A female spy, thirty years, and two World Wars make up this heart wrenching story. Eve has lived her whole life believed to be less than her worth, until one man recruits her as a spy for the infamous Alice Network. Charlie has been taught to look good and nothing else, her skills squashed by her mother. When Charlie finds herself pregnant and with no husband her only option is to go to Europe and fix the little problem. But going to Europe also means a chance to finally learn the fate of her cousin in WWII. She abandons her mother in England to follow her one lead, Eve. Along the way, Eve’s past comes back into startling focus when Charlie’s cousin and her life start to take similar paths, just thirty years apart.
Read MoreRilla is stuck spending the summer with her park ranger sister after her life falls apart back home. With a one way bus ticket and a pile of homework to keep her from failing out of school, she’s determined to show everyone. To show everyone that she’s really okay. And it seems like things could be okay after she stumbles into a rock climbing group in the park. They take her under their wings, showing her the literal ropes. However, she can’t let go of her haunting past and starts to see the new group judge her in the same way. Losing faith in them, in her sister, and in herself, she makes one wrong decision that could change her future again.
Read MoreIn 9-11, Noam Chomsky comments on the September 11th attacks, the new war on terrorism, Osama bin Laden, U.S. involvement with Afghanistan, media control, and the long-term implications of America's military attacks abroad. Informed by his deep understanding of the gravity of these issues and the global stakes, 9-11 demonstrates Chomsky's impeccable knowledge of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South Asia, and sheds light on the rapidly shifting balance of world power. Speaking out against escalating violence, Chomsky critically examines the United States' own foreign policy record and considers what international institutions might be employed against underground networks and national states accused of terrorism. 9-11's analysis still stands as a measure of how well the media is able to serve its role of informing the citizenry, so crucial to our democracy in times of war.
-Goodreads
Read MoreAmanda and Rosalie have nothing in common - except for dating the same guy, Carter Shaw. Golden boy, extraordinaire, Carter is set to inherit his father’s company and since the start of High School, Amanda and Carter have been pushed as the end goal, the power couple. But Carter can’t stay faithful. Players can be played however and Rosalie does just that by using Carter as a front, trying to conceal her true feelings from her fundamentalist church and family. Amanda and Rosalie’s futures become threatened when they both receive text messages from Private. Private promises to not just destroy their futures but also their lives if they don’t do as instructed.
Read MoreOne day Cass was just your normal girl; unpopular, a lover of cameras, and with crazy parents that write books about ghosts. Then the next day, she could actually see them… ghosts that is. With a tap, tap, tap, she’s drawn to the splits in the veil where she crosses over and watches ghosts relive their deaths. And all this with her best friend and sidekick, Jacob, the ghost that saved her on that frozen day. It’s not so bad, this new life. Cass figures out a rhythm. She can’t wait for summer vacation at the beach house, a place mostly devoid of the ghostly kind. But then her parents drop a massive bomb. They landed a TV show and will be heading straight to Edinburgh, one of the most haunted cities in the world. What was supposed to be a quiet, idyllic summer, turns into a crazy adventure where Cass learns what her new gift really means.
Read MoreCatherine, the heroine of her own story, sets off to Bath with friends. There she is to be a companion to Mrs. Allen and enjoy herself at the dances and theater. That is, until she meets a new friend, whose brother locks his sights on Catherine. However, he has no chance when Henry and his sister grace the scene. Catherine is taken by him, trying everything to stop her new friends from sabotaging the relationship. All seems well. She even gets invited to Northanger Abbey, but her friends’ reach goes further than she knows.
Read MoreWill is running away from it all - his religion, his family, his past - to the prestigious Edwards College on the East Coast. Feigning that he fits in, he meets Phoebe, a glamorous girl who eats her own emotions for supper and hides her dark past in questions. She never knows why she stays with Will, more used to the one night stands of college life. But something keeps drawing them together until a former Edwards’s student, hailing the word of God, blows into Phoebe’s life. He claims he was sent by her father, but all he speaks are sinister messages that send Phoebe and Will on a wild journey.
Read MoreIn 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it. She posted a piece on her blog, entitled: 'Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race' that led to this book.
Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge offers a timely and essential new framework for how to see, acknowledge and counter racism. It is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary exploration of what it is to be a person of colour in Britain today.
-Goodreads
Read MoreOne random letter, one book, and one curious stranger change Juliet’s life. During her first book tour, when life isn’t feeling as grand or happy as she would like, a letter arrives from a stranger living on Guernsey Island. Could she help him find a book? Cut off from the world during the German occupation, he hopes she’ll help restore what has been lost for five years. This single chance letter starts a whirlwind discovery of the literary society that saved the lives of the people on the island. Juliet goes to learn the history of the island, and eventually finds out more about herself.
Read MoreAmani knows nothing else but a life with the oppressive rule of the Vath. Still, her people fight to maintain their culture, and on the night she is to receive her Daan, Amani’s life is flipped on its head when the Vath kidnap her. She’s taken to the palace to discover that she’s looks identical to their heir. Stripped of her identity, forced to become like the people she hates, Amani must decide between fighting for her people or staying alive and giving up all she loves.
Read MoreThree sisters, each married into different circumstances, live lives from the very poor to the very rich. One sister, Mrs. Norris, devises a plan to adopt her poorer sister’s daughter Fanny, but not at her own expense. The child is sent to grow and learn at the third sister’s house, Lady Bertram’s estate. There Fanny lives around her cousins. Instead of obtaining their follies, Fanny watches quietly from the sidelines as Lady Bertram’s household name falls into ruin.
Read MoreA lot of people don’t know about this reading list. I’ve mentioned here and there, listed it in my current reads, and even made a shelf in Goodreads, but I haven’t been overly vocal. In 2016 my husband and I watched the movie Captain Fantastic. In a small way, the movie really changed our perspective and today I’m going to open up and share the last two years with you guys.
Read MoreJamie Watson wants nothing more than to be back in London, away from his estranged father and his new possible rival, Charlotte Holmes. That is, until the cases of their great-great-great-grandfathers’ start to be replicated on the students of Sherringford. All clues point to Holmes and Watson being the culprits, leaving Watson with no other choice but to trust the girl that has haunted his mind for years.
Read MoreVictor was Elizabeth’s savior. But she was his savior too. Needing a friend, his parents pulled her out of poverty to live with them and befriend their strange son. She only needed to make him love her to secure her place. The two grew up together, never being separated, until Victor’s mom died and he left for college, disappearing without a word for over a year. Elizabeth was set to find him. To secure her place in the family forever. What she didn’t expect was the monster his genius had sparked.
Read MoreThe month of February was a little different. I read two amazing classics instead of one. The first, a Regency England romance between two people that hate one another, and the second, an American classic about sisters and loving one another. Both books were the same and different in many ways.
Read MoreRushed out of Boston at rumors of a family scandal, Lydia and her two sisters find themselves permanently living in their family’s intended summer home. A home built on the very ashes of the burned down house before it. Lydia immediately feels that the place is different. Starting with her father’s new business partner, Mr Barrett, who just learned that there’s a family attached to his partner. As summer passes, Lydia learns that the scandal may be more real than she thought, and that her own secrets may have more truth in them than she wants them to. She must pull on her family’s history to save herself and those she loves.
Read MoreIn a world where magic is scarce and those with magic aren’t allowed to have control, Zaira has eluded the Falconers since her mage mark appeared. That was, until her anger got the best of her. Amalia was the only one present that could place the jess on Zaira as her fire burned out of control, fueled by those she’d killed, binding Zaira’s magic to Amalia - becoming Falcon and Falconer. But there was a problem. Being an heir to the Council of 9, Amalia was never meant to become a Falconer. High houses aren’t allowed that much power. The two girls, thrown together by fate, are forced to trust each other as war looms and the political structure of Amalia’s home is threatened, sending her and Zaira to the front lines.
Read MoreToday I’m taking a break from book reviews to talk about something that’s been bothering me for a few weeks.
Read MoreSeven husbands in the course of one lifetime… Why did she do it? It’s the question everyone asks when the elusive Evelyn Hugo decides to donate gowns to a charity auction. Monique asks it when she arrives at Evelyn’s house to conduct an interview for Vivant magazine. She also questions why Hugo requested such a low rung staff writer. Evelyn promises to explains it all if Monique does one thing - writes her biography instead. Now, as the story of Evelyn’s life unfolds, Monique has to decide between the chance of a lifetime and keeping her job at the magazine.
Read MoreAfter the death of their father, three sisters and their mother establish themselves in a new home at the insistence of a distant relation. Elinor, the sensible one, is forced to not only leave her childhood home to her half-brother but to also leave the man that has stolen her heart. Marianne, yet to see the world past her 17 years, falls into a man one rainy day while exploring her new home. Together the sisters must discern who deserves their love in the twists and turns of 19th century English society.
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