Why read The Precious Jules?

Book cover of The Precious Jules

Book description

"Beautifully written...a great book club pick!" -- Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author

A deeply felt family narrative that examines the fine line between selfishness and what passes for love.

After nearly two hundred years of housing retardants, as they were once known, the Beechwood Institute is closing…

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Literary fiction

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Precious Jules as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Lena George

Author

I love the way this book peels back the layers of a mother’s choices and the scrutiny she faces for them.

Hillary Jules, the mother at the center of this story, does things some might find unforgivable. And yet we see, through both her and the woman who becomes a surrogate mother figure to one of her children, how we cannot know the full depth of another’s story.

This book reminded me how dangerous it can be to judge from the outside with phrases like “I would never.” Those judgments came much easier before I became a mother myself.

From Lena's list on The best books to plumb the gnarly depths of motherhood.