
RavenShade started reading...
2w

Lady X
Molly Fader
The search for a notorious vigilante exposes the secrets between three generations of women in this propulsive novel of female resistance and rage, sweeping from contemporary L.A. to gritty, 1970s New York.Los Angeles, 2024. After learning that her A-List actor husband sent explicit photos to multiple girls on social media, Margot Cooper runs away from the world—and the paparazzi—by fleeing to her childhood home with her teenage daughter in tow.But home isn’t the sanctuary Margot was hoping for. In a cardboard box in the corner of the attic, she finds damning evidence of an infamous urban legend, the mysterious vigilante “Lady X”—including a blurry newspaper photo of a woman who looks an awful lot like Margot’s mother.New York City, 1977. In the midst of an infamous summer, Ginger Daughtry and her two beloved roommates are able to shield each other from the chaos—until one of them is assaulted. Astounded by the lack of response from police, the young women decide to engage in some light payback, signing their handiwork as “Lady X.”Soon copycats appear, and a movement inspired by acts of vandalism against terrible men spirals out of control, with criminals running amok under the guise of the enigmatic “Lady X.” When a body is found fallen—or pushed—from five stories high, the hunt reaches a boiling point.But Lady X has vanished into thin air.
Biological War: A Scenario
Annie Jacobsen
I am so ready to be nervous

RavenShade started reading...
2w

Biological War: A Scenario
Annie Jacobsen
From Annie Jacobsen, the author of the bestselling Nuclear War: A Scenario, a book on a subject that has long orbited her reporting: biological warfare.A lab accident, a bio-attack, a global pandemic, and the collapse of human society. In this essential new book, based on dozens of new interviews with experts with high-level political, governmental, medical, and military responsibility, Annie Jacobsen examines this very scenario. It would be only a matter of days from such a global infection before the infrastructure built to handle this gravest of situations would be in a battle for human existence.The mass death, total societal breakdown, widespread insurrection, anarchy, and a plague-ravaged wasteland that no longer resembles modern civilization. In other dystopia.Following the gripping narrative style that launched Nuclear War to the New York Times bestseller list, Jacobsen looks deeply at a situation that is in some ways the opposite of a nuclear There is no mushroom cloud, no shock wave or blast. Instead, the scenario that could end the world as we know it begins with something so small, and something so malicious, that when used for evil, only evil can result. This is what could happen; a ticking-clock roadmap to the hours, days, and weeks following the release of a biological agent, that serves as the most essential, forward-looking journalism in preparation for urgent societal upheaval.
Question for people who do prompt based reading challenges:
If you join/start multiple different reading challenges, and the same book fits a prompt in more than one challenge, do you count that book toward both?
I’m not talking about Pagebound badges where specific books are assigned. I mean separate challenges with prompts like “read a book set in another country,” “read a thriller,” “read a book over 400 pages,” etc.
So if I read one book and it genuinely fits one prompt in Challenge A and a different prompt in Challenge B, would you count it for both, or do you personally use a different book for every challenge?
I know everyone can make their own rules, but I’m curious what you guys think. For me personally, I want to count a book for both but it always gives me pause. Like, is this “cheating”?
The Stranger
Albert Camus
There is an audio version on TIDAL read by the author himself.
The album is called: « Albert Camus - l'étranger (texte intégral lu par l'auteur) »


A River Enchanted (Elements of Cadence, #1)
Rebecca Ross


Look how stylish!! (expand post for a pic)

It’s obvi a quick Google search away, but I thought it didn’t hurt to add this to the beginning of the forum because I had never seen or heard this word before (for a hot sec I even thought it was a fictional creature lmao).
I have never seen this bird either, so my mental images were not imaging for the first couple of pages.
Since I have only read the first few pages, I haven’t really gotten a grasp of the hoopoe character, so i’m curious!! Based on the look of this bird, what kind of vibes do u guys think she is radiating?
It’d be fun to see how aligned the character is with how the actual bird is perceived!
I can’t quuuuite put my finger on it, but to me, I think it’s the combo of the eyes and the proud-looking mohawk that’s just giving a slightly defiant "I know better than u" attitude🙂↕️

RavenShade finished a book
9w

Dark Sisters
Kristi DeMeester
Three women must chase a curse through the generations in order to reclaim their power in this fierce and stunning novel from Such a Pretty Smile author Kristi DeMeester. 1750: Anne Bolton sets off with her daughter to begin a life of secrecy. In town, they are killing women accused of witchcraft every day, and as a healer, she’ll soon be persecuted too. But then she makes a deal with the Dark Sisters to protect those under her purview–and unleashes a devastating power with consequences that will echo for three hundred years. 1953: Mary Shephard is a new mother, a picture-perfect wife, and dutiful member of The Path–a community of faith that holds piety and family values above all else. But Mary feels oppressed by these limiting expectations, so she takes a part-time job. Then she meets Sharon, and their star-crossed love story begins. But that’s the thing about star-crossed lovers–people just want to tear you apart. 2007: Camilla Burson is the preacher’s daughter, and she knows how to play the game. But now women in The Path are dying of a rare disease, including her mother, and this time she’ll push her father too far. Her punishment: The Retreat, a place that shows troublemakers like Camilla that toeing the line is best for everyone. But there is an old, forgotten power awaiting her; a power that if Camilla can claim, will change everything. "Magnificent.” - Rachel Harrison "A visceral, mesmerizing nightmare. I couldn't look away." - Hannah Morrissey

RavenShade started reading...
9w

Dark Sisters
Kristi DeMeester
Three women must chase a curse through the generations in order to reclaim their power in this fierce and stunning novel from Such a Pretty Smile author Kristi DeMeester. 1750: Anne Bolton sets off with her daughter to begin a life of secrecy. In town, they are killing women accused of witchcraft every day, and as a healer, she’ll soon be persecuted too. But then she makes a deal with the Dark Sisters to protect those under her purview–and unleashes a devastating power with consequences that will echo for three hundred years. 1953: Mary Shephard is a new mother, a picture-perfect wife, and dutiful member of The Path–a community of faith that holds piety and family values above all else. But Mary feels oppressed by these limiting expectations, so she takes a part-time job. Then she meets Sharon, and their star-crossed love story begins. But that’s the thing about star-crossed lovers–people just want to tear you apart. 2007: Camilla Burson is the preacher’s daughter, and she knows how to play the game. But now women in The Path are dying of a rare disease, including her mother, and this time she’ll push her father too far. Her punishment: The Retreat, a place that shows troublemakers like Camilla that toeing the line is best for everyone. But there is an old, forgotten power awaiting her; a power that if Camilla can claim, will change everything. "Magnificent.” - Rachel Harrison "A visceral, mesmerizing nightmare. I couldn't look away." - Hannah Morrissey

RavenShade commented...
9w
I get obsessed with reading challenges, reading goals, and badges. And I’m not chill about it either. Basically, I stress myself out. And when I’m not stressed out I feel like I’m not living my best reading life and I feel like I could be doing way more.
What is your reading toxic trait?
Mine: If I paid for the book, I'm finishing it. Even if I'm hate-reading by chapter five. 💀 & I judge a book by its cover 👀

RavenShade finished a book
9w

Reservoir Bitches
Dahlia de la Cerda
A debut linked story collection of gritty, streetwise, and wickedly funny fiction from Mexico. Life’s a bitch. That’s why you gotta rattle her cage, even if she’s foaming at the mouth. In the linked stories of Reservoir Bitches, thirteen Mexican women prod the bitch that is Life as they fight, sew, skirt, cheat, cry, and lie their way through their tangled circumstances. From the all-powerful daughter of a cartel boss to the victim of transfemicide, from a houseful of spinster seamstresses to a socialite who supports her politician husband by faking Indigenous roots, these women spit on their own reduction and invent new ways to survive, telling their stories in bold, unapologetic voices. At once social critique and black comedy, Reservoir Bitches is a raucous debut from one of Mexico’s most thrilling new writers.

From Below
Darcy Coates