unguided-reading

(sorry for clogging up y'all's feeds as I finishing importing my tbr) 🇦🇺🪻🐴|| impulsive mood reader || "It has ceased to be a tbr pile and has become an art installation on the passage of time."

2119 points

0% overlap

My Taste

Lieutenant Hornblower (Hornblower Saga: Chronological Order, #2)

To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2)

Reading...

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)

unguided-reading wants to read...

The Prison Teacher: Stories from Britain's Most Notorious Women's Prison

Mim Skinner

"Headlines and news reports of prison leave us with a boiled-down narrative of goodies and baddies - violent offenders, neglectful mothers and incurable psychopaths if you read one paper, or cruel officers, the evil establishment and sexist judges if you read another. But, very rarely, just humans. When I started working in prisons, part of me expected to find this pantomime cast of characters. Instead I met wonderful, funny, brave and resilient people with complicated stories - on both sides of the bars. Come inside with me and meet them."

unguided-reading wants to read...

On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, #1)

David Weber

Honor Harrington in trouble: Having made him look the fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her. Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station. The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens. Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling, the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is Up to Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system. But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad!

unguided-reading wants to read...

Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir

Maggie Thrash

All-girl camp. First love. First heartbreak. At once romantic and devastating, brutally honest and full of humor, this graphic-novel memoir is a debut of the rarest sort. Maggie Thrash has spent basically every summer of her fifteen-year-old life at the one-hundred-year-old Camp Bellflower for Girls, set deep in the heart of Appalachia. She’s from Atlanta, she’s never kissed a guy, she’s into Backstreet Boys in a really deep way, and her long summer days are full of a pleasant, peaceful nothing . . . until one confounding moment. A split-second of innocent physical contact pulls Maggie into a gut-twisting love for an older, wiser, and most surprising of all (at least to Maggie), female counselor named Erin. But Camp Bellflower is an impossible place for a girl to fall in love with another girl, and Maggie’s savant-like proficiency at the camp’s rifle range is the only thing keeping her heart from exploding. When it seems as if Erin maybe feels the same way about Maggie, it’s too much for both Maggie and Camp Bellflower to handle, let alone to understand.

unguided-reading wants to read...

Dream of the Serpent

Alan Ryker

Cody Miller is on the brink of having it all: an MBA, a high-powered job in corporate finance, and the girl of his dreams. And then one mistake, one unfortunate accident, takes it all away in the blink of an eye. His future, his health and his hope—gone—up in flames, leaving him the victim of an unimaginably horrific injury. Upon emerging from a coma, Cody discovers his life and plans have been shattered. As he struggles to find the strength to go on and a reason to live, he slowly begins to realize things may not be as they seem. His life has changed more than he could've ever imagined, but someone…or something…may be working beneath the surface…changing the world around him, altering lives and procuring victims…an ancient evil that hides in plain sight and destroys as it consumes. To uncover the truth, Cody will have to forget everything he thought he knew about reality in order to salvage his sanity and save the life of the woman he loves. How much would you give, how far would you go, what would you sacrifice, to save the person you love more than life itself? From deep within the flames, Cody Miller is about to find out.

unguided-reading wants to read...

The Hoard

Alan Ryker

A new breed…a new evil… Hidden deep beneath its landfill lair of trash and filth, a strange new organism has come to life. When an accidental fire drives it out, the mysterious creature escapes across the drought-blasted Kansas prairie and finds the home of elderly hoarder Anna Grish. In desperate need of shelter, it burrows in, concealed amidst the squalor and mess. When Adult Protective Services force Anna to vacate her junk-riddled home, she moves in with her son and his family. But there is something wrong with Anna, something more than her declining mental condition and severe hoarding disorder. Something sinister has taken hold of her, and it’s not only getting stronger, it’s spreading. Amidst the wide-open Kansas plains, with endless blue sky above and flat, open vista stretching from one horizon to the next, there is nowhere to hide from…THE HOARD.

unguided-reading wants to read...

French Concession

Xiao Bai

An acclaimed Chinese writer makes his English language debut with this heart-stopping literary noir, a richly atmospheric tale of espionage and international intrigue, set in Shanghai in 1931—an electrifying, decadent world of love, violence, and betrayal filled with femme fatales, criminals, revolutionaries, and spies A boat from Hong Kong arrives in Shanghai harbor, carrying an important official in the Nationalist Party and his striking wife, Leng. Amid the raucous sound of firecrackers, gunshots ring out; an assassin has shot the official and then himself. Leng disappears in the ensuing chaos. Hseuh, a Franco-Chinese photographer aboard the same boat, became captivated by Leng’s beauty and unconcealed misery. Now, she is missing. But Hsueh is is plagued by a mystery closer to home: he suspects his White Russian lover, Therese, is unfaithful. Why else would she disappear so often on their recent vacation? When he’s arrested for mysterious reasons in the French Concession and forced to become a police collaborator, he realizes that in the seamy, devious world of Shanghai, no one is who they appear to be. Coerced into spying for the authorities, Hseuh discovers that Therese is secretly an arms dealer, supplying Shanghai’s gangs with weapons. His investigation of Therese eventually leads him back to Leng, a loyal revolutionary with ties to a menacing new gang, led by a charismatic Communist whose acts of violence and terrorism threaten the entire country. His aptitude for espionage draws Hseuh into a dark underworld of mobsters, smugglers, anarchists, and assassins. Torn between Therese and Leng, he vows to protect them both. As the web of intrigue tightens around him, Hsueh plays a dangerous game, hoping to stay alive.

unguided-reading wants to read...

London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis (Yale Nota Bene)

Jonathan Schneer

London in 1900 was the greatest city on earth―the capital of an empire on which the sun never set. This book is the first to examine this powerful and influential city at the turn of the century and to investigate its relationship with Britain’s far-flung empire. Jonathan Schneer focuses on the diverse, contentious, contradictory personalities of London and its inhabitants, showing the many ways that the empire impinged on them. He describes how a range of citizens―from architects to zoologists, from financiers to striking dockers―helped to define and shape the imperial metropolis. He also shows how the city was influenced by people other than native-born male Anglo-Saxons. Schneer traces the attempts of some of these overlooked peoples to delineate its four extraordinary women―two political hostesses, a journalist, and an explorer-ethnologist―as well as anti-imperialist Irish, South Asians, West Indians, and Africans living in London at this time. In a concluding chapter, Schneer examines the general election of 1900 in London, in which the ruling Conservative government successfully defended its imperialist policies. The people of London, says Schneer, made their city and continually remade and reshaped it―as they continue to do today.

unguided-reading wants to read...

The Remnants

Anna Scanlon

Germany has defeated the Allies, won WWII in Europe and cleansed the territory of undesirables. Yet the war in the Far East still wages on. Welcome to the future of Germania. 16-year-old Stella Engel has lived her entire life in a sheltered, but comfortable middle class existence within the Reich where she has made lifelong friends and fostered her love of science. For most of her childhood, she has hoped to grow up to serve the Reich as a doctor. Her high achievements have earned her a place at the annual Eugenics Competition, where only the best and brightest students in science are invited to compete, securing their future in a high ranking medical school. However, her trip is marred when her best friend Pia, and Pia's entire family suddenly, go missing. After searching for her friend to no avail, something even stranger happens: the Eugenics Competition is interrupted by the mass arrest of all of the contestants. They are now under suspicion of carrying "dirty" genes, or the genes of those the Reich has convinced the public have long been eradicated. Stella's mother helps her manage to flee from the SS temporarily, where Stella learns that nothing in the Reich is as it seems; and that includes Stella herself.

unguided-reading wants to read...

Skim

Mariko Tamaki

Heartbreakingly funny, moving and vibrantly drawn, Skim is an extraordinary book—a smart and sensitive graphic novel of the highest literary and artistic quality, by and about young women. "Skim" is Kimberly Keiko Cameron, a not-slim, would-be Wiccan goth who goes to a private girls' school. When Skim's classmate Katie Matthews is dumped by her boyfriend, who then kills himself, the entire school goes into mourning overdrive. As concerned guidance counselors provide lectures on the "cycle of grief," and the popular clique starts a new club (Girls Celebrate Life!) to bolster school spirit, Skim sinks into an ever-deepening depression. And falling in love only makes things worse... Suicide, depression, love, being gay or not, crushes, cliques, and finding a way to be your own fully human self—are all explored in this brilliant collaboration by cousins Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. An edgy, keenly observed and poignant glimpse into the heartache of being young.

unguided-reading wants to read...

Defend the Grounds (Legend, #1)

Samuel Sattin

What if a biological terror agent wiped out most of humanity, and our domesticated animals were left in charge? How would our dogs and cats set about ruling and rebuilding the world? Ransom, the leader of the Dog Tribe, has been murdered by a creature known as the Endark. An English Pointer named Legend reluctantly rises to lead in his place, vowing to kill the monster once and for all. From acclaimed novelist Samuel Sattin and award-winning illustrator Chris Koehler comes Legend, where cat technology rules, dogs partner with hawks, and humans may be the most beastly creatures of all. Now collecting the first half of the epic comic series Legend.

unguided-reading wants to read...

The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth-Century History

Emma Rothschild

The birth of the modern world as told through the remarkable story of one eighteenth-century family They were abolitionists, speculators, slave owners, government officials, and occasional politicians. They were observers of the anxieties and dramas of empire. And they were from one family. The Inner Life of Empires tells the intimate history of the Johnstones - four sisters and seven brothers who lived in Scotland and around the globe in the fast-changing eighteenth century. Piecing together their voyages, marriages, debts, and lawsuits, and examining their ideas, sentiments, and values, renowned historian Emma Rothschild illuminates a tumultuous period that created the modern economy, the British Empire, and the philosophical Enlightenment. One of the sisters joined a rebel army, was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle, and escaped in disguise in 1746. Her younger brother was a close friend of Adam Smith and David Hume. Another brother was fluent in Persian and Bengali, and married to a celebrated poet. He was the owner of a slave known only as Bell or Belinda, who journeyed from Calcutta to Virginia, was accused in Scotland of infanticide, and was the last person judged to be a slave by a court in the British isles. In Grenada, India, Jamaica, and Florida, the Johnstones embodied the connections between European, American, and Asian empires. Their family history offers insights into a time when distinctions between the public and private, home and overseas, and slavery and servitude were in constant flux. Based on multiple archives, documents, and letters, The Inner Life of Empires looks at one family's complex story to describe the origins of the modern political, economic, and intellectual world.

unguided-reading wants to read...

The Guns of the South

Harry Turtledove

January 1864 –General Robert E. Lee faces defeat. The Army of Northern Virginia is ragged and ill-equpped. Gettysburg has broken the back of the Confederacy and decimated its manpower.Then, Andries Rhoodie, a strange man with an unplaceable accent, approaches Lee with an extraordinary offer. Rhoodie demonstrates an amazing rifle: Its rate of fire is incredible, its lethal efficiency breathtaking--and Rhoodie guarantees unlimited quantitites to the Confederates.The name of the weapon is the AK-47...

unguided-reading wants to read...

The Naturalist Society

Carrie Vaughn

In this magical tale of self-discovery from New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn, a young widow taps into the power that will change the world—if the man’s world she lives in doesn’t destroy her and her newfound friends first. In the summer of 1880, the death of Beth Stanley’s husband puts her life’s work in jeopardy. The magic of Arcane Taxonomy dictates that every natural thing in the world, from weather to animals, can be labeled, and doing so grants the practitioner some of that subject’s unique power. But only men are permitted to train in this philosophy. Losing her husband means that Beth loses the name they put on her work—and any influence she might have wielded. Brandon West and Anton Torrance are campaigning for their expedition to the South Pole, a mission that some believe could make a taxonomist all-powerful by tapping into the earth’s magnetic forces. Their late friend Harry Stanley’s knowledge and connections would have been instrumental, but when they attempt to take custody of his work, they find that it was never his at all. Tied together by this secret and its implications, Beth, Bran, and Anton must find a way for Beth to use her talent for the good of the world, before she’s discovered by those who would lay claim to her rare potential—and her very freedom.

unguided-reading wants to read...

Emmeline

Judith Rossner

The story of Emmeline Mosher, who, before her 14th birthday, was sent from her home on a farm in Maine to support her family by working in a cotton mill in Massachusetts. The year was 1839. An extraordinary novel from the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR, the story of a desperate young girl thrust into one of America's early industrial towns is a haunting tale of seduction.

unguided-reading wants to read...

Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters

Joan Ryan

From starvation diets and debilitating injuries to the brutal tactics of tyrannical gymnastics guru Bela Karolyi, Little Girls in Pretty Boxes portrays the horrors endured by girls at the hands of their coaches and sometimes their own families. An acclaimed expose that has already helped reform Olympic sports—now updated to reflect the latest developments in women's gymnastics and figure skating—it continues to plead for sanity, safety, and an end to our national obsession: winning at any cost.

unguided-reading commented on a post from the Founder Announcements forum

jenniferPagebound

New Feature: Choose your book edition (+ a note on language editions) [10/17/25]

Another quality of life update! You can now select which edition of a book you are reading, which will update the book info in your library. This is most relevant for changing which book cover shows up in your library, or changing the language edition. We get asked all the time about changing book covers, so I'm happy to report this is finally an option! The edition page will also show you additional data like publisher and page count.

This does require an app update if you are on the iOS/Android app.

We've been working with a few volunteer librarians to combine language editions on Pagebound and are making steady progress "deduping" popular authors. This is a necessary process to make sure we have one forum per book, and also ensures if you read a book in say Spanish, the English version is also marked "finished" and you get credit towards any Quests, Readalongs etc. Deduping will also make Search and navigating the author pages easier.

To change the language/edition of a book, click "View All Languages & Editions" on the book page (next to publish year above the book description). You'll see a list of all available editions, and can swap from that page. Your chosen edition will reflect in your Library.

Combining language editions is a monumental task, so we appreciate your patience as me, Lucy, and our volunteers work through it all!

Another fun update: we brought the "Featured Emoji" to the Discover Lists page!

We're still working on home feed updates and will be back soon with more updates :)

Happy Reading, Jennifer & Lucy

PS: if you're curious how deduping works: When language editions are combined, it just means that there is one Book/forum per listing, but the "deduped" editions are still available on the editions page. All reviews and forum posts that were on the deduped book will now show up on the main Book page.

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