oddsandbookends | Pagebound

3h

What Have You Done?

Shari Lapena

The new binge-worthy novel from the “queen of the one-sit read,” and New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont. But this morning that will change. And one innocent question could be deadly. What have you done? The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust their kids will arrive home safe from school. Everyone knows everyone. Curtains rarely twitch. Front doors are left unlocked. But Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. Instead she lies in a hayfield, circled by vultures, discovered by a local farmer. How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia. Someone in Fairhill did this. Everyone wants answers.

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3h

The Nightmare Man

J.H. Markert

T. Kingfisher meets Cassandra Khaw in a chilling horror novel that illustrates the fine line between humanity and monstrosity. Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of New Haven. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life. Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax. As the series of “Scarecrow crimes” continues to mirror the book, Ben quickly becomes the prime suspect. He can’t remember much from the night he finished writing the novel, but he knows he wrote it in The Atrium, his grandfather’s forbidden room full of numbered books. Thousands of books. Books without words. As Ben digs deep into Blackwood’s history he learns he may have triggered a release of something trapped long ago—and it won’t stop with the horrors buried within the pages of his book.

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oddsandbookends wrote a review...

3h

oddsandbookends

Apr 15, 2026

2.0

Enjoyment: 1.0Quality: 1.5Characters: 0.5Plot: 1.5

😴

❔

👩‍🦳

Good thing I read about the tea shortage several times instead of getting insights into characters' motivations.

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3h

We Lived on the Horizon

Erika Swyler

A novel about a bio-prosthetic surgeon and her personal AI as they are drawn into a catastrophic war. The city of Bulwark is aptly a walled city built to protect and preserve the people who managed to survive a series of great cataclysms, Bulwark was founded on a system where sacrifice is rewarded by the AI that runs the city. Over generations, an elite class has evolved from the descendants of those who gave up the most to found mankind’s last stronghold, called the Sainted. Saint Enita Malovis, long accustomed to luxury, feels the end of her life and decades of work as a bio-prosthetist approaching. The lone practitioner of her art, Enita is determined to preserve her legacy and decides to create a physical being, called Nix, filled with her knowledge and experience. In the midst of her project, a fellow Sainted is brutally murdered and the city AI inexplicably erases the event from its data. Soon, Enita and Nix are drawn into the growing war that could change everything between Bulwark’s hidden underclass and the programs that impose and maintain order. A complex, imaginative, and unforgettable novel, We Lived on the Horizon grapples with concepts as varied as the human desire for utopia, body horror, and what the future holds for humanity and machine alike.

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oddsandbookends started reading...

11h

We Lived on the Horizon

Erika Swyler

A novel about a bio-prosthetic surgeon and her personal AI as they are drawn into a catastrophic war. The city of Bulwark is aptly a walled city built to protect and preserve the people who managed to survive a series of great cataclysms, Bulwark was founded on a system where sacrifice is rewarded by the AI that runs the city. Over generations, an elite class has evolved from the descendants of those who gave up the most to found mankind’s last stronghold, called the Sainted. Saint Enita Malovis, long accustomed to luxury, feels the end of her life and decades of work as a bio-prosthetist approaching. The lone practitioner of her art, Enita is determined to preserve her legacy and decides to create a physical being, called Nix, filled with her knowledge and experience. In the midst of her project, a fellow Sainted is brutally murdered and the city AI inexplicably erases the event from its data. Soon, Enita and Nix are drawn into the growing war that could change everything between Bulwark’s hidden underclass and the programs that impose and maintain order. A complex, imaginative, and unforgettable novel, We Lived on the Horizon grapples with concepts as varied as the human desire for utopia, body horror, and what the future holds for humanity and machine alike.

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13h

Strange Bedfellows: A Novel

Amanda Mortlock

5%

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13h

Strange Bedfellows: A Novel

Amanda Mortlock

A dark and steamy debut novel about a girl—who is sometimes a cat—and the witch she loves, as secrets from her past threaten to unravel the delicate balance of her present, from screenwriter Amanda Mortlock.Cleo is a willfully aloof college student with an impossible secret. When she meets Wes, a brooding musician, at a Halloween party, their connection is instant, electric, and impossible to ignore. Their romance takes a mystical turn when Wes discovers what Cleo’s been sometimes she takes the form of his pet cat. Enter Bailey and Ollie—their magical counterparts—who reveal a deeper tie between Cleo and he’s a witch, and she’s his animal familiar. As past secrets collide with their entangled present, Cleo faces her greatest fear—losing Wes. With long-gone threats returning and danger looming, Cleo must confront her role in their dark and violent shared history and decide if she’s willing to fight for their future.

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1d

oddsandbookends

Apr 14, 2026

5.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 5.0Plot: 5.0

👩🏾‍🎓

🤳

😬

Just a Girl is the story of a young black girl who becomes the victim of an incel harassment spree. Cole does a perfect job building tension in this story. The incidents escalate naturally and culminate in one truly scary moment. Tiana is written remarkably; she's scared but has all the public bravery that comes with being young. I can easily see my younger self acting the same way in a similar situation.

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1d

oddsandbookends

Apr 14, 2026

5.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: Plot:

📼

🤓

📹

Object Lessons is a series of microhistories about a variety of objects. Videotape goes into the history of VHS from when the idea was formed to its current existence in niche communities of collectors. I knew pretty much none of this information, which is why I love this series, and I was deeply interested the whole time. It was very well written, and I'm excited to see what else I can learn from this series.

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1d

Videotape (Object Lessons)

Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Over the span of a single decade, VHS technology changed the relationship between privacy and entertainment, pried open the closed societies behind the Iron Curtain, and then sank back into oblivion.Its meteoric rise and fall encapsulated the dynamics of the '80s and foreshadowed the seismic cultural shifts to come after the Cold War.In the West, its advent deepened the trends of the individualism, consumerism, the fragmentation of society, and the consolidation of corporate power in the entertainment industry and its victory over the regulatory powers of the state. In the East, it encouraged new forms of socialization and economicexchanges, while announcing the gradual crumbling of government control over the imagination of the people.By the mid-1990s, the VHS format was displaced by the DVD. The DVD would eventually give way to streaming. Yet the cultural legacy of the videotape continues to inform our relationship to technology, privacy, and to entertainment.

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1d

oddsandbookends

Apr 14, 2026

5.0

Enjoyment: 5.0Quality: 5.0Characters: 4.5Plot: 4.5

👰

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🐈

Lift Me Up is an adorable romance about a woman who gets trapped in the elevator with the new boss she thinks is about to fire her. This story is very much about Tam's rediscovery of herself, and the romance is the side character. There's still swoony moments, but this story is such a beautiful love letter to taking your color back.

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oddsandbookends wrote a review...

1d

oddsandbookends

Apr 13, 2026

4.0

Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.0Characters: 4.0Plot: 4.0

❄️

🛏️

😢

I don't understand how Katherine Center can make someone feel so many things at once. This enemies-to-lovers romance involves family connection and a heartbreaking misunderstanding from years earlier. It was a sweet and fun romance to get swept into for an hour.

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oddsandbookends started reading...

1d

Videotape (Object Lessons)

Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.Over the span of a single decade, VHS technology changed the relationship between privacy and entertainment, pried open the closed societies behind the Iron Curtain, and then sank back into oblivion.Its meteoric rise and fall encapsulated the dynamics of the '80s and foreshadowed the seismic cultural shifts to come after the Cold War.In the West, its advent deepened the trends of the individualism, consumerism, the fragmentation of society, and the consolidation of corporate power in the entertainment industry and its victory over the regulatory powers of the state. In the East, it encouraged new forms of socialization and economicexchanges, while announcing the gradual crumbling of government control over the imagination of the people.By the mid-1990s, the VHS format was displaced by the DVD. The DVD would eventually give way to streaming. Yet the cultural legacy of the videotape continues to inform our relationship to technology, privacy, and to entertainment.

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oddsandbookends DNF'd a book

1d

Typewriter Beach

Meg Waite Clayton

A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 2025 HOT SUMMER READ: "Irresistible.” Set in Hollywood and Carmel-by-the-Sea, an unforgettable story of the unlikely friendship between an Oscar-nominated screenwriter and a young actress hoping to be Alfred Hitchcock's new star — from the internationally bestselling author of The Postmistress of Paris and The Last Train to London, 1957. Isabella Giori is ten months into a standard seven-year studio contract when she auditions with Hitchcock. Just weeks later, she is sequestered by the studio’s “fixer” in a tiny Carmel cottage. Léon Chazan, next door, is annoyed as hell when Iz interrupts his work on yet another screenplay he won’t be able to sell, because he’s been blacklisted. But soon, they’re in his roadster, speeding down the fog-shrouded Big Sur coast. 2018. Twenty-six-year-old screenwriter Gemma Chazan, in Carmel to sell her grandfather’s cottage, finds a hidden safe full of secrets—raising questions about who the screenwriter known simply as Chazan really was, and whether she can live up to his name. In graceful prose and with an intimate understanding of human nature, Meg Waite Clayton captures the joys and frustrations of being a writer, being a woman, being a star, and being in love. Typewriter Beach is the story of two women separated by generations—a tale of ideas and ideals, passion and persistence, creativity, politics, and family.

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1d

Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff

oddsandbookends

Apr 13, 2026

4.0

Enjoyment: 3.5Quality: 3.5Characters: Plot:

🧹

💆‍♀️

🏡

Decluttering at the Speed of Life shows how to delutter your home by following just 3 steps and asking yourself 2 questions. The advice is practical and easily applied. The book is repetitive in that it's reinforcing ideas, which I found helpful. Read through this book if you're feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff you've accumulated.

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oddsandbookends finished a book

1d

Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff

Dana K. White

You don't have to live overwhelmed by stuff--you can get rid of clutter for good! While the world seems to be in love with the idea of tiny houses and minimalism, many of us simply can't purge it all and start from nothing. Yet a home with too much stuff is a home that is difficult to maintain, so where do we begin? Add in paralyzing emotional attachments and constant life challenges, and it can feel almost impossible to make real decluttering progress. In Decluttering at the Speed of Life, decluttering expert and author Dana White identifies the mind-sets and emotional challenges that make it difficult to declutter. Then, in her signature humorous approach, she provides workable solutions to break through these struggles and get clutter out--for good! But more than simply offering strategies, Dana dives deep into how to implement them, no matter the reader's clutter level or emotional resistance to decluttering. She helps identify procrasticlutter--the stuff that will get done eventually so it doesn't seem urgent--as well as how to make progress when there's no time to declutter. Sections of the book include Why You Need This Book (You Know Why) Your Unique Home Decluttering in the Midst of Real Life Change Your Mind, Change Your Home Breaking Through Your Decluttering Delusions Working It Out Room by Room Helping Others Declutter Real Life Goes On (and On) As long as we're living and breathing, new clutter will appear. The good news is that decluttering can get easier, become more natural, and require significantly fewer hours, less emotional bandwidth, and little to no sweat to keep going.

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oddsandbookends wrote a review...

1d

oddsandbookends

Apr 13, 2026

4.0

Enjoyment: 4.0Quality: 4.0Characters: Plot:

✒️

😢

🤞🏻

A Suit or a Suitcase is a poetic exploration of the self: what and who we are, how we're shaped, what happens after death, and small moments that feel incredibly important. Smith's writing is lyrical without artifice. Her poems feel very grounded and connected to the human experience.

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