Shelf Control Wednesdays: March 8, 2023

March 8, 2023March 6, 2023 / Female Human / Leave a comment

Shelf Control is hosted by Bookshelf Fantasies. Instead of always looking ahead to upcoming new releases, I thought I’d start a weekly feature focusing on already released books that I want to read. Consider this a variation of a Wishing & Waiting post… but looking at books already available, and in most cases, books that are either on my shelves or on my Kindle!

Title: Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and The Drug Company that Additcted America

Author: Beth Macy

Published: 2018

Length: 384 pages

Synopsis via Goodreads: Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of America’s twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction. From distressed small communities in Central Appalachia to wealthy suburbs; from disparate cities to once-idyllic farm towns; it’s a heartbreaking trajectory that illustrates how this national crisis has persisted for so long and become so firmly entrenched.

Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother’s question-why her only son died-and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm. In some of the same distressed communities featured in her bestselling book Factory Man, the unemployed use painkillers both to numb the pain of joblessness and pay their bills, while privileged teens trade pills in cul-de-sacs, and even high school standouts fall prey to prostitution, jail, and death.

Through unsparing, yet deeply human portraits of the families and first responders struggling to ameliorate this epidemic, each facet of the crisis comes into focus. In these politically fragmented times, Beth Macy shows, astonishingly, that the only thing that unites Americans across geographic and class lines is opioid drug abuse. But in a country unable to provide basic healthcare for all, Macy still finds reason to hope-and signs of the spirit and tenacity necessary in those facing addiction to build a better future for themselves and their families.

How I got it: I bought this book as a used book from the library in South Carolina.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: America has a huge problem with drug (especially prescription drug) dependency. I am interested to learn more about this issue.

Shelf Control Wednesdays: February 8, 2023

February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 / Female Human / Leave a comment

Title: The Ruins

Author: Scott Smith

Published: 2006

Length: 319 pages

Synopsis via Goodreads: Trapped in the Mexican jungle, a group of friends stumble upon a creeping horror unlike anything they could ever imagine. Two young couples are on a lazy Mexican vacation–sun-drenched days, drunken nights, making friends with fellow tourists. When the brother of one of those friends disappears, they decide to venture into the jungle to look for him. What started out as a fun day-trip slowly spirals into a nightmare when they find an ancient ruins site . . . and the terrifying presence that lurks there.

How I got it: I bought this book from a used book website.

When I got it: 2023

Why I want to read it: I owned a copy of this book when I lived in the US, but it was one of the many books I left behind when I moved to Europe in 2017. I recently read a book (review pending) that reminded me of The Ruins, and so I wanted to read it again.

Shelf Control Wednesdays November 9, 2022

November 9, 2022November 9, 2022 / Female Human / Leave a comment

Title: The Family

Author: Chris Johnston and Rosie Jones

Published: 2016

Length: 264 pages

Synopsis via Goodreads: The apocalyptic group The Family and their guru, Anne Hamilton-Byrne — one of very few female cult leaders in history — captured international headlines throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Hamilton-Byrne, who some followers believed was Jesus Christ, was glamorous and charismatic — and, many allege, very dangerous. From her base in a quiet suburb, she recruited wealthy professionals to join her cult, including doctors, lawyers, nurses, architects, and scientists. She acquired children and raised them as her own, bleaching their hair blonde to make them look like siblings, and her group became surrounded by rumours of LSD use, child abuse, and strange spiritual rituals.

In 1987, police swooped on The Family’s lakeside compound and rescued children who claimed they were part of Anne’s future master race. The children recounted terrible stories of near starvation, emotional manipulation, and physical abuse. But Anne could not be found, sparking an international police hunt that involved Scotland Yard, Interpol, and the FBI. Could they bring Anne to justice?

Today, the elderly Anne has an estate estimated to be worth millions, with only one minor criminal conviction to her name. Her few remaining followers attend her nursing-home bedside.

How did such a notorious group come to flourish? How did Anne maintain a hold over her followers? And why was she never fully brought to justice?

Drawing on revelatory new research, including interviews with survivors, The Family tells for the first time in full the strange and shocking story of one of the most bizarre cults in modern history.

How I got it: I bought it online from Amazon.

When I got it: 2022

Why I want to read it: I am really into learning about cults at the moment. I don’t know why, but the subject is fascinating. I somehow see the psychology of cults in today’s politics and it is helpful to learn about how certain things can occur in the US right now. This particular cult, The Family (not to be confused with David Berg’s Children of God cult) is one of the few that was run by a female leader, so I wanted to find out more about it.

Shelf Control Wednesdays August 24, 2022

August 24, 2022August 24, 2022 / Female Human / 1 Comment

Title: Inferno

Author: Dante Alighieri, translated by John Ciardi

Published: 2001, 1320 (originally)

Length: 288 pages

Synopsis via Goodreads: Considered to be one of the greatest literary works of all time — equal only to those of Shakespeare — Dante’s immortal drama of a journey through Hell is the first volume of his Divine Comedy.

How I got it: I think that I bought this book in a used book store in Corpus Christi, Texas, where I used to live before moving to Austria.

When I got it: 2016

Why I want to read it: It is such a classic, and is referred to in many situations, that I thought it would be a good idea to give it a read. It wasn’t before now, when I had to copy and paste the Goodreads synopsis that I realized that I only have the first part of the trilogy. I am missing The Purgatorio and The Paradiso. Because of course, all 3 is called The Divine Comedy. Duh Liz. Sigh.

Shelf Control Wednesdays August 17, 2022

August 17, 2022August 21, 2022 / Female Human / 4 Comments

Title: The Terror

Author: Dan Simmons

Published: 2007

Length: 769 pages

Synopsis via Goodreads: The men on board HMS Terror have every expectation of triumph. As part of the 1845 Franklin Expedition, the first steam-powered vessels ever to search for the legendary Northwest Passage, they are as scientifically supported an enterprise as has ever set forth. As they enter a second summer in the Arctic Circle without a thaw, though, they are stranded in a nightmarish landscape of encroaching ice and darkness. Endlessly cold, with diminishing rations, 126 men fight to survive with poisonous food, a dwindling supply of coal, and ships buckling in the grip of crushing ice. But their real enemy is far more terrifying. There is something out there in the frigid darkness: an unseen predator stalking their ship, a monstrous terror constantly clawing to get in.

When the expedition’s leader, Sir John Franklin, meets a terrible death, Captain Francis Crozier takes command and leads his surviving crewmen on a last, desperate attempt to flee south across the ice. With them travels an Inuit woman who cannot speak and who may be the key to survival, or the harbinger of their deaths. But as another winter approaches, as scurvy and starvation grow more terrible, and as the terror on the ice stalks them southward, Crozier and his men begin to fear that there is no escape.

How I got it: I found this book in a really awesome English used book shop in Amsterdam. Although I was living in IJmuiden at the time (some hour and a half by bike), I visited this shop every time I was in Amsterdam. I had to make a rule that I would buy only one book at a time, otherwise I would have ended up buying the whole store. In case you are ever in Amsterdam, the name of the place is The Book Exchange.

When I got it: 2019

Why I want to read it: I had watched the series of Amazon Prime without knowing it was a book. When I saw it on the shelf at the bookstore, I knew I had to have it.

Shelf Control Wednesdays August 10, 2022

August 10, 2022August 21, 2022 / Female Human / 1 Comment

Title: The Last

Author: Hanna Jameson

Published: 2019

Length: 340 pages

Synopsis via Goodreads: For fans of high-concept thrillers such as Annihilation and The Girl with All the Gifts, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American academic stranded at a Swiss hotel as the world descends into nuclear war—along with twenty other survivors—who becomes obsessed with identifying a murderer in their midst after the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks.

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.

Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can’t bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel’s water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.

As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?

How I got it: I bought this book at the Amsterdam airport, intending to read it on the plane. I don’t remember why I ended up not reading it, but I still haven’t.

When I got it: 2019

Why I want to read it: It sounded really interesting: end of the world scenario plus murder mystery? And it all takes place in a Swiss hotel? What’s not to like?