Here are 98 books that Helpmeet fans have personally recommended if you like
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As a fan and repeat viewer of classic horror films, I sometimes let my imagination wander into scenarios about what might have happened to certain characters before or after the events depicted onscreen. In this way, I developed my earlier novel, In theShadow of the Skull, an islander’s version of King Kong, and now Innocent, a sequel to The Turn of the Screw infused with Jack Clayton’s The Innocents. I’m fascinated by how other authors are equally inspired to retell classic horror stories or create prequels and sequels to fill in narrative gaps. These books are among the most creative examples.
This book about an isolated woman who gets caught up in Frankenstein’s quest to build a bride for his creation is actually more horrifying before Victor shows up.
The description of the Orkney Islands is stark and moody, infusing the story with atmosphere. The details of an 18th century woman’s life and its hazards are devastating. I sympathized with Agnes in her frustration, despair, and betrayal, and I celebrated her striving for autonomy.
Mostly, I appreciated how McGregor brought to life a narrow section of Shelley’s original story.
ORKNEY ISLANDS, 1797 - Agnes Tulloch feels a little cheated. This windswept place is not the island paradise her husband promised it to be when they wed. Now with four young children, she struggles to provide for her family while her husband grows increasingly distant.
When a stranger comes ashore to rent an abandoned cottage, Agnes and the other islanders are abuzz with curiosity. Who is this wealthy foreigner and why on earth would he come to Eynhallow? Her curiosity is soon replaced with vexation when her husband hires her out as cook and washerwoman, leaving Agnes with no say…
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 started my company The Fiscal Femme and have written two personal finance guides because I needed them myself. I studied finance in college and worked in finance but still knew nothing about my own money. I do what I do so that others don’t have to make the same mistakes I did. Plus, when I started financial adulting, it gave me so much more power and freedom over my choices – career and personal – and I want that for others.
I know (and research backs it up) that when women earn more money (and have more money) the world will be a better place for it. We all win. But in today’s society being the breadwinner also comes with a higher risk of burnout, infidelity, depression, and divorce. In When She Makes More, Farnoosh shares the ten rules for a fulfilling and wealthy life at home and work.
“Farnoosh’s ground-breaking book will save more relationships than couples counseling ever could.” —Barbara Stanny, author of Secrets of Six-Figure Women
Today, a record number of women are their household’s top-earner. But if you’re that woman, you face a much higher risk of burnout, infidelity, and divorce. In this important and timely book, personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi candidly addresses how income imbalances affect relationships and family dynamics, and presents a bold strategy to achieving happiness at work and home. Torabi’s ten essential rules include:
I’ve always been interested in our past and the way life has been lived since biblical times. Since I started writing historical fiction myself, my interest has grown, especially due to the vast amount of research which has to be carried out to render any book as authentic as possible. Increasingly, writing historical fiction has made me view the present in a different light, almost as though ancient buildings, for example, could suddenly rear up and take shape in today’s streets and countryside. Therefore, reading well-written and well-researched historical fiction has become a must for me. I hope you enjoy the books I’ve chosen.
I loved the book because it is so well-written and evocative of the period.
I have re-read it many times, and I loved the BBC TV adaptation, which I’ve also watched many times. I like the way in which the main characters come to life and are fleshed out. I also liked the fact that the characters develop as the story unfolds and become more sympathetic to the needs of others.
The details of the legal system of the era are excellent, and I loved the detailed courtroom scene. I admired the way in which the personalities of Jane Austen’s characters were maintained and not distorted. The plot is well thought out, and the book is very readable.
A rare meeting of literary genius: P. D. James, long among the most admired mystery writers of our time, draws the characters of Jane Austen’s beloved novel Pride and Prejudice into a tale of murder and emotional mayhem.
It is 1803, six years since Elizabeth and Darcy embarked on their life together at Pemberley, Darcy’s magnificent estate. Their peaceful, orderly world seems almost unassailable. Elizabeth has found her footing as the chatelaine of the great house. They have two fine sons, Fitzwilliam and Charles. Elizabeth’s sister Jane and her husband, Bingley, live nearby; her father visits often; there is…
Crossing is a vividly human re-imagining of the love, sacrifices, and accomplishments that two Chinese brothers - American Immigrants - experience as they travel to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
Ghost stories are predominantly one flavor: horror. However, my taste in ghost fiction resembles a smoothie. Blend equal parts of contemporary suspense/mystery and the paranormal; add a splash of science, a pinch of dark family secrets, and a sprinkle of romance; and then spike with a heaping cup of twists. That’s my favorite recipe for the paranormal crossovers I love to read and write. My narration preferences are less typical, too. Ghost stories are usually told by characters being haunted. In novels I love, ghosts participate as storytellers, breathing realism into the supernatural. For me, hauntingly plausible stories generate more goosebumps than those horrifically improbable. (Perhaps because I grew up in a haunted house!)
While Come With Mehas less paranormal in its blend, the book’s recipe is chock-full of foreboding suspense, eerie folklore, amateur sleuthing, and contemporary issues. Aaron Decker’s wife is tragically killed in a mass shooting. After five years of marriage, he thinks he knew her. But then he finds her padlocked hope chest. Inside are files about unsolved murders, all women victims. Is a serial killer on the loose? And why or how was his wife involved? Aaron follows the trail she left behind. Goosebumps suggest he’s not alone. Or are they from the dark secrets he unveils? Aaron’s narration is authentic and close—so close that readers eavesdrop on him speaking directly to his dead wife. Incredibly raw. Come With Me is masterful at building atmospheric and emotional tension.
Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. Haunted by her absence-and her ghost-Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country. Piloted by grief and an increasing sense of curiosity, Aaron embarks on a journey to discover what Allison had been doing in the weeks prior to her death.
Yet Aaron is unprepared to discover the dark secrets Allison kept, the death and horror that make up the tapestry of her hidden life. And with each dark secret revealed, Aaron becomes more and…
I've always been drawn to books that ask difficult questions instead of offering easy answers.
Growing up, I became fascinated by how quietly society shapes who we become—and how difficult it can be to figure out which parts are truly ours. Books have taught me to sit with complexity in a world that often wants everything to be black and white. The books I return to are the ones that make me question, reflect, and better understand human nature, society, and what it truly means to be unapologetically yourself. That's the kind of conversation I hope my own writing can contribute to.
Few books have made me question my own life quite like Untamed.
I didn't connect with this book because my life is anything like Glennon Doyle's—it isn't. I connected with it because she puts words to something I think many of us experience: the quiet pressure to become the person everyone else expects us to be. It made me ask myself a deeply uncomfortable question: Whose life am I actually living?
I found myself thinking about all the ways expectations can slowly shape who we are, often so quietly that we don't even realise it is happening. How much of who we are is actually us—and how much of it is the version we've learned to perform for everyone else?
I kept thinking about how much courage it takes to stop performing and start listening to yourself instead.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OVER TWO MILLION COPIES SOLD! “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club Pick)
In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • Cosmopolitan • Marie Claire • Bloomberg • Parade •…
I read my first crime thriller at the age of 12, and since then I’ve always had a passion to write my own stories. Although I’ve never worked as a police officer, I spent close to 10 years working as an IT consultant to multiple police forces in Australia before retiring to write full-time. The time spent working closely with law enforcement gave me a ‘feel’ for how police forces operate and helped me gravitate towards the police procedural genre. A book that moved at the pace of most police investigations would never sell and I love the challenge of making the stories authentic but still moving at a pace to keep the reader captivated.
For years, I had an itch to try my hand at writing, but I could never come up with a decent storyline. All my stories were in the spy-thriller genre (think John Le Carre), and they were all dreadful. While I loved the spy thriller genre, I also read a wide variety of mystery-thrillers and happened upon the book Spencerville by Nelson DeMille.
The story revolves around three characters who are caught up in a love triangle and struggle for power in a small town in the USA. I was totally captivated by the book and how a simple story involving only three main characters could be so compelling and entertaining. And, not only did I enjoy the story, but it made me rethink the kind of books I wanted to write. I moved away from the spy thriller genre and started thinking about stories I could write in a…
Back from the Cold War, intelligence officer Keith Landry returns to his hometown of Spencerville, Ohio. Twenty-five years after their last encounter, Keith runs into his first love, Annie, now unhappily married to the town's chief of police--an abusive alcoholic. In his efforts to reclaim Annie, Keith will have to draw on all the skills of a violent lifetime.
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
Told from the perspective of Helena, a veterinarian whose career was cut short by—you guessed it!—cancer, this book explores the ethical implications of testing on animals while unpacking the messy reality of grief. As Helena’s husband, David, struggles to care for his late wife’s houseful of beloved animals, ghost-Helena reflects on the meaninglessness of her existence. I think we all like to believe we leave some kind of impact on the world, but what if we don’t? And who are we to call ourselves superior beings when other creatures are forced to suffer at our expense?
UNSAID is told from the perspective of Helena Colden, a veterinarian who has just died of breast cancer. Helena is forced to witness the rapid emotional deterioration of her husband David. With Helena's passing, David, a successful Manhattan attorney, loses the only connection that made his life full. He tries to carry on the life that Helena had created for them, but he is too grief stricken, too angry, and too quickly reabsorbed into the demands of his career. Helena's animals likewise struggle with the loss of their understanding and compassionate human companion. Because of Helena, David becomes involved in…
In my first career as an actress, I often got cast as the “comic relief” in more serious films and plays. I cut my acting chops on improv comedy before getting my BFA in drama from NYU and performing in everything from Shakespeare to Seinfeld. I wrote and performed in stage shows at Disneyland and Disney World and screamed myself hoarse in B-horror films. As an author, I like to write about serious topics but I just can’t help being funny. I received my MFA from Antioch University and have had over 30 short stories and essays published. While I read voraciously (and genre-indiscriminately), my favorite books are often “darkly comedic” or “funny yet poignant.”
I first came across this book when babysitting at a neighbor’s house as a young teen. I was a giant Judy Blume fangirl and I was confused. I thought I’d read all of her novels. When I picked this one up, I managed to find a “dirty part” quite quickly while flipping through it and I stole the book to show that passage to all my friends. Scandalous! When I was out of college, I actually read the whole book and found it a poignant, but still funny, look at dreams deferred, marriage, motherhood, and sex.
With more than four million copies sold, Wifey is Judy Blume's hilarious, moving tale of a woman who trades in her conventional wifely duties for her wildest fantasies-and learns a lot about life along the way.
Sandy Pressman is a nice suburban wife whose boredom is getting the best of her. She could be making friends at the club, like her husband keeps encouraging her to do. Or working on her golf game. Or getting her hair done.
But for some reason, these things don't interest her as much as the naked man on the motorcycle...
In 2012, a publisher asked me if I wanted to write a book about Joseph Smith's assassination. I leapt at the chance, in part because I was fascinated by Smith and the Latter-day Saints, and in part because I appreciated how many of the important contributions to Mormon history --- including Fawn Brodie’s famous biography of Joseph Smith, or the first honest and comprehensive account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre -- sprang from the pens of women and men with no formal academic training. By contrast, many “scholars” have disgraced themselves with prevaricating or pusillanimous accounts of the religion’s raucous and fascinating 190-year history. So jump in! Never a dull moment with the Latter-day Saints!
These heart-wrenching biographies of 33 of Joseph Smith’s wives were the first, in-depth exploration of the social and emotional costs of Mormon polygamy. Loneliness appeared in 1997. The church waited until November 2014, six months after the publication of American Crucifixion, to officially acknowledge that Joseph had up to 40 wives.
Beginning in the 1830s, at least thirty-three women married Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. These were passionate relationships which also had some longevity, except in cases such as that of two young sisters, one of whom was discovered by Joseph’s first wife, Emma, in a locked bedroom with the prophet. Emma remained a steadfast opponent of polygamy throughout her life.
The majority of Smith’s wives were younger than he, and one-third were between fourteen and twenty years of age. Another third were already married, and some of the husbands served as witnesses at their own wife’s polyandrous wedding. In…
Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration
by
Mark Doherty,
I have woven numerous delightful and descriptive true life stories, many from my adventures as an outdoorsman and singer songwriter, into my life as a high school English teacher. I think you'll find this work both entertaining as well as informative, and I hope you enjoy the often lighthearted repartee…
I’ve been fascinated by people’s behavior since I was a child. I was the kid who asked too many impertinent questions, never satisfied with the short answer. When I fell in love with historical fiction, the history mingled with my interest in human psychology. I soon discovered that despite advancements throughout civilization, people’s wants, needs, and fears remain fairly consistent. The exploration of life experiences that are not our own through the power of a book is pure magic. I hope these recommendations will allow you to put another’s life on like you would your winter parka and just for a moment, gain an understanding of another’s trials and tribulations.
I will admit it, I am a sucker for a compelling book cover. The cover ofMrs. Kimble completely drew me in and it didn’t take long for me to be so immersed that I wanted to grab the characters by their shoulders and shake some sense into them. I was intrigued by the idea of a “serial husband” but honestly, I wanted to know more about this narcissistic man who could simply change who he was at any given moment all the while changing careers, hometowns, and wives without nary a backwards glance. Self-centered doesn’t even begin to describe Ken Kimble but he sure does make the novel an intriguing story about love, loss, betrayal, and human nature in all of its glory.
Covering a span of twenty five years, Mrs Kimble tells the story of three women married in succession to the same man - a charismatic opportunist named Ken Kimble. Told from the perspective of each Mrs Kimble, it offers a mesmerising look at how three very different women become accomplices in their own deception.
We see Ken Kimble through the eyes of the women he seduces: his first wife, Birdie, who struggles to hold herself together in the months following his desertion; his second wife, Joan, a lonely heiress recovering from personal tragedy, who sees in Kimble her last…
