rianh
books should look like they’ve been read (dog-eared, broken spine, etc.) #hottake
559 points
0% overlap
My Taste
Reading...
36%
Post from the Chain-Gang All-Stars forum
2d
Thoughts from 26% (page 106)
I’m hooked, anddd wishing the dystopia wasn’t so familiar to the current United States.
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rianh TBR'd a book
2d
Brawler: Stories
Lauren Groff
One of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling Florida. Each story in Lauren Groff’s electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. They hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region -- from New England to Florida to California -- these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels. “In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,“ one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can. Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive. It is a timeless, stunning achievement from one of the very best short story writers working today.
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rianh started reading...
3d
Chain-Gang All-Stars
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.
In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.
Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.
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rianh wrote a review...
3d
This is a really cute YA novel with good representation. The main characters come into who they are throughout the story, and grow with one another to be confident in those identities. The swimming aspect allows for the tackling of intersecting identities for athletes, specifically nonbinary and type 1 diabetic athletes.
Ruby is a T1D swimmer who is working on swimming again after being diagnosed, and Eliana is a queer and nonbinary swimmer who is navigating what it means to come out. They meet at the BATS camp pushing each other to compete better while also getting closer and closer and providing those safe spaces that each other needed.
Overall, it was a quick read, and a good storyline. The author is clearly passionate about the topics they tackled within the story, which I really enjoyed.
I was a little confused at points because it seemed to jump from point to point, without fully flushing out what was happening. I also would’ve enjoyed more character development, cause that also felt a bit rushed. However, it’s definitely worth the read, and perfect for the summer!
Thank you to Casey Swain and BookFunnel for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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rianh finished a book
3d
Not Here to Make Friends
Casey Swain
Two swimmers under pressure. One trying not to get close to anyone, the other trying to save their beloved camp. And a growing connection between them that makes everything messier.
Ruby Hopkins has had the worst year of her life. Dropped from her high school’s swim team, nearly kicked out of school, and now newly diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, she is waiting for an opportunity to show the world that she can still have a future in the water. When a comeback comes in the form of an intensive summer training camp, she takes it with no hesitation. She just has one rule: no friends, no attachments, no chances to get hurt again.
Eliana Marsh, team captain and rising social media star, is used to the pressure to perform. But behind their bubbly personality, Eliana is wrestling with their gender identity and what it could mean for their career in swimming. When Eliana learns the camp could close if the team does not place at the upcoming championship, they know it’s now or never to help coach the team to a win.
For Eliana’s plan to succeed, they know training one-on-one with Ruby will help both of their times improve. And despite Ruby’s irritability, she agrees, slowly opening herself up to vulnerability that she never expected.
With the championship fast approaching and recruitment season starting, Ruby and Eliana must decide what they are willing to risk, both in and out of the pool.
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rianh TBR'd a book
3d
Circe
Madeline Miller
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--neither powerful like her father nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power: the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love.
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rianh TBR'd a book
4d
Main Characters
Bobby Palmer
THIS IS A LOVE STORY, TOLD BY EVERYONE BUT THE MAIN CHARACTERS. Clara and Seb are about to fall in love. They don't know it yet. But everybody else does.When Clara and Seb meet in a quiet corner of London, it's the start of something. She wants to be a director. He's an actor, unsure what he wants from life.Their connection is magnetic. Everyone can see that falling in love looks something like this. But when Clara casts Seb in the film that will make her name, what should be the happiest time of their lives ends with a gut-wrenching betrayal.Some love stories are bigger than just two people. This one is told through the eyes of friends, flatmates, exes and strangers who see all the sides of Seb and Clara, from their first date to the moment they fell apart. Everyone has their version of events. But only Clara and Seb can decide how their story ends...
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rianh started reading...
1w
Not Here to Make Friends
Casey Swain
Two swimmers under pressure. One trying not to get close to anyone, the other trying to save their beloved camp. And a growing connection between them that makes everything messier.
Ruby Hopkins has had the worst year of her life. Dropped from her high school’s swim team, nearly kicked out of school, and now newly diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, she is waiting for an opportunity to show the world that she can still have a future in the water. When a comeback comes in the form of an intensive summer training camp, she takes it with no hesitation. She just has one rule: no friends, no attachments, no chances to get hurt again.
Eliana Marsh, team captain and rising social media star, is used to the pressure to perform. But behind their bubbly personality, Eliana is wrestling with their gender identity and what it could mean for their career in swimming. When Eliana learns the camp could close if the team does not place at the upcoming championship, they know it’s now or never to help coach the team to a win.
For Eliana’s plan to succeed, they know training one-on-one with Ruby will help both of their times improve. And despite Ruby’s irritability, she agrees, slowly opening herself up to vulnerability that she never expected.
With the championship fast approaching and recruitment season starting, Ruby and Eliana must decide what they are willing to risk, both in and out of the pool.
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rianh wrote a review...
1w
There’s something so lovely about a coming of age story, and the navigation of first loves and friendships with those intertwined in every aspect of your being.
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rianh finished a book
1w
Girl's Girl
Sonia Feldman
From a dazzling new talent, a sensual and spellbinding novel about one summer that shatters the balance between three best friends, forcing them to confront the line between friendship and desireFifteen-year-old Mina’s whole world is her two best friends, but after an unexpected kiss, the established dynamics of their trio quickly unravel. Everything that was once shared openly, from clothes to secrets, now feels impossibly fragile. Loyalties shift and tensions simmer across the long days of this pivotal summer, where the girls have nowhere new to go and everything new to feel.Looking back, an adult Mina traces the undercurrents of longing that shaped her first experience of desire. The rituals of girlhood—gossip, selfies, sleepovers, and videogames—become threads in a delicate, volatile web of intimacy, in which everything feels achingly fleeting and permanently etched. Loving one person, Mina learns, can change the way we love everyone else—including ourselves. Bold, vulnerable, and sharply observant, Girl’s Girl is a sundrenched and dewy snapshot of modern girl culture set in the blaze of one suburban Midwest summer.
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rianh TBR'd a book
1w
Not Here to Make Friends
Casey Swain
Two swimmers under pressure. One trying not to get close to anyone, the other trying to save their beloved camp. And a growing connection between them that makes everything messier.
Ruby Hopkins has had the worst year of her life. Dropped from her high school’s swim team, nearly kicked out of school, and now newly diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, she is waiting for an opportunity to show the world that she can still have a future in the water. When a comeback comes in the form of an intensive summer training camp, she takes it with no hesitation. She just has one rule: no friends, no attachments, no chances to get hurt again.
Eliana Marsh, team captain and rising social media star, is used to the pressure to perform. But behind their bubbly personality, Eliana is wrestling with their gender identity and what it could mean for their career in swimming. When Eliana learns the camp could close if the team does not place at the upcoming championship, they know it’s now or never to help coach the team to a win.
For Eliana’s plan to succeed, they know training one-on-one with Ruby will help both of their times improve. And despite Ruby’s irritability, she agrees, slowly opening herself up to vulnerability that she never expected.
With the championship fast approaching and recruitment season starting, Ruby and Eliana must decide what they are willing to risk, both in and out of the pool.
0
0Reply
rianh TBR'd a book
1w
Triple Threat: A Novel
Katie Chandler
From the author of the “exquisite” (The New York Times) Backhanded Compliments, a steamy sports romance about a disgraced tennis star, the ex-pro who becomes her coach, and the soulmate they share. Perfect for fans of Challengers and Carrie Soto Is Back.Octavia Ricci has spent her entire life proving she doesn’t need anyone—especially not her father, the controlling coach who built her career and broke her spirit. But after a public meltdown at the Australian Open, the icy Grand Slam champion isn’t sure if she ever wants to play again. She agrees to take it one tournament at a time, now under a new coach, determined to find her footing and love of the game again. Ariel de Cordova was once the next big thing in tennis until a devastating injury ended his career. Now, with his confidence shot, he’s not sure he can handle another player’s comeback story—especially not a player as volatile as Octavia. But as they practice, they both tentatively open up about their experiences and begin to heal their deepest wounds. The only stable, grounding presence in Octavia’s life is her soulmate and partner, Leo Mantovani. But he has two soulmarks on his wrist, and when Leo shakes hands with Octavia’s new coach for the first time, Ariel turns out to be Leo’s other soulmate. Knowing the optics of a player and coach relationship aren’t ideal, they decide to keep their relationship secret and surface-level. While Octavia, Ariel, and Leo fight to keep their relationship private, the tennis world is watching their every move. But when the spotlight turns harsh and old wounds resurface, they’ll have to decide if love is worth risking their careers, their reputations, and their hearts.
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rianh TBR'd a book
1w
Evie Walters Takes the Wheel: A Novel
Kathleen Fox
In this warmhearted and witty debut, a mysterious gift spurs a widow to take a cross-country journey to find its sender―and along the way, she rediscovers herself.
Evie Walters has lived most of her seventy-one years according to others’ expectations. But on the day of her husband’s funeral, she receives an anonymous delivery: an egret orchid. The same flower a Montana ranch hand once gave her decades ago―Novel Daniels, the boy who thought she could do anything.
So now, she does.
Defying her children’s plans to move her into a retirement home, Evie buys a camper van and leaves life in North Carolina abruptly behind. Accompanied by her devoted rescue dog, she heads west to find her cowboy, befriending an unlikely cast of characters along the way. Free-spirited young vanlifers, roadside waitresses, eccentric billionaires, and kindhearted widowers all show Evie a side of life worth living.
But Evie’s drive toward the future takes her back to the past, to memories of the family ranch and childhood dreams. Now, with a second chance as open as the road before her, there’s no telling who Evie Walters will become.
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rianh started reading...
1w
Girl's Girl
Sonia Feldman
From a dazzling new talent, a sensual and spellbinding novel about one summer that shatters the balance between three best friends, forcing them to confront the line between friendship and desireFifteen-year-old Mina’s whole world is her two best friends, but after an unexpected kiss, the established dynamics of their trio quickly unravel. Everything that was once shared openly, from clothes to secrets, now feels impossibly fragile. Loyalties shift and tensions simmer across the long days of this pivotal summer, where the girls have nowhere new to go and everything new to feel.Looking back, an adult Mina traces the undercurrents of longing that shaped her first experience of desire. The rituals of girlhood—gossip, selfies, sleepovers, and videogames—become threads in a delicate, volatile web of intimacy, in which everything feels achingly fleeting and permanently etched. Loving one person, Mina learns, can change the way we love everyone else—including ourselves. Bold, vulnerable, and sharply observant, Girl’s Girl is a sundrenched and dewy snapshot of modern girl culture set in the blaze of one suburban Midwest summer.
0
0Reply
rianh wrote a review...
1w
This book is honestly one of my favorite romances that I’ve read in a long time. Kay Marie does a brilliant job of creating characters that have depth, are individuals, and are also able to interact with one another to form believable connections and relationships. Plus, there was not a main focus on spice and making the book as heated as possible, which I felt really added to the realness of Clara and Nox. One more thing I want to point out is that Kay takes the time to delve into both Clara and Nox’s friendships, making them more than just their love story. I would especially recommend if you enjoyed Ali Hazelwood’s Deep End. 🏊♂️
Many thanks to: Kaitlyn Davis (Kay Marie), and NetGalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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