I love books about good people who go through hard times and come out okay. Different, but okay. The books can be contemporary, historical, magical—I don’t care. I just want goodness to triumph—not falsely, but with truth. Nobody has a %100 easy life. I believe it’s how we make our way through our difficulties that ultimately determines who we are. When asked to give four words that describe The Fractal Melody, I say: "Families, friendship, challenges, hope." Those are the kinds of things that matter. The Rolling Stones sang, "You can’t always get what you want." I believe that you always get what you need to develop into a full-fledged human being.
Some people may think that the story of Theo of Golden is too gentle to be realistic.
I don’t agree because I think that gentleness is a different kind of strength. Theo has been hurt. Toward the end of his life, Theo wishes to find the goodness in people. And even though he encounters tragedy, it is the goodness that prevails.
'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.'
One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from...
His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance - or has he? He visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits by a local artist of the people of Golden. He…
"True love never did run smooth." Who can match Shakespeare for hitting the nail on the head? Well, maybe Anne Tyler.
I love her books for being so very honest. She loves her characters for being so absolutely human. During the three days of this novel, she amply proves that love is work. That marriage is very hard work. And true love? Well, it’s complicated. Always.
'Just relishable. Thank God for the balm of good writing' NIGELLA LAWSON 'A wise, wonderful book' OBSERVER 'Razor sharp on family, love and marriage' DAVID NICHOLLS 'I devoured it in one long lazy afternoon - I laughed and cried' VICTORIA HISLOP
Weddings aren't just about the happy couple... A funny, touching, hopeful story of love, marriage and second chances
It's the day before her daughter's wedding and things are not going well for Gail Baines.
First thing, she loses her job (or quits, depending who you ask). Then her ex-husband Max turns up at her door…
A coming-of-age love story between three best friends growing up in a small-town Wyoming neighborhood during the late 1960s, early 1970s.
If you are familiar with “The Wonder Years,” this is the wonder years out west. Smart-mouthed Maggie Moore is instantly smitten with the laid back, sometimes infuriating Bucky. Too…
I am an imperfect human being. You are an imperfect human being.
Annie Hartnet takes her version of an imperfect human being out on a road trip. PJ Halliday sets out with a cat and three human companions, none of whom really knows the others, although each is grieving a loss. Talk about quarrels, talk about making up.
I heard on TV last night that "loss enables greater love." I believe that is true.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A darkly comic and warm-hearted novel about an old man on a cross-country mission to reunite with his high school crush—bringing together his adult daughter, two orphaned kids, and a cat who can predict death—by the beloved author of Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals
“A miraculous novel—an actual and spiritual road trip you won't forget.”—John Irving
AN NPR AND LIT HUB BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
At sixty-three years old, million-dollar lottery winner PJ Halliday would be the luckiest man in Pondville, Massachusetts, if it weren't for the tragedies of his life: the sudden death of his…
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • “A gripping and poignant ode to a messy, loving family in all its glory.” —Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe
In this “rich, complex family saga” (USA Today) full of long-buried family secrets, Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest.
Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator turned stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds…
Part romance/erotica and part family drama, but all heart.
Scarlett loved horses since she was a child, living amidst the chaos of a family ravaged by mental illness. Years later, as she rebuilds a relationship with her often-absent father, she wrangles with needy clients, a manipulative mother, a nosy uncle,…
Everybody is lost at some time in their lives. It’s very uncomfortable. Sometimes disheartening. Maybe even frightening.
The character in this book, Lillian, tries a "Hail Mary": she leaps into a situation without really knowing where she is going, who she will be with, and what she will be expected to do. She finds herself a nanny to twins who—but only sometimes—spontaneously combust.
A New York Times Bestseller • A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, People, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, TIME, The A.V. Club, Buzzfeed, and PopSugar
“I can’t believe how good this book is.... It’s wholly original. It’s also perfect.... Wilson writes with such a light touch.... The brilliance of the novel [is] that it distracts you with these weirdo characters and mesmerizing and funny sentences and then hits you in a way you didn’t see coming. You’re laughing so hard you…
Three young women are coming of age in the 1970s, the decade when everything changed in America. Justa has always harmonized with life’s joys, but after encountering a larger world in college, she discovers she has no choice—she and her music must grow to encompass life’s hardships. Justa’s older sister, Lowry, excels her way into adulthood—only to learn that her ambition will mean nothing unless she can employ it in the service of others. Their friend Crystal is engaged in an eternal search for a place where her graceful awkwardness will finally fit.
They are three young lives, converging—until the day a tragedy of endless repercussions shakes each to the core, sending her out into a future she otherwise would never have known.
The Everlasting Life of Charlie Wall
by
Paul Wilborn,
It’s 1985, and Ronald Armstrong, known in the magic mushroom trade as “Trip,” takes a “sober” job as a driver for a retired Tampa mobster. His boss, Charlie Wall, has survived four attempts on his life, the last one in 1955. When Charlie falls into depression, Trip rebuilds his boss’…
Those People Behind Us is set in the summer of 2017, post-Trump election and pre-pandemic. The story takes place in the fictional city of Wellington Beach, California, a suburban coastal town increasingly divided by politics, protests, and escalating housing prices. These divisions change the lives of five neighbors--a real estate…
