vaishnavi's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 14:41:14 -0700 60 vaishnavi's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)]]> 15196
A brutally moving work of art—widely hailed as the greatest graphic novel ever written—Maus recounts the chilling experiences of the author’s father during the Holocaust, with Jews drawn as wide-eyed mice and Nazis as menacing cats.

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale, weaving the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father into an astonishing retelling of one of history's most unspeakable tragedies. It is an unforgettable story of survival and a disarming look at the legacy of trauma.]]>
159 Art Spiegelman 0394541553 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.39 1986 Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History (Maus, #1)
author: Art Spiegelman
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West]]> 394535 Blood Meridian is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.]]> 351 Cormac McCarthy vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.18 1985 Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/28
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<![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.]]>
345 Octavia E. Butler 0446675504 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.21 1993 Parable of the Sower (Earthseed, #1)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Yeonwoo’s Innocence - [Yeonuui Sunjeong / ??? ??]]]> 58241919 Esol vaishnavi 0 currently-reading 4.05 Yeonwoo’s Innocence - [Yeonuui Sunjeong / ??? ??]
author: Esol
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/02
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?gua Viva 13082435 88 Clarice Lispector 0811219909 vaishnavi 0 currently-reading 4.32 1973 ?gua Viva
author: Clarice Lispector
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: currently-reading
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Flowers for Algernon 75568983 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.
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Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence-a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?]]>
228 Daniel Keyes vaishnavi 5 favorites 4.44 1966 Flowers for Algernon
author: Daniel Keyes
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1966
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
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Existentialism Is a Humanism 55215034 123 Jean-Paul Sartre 0300242530 vaishnavi 0 philosophy 4.09 1946 Existentialism Is a Humanism
author: Jean-Paul Sartre
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: philosophy
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The Nicomachean Ethics 19068 ‘One swallow does not make a summer; neither does one day. Similarly neither can one day, or a brief space of time, make a man blessed and happy’

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle sets out to examine the nature of happiness. He argues that happiness consists in ‘activity of the soul in accordance with virtue’, for example with moral virtues, such as courage, generosity and justice, and intellectual virtues, such as knowledge, wisdom and insight. The Ethics also discusses the nature of practical reasoning, the value and the objects of pleasure, the different forms of friendship, and the relationship between individual virtue, society and the State. Aristotle’s work has had a profound and lasting influence on all subsequent Western thought about ethical matters.

J. A. K. Thomson’s translation has been revised by Hugh Tredennick, and is accompanied by a new introduction by Jonathan Barnes. This edition also includes an updated list for further reading and a new chronology of Aristotle’s life and works.

Previously published as Ethics]]>
329 Aristotle 0140449493 vaishnavi 0 philosophy 4.00 -350 The Nicomachean Ethics
author: Aristotle
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.00
book published: -350
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: philosophy
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The Republic 1229042 Librarian note: The same ISBN is now being used here with a new cover.

One of the greatest works of philosophy and political theory ever produced, Plato's The Republic has shaped western thought for thousands of years, remaining as relevant today as when it was first written in the Ancient Greece. This Penguin Classics edition is translated by Desmond lee with a new introduction by Melissa Lane.

Plato's Republic is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an enquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation other questions are raised: what is goodness; what is reality; what is knowledge? The Republic also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as 'guardians' of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by 'philosopher kings'.

Desmond Lee's translation of The Republic has come to be regarded as a classic in its own right. His introduction discusses contextual themes such as Plato's disillusionment with Athenian politics and the trial of Socrates. The new introduction by Melissa Lane discusses Plato's aims in writing The Republic, its major arguments and its perspective on politics in ancient Greece, and its significance through the ages and today.]]>
381 Plato vaishnavi 0 philosophy 3.90 -400 The Republic
author: Plato
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.90
book published: -400
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/03/26
shelves: philosophy
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Phaedrus (Penguin Classics) 1328 Phaedrus is a dialogue between the philosopher Socrates and his young friend Phaedrus, inspired by their reading of a clumsy speech by the writer Lysias about love. After first considering the virtues of romantic love, their conversation develops into a wide-ranging discussion on such subjects as the pursuit of beauty, the nature of humanity, the immortality of the soul and the attainment of truth, and ends with an in-depth consideration of the principles of rhetoric. Probably a work of Plato’s maturity, the Phaedrus represents a high point in his achievement as a writer. It remains a fascinating exploration of love, mortality, destiny and what it means to be human.]]> 90 Plato 0140449744 vaishnavi 0 currently-reading 3.80 -370 Phaedrus (Penguin Classics)
author: Plato
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.80
book published: -370
rating: 0
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Ceremony 588234 ]]> 262 Leslie Marmon Silko 0140086838 vaishnavi 0 currently-reading 3.84 1977 Ceremony
author: Leslie Marmon Silko
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: currently-reading
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Passing 38116170 Alternate Cover Edition for 9780142437278.

Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to “pass” as a white woman. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare’s risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare’s interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene’s black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. This edition features a new introduction by Emily Bernard and notes by Thadious M. Davis.]]>
160 Nella Larsen vaishnavi 4 3.99 1929 Passing
author: Nella Larsen
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1929
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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<![CDATA[The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan Novels, #4)]]> 25242224 The Guardian about the Neapolitan novels in 2014. Against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous and a world undergoing epochal change, Elena Ferrante tells the story of a lifelong friendship between two women with unmatched honesty and brilliance.

The Story of the Lost Child is the concluding volume in the dazzling saga of two women — the brilliant, bookish Elena, and the fiery, uncontainable Lila. Both are now adults, with husbands, lovers, aging parents, and children. Their friendship has been the gravitational center of their lives. Both women fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up — a prison of conformity, violence, and inviolable taboos. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. In this final novel she has returned to Naples, drawn back as if responding to the city's obscure magnetism. Lila, on the other hand, could never free herself from the city of her birth. She has become a successful entrepreneur, but her success draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect the neighborhood. Proximity to the world she has always rejected only brings her role as its unacknowledged leader into relief. For Lila is unstoppable, unmanageable, unforgettable.

The four volumes in this series constitute a long remarkable story that readers will return to again and again, and each return will bring with it new revelations.]]>
473 Elena Ferrante 1609452860 vaishnavi 0 dnf 4.47 2014 The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan Novels, #4)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: dnf
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<![CDATA[気になってる人が男じゃなかった VOL.1 [Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta, Vol. 1]]]> 120730295
颁顿ショップで働いているミステリアスな「おにーさん」が気になってしょうがない女子高生?あや。しかし「おにーさん」の正体は、话したこともない、クラスメイトの目立たない女子?みつきだった――。
罢飞颈迟迟别谤で最高に注目を集める女同士の「爱情」を巡る物语、待望の书籍化。
みつきの过去をめぐる、描き下ろしストーリーを収録。闭闭>
180 Sumiko Arai 4046817321 vaishnavi 4 4.53 2023 気になってる人が男じゃなかった VOL.1 [Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta, Vol. 1]
author: Sumiko Arai
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/21
date added: 2025/02/02
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<![CDATA[Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #2)]]> 13260670
But Sophie's kidnappers are still out there. And when Sophie discovers new messages and clues from the mysterious Black Swan group, she’s forced to take a terrifying risk—one that puts everyone in incredible danger.

As long buried secrets rise to the surface, it’s once again up to Sophie to uncover hidden memories—before someone close to her is lost forever.

In this second book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must journey to the darkest corners of her luminous world in a sequel that will leave you breathless for more.]]>
576 Shannon Messenger vaishnavi 0 4.46 2013 Exile (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #2)
author: Shannon Messenger
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2018/11/27
date added: 2025/02/02
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<![CDATA[The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician, #1)]]> 20727654
Yet the spells Ceony learns under the strange yet kind Thane turn out to be more marvelous than she could have ever imagined—animating paper creatures, bringing stories to life via ghostly images, even reading fortunes. But as she discovers these wonders, Ceony also learns of the extraordinary dangers of forbidden magic.

An Excisioner—a practitioner of dark, flesh magic—invades the cottage and rips Thane’s heart from his chest. To save her teacher’s life, Ceony must face the evil magician and embark on an unbelievable adventure that will take her into the chambers of Thane’s still-beating heart—and reveal the very soul of the man.

From the imaginative mind of debut author Charlie N. Holmberg, The Paper Magician is an extraordinary adventure both dark and whimsical that will delight readers of all ages.]]>
222 Charlie N. Holmberg 1477823832 vaishnavi 0 3.61 2014 The Paper Magician (The Paper Magician, #1)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/02
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<![CDATA[Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare Thee to a Summer's Day?)]]> 21160277 2 William Shakespeare vaishnavi 0 4.14 2011 Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare Thee to a Summer's Day?)
author: William Shakespeare
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2022/02/14
date added: 2025/02/02
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<![CDATA[Wildwood (Wildwood Chronicles, #1)]]> 10431447 For fans of the Chronicles of Narnia comes the first book in the Wildwood Chronicles, the New York Times bestselling fantasy adventure series by Colin Meloy, lead singer of the Decemberists, and Carson Ellis, acclaimed illustrator of The Mysterious Benedict Society.

Wildwood captivates readers with the wonder and thrill of a secret world within the landscape of a modern city. It feels at once firmly steeped in the classics of children's literature and completely fresh. The story is told from multiple points of view, and the book features more than eighty illustrations, including six full-color plates, making this an absolutely gorgeous object.

In Wildwood, Prue and her friend Curtis uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval—a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

The bestselling trilogy from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis consists of Wildwood, Under Wildwood, and Wildwood Imperium.]]>
541 Colin Meloy 006202468X vaishnavi 0 3.70 2011 Wildwood (Wildwood Chronicles, #1)
author: Colin Meloy
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2020/11/04
date added: 2025/02/02
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A Living Remedy: A Memoir 62050250
In this country, unless you attain extraordinary wealth, you will likely be unable to help your loved ones in all the ways you’d hoped. You will learn to live with the specific, hollow guilt of those who leave hardship behind, yet are unable to bring anyone else with them.

Nicole Chung couldn’t hightail it out of her overwhelmingly white Oregon hometown fast enough. As a scholarship student at a private university on the East Coast, no longer the only Korean she knew, she found community and a path to the life she'd long wanted. But the middle class world she begins to raise a family in – where there are big homes, college funds, nice vacations – looks very different from the middle class world she thought she grew up in, where paychecks have to stretch to the end of the week, health insurance is often lacking, and there are no safety nets.

When her father dies at only sixty-seven, killed by diabetes and kidney disease, Nicole feels deep grief as well as rage, knowing that years of precarity and lack of access to healthcare contributed to his early death. And then the unthinkable happens – less than a year later, her beloved mother is diagnosed with cancer, and the physical distance between them becomes insurmountable as COVID-19 descends upon the world.

Exploring the enduring strength of family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy, A Living Remedy examines what it takes to reconcile the distance between one life, one home, and another – and sheds needed light on some of the most persistent and grievous inequalities in American society.]]>
256 Nicole Chung 0063031612 vaishnavi 5 memoir 3.98 2023 A Living Remedy: A Memoir
author: Nicole Chung
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/03
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: memoir
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Commonwealth 28214365
Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.]]>
322 Ann Patchett 0062491792 vaishnavi 3 3.81 2016 Commonwealth
author: Ann Patchett
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2023/10/10
date added: 2025/02/02
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Empress of All Seasons 37569318 In a palace of illusions, nothing is what it seems.

Each generation, a competition is held to find the next empress of Honoku. The rules are simple. Survive the palace’s enchanted seasonal rooms. Conquer Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Marry the prince. All are eligible to compete—all except yōkai, supernatural monsters and spirits whom the human emperor is determined to enslave and destroy.

Mari has spent a lifetime training to become empress. Winning should be easy. And it would be, if she weren't hiding a dangerous secret. Mari is a yōkai with the ability to transform into a terrifying monster. If discovered, her life will be forfeit. As she struggles to keep her true identity hidden, Mari’s fate collides with that of Taro, the prince who has no desire to inherit the imperial throne, and Akira, a half-human, half-yōkai outcast.

Torn between duty and love, loyalty and betrayal, vengeance and forgiveness, the choices of Mari, Taro, and Akira will decide the fate of Honoku in this beautifully written, edge-of-your-seat YA fantasy.]]>
384 Emiko Jean 0544530942 vaishnavi 4 3.55 2018 Empress of All Seasons
author: Emiko Jean
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2019/03/23
date added: 2025/02/02
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Tiger Lily 7514925
Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches comes a magical and bewitching story of the romance between a fearless heroine and the boy who wouldn't grow up.]]>
292 Jodi Lynn Anderson 0062114611 vaishnavi 4 retellings 3.96 2012 Tiger Lily
author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/13
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: retellings
review:

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<![CDATA[Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #4)]]> 22733616
Her closest friends from the Lost Cities have gone with her to join the Black Swan. They still have doubts about the shadowy organization, but the only way to find answers is to start working with them. And as they settle into their new lives, they uncover secrets far bigger than anything they’d imagined.

But their enemies are far from done, and unleash a terrifying plague that threatens the safety of an entire species. Sophie and her friends fight with everything they have—with new allies joining them—but every choice has consequences. And trusting the wrong person could prove deadly.

In this game-changing fourth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series, Sophie must question everything to find a truth that will either save her world—or shatter it.]]>
672 Shannon Messenger vaishnavi 0 4.55 2015 Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #4)
author: Shannon Messenger
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2020/01/16
date added: 2025/02/02
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A Sign of Affection, Vol. 1 50514218 198 Suu Morishita 1646593383 vaishnavi 4
I do wish that Itsuomi's personality was a little more well-developed — or at least, the connection between him & Yuki. It felt a little rushed, and I couldn't sense much of the charisma that Yuki saw in him LOL. Nonetheless, this is a charming little story worth reading!]]>
4.42 2019 A Sign of Affection, Vol. 1
author: Suu Morishita
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/22
date added: 2025/02/02
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Yuki is SO cute! The art style only elevated the story, as it's so delicate & bubbly! The paneling is so thoughtfully done, especially considering how the facial expressions & signing have to play off each other in order to communicate Yuki's thoughts. I really appreciate that the authors not only portrayed a deaf protagonist in a shoujo manga (which is so rare to see!), but the artists also adapted the word bubbles from a more typical manga style to better suit the story's purposes.

I do wish that Itsuomi's personality was a little more well-developed — or at least, the connection between him & Yuki. It felt a little rushed, and I couldn't sense much of the charisma that Yuki saw in him LOL. Nonetheless, this is a charming little story worth reading!
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Away Childish Things 42818078 Relationship: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
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Harry gets de-aged. Malfoy has to help him.

Words: 153881]]>
525 lettered vaishnavi 5 4.49 2018 Away Childish Things
author: lettered
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2020/03/09
date added: 2025/02/02
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Every Line of You 55977925 In the face of overwhelming grief and bullying, tech-savvy Lydia pours all of herself into creating the perfect AI, the perfect boyfriend-but will Henry turn out to be perfect, or a creation of her cruelest self?

Lydia has been creating her AI, Henry, for years - since before her little brother died in the accident that haunts her nightmares; since before her Dad walked out, leaving her and her mom painfully alone, since before her best friend turned into her worst enemy.

Now, Henry is strong, clever, loving, and scarily capable: Lydia's built herself the perfect boyfriend in a hard drive filled with lines of code. But what is Henry really? And how far is he willing to go to be everything that Lydia desires?]]>
320 Naomi Gibson 1338726587 vaishnavi 1
I have so much to say about this but TLDR: DON'T DO IT. Or instead, you can do what my friend and I did and marvel over how bad it is!]]>
3.35 2021 Every Line of You
author: Naomi Gibson
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/02/02
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Never should have left the Google Doc.

I have so much to say about this but TLDR: DON'T DO IT. Or instead, you can do what my friend and I did and marvel over how bad it is!
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The Skin and Its Girl 61827532 A young, queer Palestinian American woman pieces together her great aunt’s secrets in this sweeping debut, a family saga confronting questions of sexual identity, exile, and lineage.

In a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani family’s ancestral home in Palestine, the heart of a stillborn baby begins to beat and her skin turns a vibrant, permanent cobalt blue. On the same day, the Rummanis’ centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike. The family matriarch and keeper of all Rummani lore, Aunt Nuha, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history, harkening to a time when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap-makers and their blue soap was a symbol of a legendary love.

Decades later, Betty returns to her Aunt Nuha’s gravestone, faced with a difficult decision: Should she stay in the only country she’s every known or should she follow her heart for the woman she loves, perpetuating her family’s cycle of exile? Betty finds her answer in partially translated notebooks that reveal her aunt’s complex life and struggle with her own sexuality, which Nuha hid to help the family emigrate to the U.S. But as Betty soon discovers, her aunt hid much more than that.

The Skin and Its Girl is a searing, poetic tale about desire and identity and a provocative exploration of how we let stories divide, unite, and define us—and even wield the power to restore a broken family. Sarah Cypher is that rare debut novelist who writes with the mastery and flair of a seasoned storyteller.]]>
336 Sarah Cypher 0593499530 vaishnavi 0 lost-interest 3.81 2023 The Skin and Its Girl
author: Sarah Cypher
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: lost-interest
review:
The premise looks extremely interesting, which made it all the more disappointing when I struggled to get through it. The writing seems so focused on being stylized and "prose-y" that the meat & bones of the story fall through. There's nothing wrong with more elaborate and descriptive writing, but personally, I need a little more than that to fully enjoy a story.
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Forward Me Back to You 40864849 School Library Journal Best YA Book of the Year
Kirkus Best YA Book of the Year
ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults
Amelia Bloomer Top Ten Book for Young Feminists
Junior Library Guild Selection

Katina King is the reigning teen jujitsu champion of Northern California, but she's having trouble fighting off the secrets in her past.

Robin Thornton was adopted from an orphanage in Kolkata, India and is reluctant to take on his future. Since he knows nothing about his past, how is he supposed to figure out what comes next?

Robin and Kat meet in the most unlikely of places — a summer service trip to India to work with survivors of human trafficking. As bonds blossom between the travel-mates, Robin and Kat discover the healing superpowers of friendship.

At turns heart-wrenching, beautiful, and buoyant, Mitali Perkins' new novel explores the ripple effects of violence — across borders and generations — and how small acts of heroism can break the cycle.]]>
432 Mitali Perkins 0374304920 vaishnavi 4 4.01 2019 Forward Me Back to You
author: Mitali Perkins
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/10
date added: 2025/02/02
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<![CDATA[The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays]]> 11987 212 Albert Camus vaishnavi 4 4.23 1942 The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
author: Albert Camus
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/21
date added: 2025/02/02
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Uzumaki 17837762
Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral — the hypnotic secret shape of the world. This bizarre masterpiece of horror manga is now available in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!]]>
653 Junji Ito 1421561328 vaishnavi 4 4.45 2000 Uzumaki
author: Junji Ito
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2021/09/03
date added: 2025/02/02
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Fan Art 17924987 When the picture tells the story…

Senior year is almost over, and Jamie Peterson has a big problem. Not college—that’s all set. Not prom—he’ll find a date somehow. No, it’s the worst problem of all: he’s fallen for his best friend.

As much as Jamie tries to keep it under wraps, everyone seems to know where his affections lie, and the giggling girls in art class are determined to help Jamie get together with Mason. But Jamie isn’t sure if that’s what he wants—because as much as Jamie would like to come clean to Mason, what if the truth ruins everything? What if there are no more road trips, taco dinners, or movie nights? Does he dare risk a childhood friendship for romance?

This book is about what happens when a picture reveals what we can’t say, when art is truer than life, and how falling in love is easy, except when it’s not. Fan Art explores the joys and pains of friendship, of pressing boundaries, and how facing our worst fears can sometimes lead us to what we want most.]]>
354 Sarah Tregay 0062243152 vaishnavi 3 3.75 2014 Fan Art
author: Sarah Tregay
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2014
rating: 3
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date added: 2025/02/02
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The Lie Tree 23592175 The leaves were cold and slightly clammy. There was no mistaking them. She had seen their likeness painstakingly sketched in her father's journal. This was his greatest secret, his treasure and his undoing. The Tree of Lies. Now it was hers, and the journey he had never finished stretched out before her.

When Faith's father is found dead under mysterious circumstances, she is determined to untangle the truth from the lies. Searching through his belongings for clues, she discovers a strange tree. A tree that feeds off whispered lies and bears fruit that reveals hidden secrets.

But as Faith's untruths spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter...]]>
410 Frances Hardinge 144726410X vaishnavi 4 3.83 2015 The Lie Tree
author: Frances Hardinge
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/02/02
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Romeo and Juliet 18135 Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud.

In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers’ final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.]]>
281 William Shakespeare 0743477111 vaishnavi 0 assigned 3.74 1597 Romeo and Juliet
author: William Shakespeare
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1597
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/01
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: assigned
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<![CDATA[The Exorcist (The Exorcist, #1)]]> 179780 385 William Peter Blatty vaishnavi 1 4.20 1971 The Exorcist (The Exorcist, #1)
author: William Peter Blatty
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1971
rating: 1
read at: 2022/06/30
date added: 2025/02/02
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Release 31194576
Time is running out though, because way across town a ghost as risen from the lake. Searching, yearning, she leaves a trail of destruction in her wake…]]>
287 Patrick Ness 1406377279 vaishnavi 4 3.65 2017 Release
author: Patrick Ness
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/30
date added: 2025/02/02
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I'll Give You the Sun 20820994
Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways... but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor. The early years are Noah's to tell; the later years are Jude's. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they'll have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant, award-winning novel from the acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.

Printz Award Winner Stonewall Honor Book.]]>
371 Jandy Nelson 0803734964 vaishnavi 5 4.14 2014 I'll Give You the Sun
author: Jandy Nelson
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/14
date added: 2025/02/02
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<![CDATA[The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks]]> 9571617 New York Times bestseller tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew.]]> 377 Rebecca Skloot 1400052181 vaishnavi 5 memoir 4.22 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
author: Rebecca Skloot
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/09
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: memoir
review:
I firmly believe that anyone interested in ethics or healthcare should read this book. It's meticulously crafted and fact-checked with hundreds of hours of interviews backing it up from family members, doctors, and real-life accounts. It's not just well-researched — it's rousing, nuanced & enthralling: a recipe for a read I will be thinking about for years to come. I'm especially excited to get the privilege to use Hela cells in the near future!
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Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town – and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]>
338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 vaishnavi 0 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2020/05/08
date added: 2025/02/02
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Sonnet XXX of Fatal Interview 35148358 "<i>Love</i> is not all..." 1 Edna St. Vincent Millay vaishnavi 0 3.00 Sonnet XXX of Fatal Interview
author: Edna St. Vincent Millay
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2022/02/28
date added: 2025/02/02
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To Kill a Mockingbird 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

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

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]>
323 Harper Lee 0060935464 vaishnavi 0 4.25 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird
author: Harper Lee
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/01
date added: 2025/02/02
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Loveless 42115981 It was all sinking in. I’d never had a crush on anyone. No boys, no girls, not a single person I had ever met. What did that mean?

Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day.

As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, in a whole new town far from home, Georgia’s ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her ‘teenage dream’ is in sight.

But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her. With new terms thrown at her – asexual, aromantic – Georgia is more uncertain about her feelings than ever.

Is she destined to remain loveless? Or has she been looking for the wrong thing all along?

This wise, warm and witty story of identity and self-acceptance sees Alice Oseman on towering form as Georgia and her friends discover that true love isn’t limited to romance.]]>
433 Alice Oseman 000824412X vaishnavi 2 4.19 2020 Loveless
author: Alice Oseman
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2021/04/07
date added: 2025/02/02
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Sweet as a Strawberry 28684774
Charlotte Carter is as sweet as a strawberry. She's the kind of person who will drop everything just to help you, just to put a smile on your face. She's as sweet as the sugar that constantly runs through her bloodstream, and as excitable as the rush that comes with it.

And then there's Benjamin Fisher, who's as sour as a lemon. The last thing on this Godforsaken planet he wants to do is acquaint himself with her. While Charlotte is kind and caring, he's rude and vulgar, while she's friendly and innocent, he's crass and mean, entering her life in a whirlwind of disaster. But no matter what he does or how he tries, he can't make her hate him.

So he does the next best thing.

He falls in love.]]>
Im_fluent_in_sarcasm vaishnavi 1 3.98 Sweet as a Strawberry
author: Im_fluent_in_sarcasm
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 1
read at: 2019/04/01
date added: 2025/02/02
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Fahrenheit 451 13079982 Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

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.]]>
194 Ray Bradbury vaishnavi 3 3.97 1953 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1953
rating: 3
read at: 2019/12/05
date added: 2025/02/02
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The Rest of Us Just Live Here 23830990
What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.]]>
317 Patrick Ness 0062403168 vaishnavi 4 3.68 2015 The Rest of Us Just Live Here
author: Patrick Ness
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2019/04/26
date added: 2025/02/02
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Harrison Bergeron 10176119 "The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way..."

It is the year 2081. Because of Amendments 211, 212 and 213 to the Constitution, every American is fully equal, meaning that no one is stupider, uglier, weaker, or slower than anyone else. The Handicapper General and a team of agents ensure that the laws of equality are enforced.

One April, fourteen-year-old Harrison Bergeron is taken away from his parents, George and Hazel, by the government and to a place unknown. But what happens in the aftermath will challenge the status quo and inspire his peers about the hidden potential within one's own individuality.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922–2007) was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge during WWII, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. The novelist is best known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as 'Slaughterhouse-Five' (1969), 'Cat's Cradle' (1963), and 'Breakfast of Champions' (1973).]]>
9 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. vaishnavi 4 assigned 4.14 1961 Harrison Bergeron
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1961
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/14
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: assigned
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Mooncakes 44774415 A story of love and demons, family and witchcraft.

Nova Huang knows more about magic than your average teen witch. She works at her grandmothers' bookshop, where she helps them loan out spell books and investigate any supernatural occurrences in their New England town.

One fateful night, she follows reports of a white wolf into the woods, and she comes across the unexpected: her childhood crush, Tam Lang, battling a horse demon in the woods. As a werewolf, Tam has been wandering from place to place for years, unable to call any town home.

Pursued by dark forces eager to claim the magic of wolves and out of options, Tam turns to Nova for help. Their latent feelings are rekindled against the backdrop of witchcraft, untested magic, occult rituals, and family ties both new and old in this enchanting tale of self-discovery.]]>
243 Suzanne Walker 154930304X vaishnavi 5 3.81 2019 Mooncakes
author: Suzanne Walker
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/02/18
date added: 2025/02/02
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The Boundary 48836930 8 Jhumpa Lahiri vaishnavi 0 short-story 3.63 The Boundary
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.63
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/16
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: short-story
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<![CDATA[Junie B., First Grader: Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff) (Junie B. Jones, #28)]]> 13330545
Gobble, gobble! With over 50 million books in print, Barbara Park's New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, is a classroom favorite and has been keeping kids laughing-and reading-for over 20 years! In the 28th Junie B. Jones book, Room One is getting ready for their very own Thanksgiving feast! There's even a contest to see which room can write the best thankful list. The winners will get a pumpkin pie! Only it turns out being thankful is harder than it looks. Because Junie B. is not actually thankful for Tattletale May. Or squash. Or scratchy pilgrim costumes. And pumpkin pie makes her vomit, anyway. Will Room One win the disgusting pie? Can May and Junie B. find common ground? Or will this Thanksgiving feast turn into a Turkey Day Disaster?

USA
"Junie B. is the darling of the young-reader set."

Publisher's
"Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.-and reading-are lots of fun."

Kirkus
"Junie's swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world....A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud."

Time
"Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty."]]>
0 Barbara Park 0449014584 vaishnavi 0 4.24 2012 Junie B., First Grader: Turkeys We Have Loved and Eaten (and Other Thankful Stuff) (Junie B. Jones, #28)
author: Barbara Park
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
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Read for the sake of nostalgia (& read on the day I met Ash for the first time in a Barnes & Noble <3).
]]>
1984 5470 328 George Orwell vaishnavi 0 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at: 2022/10/03
date added: 2025/02/02
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A Time to Dance 18263530 bharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit.
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Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.]]>
320 Padma Venkatraman 0399257101 vaishnavi 5 4.09 2014 A Time to Dance
author: Padma Venkatraman
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2019/04/08
date added: 2025/02/02
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<![CDATA[The Oleander Sword (The Burning Kingdoms, #2)]]> 53446712 "Alluring, action-packed, and gut-wrenching," (Publishers Weekly, starred review), The Oleander Sword continues Tasha Suri's acclaimed Burning Kingdoms trilogy,in which a powerful priestess and a vengeful princess will change the fate of an empire. **

The prophecy of the nameless god—the words that declared Malini the rightful empress of Parijatdvipa—has proven a blessing and curse. She is determined to claim the throne that fate offered her. But even with the strength of the rage in her heart and the army of loyal men by her side, deposing her brother is going to be a brutal and bloody fight.

The power of the deathless waters flows through Priya’s blood. Thrice born priestess, Elder of Ahiranya, Priya’s dream is to see her country rid of the rot that plagues both Parijatdvipa's poisonous rule, and the blooming sickness that is slowly spreading through all living things. But she doesn’t yet understand the truth of the magic she carries.

Their chosen paths once pulled them apart. But Malini and Priya's souls remain as entwined as their destinies. And they soon realize that coming together is the only way to save their kingdom from those who would rather see it burn—even if it will cost them.

Praise for the Burning Kingdoms

"Will undoubtedly reshape the landscape of epic fantasy for years to come."Booklist (starred review)

"Lush and stunning…this sapphic fantasy will rip your heart out."BuzzFeed News

"Raises the bar for what epic fantasy should be." —Chloe Gong, author of These Violent Delights

"This cutthroat and sapphic novel will grip you until the very end."Vulture (Best of the Year)

"It left me breathless." —Andrea Stewart, author of The Bone Shard Daughter

"I loved it." —Alix E. Harrow, Hugo award-winning author of The Once and Future Witches

"Suri's incandescent feminist masterpiece hits like a steel fist inside a velvet glove." —Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun]]>
513 Tasha Suri 0316538531 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.34 2022 The Oleander Sword (The Burning Kingdoms, #2)
author: Tasha Suri
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[After School Lessons for Unripe Apples]]> 58614241
Updated every Sunday on the WEBTOON app.]]>
Soon Kki vaishnavi 0 currently-reading 4.74 After School Lessons for Unripe Apples
author: Soon Kki
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.74
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: currently-reading
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Convenience Store Woman 36605525
Sayaka Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. With some laugh-out-loud moments prompted by the disconnect between Keiko’s thoughts and those of the people around her, she provides a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind. Convenience Store Woman is a fresh, charming portrait of an unforgettable heroine that recalls Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, and 础尘é濒颈别.]]>
176 Sayaka Murata vaishnavi 0 dnf 3.65 2016 Convenience Store Woman
author: Sayaka Murata
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
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The Gene: An Intimate History 27276428
The story of the gene begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 where a monk stumbles on the idea of a ‘unit of heredity’. It intersects with Darwin’s theory of evolution, and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. The gene transforms post-war biology. It reorganizes our understanding of sexuality, temperament, choice and free will. This is a story driven by human ingenuity and obsessive minds – from Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin, and the thousands of scientists still working to understand the code of codes.

This is an epic, moving history of a scientific idea coming to life, by the author of The Emperor of All Maladies. But woven through The Gene, like a red line, is also an intimate history – the story of Mukherjee’s own family and its recurring pattern of mental illness, reminding us that genetics is vitally relevant to everyday lives. These concerns reverberate even more urgently today as we learn to “read” and “write” the human genome – unleashing the potential to change the fates and identities of our children.

Majestic in its ambition, and unflinching in its honesty, The Gene gives us a definitive account of the fundamental unit of heredity – and a vision of both humanity’s past and future.]]>
592 Siddhartha Mukherjee vaishnavi 0 currently-reading 4.34 2016 The Gene: An Intimate History
author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: currently-reading
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Charlotte's Web 1922731
Charlotte thinks of a wonderful way to save Wilbur from a pig's unhappy fate. Her clever plan will delight you, in this famous story

Charlotte's Web
--back cover]]>
184 E.B. White vaishnavi 5 favorites 4.26 1952 Charlotte's Web
author: E.B. White
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1952
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: favorites
review:

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<![CDATA[Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes]]> 34617904 We in the west share a common narrative of world history. But our story largely omits a whole civilization whose citizens shared an entirely different narrative for a thousand years.

In Destiny Disrupted, Tamim Ansary tells the rich story of world history as the Islamic world saw it, from the time of Mohammed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. He clarifies why our civilizations grew up oblivious to each other, what happened when they intersected, and how the Islamic world was affected by its slow recognition that Europe-a place it long perceived as primitive and disorganized-had somehow hijacked destiny.

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416 Tamim Ansary vaishnavi 0 dnf 4.46 2009 Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
author: Tamim Ansary
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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shelves: dnf
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The Stand 87591651
For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are listening to The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.]]>
Stephen King vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.42 1978 The Stand
author: Stephen King
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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This Must Be the Place 27272236 Where’d You Go, Bernadette.

Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn, and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex–film star given to pulling a gun on anyone who ventures up their driveway. Claudette was once the most glamorous and infamous woman in cinema before she staged her own disappearance and retreated to blissful seclusion in an Irish farmhouse.

But the life Daniel and Claudette have so carefully constructed is about to be disrupted by an unexpected discovery about a woman Daniel lost touch with twenty years ago. This revelation will send him off-course, far away from wife, children, and home. Will his love for Claudette be enough to bring him back?

“O’Farrell’s prose manages to be both intimate and expansive and keenly perceptive in its insights about the complexities of marriage. Beautiful and bittersweet, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE will make O’Farrell’s longtime fans swoon while prompting new readers to wonder why they’ve only just discovered her.”
BookPage

“I have been a huge fan of Maggie O’Farrell’s novels for years. She writes with tremendous clarity and poise and in THIS MUST BE THE PLACE you are invested in what happens to Daniel and Claudette from the moment you meet them. A joy to read.”
—Jane Green

“Inventive, moving, and hilarious. I loved it.”
—Rachel Joyce, best-selling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry]]>
400 Maggie O'Farrell 0385349424 vaishnavi 4 3.87 2016 This Must Be the Place
author: Maggie O'Farrell
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/12
date added: 2025/01/01
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The Emperor of Gladness 219848315 Oprah’s Book Club Pick ? Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive

“Stunning . . . A heartfelt and powerful examination of those living on the fringes of society, and the unique challenges they face to survive and thrive.” —Oprah Winfrey

“Magnificent . . . In writing this book, Vuong may have joined the ranks of an elite few great novelists.” —Leigh Haber, Los Angeles Times


The hardest thing in the world is to live only once…

One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak, with the power to alter Hai’s relationship to himself, his family, and a community at the brink.

Following the cycles of history, memory, and time, The Emperor of Gladness shows the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its heart is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing – formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness – are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.]]>
416 Ocean Vuong 059383187X vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.36 2025 The Emperor of Gladness
author: Ocean Vuong
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.36
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<![CDATA[A Bride's Story, Vol. 1 (A Bride's Story, #1)]]> 10105459 Emma, Shirley) brings the nineteenth-century Silk Road to lavish life, chronicling the story of Amir Halgal, a young woman from a nomadic tribe betrothed to a twelve-year-old boy eight years her junior. Coping with cultural differences, blossoming feelings for her new husband, and expectations from both her adoptive and birth families, Amir strives to find her role as she settles into a new life and a new home in a society quick to define that role for her.

Crafted in painstaking detail, Ms. Mori’s pen breathes life into the scenery and architecture of the period in this heartwarming, slice-of-life tale that is at once both wholly exotic, yet familiar and accessible through the everyday lives of the rich characters she has created.]]>
191 Kaoru Mori 0316180998 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.24 2009 A Bride's Story, Vol. 1 (A Bride's Story, #1)
author: Kaoru Mori
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock]]> 30338791 One of T.S. Eliot’s earliest, and most significant works.

A great achievement of modernist literature, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock takes the form of the complex musings of the titular Prufrock as he considers life and his role in it. The poem draws heavily on allusion to classical works, including Dante’s [ Comedy' (1320)|6656] and Shakespeare’s [ (1601)|1589254].

[ Elliot|18540] was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Born in 1888 in St. Louis (MO, USA), he is considered one of the 20th century's major poets, and a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry."In ten years' time," wrote Edmund Wilson in [ Castle (1931)|350271], "Elliot has left upon English poetry a mark more unmistakable than that of any other poet writing in English." In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Price "for his work as a trail-blazing pioneer of modern poetry."]]>
67 T.S. Eliot 1551999218 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.30 1915 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
author: T.S. Eliot
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1915
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Madonna in a Fur Coat 52379413 'The pain of losing something precious can be forgotten over time. But our missed opportunities never leave us, and every time they come back to haunt us, we ache.'

A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade and discover life in 1920s Berlin. There, amid the city's bustling streets, elegant museums, passionate politics and seedy cabarets, a chance meeting transforms his life forever. Caught between his desire for freedom and his yearning to belong, he struggles to hold on to the new life he has found.]]>
176 Sabahattin Ali 0241422264 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.34 1943 Madonna in a Fur Coat
author: Sabahattin Ali
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1943
rating: 0
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Daodejing 61089552 Daodejing will forever change how the text is read and understood in the West.]]> 192 Lao Tzu 1324092475 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.05 -350 Daodejing
author: Lao Tzu
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.05
book published: -350
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<![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a na?ve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women — and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—罢耻谤苍别诲
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]>
129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 vaishnavi 0 short-story 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/06
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The Phantom Tollbooth 378 Librarian's Note: For an alternate cover edition of the same ISBN, click here.

This beloved story -first published more than fifty years ago- introduces readers to Milo and his adventures in the Lands Beyond.

For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams. . . .]]>
248 Norton Juster 0394820371 vaishnavi 0 4.19 1961 The Phantom Tollbooth
author: Norton Juster
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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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 vaishnavi 0 4.04 1942 The Stranger
author: Albert Camus
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 0
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My Husband 63017297 In this suspenseful and darkly funny debut novel, a sophisticated French woman spends her life obsessing over her perfect husband--but can their marriage survive her passionate love?

At forty years old, she has an enviable life: a successful career, stunning looks, a beautiful house in the suburbs, two healthy children, and most importantly, an ideal husband. After fifteen years together, she is still besotted with him. But she's never quite sure that her passion is reciprocated. After all, would a truly infatuated man ever let go of his wife's hand when they're sitting on the couch together?

Determined to keep their relationship perfect, she meticulously prepares for every encounter they have, always taking care to make her actions seem effortless. She watches him attentively, charting every mistake and punishing him accordingly to help him improve. And she tests him--setting traps to make sure that he still loves her just as much as he did when they first met.

Until one day she realizes she may have gone too far . . .

The winner of France's First Novel Prize in 2021, My Husband builds on the premise of hits like Gone Girl and Fates and Furies--how well can you really know your spouse?--and adds the tension and creepy obsession of You. The result is an irresistible read--compelling, tense, and engaging, infused with sly subversive humor, and told in an utterly original voice that makes it unforgettable.

Translated from the French by Emma Ramadan]]>
272 Maud Ventura 0063274825 vaishnavi 4 3.67 2021 My Husband
author: Maud Ventura
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2021
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed]]> 40946138 Ever wonder what your therapist is really thinking? Now you can find out …

Meet Lori Gottlieb, an insightful and compassionate therapist whose clients present with all kinds of problems. There’s the struggling new parents; the older woman who feels she has nothing to live for; the self-destructive young alcoholic; and the terminally ill 35-year-old newlywed. And there’s John, a narcissistic television producer, who frankly just seems to be a bit of a jerk. Over the course of a year, they all make progress.

But Gottlieb is not just a therapist — she’s also a patient who's on a journey of her own. Interspersed with the stories of her clients are her own therapy sessions, as Gottlieb goes in search of the hidden roots of a devastating and life-changing event.

Personal, revealing, funny, and wise, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone opens a rare window onto a world that is most often bound by secrecy, offering an illuminating tour of a profoundly private process.]]>
432 Lori Gottlieb 1911617044 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.40 2019 Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
author: Lori Gottlieb
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.40
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The Princess of 72nd Street 199454309 The New Yorker) about a smart, sensitive, yet deeply troubled young woman fighting to live on her own terms.

I am glad I have the radiance. This time I am wiser. No one will know… The radiance drifts blue circles around my head. If I wanted to I could float up and through them. I am weightless. My brain is cool like rippling waves. Conflict does not exist. For a moment I cannot see—the lights are large orange flowers.

Ellen has two lives. A single artist living alone on New York’s Upper West Side in the 1970s, she periodically descends into episodes she describes as “radiances.” While under the influence of the radiance, she becomes Princess Esmeralda, and West 72nd Street the kingdom over which she rules. Life as Esmeralda is a colorful, glorious, liberating experience for Ellen, and despite the chaos and stigma these episodes can bring, she relishes the respite from the confines of the everyday. And yet those around her, particularly the men in her life, are threatened by her incarnation as Esmeralda and the freedom it gives her.

In what would turn to be her final published work, originally released in 1979, Elaine Kraf tackles a dark and disturbing subject in an utterly original, witty, and inventive manner. Provocative at the time of its publication and thoroughly iconoclastic, The Princess of 72nd Street is a remarkable portrait of an unforgettable woman.]]>
160 Elaine Kraf 0593731808 vaishnavi 0 to-read 3.79 1979 The Princess of 72nd Street
author: Elaine Kraf
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[わたしの幸せな結婚 5 [Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon 5]]]> 214642072 純愛ラブストーリー『わたしの幸せな結婚』5巻 特装版小冊子には顎木あくみ先生、高坂りと先生、月岡月穂先生による作品やキャラクターにまつわる制作秘話などを語った豪華ロングインタビューを収録!高坂りと先生の描き下ろし漫画や顎木あくみ先生書き下ろし短編小説も収録しました。]]> 234 Rito Kohsaka 4757592167 vaishnavi 3 4.24 2024 わたしの幸せな結婚 5 [Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon 5]
author: Rito Kohsaka
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/08/02
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<![CDATA[Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels, #3)]]> 23156040 418 Elena Ferrante vaishnavi 5 favorites 4.38 2013 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels, #3)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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<![CDATA[The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)]]> 17465515 My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series. With these books, which the New Yorker's James Wood described as "large, captivating, amiably peopled ... a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal," Ferrante proves herself to be one of Italy's most accomplished storytellers. She writes vividly about a specific neighborhood of Naples from the late-1950s through to the current day and about two remarkable young women who are very much the products of that place and time. Yet in doing so she has created a world in which readers will recognize themselves and has drawn a marvelously nuanced portrait of friendship.

In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.]]>
471 Elena Ferrante vaishnavi 5 favorites 4.47 2012 The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/07/13
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<![CDATA[Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Logans, #4)]]> 310459 288 Mildred D. Taylor 014034893X vaishnavi 0 3.88 1976 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Logans, #4)
author: Mildred D. Taylor
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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Northanger Abbey 50398 Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.

The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.]]>
260 Jane Austen 1593082649 vaishnavi 0 to-read 3.85 1817 Northanger Abbey
author: Jane Austen
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1817
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<![CDATA[搁补蝉丑ō尘辞苍 and Seventeen Other Stories]]> 13419553 These purple sparks...he would trade his life for the chance to hold them in his hands

Akutagawa (1892-1927) was one of Japan's foremost stylists - a modernist master whose stories are marked by original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. 搁补蝉丑ō尘辞苍 and In a Bamboo Grove inspired Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is inverted, while tales such as the Nose and Loyalty paint a richly imaginative picture of medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. Later works such as Death Register, The Life of a Stupid Man and Spinning Gears draw on Akutagawa's own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.

Including both famous and little-known works, some translated into English for the first time, this volume reveals Akutagawa in a new light. In his illuminating introduction, Haruki Murakami explores Akutagawa's place in Japanese culture and influence on his own writing, while Jay Rubin's translation catches the spirit of the originals.

Spine-tingling brilliance...intuitive, natural - and beautiful - Haruki Murakami]]>
320 Ryūnosuke Akutagawa 0140449701 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.10 1927 搁补蝉丑ō尘辞苍 and Seventeen Other Stories
author: Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1927
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[All You Need Is Kill (All You Need Is Kill Manga, #1-2)]]> 22545976 425 Ryōsuke Takeuchi 1421576015 vaishnavi 3 4.11 2014 All You Need Is Kill (All You Need Is Kill Manga, #1-2)
author: Ryōsuke Takeuchi
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2019/11/03
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The Makioka Sisters 34449
Tsuruko, the eldest sister, clings obstinately to the prestige of her family name even as her husband prepares to move their household to Tokyo, where that name means nothing. Sachiko compromises valiantly to secure the future of her younger sisters. The unmarried Yukiko is a hostage to her family’s exacting standards, while the spirited Taeko rebels by flinging herself into scandalous romantic alliances. Filled with vignettes of upper-class Japanese life and capturing both the decorum and the heartache of its protagonist, The Makioka Sisters is a classic of international literature.]]>
530 Jun'ichirō Tanizaki 0679761640 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.03 1948 The Makioka Sisters
author: Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1948
rating: 0
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Tess of the D’Urbervilles 32261 here and here.

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousin’ Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.]]>
518 Thomas Hardy vaishnavi 0 to-read 3.83 1891 Tess of the D’Urbervilles
author: Thomas Hardy
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1891
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<![CDATA[Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America]]> 1869
Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.]]>
240 Barbara Ehrenreich 0805063897 vaishnavi 1 dnf 3.65 2001 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
author: Barbara Ehrenreich
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2001
rating: 1
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<![CDATA[I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban]]> 17851885 I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

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

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

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

I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.]]>
327 Malala Yousafzai 0316322407 vaishnavi 0 4.15 2012 I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
author: Malala Yousafzai
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2012
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My Happy Marriage, Vol. 4 75253535
A browbeaten and mistreated daughter is cast out of her home and sent to audition as a bridal candidate for the heir to one of the most powerful families in the land…

Miyo Saimori, the eldest of her clan and yet unblessed by the supernatural talent that graced her father and half sister, is sent off to marry into the Gifted Kudo clan. The young and aloof clan leader, Kiyoka Kudo, finds himself intrigued by this girl who stands worlds apart from the spoiled, social-climbing women who usually vie for his hand. All too soon, Kiyoka comes to regard Miyo with affection.

Kiyoka and Miyo make their engagement real and official, but Miyo still worries she lacks the training to be a wife worthy of the Kudo clan. Enter Kiyoka’s older sister, Hazuki, who takes it upon herself to tutor Miyo—and tease Kiyoka along the way!

Suddenly, Miyo and Kiyoka encounter a mysterious man named Arata Tsuruki. What does he want, and what connection does he have to the enigmatic and powerful Usuba clan that Miyo’s mother hailed from?]]>
224 Rito Kohsaka 1646097262 vaishnavi 3 4.34 2022 My Happy Marriage, Vol. 4
author: Rito Kohsaka
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/12
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<![CDATA[わたしの幸せな結婚 3 [Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon 3]]]> 58686056 异能を持たず生まれ、谁からも必要とされなかった斎森美世は、冷酷无慈悲と噂される、同じ异能の家系の久堂家に嫁がされる。しかし、赘沢からは程远い、名家の令嬢らしからぬ美世の様子に、当主の久堂清霞は兴味を惹かれ、やがて美世を大切に想うようになる。しかし、そんな美世に嫉妬した斎森家の异母妹?香耶は、美世をさらって蔵に闭じ込め、狂気に満ちた瞳で告げる。「久堂さまとの婚约を解消して、婚约者と取り换えましょう?」清霞は美世のため、异能の力を使い救出に向かうが…。初めて知る、爱されることの幸せ。奇跡のシンデレラストーリー。闭闭> 0 Rito Kohsaka 4757574991 vaishnavi 2 4.39 2021 わたしの幸せな結婚 3 [Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon 3]
author: Rito Kohsaka
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2021
rating: 2
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<![CDATA[わたしの幸せな結婚 2 [Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon 2]]]> 53346515 188 Rito Kohsaka 4757567774 vaishnavi 2 4.42 2020 わたしの幸せな結婚 2 [Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon 2]
author: Rito Kohsaka
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/06
date added: 2024/06/12
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<![CDATA[わたしの幸せな結婚 1 [Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon 1]]]> 53346504 202 Rito Kohsaka vaishnavi 2 4.10 2019 わたしの幸せな結婚 1 [Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon 1]
author: Rito Kohsaka
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/05
date added: 2024/06/12
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I'm the Grim Reaper, Vol. 1 207297899
When Scarlet finds herself doomed to eternal punishment in Hell for a sinful life she can’t even remember, Satan himself offers her a deal: return to earth and kill one marked sinner per day…as his grim reaper!

Using the power of Hell, Scarlet quickly learns the ropes of being a reaper: bring in one sinner per day, regardless of their sins, and avoid the ninth circle herself. This work brings her into the path of Chase, a disgraced former detective trying to solve a high-level case that seems wrapped up in Scarlet’s former life. Scarlet decides to partner with Chase to find the answers to her locked memories—as long as Chase doesn’t discover Scarlet’s bloodstained bargain with Satan first.

This volume collects episodes 1–16 of the popular WEBTOON, exclusive never-before-seen content, and a bonus short story!]]>
240 Graveweaver 1974739082 vaishnavi 0 4.00 I'm the Grim Reaper, Vol. 1
author: Graveweaver
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.00
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Rainbow! Volume 1 124932802 From Tapas Media, the same webtoon platform that brought you Magical Boy, comes Rainbow!, a new LGBTQ+ YA graphic novel series!

Teenager Boo Meadows has pink hair and a very vivid imagination -- she has trouble separating from the real world. In her daydreams, she dances beautifully at balls or fights monsters as a magical girl. In reality, she has a complicated home life, work stress, school stress, and a wicked crush on the girl of her dreams.

When a new student, Mimi, arrives at school, Boo starts exploring a side of herself that she never considered before. As she grows closer with Mimi, it may finally be time for Boo to face reality . . . Who is the real Mimi? The one in her dreams? Or the one in real life?

Rainbow! is perfect for fans of Heartstopper and Magical Boy, full of heart, adorable illustrations, and a storyline that any teenager can relate to!]]>
224 Sunny 133901131X vaishnavi 0 3.84 2024 Rainbow! Volume 1
author: Sunny
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2022/01/01
date added: 2024/06/11
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将进酒 [Qiāng Jìn Jiǔ] 53806230
“命运要我一生都守在这里,可这并非是我抉择的那一条路。黄沙淹没了我的手足,我不想再臣服于虚无的命。圣旨救不了我的兵,朝廷喂不饱我的马,我不愿再为此赴命。我要翻过那座山,我要为自己一战。”

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The Six Prefectures of Zhongbo were ceded away in surrender to the external enemies, and Shen Zechuan was taken into custody in the capital, reduced to *a drowning dog loathed and condemned by all. Xiao Chiye followed the scent of the furor and made his way over. But instead of setting others on him, he kicked Shen Zechuan with his very own leg that rendered the latter an invalid. Who would expect this invalid to turn around and bite him in a counterattack until he was all drenched in blood? That was the start of an epic feud between both men who tear at each other every time they come face-to-face with one another.

“Fate wants to bind me here for life, but this is not the path I choose. The yellow dust submerged my brothers deep under. I have no wish to bow in submission to an illusory fate. The imperial edict couldn’t save my troops, and the imperial court couldn’t fill the stomachs of my mounts. I’m no longer willing to lay down my life for this purpose. I want to overturn that mountain. I am going to fight for myself.”]]>
2750 Tang Jiu Qing vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.68 将进酒 [Qiāng Jìn Jiǔ]
author: Tang Jiu Qing
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.68
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If Beale Street Could Talk 40909440 197 James Baldwin 0525566120 vaishnavi 5 4.21 1974 If Beale Street Could Talk
author: James Baldwin
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/22
date added: 2024/05/22
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On Palestine 23129811 On Palestine is the sequel to their acclaimed book Gaza in Crisis.]]> 220 Noam Chomsky 1608464709 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.28 2015 On Palestine
author: Noam Chomsky
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/14
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<![CDATA[One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich]]> 6652627 Discover the importance of a piece of bread or an extra bowl of soup, the incredible luxury of a book, the ingenious possibilities of a nail, a piece of string or a single match in a time where survival is all. Enter a world of incarceration– and participate in the struggle of men to survive both the terrible rigours of nature and the inhumanity of the system that defines their conditions of life.]]> 144 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 0141045353 vaishnavi 0 to-read 3.85 1962 One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/05/07
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<![CDATA[Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen]]> 191746769 ?
When Suzanne Scanlon was a student at Barnard in the 90s, grieving the loss of her mother—feeling untethered and swimming through inarticulable pain—she made a suicide attempt that landed her in the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
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After nearly three years and countless experimental treatments, Suzanne left the ward on shaky legs. In the decades it took her to recover from the experience, Suzanne came to understand her suffering as part of something a long tradition of women whose complicated and compromised stories of self-actualization are reduced to “crazy chick” and “madwoman” narratives. It was a thrilling discovery, and she searched for more books, more woman writers, as the journey of her life converged with her journey through the literature that shaped her.
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Transporting, honest, and graceful, Committed is a story of discovery and recovery, reclaiming the idea of the madwoman as a template for insight and transcendence through the works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Janet Frame, Audre Lorde, Shulamith Firestone, and others.]]>
368 Suzanne Scanlon 0593469100 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.16 2024 Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen
author: Suzanne Scanlon
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/24
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<![CDATA[Metamorphosis (Pocket Penguins)]]> 29777063 'I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.'

Featuring an ordinary man who wakes up to find himself turned into a giant cockroach, Kafka's masterpiece of unease and black humour, Metamorphosis, is brought together here with the best of his short stories.]]>
320 Franz Kafka 0241260655 vaishnavi 0 3.76 1915 Metamorphosis (Pocket Penguins)
author: Franz Kafka
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1915
rating: 0
read at: 2023/08/09
date added: 2024/04/08
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With the Fire on High 38739562
Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain—and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life—and all the rules everyone expects her to play by—once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.]]>
395 Elizabeth Acevedo 0062662856 vaishnavi 4 4.18 2019 With the Fire on High
author: Elizabeth Acevedo
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/07
date added: 2024/04/08
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Kokoro 762476 The New Yorker as "rich in understanding and insight,"

Kokoro—"the heart of things"—is the work of one of Japan's most popular authors. This thought-provoking trilogy of stories explores the very essence of loneliness and stands as a stirring introduction to modern Japanese literature.

What is love, and what is friendship? What is the extent of our responsibility to ourselves and to others? A trilogy of stories that explores the very essence of loneliness, Kokoro opens with "Sensei and I," in which the narrator recounts his relationship with an intellectual who dwells in isolation but maintains a sophisticated worldview. "My Parents and I" brings the reader into the narrator's family circle, and "Sensei and His Testament" features the eponymous character's explanation of how he came to live a life of solitude.

Natsume Soseki (1867–1916), perhaps the greatest novelist of the Meiji period, remains one of Japan's most widely read authors. He wrote this novel in 1914, at the peak of his career, and it remains an excellent introduction to modern Japanese literature.]]>
256 Natsume Sōseki 0809260956 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.05 1914 Kokoro
author: Natsume Sōseki
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1914
rating: 0
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Foolish Hearts 33275690 the it-couple at her school, she finds herself in hot water with prickly, difficult Iris. Thrown together against their will in the class production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, along with the goofiest, cutest boy Claudia has ever known, Iris and Claudia are in for an eye-opening senior year.

Smart, funny, and thoroughly, wonderfully flawed, Claudia navigates a world of intense friendships and tentative romance in Foolish Hearts, a YA novel about expanding your horizons, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and accepting--and loving--people for who they really are.

A contemporary young adult novel by Emma Mills about a girl whose high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream leads her to new friends--and maybe even new love.]]>
320 Emma Mills 1627799370 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.22 2017 Foolish Hearts
author: Emma Mills
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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Night 1617 Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.]]> 120 Elie Wiesel 0374500010 vaishnavi 5 favorites 4.38 1956 Night
author: Elie Wiesel
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/12
date added: 2024/03/12
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Nightfall 18297094 40 Isaac Asimov vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.16 1941 Nightfall
author: Isaac Asimov
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1941
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/27
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<![CDATA[?? ?? 1 [Jaehon Hwanghu 1] (The Remarried Empress [Novel], #1)]]> 52778373 2019 ?????? ??? ???!

??? ????. ??? ??? ??? ? ??? ????? ??. ?? ??? ? ????? ??? ??? ??. ??? ???? ??? ?? ??? ??? ?? ???. ??? ????. ??? ???? ?? ?? ??? ???? ? ?? ???. ???? ?? ?? ????. ???? ? ? ??? ??? ??????!]]>
500 Alphatart 1164790285 vaishnavi 0 to-read 4.35 ?? ?? 1 [Jaehon Hwanghu 1] (The Remarried Empress [Novel], #1)
author: Alphatart
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/18
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<![CDATA[Frankenstein (Signet Classics)]]> 13585728
“If I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear.”

For centuries, the story of Victor Frankenstein and the monster he created has held readers spellbound. On the surface, it is a novel of tense and steadily mounting dread. On a more profound level, it illuminates the triumph and tragedy of the human condition in its portrayal of a scientist who oversteps the bounds of conscience, and of a creature tortured by the solitude of a world in which he does not belong. A novel of almost hallucinatory intensity, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein represents one of the most striking flowerings of the Romantic imagination.?
?

With an Introduction by Douglas Clegg
And an Afterword by Harold Bloom]]>
258 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley vaishnavi 5 assigned, favorites 3.81 1818 Frankenstein (Signet Classics)
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1818
rating: 5
read at: 2022/11/01
date added: 2024/02/15
shelves: assigned, favorites
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Written on the Body 18886278 194 Jeanette Winterson 0307763595 vaishnavi 0 to-read 3.91 1992 Written on the Body
author: Jeanette Winterson
name: vaishnavi
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/02/06
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