Here are 19 books that How to Read a Book fans have personally recommended if you like
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The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina-a town that holds the secret to her mother's…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
Heartbreaking story of the horrifying role cartels have in Mexico and the terrifying path to safety that some people are forced to make. Lydia and her son hide in the bathroom while their ENTIRE family is gunned down in Acapulco. Somehow they escape and begin the trek to el Norte and some semblance of safety. But the path is fraught with peril. This was a compelling story and an unforgettable one.
*NOW A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME* 'Breathtaking... I haven't been so entirely consumed by a book for years' Telegraph 'I'll never stop thinking about it' Ann Patchett
FEAR KEEPS THEM RUNNING. HOPE KEEPS THEM ALIVE.
Vivid, visceral, utterly compelling, AMERICAN DIRT is an unforgettable story of a mother and son's attempt to cross the US-Mexico border. Described as 'impossible to put down' (Saturday Review) and 'essential reading' (Tracy Chevalier), it is a story that will leave you utterly changed.
Yesterday, Lydia had a bookshop. Yesterday, Lydia was married to a journalist. Yesterday, she was with everyone she loved…
Each of us at times has felt isolated or disconnected. What does it take to pull us out of it? Sometimes reconnecting happens in ways that are unexpected. When we look back, we see we couldn’t have mapped out the path back with the most sophisticated GPS.
Then again, we’re not Monica Wood, who in, “The One-In-a-Million Boy” connects dots and lines between places and people so adroitly, we end up looking back at our crucial crossroads, the choices that have led us to where we are today.
One in a Million seems early as if it’s going to be a sad book. I found the opposite. I found that Wood gives hope to those who feel alone. Through her characters, she suggests we will likely find purpose and bridges in the most unlikely places. An 11-year-old boy and a 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant? Come on. And yet…
She may be 104 years old, but Ona Vitkus is on a mission and it's all because of THE ONE-IN-A-MILLION-BOY...
Monica Wood's unforgettable novel about a boy in a million and the 104-year-old woman who saves his family is not to be missed by readers who loved THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY, ELIZABETH IS MISSING or THE SHOCK OF THE FALL.
'A lovely, quirky novel about misfits across generations' Daily Mail
'A bittersweet story about finding friendship in the most unlikely of places' Good Housekeeping.
The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you…
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…
From the engaging (mostly—except for the villains!) characters to the twisty plot, this book challenged assumptions and preconceptions, and, as a true author will do, Tartt's conclusion is both unexpected and well-planned for.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014 Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the…
Quirky characters. Found familyss. Sweeping saga of art and music. And a love letter to Firenze . I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, separated into chronological titled vignettes with threads of the characters deftly woven throughout. Evelyn meets Darnley and Ulysses in a tuscan villa during WWII and this random connection frames a lifelong friendship. The characters were deftly drawn, their relationships realistic and ultimately hopeful and loving, albeit often not traditional.
A captivating, bighearted, richly tapestried story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood, and the ghost of E. M. Forster, by the celebrated author of Tin Man.
Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her…
The first half of the book was absolutely enthralling, packed with tense drama and emotional depictions of front-line medical care during the Vietnam War. The second half, after the main character returns home from war, drags a bit in places and fixates on some toxic relationships. Despite those rough patches, I picked it as a favorite this year for its unique take on the nurses' story, an often-overlooked part of history.
From master storyteller Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds, comes the story of a turbulent, transformative era in America: the 1960s. The Women is that rarest of novels—at once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield.
“Women can be heroes, too.”
When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected…
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
I love stories in which characters are utterly compelled to follow a path, for myriad reasons, even if it leads to their ultimate destruction. Even better when it leads to redemption. I think redemption stories are very much about the world we live in now, where forgiveness and compassion are so precious. This is such a complex novel with twists and complications, and I never knew whether I wanted her to find him or not!
A missing persons mystery, a serial killer thriller, and an epic love story - with a unique twist on each...
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Late one summer, the town of Monta Clare is shattered by the abduction of local teenager Joseph 'Patch' Macauley. Nobody more so than Saint Brown, who is broken by her best friend's disappearance. Soon, she will eat, sleep, breathe, only to find him.
But when she it will break her heart.
Patch lies in a pitch-black room - all alone - for days or maybe weeks. Until he feels a hand in his. Her name…
I loved the way one character brings together a group of people who, though living in the same boarding house, had little to do with one another. I thought the author portrayed the period—1950—McCarthy witch hunts— extremely well. I loved the many surprises at the end.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • GMA BOOK CLUB PICK • AN NPR BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the New York Times bestselling author of I Was Anastasia and Code Name Hélène comes a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.
"Fans of Outlander’s Claire Fraser will enjoy Lawhon’s Martha, who is brave and outspoken when it comes to protecting the innocent. . . impressive."—The Washington Post
"Once again, Lawhon works storytelling magic with a real-life heroine." —People Magazine
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
Given the blank canvas and infinite palette, many authors, perhaps hankering for a blockbuster movie deal, choose romantasy, thrillers, or sci-fi. Monica Wood finds her thrills – and ours - in everyday folk. The owner of a beauty shop. The district manager for a dental supply company.
So it is in, “My Only Story,” where Rita Rosario inserts herself into another family’s tragedy as she seeks fulfillment in her own life.
You might be thinking, hmm, pass, doesn’t sound like much. If so, revise your thinking. Wood is an insightful storyteller with a gift for making the routine feel extraordinary. No wasted words. Incredibly original. If you read or write a lot, you’ll spot it instantly.
Pick nearly any page. Rita thinks of the sound of her lover’s old car as a “balm.” Her sister is having a meltdown. Her man gives her a wide berth, “as if she were…
He came to me first in a dream, as a crippled dog angling down a country lane, puzzled by his sudden age, his bum paw, the dry stick clamped between his teeth. I'd been expecting this dream for a very long time, and I woke up moving. . . .
Rita Rosario has a gift, a way with people. She listens to them and really sees them for who they are–warts and all. And sometimes, she even knows how to guide them toward a new beginning. Women, even men, come to Rita's beauty shop for perms, town gossip, and the…
