Wednesday, January 29, 2020

A book with an upside-down image on the cover

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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery
WINNER OF THE AGATHA • ARTHUR ELLIS • DILYS • DEBUT DAGGER AWARDS

It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.

For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”


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Life After Life
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born, the third child of a wealthy English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in any number of ways. Ursula's world is in turmoil, facing the unspeakable evil of the two greatest wars in history. What power and force can one woman exert over the fate of civilization -- if only she has the chance?

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This Is How You Lose the Time War
ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019

Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.

In the ashes of a dying world, Red finds a letter marked “Burn before reading. Signed, Blue.”

So begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents in a war that stretches through the vast reaches of time and space.

Red belongs to the Agency, a post-singularity technotopia. Blue belongs to Garden, a single vast consciousness embedded in all organic matter. Their pasts are bloody and their futures mutually exclusive. They have nothing in common—save that they’re the best, and they’re alone.

Now what began as a battlefield boast grows into a dangerous game, one both Red and Blue are determined to win. Because winning’s what you do in war. Isn’t it?

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Love in the Time of Cholera

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Airplane Reads

I'm leaving on a jet plane Friday and am ready to start a new book for my flights.

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The Japanese Lover
This has been on my list for quite some time.
From New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende, “a magical and sweeping” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) love story and multigenerational epic that stretches from San Francisco in the present-day to Poland and the United States during World War II.

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After Alice
From the multi-million-copy bestselling author of Wicked comes a magical new twist on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, published to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Lewis’s Carroll’s beloved classic.

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Red Queen
Another book that has been on my list for while. I was sure I would get to read last year.  A #1 New York Times bestseller, perfect for fans of fantasy and YA novels.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Books on my shelf

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Daisy Jones & The Six

I bought this book as soon as I read, "Author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo."

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The Immortalists
I bought this after my friend, who has similar book interests as me, reported this was really good.

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1Q84
I have long wanted to read a novel by Haruki Murakami. They always receive such good reviews.

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A Girl Walks Into a Bar: Your Fantasy, Your Rules
I purchased this book to fulfill the "choose-your-own-adventure" challenge, but ended up reading something else. I am still interested in reading this.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

A bildungsroman

A bildungsroman is a novel dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education. The origin of the word is German.



Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte



Circe by Madeline Miller



Siddhartha by Herman Hesse



Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

A book with a great first line

First line: "It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size."

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The Water Cure
First line: "Once we had a father, but our father dies without us noticing."


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A Visit from the Goon Squad
First line: "It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel."


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Little Fires Everywhere
First line: "Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that Summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down."

Your favorite prompt from a past Popsugar Reading Challenge

image via amazon On Photography A book about a hobby from 2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge image via amazon Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widow...