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Author
Summary
After surviving the unthinkable, one young woman finds healing in nature, friendship, and a surprising kind of love.
Lovely and winsome May Seymour graduated from college with the world at her feet and no idea what to do with it. A spontaneous mission trip to Africa brought great surprise-love-and a strong sense of purpose. But in loving others there, she encountered a severe tragedy that left her deeply wounded.
She comes to heal at the farm of...
Author
Summary
This debut novel tells the story of Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. who becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy. With her strict African American grandmother as her new guardian, Rachel moves to a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring mixed attention her way. Growing up in the 1980s, she learns to swallow her overwhelming grief and to confront her identity as a biracial young...
Author
Summary
A mismatched team of seven hit the road in an church van on a mission to find a new pastor. They don't agree on much other than the stops at Hardee's for coffee and a biscuit. But they stick to the call, trying to slip undetected into worship services across the Southeast--all in hopes of stealing a preacher for their congregation. Each member is wrestling to balance their own busy life and personal struggles. Forced to spend countless hours together,...
Author
Appears on these lists
Summary
"Smart, warm, uplifting, the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes the only way to survive is to open her heart. Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. That, combined with her unusual appearance (scarred cheek, tendency to wear the same clothes year in, year out), means that Eleanor...
Author
Series
Cape Light novel volume 12
Summary
Reverend Ben has been ignoring his health recently and it's finally caught up with him. Since Ben will need six weeks' recuperation and physical rehab, interim minister Isabel Moran is assigned to the congregation. Is this health setback a sign from above that it's time for Ben to move on to a new phase of his life?
Author
Summary
"People are drawn to libraries for all kinds of reasons. Most come for the books themselves, of course; some come to borrow companionship. For head librarian Kit, the public library in Riverton, New Hampshire, offers what she craves most: peace. Here, no one expects Kit to talk about the calamitous events that catapulted her out of what she thought was a settled, suburban life. She can simply submerge herself in her beloved books and try to forget...
Author
Series
Formats
Summary
Lucy DiCamillo is safely surrounded by her books, music, and art--but none of these reclusive comforts or even the protective efforts of her grandmother, Kitty, can shield her thoughts from the mother she can barely recall. Lucy senses her grandmother holds the key, but Kitty seems as eager to hide the past as Lucy is eager to find it. From the streets of San Francisco and Sacramento to the lush vineyards of the Sonoma Valley, Lucy follows the thread...
Author
Summary
"Breakfast with a Hangover Dinner for a Charming Stranger Tea for a Crochety Aunt Food for feasting, friends are for savoring, and the way to a man's heart is...irrelevant When her life falls apart on the eve of her 40th birthday, Kate Parker finds herself volunteering at the Lauderdale House for Exceptional Ladies. There she meets 97-year-old Cecily Finn. Cecily's tongue is as sharp as her mind, but she's fed up with pretty much everything. Having...
Author
Pub. Date
2019.
Summary
"'This is a note to yourself, Juliet. You must keep the memories alive, because once upon a time you told a man called Edward Nancarrow that you would, and it's important to keep that promise.' A daring WWII pilot who grew up among the clouds, Juliet Caron's life was one of courage, adventure - and a love torn apart by war. Every nook of her Cornish cottage is alive with memories just waiting to be discovered. Katherine Henderson has escaped to Cornwall...
Author
Summary
"After he's forced to sell the family farm he's labored on his whole life, 63-year-old Gerrit Laninga doesn't know what to do with himself. He sacrificed everything for the land--his time, his health, his family--with nothing to show for it but bitterness, regret, and two grown children who want nothing to do with him. Fifteen-year-old Rae Walters has growing doubts and fears about The Plan--the detailed blueprint for high school that will help her...
Author
Summary
"Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland's dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena's banker father has retreated into the bottle, her sister is married to a lazy charlatan and gambler, and Rena is an unemployed newspaper reporter. Eager for any writing job, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers' Project. There, she meets...
Author
Pub. Date
[2021]
Summary
Oisín Mahoney is an American Army vet in his 70s who is asked to lead a group of young grand-nieces and grand-nephews on a walk through the hills of California's Central Coast. Walking toward a setting sun, their destination is a place called The Museum of Rain, which may or may not still exist, and whose origin and meaning are elusive to all. In one of his most elegiac stories, Eggers gives us a beautiful testament to family, memory, and what we...
Author
Summary
"Kathleen is eighty years old. After she has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move into a residential home. But she's not having any of it ... Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved and uninspired, she just can't get her life together ... When Martha sees Kathleen's advertisement for a driver and companion to share an epic road trip across America with, she decides this job might be the answer to her prayers...
Author
Pub. Date
2010
Formats
Summary
It all started in August 1968 when Babo, left the Patel family in Madras to fly to England and further his education ... Living in London, he'd fallen head over heels with a cream-skinned Welsh girl, Sian Jones. A mixed-up love in a topsy-turvy world - now two families will never be the same again. Meet the Patel-Joneses: Babo, Sian, Mayuri and Bean, in their little house next door to the Punjab Women's Association. As the twentieth century creaks...
Author
Pub. Date
[2022]
Summary
"Failing memory has forced Eva Gordon to move in with her granddaughter, Breezy. But Eva hates the bustle of Boston. All she wants to do is move back to her quiet, cozy Cape Cod home and be left alone. Then Breezy announces she's getting married, and they'll be moving to her new husband's rundown family farm, where he lives with an elderly uncle. They'll be one big family-but only Breezy and her new husband think it'll be a happy one. It's all too...
Author
Summary
On his deathbed, a dying Black man writes a letter to his estranged, gay son and shares with him the truth that lives in his heart and tries to create a place where the pair can find peace.
As Jacob lies dying, he writes a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know. Stories about his ancestral legacy in rural Arkansas that extend back to slavery. Secrets from Jacob's tumultuous...
18) The imperfects
Author
Summary
The Millers are far from perfect. Estranged siblings Beck, Ashley and Jake find themselves under one roof for the first time in years, forced to confront old resentments and betrayals, when their mysterious, eccentric matriarch, Helen, passes away. But their lives are about to change when they find a secret inheritance hidden among her possessions – the Florentine Diamond, a 137-carat yellow gemstone that went missing from the Austrian Empire a...
Author
Appears on list
Summary
Determined to leave a mark on the world even though they are in the hospital and their days are dwindling, unlikely friends, seventeen-year-old Lenni and eighty-three-year-old Margot, devise a plan to create one hundred paintings showcasing the stories of the century they have lived.
Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson has been told she's dying, but still has plenty of living to do. She lives on the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital....
Author
Pub. Date
2021.
Summary
"Workaholic, career-obsessed Francesca is fiercely independent and successful in all areas of life except one: family. She struggles to make time for her relationship with her teenage daughter, Allegra, and the two have become practically strangers to each other. When Allegra hangs out with a new crowd and is arrested for drug possession, Francesca gives in to her mother's wish that they take one epic summer vacation to trace their family roots in...