Here are 100 books that Belonging fans have personally recommended if you like
Belonging.
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I am passionate about writing. In my childhood in a rural Montana town, I read all the books in the school library. I also kept diaries, wrote poetry, and when I moved to California at age 16, wrote essays that my High School English teachers read aloud to the class. I switched to academic writing when studying for a master’s degree in social welfare and obtaining a doctorate degree in multicultural education. Since retiring as a school administrator, I have written about my travels in 105 countries. My writing has appeared in numerous print and online publications. My second memoir tells of the struggles and triumphs of a bicultural marriage.
I’m not sure why this Oprah’s Book Club pick is named Long Island since most of the crucial scenes take place in Ireland, the homeland of forty-three-year-old Eilis Lacey. I read this book because it is the sequel to Toibin’s previous book, Brooklyn, which was made into a movie starring Saoirse Ronan.
I often wonder what happens to couples after their romantic and enthralling beginnings, and life between two cultures interests me. It shows the differences that develop between two people from different cultures who fall in love and try to make a life together. In this second half of their lives, the couple have more than the usual problems. The unending plot-twists led me to finish the book in a day. A good read, but I’m sure the ending will be controversial.
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * “Stunning.” —People * “Dazzling yet devastating...Tóibín is simply one of the world’s best living literary writers.” —The Boston Globe * “Momentous and hugely affecting.” —The Wall Street Journal *
From the beloved, critically acclaimed, bestselling author comes a spectacularly moving novel featuring Eilis Lacey, the complex and enigmatic heroine of Brooklyn, Tóibín’s most popular work in twenty years.
Eilis Lacey is Irish, married to Tony Fiorello, a plumber and one of four Italian American brothers, all of whom live in neighboring houses on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst, Long Island,…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I am passionate about writing. In my childhood in a rural Montana town, I read all the books in the school library. I also kept diaries, wrote poetry, and when I moved to California at age 16, wrote essays that my High School English teachers read aloud to the class. I switched to academic writing when studying for a master’s degree in social welfare and obtaining a doctorate degree in multicultural education. Since retiring as a school administrator, I have written about my travels in 105 countries. My writing has appeared in numerous print and online publications. My second memoir tells of the struggles and triumphs of a bicultural marriage.
This story of the Cubs football team of the California School for the Deaf, Riverside, left me in awe. Their team won the championship of their eight-man football league in Southern California in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
The book is as instructive as it is inspiring. Creative play-by-play descriptions like “…bounced off defenders like a pinball…” provide a clear visualization of the sport of football. This was especially important for a novice football watcher like me. Through the author’s prose, I could see the plays and feel the excitement of the games.
Even more importantly, I understood how the deaf community interacts with the hearing-dominant world, which is often oblivious to their existence. The football players worked as a unit because their differences banded them together and gave them strength.
The incredible story of an all-deaf high school football team’s triumphant climb from underdog to undefeated, their inspirational brotherhood, a fascinating portrait of deafness in America, and the indefatigable head coach who spearheaded the team, by New York Times reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief, Thomas Fuller.
"The Boys of Riverside is another example of how anyone can achieve their dreams, making what appears impossible, possible.” —Marlee Matlin, Academy Award winner
In November 2021, an obscure email from the California Department of Education landed in New York Times reporter, Thomas Fuller’s, inbox. The football team at the California School for…
I am passionate about writing. In my childhood in a rural Montana town, I read all the books in the school library. I also kept diaries, wrote poetry, and when I moved to California at age 16, wrote essays that my High School English teachers read aloud to the class. I switched to academic writing when studying for a master’s degree in social welfare and obtaining a doctorate degree in multicultural education. Since retiring as a school administrator, I have written about my travels in 105 countries. My writing has appeared in numerous print and online publications. My second memoir tells of the struggles and triumphs of a bicultural marriage.
Few things delight me more than being immersed in a world where a character is searching for where he/she belongs, such as in the world of closed adoptions. From the first page to the last, the book absorbed me in the highs and lows of an adoptee’s search for her biological mother and father.
Julie perseveres in her hunt for nearly a decade. The author’s vivid descriptions of her intense emotions during her quest made me aware of the painful consequences of keeping adoption information secret. I felt her sorrow, disappointments, and tension. The depictions of her Collie companions, her garden, and Chicago make them characters that add authenticity. This book is a heartfelt memoir—with a surprise ending. I highly recommend it.
Julie is adopted. She is also a twin. Because their adoption was closed, she and her sister lack both a health history and their adoption papers - which becomes an issue for Julie when, at forty-eight years old, she finds herself facing several serious health issues. To launch the probe into her closed adoption, Julie first needs the support of her sister. The twins talk things over, and make a pact: Julie will approach their adoptive parents for the adoption paperwork and investigate search options, and the sisters will split the costs involved in locating their birth relatives. But their…
Trapped in our world, the fae are dying from drugs, contaminants, and hopelessness. Kicked out of the dark fae court for tainting his body and magic, Riasg only wants one thing: to die a bit faster. It’s already the end of his world, after all.
I am passionate about writing. In my childhood in a rural Montana town, I read all the books in the school library. I also kept diaries, wrote poetry, and when I moved to California at age 16, wrote essays that my High School English teachers read aloud to the class. I switched to academic writing when studying for a master’s degree in social welfare and obtaining a doctorate degree in multicultural education. Since retiring as a school administrator, I have written about my travels in 105 countries. My writing has appeared in numerous print and online publications. My second memoir tells of the struggles and triumphs of a bicultural marriage.
I read with fascination this study of how quality, environmentally sound, and satisfying lives have been achieved in two intentional communities in two distinct cultures: the Kankanmori community of Tokyo, Japan and Quayside Village of Vancouver, British Columbia.
The author’s observations about how humans are becoming more isolated rang true to my experiences in California. I was encouraged by how both these cohousing communities developed bonds through play, work, and frequent interactions at common meals. I would have thought the strict structure of the living arrangements in Japan might have counteracted the desired feelings of belonging. But they bonded just as well as the ‘hang-loose’ Canadians. I was convinced that living in cohousing, especially as I age, is the way to live more happily and less isolated.
Understudied relative to other forms of intentional community, and under-recognized in policy-making circles, urban cohousing communities situate wellbeing as simultaneously social and subjective, while catering for groups of people so diverse in age. Collaborative Happiness looks at two such urban cohousing communities: Kankanmori, in Tokyo; and Quayside Village, in Vancouver. In expanding beyond mainstream approaches to happiness focused exclusively on the individual, Quayside Village and Kankanmori provide an alternative model for how to understand and practice the good life in an increasingly urbanized world marked by crisis of both social and environmental sustainability.
Growing up in Chicago, I’ve always had a fascination for history, (even if it was sometimes a bit gory!), from Capone and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre to reading about monsters and the unique worlds created by favorite author Stephen King. So, it’s probably not too surprising that I combined both interests and offered a new solution to the infamous Lizzie Borden axe murders of 1892 in my own book series. I enjoy reading, and writing, the serious to the not-so-serious, often incorporating touches of humor, or at least the absurd, where and whenever I can.
Whatever your take on politics and elections, I thought this was a truly original addition to the zombie world. Funny, and often true-to-life in an alternate reality, this book offers another interesting and sometimes horrific view of the crazy world of politics in a year that was far from the norm.
Bestselling author Scott Kenemore is back with a hilarious, over-the-top, and bloodthirsty send-up of the 2016 political season. In the tradition of Joe Klein's Primary Colors and Richard Condon's The Manchurian Candidate, Zombie-in-Chief: Eater of the Free World is a compelling and dramatic story with characters and events that may resemble familiar, real-life elections a little too closely! After all, who better to perform an autopsy of the American political system than an expert on the undead?
When a tycoon and reality TV star improbably wins his party's nomination for the presidency, pundits and analysts are as baffled as they…
In life and writing I’m torn between a desire for solitude and for connection with people. As a young woman I lived in a cottage miles from friends, working from home while my husband was at work, bringing up our first child. No email, no texting, few visitors. It was idyllic, and I was desperately lonely; that’s when I began to write. We moved, I found friends. But still I dream of solitude. Could I handle it now? It’s surely why I found myself writing a novel about a young woman who finds herself suddenly alone in the wild, with no friends – doesn’t everyone write about the things they fear?
Neil Ansell is such an honest writer. I came to this book because I loved his other writing about nature and followed him back through time to the five years he spent living alone up a Welsh mountain, seeing no one for weeks on end, exploring and working in the woods and hills around him.
It’s a rich and deep description of place, but more than that, it’s a gradual unfurling of Ansell’s sense of self. In a later book, he writes of that time of prolonged solitude, ‘You slough off the skin of self, all self-awareness, and are left with pure sensation. Nothing has a name; it is only itself.’
Ansell is a slow-burning writer who I trust completely to take me, however slowly, to a new understanding.
Deep Country is Neil Ansell's account of five years spent alone in a hillside cottage in Wales.
'I lived alone in this cottage for five years, summer and winter, with no transport, no phone. This is the story of those five years, where I lived and how I lived. It is the story of what it means to live in a place so remote that you may not see another soul for weeks on end. And it is the story of the hidden places that I came to call my own, and the wild creatures that became my society.'
Everyday Medical Miracles
by
Joseph S. Sanfilippo (editor),
Frontiers of Women from the healthcare perspective. A compilation of 60 true short stories written by an extensive array of healthcare providers, physicians, and advanced practice providers.
All designed to give you, the reader, a glimpse into the day-to-day activities of all of us who provide your health care. Come…
In addition to being an author, I’m an avid reader, averaging about a book a week. While I enjoy a good historical fiction or NYT bestseller, my go-to is mystery and suspense, and has been since the day my mother first introduced me to Nancy Drew. I’m especially drawn to cold case mysteries, multiple POVs, and complex plots and characters, but I can dive headfirst into a fast-paced beach read with equal pleasure. As a writer by profession, I truly believe reading is the best teacher and I have learned from, and enjoyed, every one of these recommendations immensely. It’s my hope that you'll discover a new-to-you author and love the book you choose.
As a former journalist and magazine editor, I’m all too familiar with the ongoing demise of print media, and so I found myself identifying with protagonist Kate Waters, a journalist fighting to keep her newspaper job by looking for the next big story. Kate thinks she may have found it after reading a short article in her evening newspaper: the discovery of the skeletal remains of a baby at a construction site.
Skillfully told from multiple POVs, this is as much a book about what could have been as what may—or may not—have happened, and Barton is undeniably equal to the task.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow comes a twisting novel of psychological suspense—as seen in People, Entertainment Weekly, Time, USA Today, Bustle, Good Housekeeping.com, HelloGiggles, The Boston Globe, PureWow, The Dallas Morning News, and more!
“The Child is a perfect blend of beach read and book club selection....[A] page-turning whodunit….A novel that is both fast-paced and thought-provoking.”—USA Today
As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers human remains, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper,…
Landscape is always important in my writing, and Yellowstone, which I’ve visited numerous times, is such a special place, rich with geodiversity and teeming with danger, that it kind of demanded to be a setting for my novel. I’ve also always been kind of obsessed with bears, and Yellowstone is grizzly country. But I didn’t want to write the stereotypical “man against nature” book. I’m too much of a feminist for that.
I love how, as with my novel, the writer weaves together the stories of two women who lived in entirely different eras. I also appreciate how she brought real-world people and events, like JFK and the 1906 earthquake, into her fictional world. But what I found most evocative about The Obituary Writerwere the author’s portrayal of the institution of marriage and how her “older” protagonist—the one dating further back in history—dedicated her life to helping others deal with grief and loss. This altruistic passion was similar to one that my historical protagonist discovered on her journey of personal growth.
On the day John F. Kennedy is inaugurated, Claire, obsessed with the glamour of Jackie O, struggles over the decision of whether to stay in a loveless marriage or follow the man she loves and whose baby she may be carrying. Decades earlier, in 1919, Vivien Lowe, an obituary writer, is searching for her lover who disappeared in the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. By telling the stories of the dead, Vivien not only helps others cope with their grief but also begins to understand the devastation of her own terrible loss. The surprising connection between Claire and Vivien will…
I’ve always been fascinated by science fiction and by Biblical Scripture. That may seem dichotomous to some, but not to me. I have a passion for science and for Scripture because both bring understanding about our world from the microcosm to the macrocosm. My writings are a mixture of science and mystery with a science fiction feel and a Christian perspective. I like stories that show how truth arises even from the dark, confusing, and ambiguity of life to help one discover something about God they may not have considered before, and at the same time enjoy a fun, fast-paced, and exciting journey as they read.
This was quite an interesting take to see the relationship between those who have gone to heaven and those who are left behind. A tragic accident separates those who lived from those who died, but those in heaven are still able to look over the lives of their loved ones. This novel provides a lot for the reader to process and ponder as well as provide hope to those left behind suffering.
The first book in the Ollie Chandler series, this rerelease of the Randy Alcorn bestseller is a heart-pounding murder mystery
When tragedy strikes those closest to him, Jake Woods must draw upon all his resources to uncover the truth about the suspicious accident. Soon he finds himself swept up in a murder investigation that is both complex and dangerous. Unaware of the threat to his own life, Jake is drawn in deeper and deeper as he desperately searches for the answers to the immediate mystery at hand and—ultimately—the deeper meaning of his own existence.
Karl's War is a coming-of-age-meets-thriller set in Germany on the eve of Hitler coming to power. Karl – a reluctant poster boy for the Nazis – meets Jewish Ben and his world is up-turned.
Ben and his family flee to France. Karl joins the German army but deserts and finds…
I’m a Greek-American author and screenwriter and growing up I heard stories both of and about Greece for as long and far back as I can remember. At a certain point, I decided to join them, and tell Greek stories of my own. After all, it’s in our blood, right? My debut novel, Once We Were Here, is a multi-generational love story that’s set mostly during the Greek resistance of WWII, and which has been described as “stirring” (Paula McLain), “stunning” (Steven Pressfield), and “a modern epic” (Victoria Aveyard). I very much hope you’ll have a chance to give it a read, and also very much hope that you’ll enjoy it.
For many Greeks and Greek-Americans, Eleni is a literary north star, especially in the world of non-fiction. On one hand, it’s an urgent and imperative testimony to a brutal and tragic event that the world and history at large have over-looked and forgotten, and on the other, and a more personal level, it’s a poignant and devastatingly powerful testament of a son’s love for his mother. Revenge and forgiveness are constantly at odds and at the forefront of this journey, which also doubles as an important and specific type of immigrant story and experience. Which one will ultimately win out: revenge or forgiveness? In the end, it’s the reader who wins, because the story of Eleni Gatzoyiannis and her son Nikolaos is timeless, unforgettable, and will leave all who read it forever changed.
This is the biography of a woman who was arrested, tortured and shot in 1948 because she had helped her children to escape the Communist guerrillas during the Greek Civil War. Nicholas Gage, then aged eight eventually reached America where he became one of the New York Times' best investigative reporters.He returned to Greece as its chief correspondent in 1977, where he reconstructed his mother's life and death. He is the author of two novels and of "Hellas: A Portrait of Greece". He co-produced the film "Eleni" directed by Peter Yates.
