jslynschapterverse
Talk books to me. Love mysteries, thrillers, and historical fiction but I read a lot of different genres. She/her. Sorry for the probable typos.
11197 points
0% overlap
My Taste
Reading...
26%
29%
37%
40%
jslynschapterverse commented on auggie's update
4h
auggie is re-reading...
1d
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy
Acclaimed by many as the world's greatest novel, Anna Karenina provides a vast panorama of contemporary life in Russia and of humanity in general. In it Tolstoy uses his intense imaginative insight to create some of the most memorable characters in all of literature. Anna is a sophisticated woman who abandons her empty existence as the wife of Karenin and turns to Count Vronsky to fulfil her passionate nature - with tragic consequences. Levin is a reflection of Tolstoy himself, often expressing the author's own views and convictions.
Throughout, Tolstoy points no moral, merely inviting us not to judge but to watch. As Rosemary Edmonds comments, 'He leaves the shifting patterns of the kaleidoscope to bring home the meaning of the brooding words following the title, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.
31
8Reply
jslynschapterverse commented on brainycrawl's update
4h
jslynschapterverse commented on gracie's update
4h
jslynschapterverse commented on jslynschapterverse's update
4h
jslynschapterverse made progress on...
4h
In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
Lawrence Block
26%
2
1Reply
jslynschapterverse made progress on...
4h
In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
Lawrence Block
26%
2
1Reply
jslynschapterverse is interested in reading...
19h
Highblood
Claudia Amador
“They say that as a young pup she liked to bite. She ripped chunks of flesh from three servants and nearly bled one of them to death.”
In Barranquilla, Carnival belongs to the living, the dead, and the women who feed on both.
Julieta Vanterroso was born with fangs, a beautiful little monster in a family that knew exactly what to do with monsters. Her grandmother, Julia Vanterroso, has built an empire out of the Sanguina factory, the Highblood Club, the old Carnival families, the politicians, the servants, the bodies that can be drained and paid and forgotten. In Barranquilla, the Vanterrosos do not hide what they are. They dress it in lace, teach it to dance, put it on a float, and call it tradition.
Now Julieta is meant to become Queen of Carnival. She must smile, dance, read the Bando, marry the man chosen for her, and step into the future her grandmother has prepared since the day she was born. But as Carnival approaches and the Vanterroso family begins to turn on itself, bodies appear where they shouldn’t, old rituals start to fail, and the women around Julieta grow hungry in ways even blood cannot satisfy.
By the time Carnival crowns its queen, Julieta will have to decide how much of herself she is willing to lose to become what her family has been waiting for.
Drawing from Afro-Caribbean spiritual traditions, Highblood transforms Barranquilla Carnival into a landscape of blood, spectacle, and ritual, where women inherit hunger like a family heirloom and survival depends on who is willing to devour whom first.
5
0Reply
jslynschapterverse commented on jslynschapterverse's update
1d
jslynschapterverse made progress on...
1d
In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
Lawrence Block
13%
4
1Reply
jslynschapterverse made progress on...
1d
In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
Lawrence Block
13%
4
1Reply
jslynschapterverse made progress on...
1d
In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
Lawrence Block
8%
4
0Reply
jslynschapterverse is interested in reading...
2d
Sky Full of Elephants
Cebo Campbell
In this exquisite speculative novel set in a world where white people no longer exist, college professor Charlie Brunton receives a call from his estranged daughter Sidney, setting off a chain of events as they journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search of answers.
One day, a cataclysmic event occurs: all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charles Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from someone he wasn’t even sure existed: his daughter Sidney, a nineteen-year-old who watched her white mother and step-family drown themselves in the lake behind their house.
Traumatized by the event, and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across America headed for Alabama, where Sidney believes she may still have some family left. But neither Sidney or Charlie is prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.
When they enter the Kingdom of Alabama, everything Charlie and Sidney thought they knew about themselves, and the world, will be turned upside down. Brimming with heart and humor, Cebo Campbell’s astonishing debut novel is about the power of community and connection, about healing and self-actualization, and a reckoning with what it means to be Black in America, in both their world and ours.
6
0Reply
jslynschapterverse TBR'd a book
2d
Lore of the Wilds (Lore of the Wilds, #1)
Analeigh Sbrana
A stunning Romantasy debut about an enchanted library, two handsome Fae, and one human who brings them all together.
A library with a deadly enchantment.
A Fae lord who wants in.
A human woman willing to risk it all for a taste of power.
In a land ruled by ruthless Fae, twenty-one-year-old Lore Alemeyu’s village is trapped in a forested prison. Lore knows that any escape attempt is futile—her scars are a testament to her past failures. But when her village is threatened, Lore makes a desperate deal with a Fae lord. She will leave her home to catalog/organize an enchanted library that hasn’t been touched in a thousand years. No Fae may enter the library, but there is a chance a human might be able to breach the cursed doors.
She convinces him that she will risk her life for wealth, but really she’s after the one thing the Fae covet above all: magic of her own.
As Lore navigates the hostile world outside, she’s forced to rely on two Fae males to survive. Two very different, very dangerous, very attractive Fae males. When undeniable chemistry ignites, she’s not just in danger of losing her life, but her heart to the very creatures she can never trust.
6
0Reply
jslynschapterverse is interested in reading...
2d
The Queen's Spade
Sarah Raughley
In this riveting historical thriller that’s loosely inspired by true life events, The Count of Monte Cristo meets Bridgerton as revenge, romance, and twisted secrets take center stage in Victorian England’s royal court when Sally, a kidnapped African princess and goddaughter to Queen Victoria, plots her way to take down the monarchy that stole her from her homeland.
A young lady can take only so many injuries before humiliation and insult forge a vow of revenge . . .
The year is 1862, and murderous desires are simmering in England. Nineteen-year-old Sarah Bonetta Forbes (Sally), once a princess of the Egbado Clan, desires one thing above all else: revenge against the British Crown and its system of colonial “humanitarianism,” which stole her dignity and transformed her into royal property. From military men to political leaders, she’s vowed to ruin all who’ve had a hand in her afflictions. The top of her list? Her godmother, Britain’s mighty monarch, Queen Victoria herself.
Taking down the Crown means entering into a twisted game of court politics and manipulating the Queen’s inner circle—even if that means aligning with a dangerous yet alluring crime lord in London’s underworld and exploiting the affections of Queen Victoria’s own son, Prince Albert, as a means to an end. But when Queen Victoria begins to suspect Sally’s true intentions, she plays the only card in Victorian society that could possibly cage Sally once again: marriage. Because if there’s one thing Sally desires more than revenge, it’s her freedom. With time running out and her wedding day looming, Sally’s vengeful game of cat and mouse turns deadly as she’s faced with the striking revelation that that the price for vengeance isn’t just paid in blood. It means sacrificing your heart.
Loosely inspired by the true story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s African goddaughter, The Queen’s Spade is a lush and riveting historical thriller perfect for fans of A Dowry of Blood and Grave Mercy.
5
0Reply
jslynschapterverse TBR'd a book
2d
Conjure Women
Afia Atakora
A mother and daughter with a shared talent for healing—and for the conjuring of curses—are at the heart of this dazzling first novel
Conjure Women is a sweeping story that brings the world of the South before and after the Civil War vividly to life. Spanning eras and generations, it tells of the lives of three unforgettable women: Miss May Belle, a wise healing woman; her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother's footsteps as a midwife; and their master's daughter Varina. The secrets and bonds among these women and their community come to a head at the beginning of a war and at the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom.
Magnificently written, brilliantly researched, richly imagined, Conjure Women moves back and forth in time to tell the haunting story of Rue, Varina, and May Belle, their passions and friendships, and the lengths they will go to save themselves and those they love.
4
0Reply
jslynschapterverse is interested in reading...
2d
Mindscape
Andrea Hairston
MINDSCAPE takes us to a future in which the world itself has been literally divided by the Barrier, a phenomenon that will not be ignored. For 115 years this extraterrestrial, epidimensional entity has divided the earth into warring zones. Although a treaty to end the interzonal wars has been hammered out, power-hungry politicians, gangsters, and spiritual fundamentalists are determined to thwart it. Celestina, the treaty's architect, is assassinated, and her protegee, Elleni, a talented renegade and one of the few able to negotiate the Barrier, takes up her mantle. Now Elleni and a motley crew of allies risk their lives to make the treaty work. Can they repair their fractured world before the Barrier devours them completely?
5
0Reply
jslynschapterverse commented on a post
2d
jslynschapterverse commented on a post from the Pagebound Club forum
2d
what are your hobbies BESIDES reading???
in my time on PB, i’ve noticed that a lot of people here seem to enjoy making crafts in addition to reading (fabric crafts, diamond painting, etc etc). which is super cool! i’d love to know what everybody else here loves to do that isn’t reading :] for me: i love doing anything outside (the activity doesn’t matter, if i could be outdoors all the time i would be), music (listening to it, playing it, and songwriting!) and drawing
105
291Reply
jslynschapterverse commented on jslynschapterverse's update
2d
jslynschapterverse started reading...
2d
In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
Lawrence Block
A truly unprecedented literary achievement by author and editor Lawrence Block, with this commissioned anthology of seventeen superbly-crafted stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper. "Edward Hopper is surely the greatest American narrative painter. His work bears special resonance for writers and readers, and yet his paintings never tell a story so much as they invite viewers to find for themselves the untold stories within." So says Lawrence Block, who has invited seventeen outstanding writers to join him in an unprecedented anthology of brand-new stories: In Sunlight or In Shadow. The results are remarkable and range across all genres, wedding literary excellence to storytelling savvy.
Contributors include Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, Craig Ferguson, Nicholas Christopher, Jill D. Block, Joe R. Lansdale, Spider Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Warren Moore, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, and Lawrence Block himself. Even Gail Levin, Hopper's biographer and compiler of his catalogue raisonée, appears with her own first work of fiction, providing a true account of art theft on a grand scale and told in the voice of the country preacher who perpetrated the crime. In a beautifully produced anthology as befits such a collection of acclaimed authors, each story is illustrated with a quality full-color reproduction of the painting that inspired it. Illustrated with 17 full color plates, one for each chapter.
Contents:
* Girlie Show / Megan Abbott
* Story of Caroline / Jill D. Block
*Soir Bleu / Robert Olen Butler
* Truth About What Happened / Lee Child
* Rooms by the Sea / Nicholas Christopher
* Nighthawks / Michael Connelly
* Incident of 10 November / Jeffery Deaver
* Taking Care of Business / Craig Ferguson
* Music Room / Stephen King
* Projectionist / Joe R. Lansdale
* Preacher Collects / Gail Levin
* Office at Night / Warren Moore
* Woman in the Window / Joyce Carol Oates
* Still Life 1931 / Kris Nelscott
* Night Windows / Jonathan Santlofer
* Woman in the Sun / Justin Scott
* Autumn at the Automat / Lawrence Block
.
3
1Reply
jslynschapterverse commented on jslynschapterverse's update
2d
jslynschapterverse made progress on...
2d
In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
Lawrence Block
7%
3
1Reply
jslynschapterverse made progress on...
2d
In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper
Lawrence Block
7%
3
1Reply
