en-US Sun, 09 Feb 2025 01:38:39 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 108500
What happens when the honeymoon comes to a screeching halt and you're faced with a houseful of rambunctious children, an ever-present ex-wife, and a new husband trying to balance the chaos?

This helpful guide includes advice on:

• The kids: Adjusting to suspicion, resentment, and biological-parent loyalties
• The ex-wife: Living calmly alongside her, whether she's a psycho or the perfect mother
• The holidays: Accommodating old family traditions and developing new ones
• The sex: Keeping love alive through the kids' bed-wettings and nightmares
• The finances: Building safety nets and avoiding financial disasters
• The urge to be evil: Accepting it, and then stopping yourself from saying something you'll regret—to him, the kids, or her
• Plus an invaluable list of resources, websites, publications, and organizations specifically for the new stepmother]]> 256 Sally Bjornsen 0451214196 Emily 0 to-read 3.70 2005
author: Sally Bjornsen
name: Emily
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> 6202557 Ěý±Ő±Ő> 336 Wednesday Martin 0618758194 Emily 5 4.05 2009
author: Wednesday Martin
name: Emily
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/05/27
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]]> 127280429 SISTERS, SECRETS, LOVE, AND MURDER... Sally Hepworth’s new novel has it all.

For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life.

But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed. In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild and thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

A thrilling page-turner of sisterhood, secrets, love, and murder by New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth.]]> 359 Sally Hepworth 125028452X Emily 0 to-read 3.97 2024
author: Sally Hepworth
name: Emily
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/25
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]]> 145635149 A powerful and moving debut novel about a school community in crisis from the bestselling author of Teacher.

The staff of St Margaret's Primary School are hanging by a thread. There's serious litigation pending, the school is due for registration, and a powerful parent named Janet Bellevue has a lot to say about everything. As teachers they're trying to remain professional, as people they're fast unravelling.

There's Tyson, first year out of uni and nervous as hell, Derek the Assistant Principal who's dropped the ball on administration, Bev from the office who's confronting a serious diagnosis, and Sally-Ann who's desperate for a child of her own.

Thank goodness for kids like Lionel Merrick. Lionel is the student who steals your heart and makes the whole teaching gig he's cheerful, likeable and helpful - and devoted to his little sister Lacey. But Lionel has a secret of his own. As his future slides from vulnerable to dangerous, will someone from St Margaret's realise before it's too late?

As secrets threaten to be exposed and working demands increase, each staff member begins to lose sight of the things that matter most.

A moving and compelling novel about teachers and their students by the acclaimed author of the bestselling books Teacher and Dear Parents.]]> 358 Gabbie Stroud 1761187279 Emily 0 to-read 4.42 2023
author: Gabbie Stroud
name: Emily
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/25
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]]> 35133922
Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The 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.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change it.]]> 352 Tara Westover 0399590501 Emily 5 4.46 2018
author: Tara Westover
name: Emily
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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]]> 59720691 Wake is a powerful, unsparing story of how trauma ripples outward when people's private tragedies become public property, and how it's never too late for the truth to come out.']]> 368 Shelley Burr 0063235226 Emily 0 to-read 3.92 2022
author: Shelley Burr
name: Emily
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/25
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]]> 58724773
When schoolfriend Lewis tells Ronnie that he saw Esther with a strange man at the creek the afternoon she went missing, Ronnie feels she is one step closer to finding her. But why is Lewis refusing to speak to the police? And who else is lying about how much they know about what has happened to Esther?

Punctuated by a Greek chorus, which gives voice to the remaining children of the small, dying town, this novel explores the ties that bind, what we try and leave behind us, and what we can never outrun, while never losing sight of the question of what happened to Esther, and what her loss does to a whole town.

In Hayley Scrivenor's Dirt Creek, a small-town debut mystery described as The Dry meets Everything I Never Told You, a girl goes missing and a community falls apart and comes together.]]> 336 Hayley Scrivenor 1250834759 Emily 0 to-read 3.68 2022
author: Hayley Scrivenor
name: Emily
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/25
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]]> 59733578 Just like the garden, the fuse box, the bills, bin night and blown light bulbs, this was just something else she'd now have to take care of herself.

Recently widowed, Miriam Duffy is a respectable North Shore real estate agent and devoted mother and grandmother. She was thrilled when her younger daughter Ally married her true love, but as time goes by Miriam wonders whether all is well with Ally, as she moves to the country and gradually withdraws, finding excuses every time Miriam offers to visit. Their relationship has always had its ups and downs, and Miriam tries to give her daughter the distance she so clearly wants. But is all as it seems?

When the truth of her daughter's situation is revealed, Miriam watches in disbelief as Ally and her children find themselves increasingly vulnerable and cut off from the world. As the situation escalates and the law proves incapable of protecting them, Miriam is faced with an unthinkable decision. But she will do anything for the people she loves most in the world. Wouldn't you?

A stunning, gripping novel that goes to the heart of a mother's love and asks what any of us might do when faced with a threat to the people we hold most dear.]]> 368 Jane Caro 1760879665 Emily 5 3.88 2022
author: Jane Caro
name: Emily
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/01/25
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]]> 1202
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
(front flap)]]> 268 Steven D. Levitt 0061234001 Emily 5 4.01 2005
author: Steven D. Levitt
name: Emily
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/04/28
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]]> 38210 322 Dalai Lama XIV 1573221112 Emily 5 4.17 1998
author: Dalai Lama XIV
name: Emily
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1998
rating: 5
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]]> 2429135
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.]]> 480 Stieg Larsson 0670069019 Emily 5 4.17 2005
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Emily
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> 28862
1. So it is that to know the nature of a people, one need be a Prince; to know the nature of a Prince, one need to be of the people.
2. If a Prince is not given to vices that make him hated, it is unsusal for his subjects to show their affection for him.
3. Opportunity made Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus, and others; their virtue domi-nated the opportunity, making their homelands noble and happy. Armed prophets win; the disarmed lose.
4. Without faith and religion, man achieves power but not glory.
5. Prominent citizens want to command and oppress; the populace only wants to be free of oppression.
6. A Prince needs a friendly populace; otherwise in diversity there is no hope.
7. A Prince, who rules as a man of valor, avoids disasters,
8. Nations based on mercenary forces will never be solid or secure.
9. Mercenaries are dangerous because of their cowardice
10. There are two ways to fight: one with laws, the other with force. The first is rightly man’s way; the second, the way of beasts.]]> 144 Niccolò Machiavelli 0937832383 Emily 5 3.85 1513
author: Niccolò Machiavelli
name: Emily
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1513
rating: 5
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]]> 12321 Beyond Good and Evil is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale with an introduction by Michael Tanner in Penguin Classics.

Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects the tradition of Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche demonstrates that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'. With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual imposes their own 'will to power' upon the world.

This edition includes a commentary on the text by the translator and Michael Tanner's introduction, which explains some of the more abstract passages in Beyond Good and Evil.

Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900) became the chair of classical philology at Basel University at the age of 24 until his bad health forced him to retire in 1879. He divorced himself from society until his final collapse in 1899 when he became insane. A powerfully original thinker, Nietzsche's influence on subsequent writers, such as George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann and Jean-Paul Sartre, was considerable.

If you enjoyed Beyond Good and Evil you might like Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, also available in Penguin Classics.

"One of the greatest books of a very great thinker." —Michael Tanner]]> 240 Friedrich Nietzsche 014044923X Emily 5 4.05 1886
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Emily
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1886
rating: 5
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]]> 30289 416 Plato 0140449140 Emily 5 3.97 -400
author: Plato
name: Emily
average rating: 3.97
book published: -400
rating: 5
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]]> 480479
Frances Mayes entered a wondrous new world when she began restoring an abandoned villa in the spectacular Tuscan countryside. There were unexpected treasures at every turn: faded frescos beneath the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard under wildly overgrown brambles in the garden, and, in the nearby hill towns, vibrant markets and delightful people. In Under the Tuscan Sun, she brings the lyrical voice of a poet, the eye of a seasoned traveler, and the discerning palate of a cook and food writer to invite readers to explore the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table.]]> 304 Frances Mayes 0767900383 Emily 5 3.77 1996
author: Frances Mayes
name: Emily
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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]]> 10798416
Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. Having missed her flight, she's stuck at JFK airport and late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's sitting in her row.

A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?

Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.]]> 236 Jennifer E. Smith 0316122386 Emily 5 3.76 2012
author: Jennifer E. Smith
name: Emily
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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]]> 3 309 J.K. Rowling 0439554934 Emily 5 4.47 1997
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Emily
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 5
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]]> 5907 Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001).]]> 366 J.R.R. Tolkien Emily 5 4.29 1937
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Emily
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 5
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]]> 14935 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141439662

'The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!'

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.

This edition includes explanatory notes, textual variants between the first and second editions, and Tony Tanner's introduction to the original Penguin Classic edition.]]> 409 Jane Austen 0141439661 Emily 5 4.10 1811
author: Jane Austen
name: Emily
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1811
rating: 5
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]]> 1885 Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268]]> 279 Jane Austen 1441341706 Emily 4 4.28 1813
author: Jane Austen
name: Emily
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1813
rating: 4
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]]> 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

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

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Emily 4 3.93 1925
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Emily
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 4
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]]> 19501
Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world—all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way—unexpectedly.

An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society’s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.]]> 368 Elizabeth Gilbert 0143038419 Emily 3 3.64 2006
author: Elizabeth Gilbert
name: Emily
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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]]> 13538641 Killing Lincoln, the riveting work of nonfiction about the shocking assassination that changed the course of American history. Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor recounts in gripping detail the brutal murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy - and how a sequence of gunshots on a Dallas afternoon not only killed a beloved president but also sent the nation into the cataclysmic division of the Vietnam War and its culture-changing aftermath.

In January 1961, as the cold war escalates, John F. Kennedy struggles to contain the growth of communism while he learns the hardships of solitude, and temptations of what it means to be president of the United States. His beautiful young wife, Jackie, must also adjust to a life of constant scrutiny. Despite personal and political trials, Kennedy's approval ratings soar.

At the same time, JFK acquires a number of formidable enemies, among them Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, and Allen Dulles, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. When his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, cracks down on powerful elements of organised crime, the list of those who have it in for the president grows.

Then, in the midst of a 1963 campaign trip to Texas, Kennedy is gunned down, resulting in national chaos. Jackie and the nation mourn while the hunt for the perpetrators commences.

The events leading up to the most notorious crime of the twentieth century are almost as shocking as the assassination itself. A page-turner from beginning to end, Killing Kennedy chronicles both the heroism and deceit of Camelot, bringing history to life in ways that will profoundly move the reader.]]> 325 Bill O'Reilly 0805096663 Emily 3 4.07 2012
author: Bill O'Reilly
name: Emily
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2012
rating: 3
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date added: 2013/04/28
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]]> 9972053
Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White's wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. If You Ask Me mixes her thoughtful observations with humorous stories from a seven- decade career in Hollywood. Longtime fans and new fans alike will relish Betty's candid take on everything from her rumored crush on Robert Redford (true) to her beauty regimen ("I have no idea what color my hair is and I never intend to find out") to the Facebook campaign that helped persuade her to host Saturday Night Live despite her having declined the hosting job three times already.

Featuring all-new material, with a focus on the past fifteen years of her life, If You Ask Me is funny, sweet, and to the point-just like Betty White.]]> 258 Betty White 0399157530 Emily 5 3.76 2011
author: Betty White
name: Emily
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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]]> 10211494 320 Rob Lowe 080509329X Emily 3 3.85 2011
author: Rob Lowe
name: Emily
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> 11230081 Seriously... I'm Kidding, Degeneres' first book in eight years, brings us up to date about the life of a kindhearted woman who bowed out of American Idol because she didn't want to be mean. Lively; hilarious; often sweetly poignant.]]> 241 Ellen DeGeneres 0446585025 Emily 3 3.68 2011
author: Ellen DeGeneres
name: Emily
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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date added: 2013/04/28
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]]> 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank Emily 4 4.19 1947
author: Anne Frank
name: Emily
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 4
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]]> 9418327
She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon—from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.]]> 283 Tina Fey Emily 5 3.97 2011
author: Tina Fey
name: Emily
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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]]>