
author: Beverly Cleary
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1983
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> Blue Nights 10252302 Ìę
Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood—in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. “How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?” Finally, perhaps we all remain unknown to each other. Seamlessly woven in are incidents Didion sees as underscoring her own age, something she finds hard to acknowledge, much less accept.
Ìę
Blue Nights—the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, “the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning”—like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty, haunting and profoundly moving.]]> 208 Joan Didion 0307267679 Spandana 0 to-read 3.92 2011 Blue Nights
author: Joan Didion
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stranger 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Spandana 0 to-read 4.04 1942 The Stranger
author: Albert Camus
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Silent Patient 40097951
Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.]]> 336 Alex Michaelides 1250301696 Spandana 0 to-read 4.17 2019 The Silent Patient
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Empty Roads & Broken Bottles: in search for The Great Perhaps]]> 17829704
The story of The Glass Child, Charlotte Eriksson, is one of those you usually see on movies. Only 18 years old she left everything she had and knew to dedicate her life to her music and art. A vague dream about reaching out turned out to be a fight for freedom, real art and belonging. A journey about self-discovery, learning solitude, the difference between having a home and feeling at home and finally, slowly, finding a home in oneself. In music, in words, in moments. Charlotte spent a year homeless on the road, sleeping at friends’ and fans’ floors, learning and searching. Aiming to inspire others to create their own lives and showing that you can become exactly who you want to become, if you just want it bad enough. ”I wanted to turn my life into art. My very existence into a poem. This is my story. It’s been a beautiful adventure. It always will be.”



"Instant coffee and a tip from the sound-guy. I'm learning sounds, laying wide awake on different sofas every night. I know the difference between a well built wall and broken strength. I'm learning mindfulness, reading about gurus and poets every day on different trains to nowhere. I don't know what I'm learning but I hope I will understand one day. I'm selling my heart with each album and a silent prayer that they’ll be gentle with it, gentle with me. And then the concerned looks they throw when I point at my worn out bag and broken guitar case as the answer to where I live. Sure I could spend a year or two selling my days and time for money, and I could buy all these things people want to have without never really needing it. It's just that when I'm on that stage every night, it all just seems so stupid. My guitar, my voice, my words, my story. That's all I want, that's what makes my heart beat. What am I supposed to do with belongings and material stuff when all I want is this. The open road and a new beginning every day.
I don't have a lot and I gave away the things you're supposed to have to be able to live. I don't own any keys and I threw my phone in the river. My family will always remember me as the confused one who left and never came back. I'm searching. I will be forever wandering. I don't know what I'm looking for, but I will spend the rest of my life trying to find it."

"I want my life to be the greatest story.
My very existence will be the greatest poem.
Watch me burn."


Reviews of Empty Roads & Broken Bottles; in search for The Great Perhaps:

"This book is a beautiful journey. Charlotte's words are like magic and you just can't stop reading. This book gave me answers to life that I didn't know I was looking for!" - Hanna Olofsson

This book was such an emotional and beautiful experience that really consumed my soul while reading it I felt like I was there in person with her on her amazing journey every step of the way, This book made me cry it made me smile and it made me realise facts about myself it is a truly emotional and inspiring reading experience. I would recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate the genius and brilliance of an artist or someone who wants to discover themsselves." - Mattias Bergstöm]]> 113 Charlotte Eriksson Spandana 0 to-read 4.07 2013 Empty Roads & Broken Bottles: in search for The Great Perhaps
author: Charlotte Eriksson
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What We Talk About When We Talk About Love]]> 11438 Alternate-cover edition can be found here

In his second collection, Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated and beloved short-story writers in American literature—a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one’s way through the dark.]]> 159 Raymond Carver 0679723056 Spandana 0 to-read 4.11 1981 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
author: Raymond Carver
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Little Big Things: A Young Man's Belief That Every Day Can Be a Good Day]]> 35268861
'Henry Fraser is one of the most remarkable people I've ever met' J.K. Rowling

'What a story of transformation, inner power and inspiration' Jonny Wilkinson

The memoir of the year by Henry Fraser, motivational speaker and mouth artist with a foreword by J.K. Rowling.

Being challenged in life is inevitable, but being defeated is optional...

Henry Fraser was 17 years old when a tragic accident severely crushed his spinal cord. Paralysed from the shoulders down, he has conquered unimaginable difficulty to embrace life and a new way of living. Through challenging adversity, he has found the opportunity to grow and inspire others.

This book combines his wisdom and insight into finding the gifts in life's challenges, and will resonate with anyone facing an obstacle, no matter how big or small. It includes Henry's thoughts on how to look at the right things and avoid the wrong, finding progress in whatever you do, and acknowledging and accepting the darkness when it comes. Right at the heart of Henry's inspiring philosophy is his belief that every day is a good day.]]> 176 Henry Fraser 140916778X Spandana 0 to-read 4.31 2017 The Little Big Things: A Young Man's Belief That Every Day Can Be a Good Day
author: Henry Fraser
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Letters to a Young Poet 46199
A hugely influential collection for writers and artists of all kinds, Rilke's profound and lyrical letters to a young friend advise on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself.]]> 80 Rainer Maria Rilke 0486422453 Spandana 0 to-read 4.32 1929 Letters to a Young Poet
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1929
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy]]> 203251870 352 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 9353456444 Spandana 0 to-read 4.40 An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy
author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.ÌęYet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Spandana 0 to-read 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Proof is in the Plants 56984912
What if there was a way of eating that may help us live healthier for longer and protect the future of our planet, too?

The good news is that evidence now shows a plant-based diet may offer us exactly that – and straight-talking nutritionist Simon Hill has done the hard work translating the science into actionable advice for everyday life.

Before transitioning to a plant-based diet Simon held many of the common misconceptions. But instead he experienced incredible improvements in his energy levels, digestion, mental clarity and post-workout recovery after making the shift. He’d finally understood the power of food and was determined to find out – and share – the agenda-free truth about the optimum diet for human health.

By undertaking a master’s degree in nutrition, poring over the latest scientific papers and books, and producing hundreds of hours of his internationally successful Plant Proof podcast, Simon has pursued the answers to all the questions he had about fuelling our bodies with more plants. Now, in his first book, he brings it all together into one inspiring and practical guide.

It covers:

– The reasons why we’re all so confused about what to eat

– The evidence showing how a plant-based diet might reduce risks of heart attacks and strokes, type 2 diabetes, cancer and dementia

– The positive impact of plant-based living for the climate and animal welfare

– Common myths about a plant-based diet – and what the real facts are

– How to build a healthy, satisfying plant-based plate, from macronutrients to micronutrients

– Practical tips for making the shift, and much more.

If you want to understand and unlock the many benefits of putting more plants on your plate, this book is for you.]]> 416 Simon Hill 1760890049 Spandana 0 to-read 4.58 The Proof is in the Plants
author: Simon Hill
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.58
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Who Will Cry When You Die? 289029
Offering 101 simple solutions to life’s most frustrating challenges, bestselling author and life leadership guru Robin Sharma will show you exactly how to recreate your life so that you feel strikingly happy, beautifully fulfilled and deeply peaceful. Specific lessons include how to: "Discover Your Calling," "See Your Troubles as Blessings," "Enjoy the Path, Not Just the Rewards," and "Live Fully So You Can Die Happy." This is a truly remarkable book that you will treasure for a lifetime!]]> 204 Robin Sharma 1401900127 Spandana 0 to-read 3.96 1999 Who Will Cry When You Die?
author: Robin Sharma
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> And the Mountains Echoed 16115612 404 Khaled Hosseini 159463176X Spandana 0 to-read 4.06 2012 And the Mountains Echoed
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Boy in the Striped Pajamas]]> 39999
Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one.]]> 224 John Boyne 0385751079 Spandana 0 to-read 4.17 2006 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
author: John Boyne
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 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 Spandana 0 to-read 4.69 2019 Know My Name
author: Chanel Miller
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mamba Mentality: How I Play]]> 40230101 The Mamba Mentality takes us inside the mind of one of the most intelligent, analytical, and creative basketball players ever.

For the first time, and in his own words, Bryant reveals his famously detailed approach and the steps he took to prepare mentally and physically to not just succeed at the game, but to excel. Readers will learn how Bryant studied an opponent, how he channeled his passion for the game, how he played through injuries. They’ll also get fascinating granular detail as he breaks down specific plays and match-ups from throughout his career.

Bryant’s detailed accounts are paired with stunning photographs by the Hall of Fame photographer Andrew D. Bernstein. Bernstein, long the Lakers and NBA official photographer, captured Bryant’s very first NBA photo in 1996 and his last in 2016—and hundreds of thousands in between, the record of a unique, twenty-year relationship between one athlete and one photographer.]]> 208 Kobe Bryant 0374201234 Spandana 0 to-read 4.28 The Mamba Mentality: How I Play
author: Kobe Bryant
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.28
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Will 58375739
“It's the best memoir I've ever read.” —Oprah Winfrey

“Will Smith isn't holding back in his bravely inspiring new memoir . . . An ultimately heartwarming read, Will provides a humane glimpse of the man behind the actor, producer and musician, as he bares all his insecurities and trauma.” —USA Today

Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement

One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.

Will Smith’s transformation from a West Philadelphia kid to one of the biggest rap stars of his era, and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, is an epic tale—but it’s only half the story.

Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn't see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn't signed up for. It turned out Will Smith's education wasn't nearly over.

This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one person mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world's biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.]]> 418 Will Smith 1984877925 Spandana 0 to-read 4.24 2021 Will
author: Will Smith
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Trial 17690 The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.]]> 255 Franz Kafka Spandana 0 to-read 4.00 1925 The Trial
author: Franz Kafka
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Becoming 38746485
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.]]> 426 Michelle Obama 1524763136 Spandana 0 to-read 4.42 2018 Becoming
author: Michelle Obama
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life]]> 14572
World-renowned Zen master, spiritual leader, and author Thich Nhat Hanh shows us how to make positive use of the very situations that usually pressure and antagonize us. For him a ringing telephone can be a signal to call us back to our true selves. Dirty dishes, red lights, and traffic jams are spiritual friends on the path to “mindfulness”—the process of keeping our consciousness alive to our present experience and reality. The most profound satisfactions, the deepest feelings of joy and completeness lie as close at hand as our next aware breath and the smile we can form right now.

Lucidly and beautifully written, Peace Is Every Step contains commentaries and meditations, personal anecdotes and stories from Nhat Hanh’s experiences as a peace activist, teacher, and community leader. It begins where the reader already is—in the kitchen, office, driving a car, walking a part—and shows how deep meditative presence is available now. Nhat Hanh provides exercises to increase our awareness of our own body and mind through conscious breathing, which can bring immediate joy and peace. Nhat Hanh also shows how to be aware of relationships with others and of the world around us, its beauty and also its pollution and injustices. The deceptively simple practices of Peace Is Every Step encourage the reader to work for peace in the world as he or she continues to work on sustaining inner peace by turning the “mindless” into the mindFUL.]]> 134 Thich Nhat Hanh 0553351397 Spandana 0 to-read 4.32 1992 Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
author: Thich Nhat Hanh
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems]]> 67375 425 Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi 0060604522 Spandana 0 to-read 4.50 2001 The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems
author: Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Greatest Telugu Stories Ever Told]]> 60565860
BOOK DESCRIPTION

The Greatest Telugu Stories Ever Told spans almost a century of work by some of the finest writers of short fiction in the language. The storytellers included in the anthology range from literary masters such as Chalam, Kanuparthi Varalakshmamma, and Kodavatiganti Kutumba Rao to contemporary writers like Mohammed Khadeer Babu, Jajula Gowri, and Vempalle Shareef.

The tales found in this collection weave a rich tapestry of Telugu experiences. Illindala Saraswati Devi’s ‘Bad Times’ discusses the downturn in Muslim fortunes after the integration of the nizam’s state with the Indian union. Boya Jangaiah’s ‘The Eclipse’ chronicles the aching memories that besiege a Dalit poet when he makes a brief stop at his village. Bandi Narayanaswami’s ‘Water’ dramatizes the acute shortage of water in the Rayalaseema region and its exacerbation by political rivalries. Kavana Sarma’s ‘House Number’ gently mocks a self-proclaimed math genius and his attempts at memorizing a simple house number. A heartbreaking love story, Vempalli Gangadhar’s ‘Festival of Love’ is a romance imbued with the fragrance of jasmine fields.

Selected and deftly translated by Dasu Krishnamoorty and Tamraparni Dasu, these and the other stories in this collection offer a window into how the Telugu people see the world and their place in it]]> 200 Tamraparni Das 9391047300 Spandana 0 to-read 4.08 The Greatest Telugu Stories Ever Told
author: Tamraparni Das
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness]]> 54898389 244 Eric Jorgenson Spandana 0 to-read 4.39 2020 The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness
author: Eric Jorgenson
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Forest of Enchantments 43293099
The Forest of Enchantments is also a very human story of some of the other women in the epic, often misunderstood and relegated to the margins: Kaikeyi, Surpanakha, Mandodari. A powerful comment on duty, betrayal, infidelity and honour, it is also about women’s struggle to retain autonomy in a world that privileges men, as Chitra transforms an ancient story into a gripping, contemporary battle of wills.

While the Ramayana resonates even today, she makes it more relevant than ever, in the underlying questions in the novel: How should women be treated by their loved ones? What are their rights in a relationship? When does a woman need to stand up and say, ‘Enough!’]]> 372 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 9353025982 Spandana 0 to-read 4.20 2019 The Forest of Enchantments
author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Thousand Splendid Suns 128029
With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a portrait of a wounded country and a story of family and friendship, of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond, and an indestructible love.]]> 372 Khaled Hosseini 1594489505 Spandana 0 to-read 4.44 2007 A Thousand Splendid Suns
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Kite Runner 77203 371 Khaled Hosseini 159463193X Spandana 0 to-read 4.34 2003 The Kite Runner
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

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

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

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

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]> 319 James Clear Spandana 0 to-read 4.34 2018 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
author: James Clear
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Palace of Illusions 1774836
Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half history, half myth, and wholly magical. Narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the legendary Pandavas brothers in the Mahabharat, the novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale.

The Palace of Illusions traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her strategic duels with her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship withÌęthe enigmatic Krishna, or her secretÌęattraction toÌęthe mysteriousÌęman who is her husbands'Ìęmost dangerousÌęenemy. Panchaali is a fiery female redefining for us a world of warriors, gods, and the ever-manipulating hands of fate.]]> 360 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 0385515995 Spandana 0 to-read 4.20 2008 The Palace of Illusions
author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Alchemist 18144590 The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.

Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, following our dreams.]]> 182 Paulo Coelho 0062315005 Spandana 0 to-read 4.01 1988 The Alchemist
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Anxious People 49127718 A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined

Looking at real estate isn't usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can't fix up their own marriage. There's a wealthy banker who has been too busy making money to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can't seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment's only bathroom, and you've got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises, these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in a motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times.

Includes short story - The Last Round of Golf]]> 336 Fredrik Backman 198216963X Spandana 0 currently-reading 4.17 2019 Anxious People
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> All About Love: New Visions 17607 All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies. Moving from the cultural to the intimate, hooks notes the ties between love and loss and challenges the prevailing notion that romantic love is the most important love of all.

Visionary and original, hooks shows how love heals the wounds we bear as individuals and as a nation, for it is the cornerstone of compassion and forgiveness and holds the power to overcome shame.

For readers who have found ongoing delight and wisdom in bell hooks's life and work, and for those who are just now discovering her, All About Love is essential reading and a brilliant book that will change how we think about love, our culture-and one another.]]> 240 bell hooks 0688168442 Spandana 0 currently-reading 4.06 1999 All About Love: New Visions
author: bell hooks
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 Spandana 0 currently-reading 3.66 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: Spandana
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)]]> 45047384
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.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Spandana 0 currently-reading 4.37 2020 The House in the Cerulean Sea (Cerulean Chronicles, #1)
author: T.J. Klune
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson]]> 6900
Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded. Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you?

Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life. Knowing he was dying of ALS - or motor neurone disease - Mitch visited Morrie in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final 'class': lessons in how to live.]]> 210 Mitch Albom Spandana 4 4.19 1997 Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
author: Mitch Albom
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> A Man Called Ove 18774964
Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.]]> 337 Fredrik Backman 1476738017 Spandana 3 4.35 2012 A Man Called Ove
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]> When Breath Becomes Air 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naĂŻve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]> 208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Spandana 4 4.41 2016 When Breath Becomes Air
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Spandana
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/21
shelves:
review:

]]>