Dragonofbooks

Reading mysteries, historical fiction, biographies, history, interior design, architecture. Getting back into fantasy, vibing a little bit with scifi

1814 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Reading...

Dragonofbooks commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

hammy

Recommended Thriller Books/Authors??

Hi all,

With spooky season around the corner I am trying to really dive into mystery/thriller books but haven’t found any books/authors I really connect with.

I feel like I keep hitting a wall by guessing what’s going to happen, the dialogue doesn’t feel natural, and or the twist is just something that’s extremely triggering for shock value?

I’m usually a pretty easy going reader and hoping some recs will pull me out of this slump!

Thank you in advance :)

Dragonofbooks made progress on...

Saltcrop

Yume Kitasei

Dragonofbooks made progress on...

Saltcrop

Yume Kitasei

Dragonofbooks TBR'd a book

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Stuart Turton

Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m. There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit. We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer. Understood? Then let's begin... Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others...

Dragonofbooks TBR'd a book

Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War

Amanda Vaill

A spellbinding story of love amid the devastation of the Spanish Civil War Madrid, 1936. In a city blasted by a civil war that many fear will cross borders and engulf Europe―a conflict one writer will call "the decisive thing of the century"―six people meet and find their lives changed forever. Ernest Hemingway, his career stalled, his marriage sour, hopes that this war will give him fresh material and new romance; Martha Gellhorn, an ambitious novice journalist hungry for love and experience, thinks she will find both with Hemingway in Spain. Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, idealistic young photographers based in Paris, want to capture history in the making and are inventing modern photojournalism in the process. And Arturo Barea, chief of the Spanish government's foreign press office, and Ilsa Kulcsar, his Austrian deputy, are struggling to balance truth-telling with loyalty to their sometimes compromised cause―a struggle that places both of them in peril. Beginning with the cloak-and-dagger plot that precipitated the first gunshots of the war and moving forward month by month to the end of the conflict. Hotel Florida traces the tangled and disparate wartime destinies of these three couples against the backdrop of a critical moment in a moment that called forth both the best and the worst of those caught up in it. In this noir landscape of spies, soldiers, revolutionaries, and artists, the shadow line between truth and falsehood sometimes became faint indeed―your friend could be your enemy and honesty could get you (or someone else) killed. Years later, Hemingway would say, "It is very dangerous to write the truth in war, and the truth is very dangerous to come by." In Hotel Florida, from the raw material of unpublished letters and diaries, official documents, and recovered reels of film, the celebrated biographer Amanda Vaill has created a narrative of love and reinvention that is, finally, a story about finding it, telling it, and living it―whatever the cost. *INCLUDES 16 PAGES OF BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS

Dragonofbooks TBR'd a book

The Last Bookaneer

Matthew Pearl

book'a-neer' (bŏŏk'kå-nēr'), n. a literary pirate; an individual capable of doing all that must be done in the universe of books that publishers, authors, and readers must not have a part inLondon, 1890—Pen Davenport is the most infamous bookaneer in Europe. A master of disguise, he makes his living stalking harbors, coffeehouses, and print shops for the latest manuscript to steal. But this golden age of publishing is on the verge of collapse. For a hundred years, loose copyright laws and a hungry reading public created a unique opportunity: books could easily be published without an author’s permission. Authors gained fame but suffered financially—Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, to name a few—but publishers reaped enormous profits while readers bought books inexpensively. Yet on the eve of the twentieth century, a new international treaty is signed to grind this literary underground to a sharp halt. The bookaneers are on the verge of extinction.From the author of The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl, The Last Bookaneer is the astonishing story of these literary thieves’ epic final heist. On the island of Samoa, a dying Robert Louis Stevenson labors over a new novel. The thought of one last book from the great author fires the imaginations of the bookaneers, and soon Davenport sets out for the South Pacific island. As always, Davenport is reluctantly accompanied by his assistant Fergins, who is whisked across the world for one final caper. Fergins soon discovers the supreme thrill of aiding Davenport in his quest to steal Stevenson’s manuscript and make a fortune before the new treaty ends the bookaneers’ trade forever. But Davenport is hardly the only bookaneer with a mind to pirate Stevenson’s last novel. His longtime adversary, the monstrous Belial, appears on the island, and soon Davenport, Fergins, and Belial find themselves embroiled in a conflict larger, perhaps, than literature itself.In The Last Bookaneer, Pearl crafts a finely wrought tale about a showdown between brilliant men in the last great act of their professions. It is nothing short of a page-turning journey to the heart of a lost era.

Dragonofbooks TBR'd a book

The Book of Cold Cases

Simone St. James

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect--a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion. Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases--a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea's surprise, Beth says yes. They meet regularly at Beth's mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she's not looking, and she could swear she's seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn't right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house? A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.

Dragonofbooks TBR'd a book

The Lost Apothecary

Sarah Penner

A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them - setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course. Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman. Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register. One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose - selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register. In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate - and not everyone will survive.

Dragonofbooks commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

teddydee

"Whatcha Get?" Weekend

It's time to share what books you got in the last week!

Did you check out a big stack from the library?
Did you visit a new LFL and find something exciting?
Did someone give you a book for your birthday?
Did you go splurge at the bookstore?
Did you stuff your Kindle?
Did all your Libby holds come in at once?
Did you find a book in the dumpster?
???

IT ALL COUNTS so tell me...whatcha get??? 👀

Dragonofbooks commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

lydiaroses_library

POPULAR BOOKS!

i know this question has been asked, but i wanna ask again! 1. is there a popular book/book series you read that is popular on book-tok/gram/tube (whether you bought it because or you picked up randomly) that you actually despise? 2. on a positive note, is there a book that was popular that you picked up & you ended up loving & became a favorite book for you?

my answers:

too many😭, i read archers voice in the beginning of my reading era, and despised it purely on the fact that it was so unrealistic & did not show disability rep correctly. i also decided to pick up a series, because they came out with the collectors editions ahem ahem ahem twisted series and i actually hate these books so much, but the covers are pretty so i’m planning on keeping them for whenever i need a brain off book.
i actually loved the boys of tommen of series, i feel like it deserves my hype, and i chase the 5 star feeling i got from those. but i understand if people hated it as well😭 also fell in love with Kristin Hannah’s books after the nightingale, and having it as an “optional but required for extra credit” reading in my college history class.

Dragonofbooks made progress on...

Saltcrop

Yume Kitasei

Dragonofbooks commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

greenyuri

Nightstand Books

hi everyone! i noticed my nightstand book stack was getting hefty, and thought it would be fun if we share our stacks! happy friday!!

Dragonofbooks commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

ChaptersAndCrushes

Bookshelves

I know there's been the question of " how do you sort your bookshelves? "but

Who's the most author on yours? An author you have many of ? An author you will never black list ? Do you have more male , female, or nonbinary authors on your shelf?

I have many , all female, because I haven't had a male author on my shelf since 2023 ( Rick Riordan ) .

Emily Rath, Becka Mack, Bal Khabra, and B.K are the ones I have the most books of . I started getting some Ali HazelWood on there, but only 2 .

Dragonofbooks made progress on...

Saltcrop

Yume Kitasei

Dragonofbooks started reading...

Saltcrop

Yume Kitasei

From the acclaimed author of The Stardust Grail comes the epic tale of two sisters who sail across oceans to find their missing third sister―and Earth’s environmental salvation. In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find―and save―her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered. But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister―or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster. -- Content warnings available on the author's website (see author bio).

Dragonofbooks commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

hot.dry.noodles

Advice for reading books that are out of print 😔

I am a huge Barbara Comyns fan, but unfortunately, many of her works are no longer being published so I am struggling to find them in libraries or bookstores. I am located in Canada, so the likelihood of coming across one of her novels in a used bookstore / the thrift is also extremely low. Super keen to read her full bibliography but it seems impossible ahhh 🥲

Those of you who seek out obscure or out of print books, I’d love to know how you track them down! Any advice is appreciated!

Dragonofbooks commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum

Lovelycryptid

Book recommendation wanted!

Hiii! My husband’s birthday is coming up and I want to get him a new book. He really likes fantasy, and likes cheeky humor but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a funny book. He likes the lord of the rings series and the last book he read was a magic the gathering book. We read piranesi together and he really liked it. I think he likes more of an adventure fantasy book than the kind that’s like heavy on the fantasy politics. Any recs welcome!! Thank you!

Dragonofbooks is interested in reading...