Here are 100 books that Swamp Story fans have personally recommended if you like
Swamp Story.
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My passion for this topic of women overcoming the odds stems from having worked with powerful, resilient women as a life coach and therapist for the past 15 years. I witness and continue to be inspired by women who surpass what they or those around them believe is possible internally and externally. Women are powerful in unimaginable ways, and I love to read a great story that depicts this truth.
Kaya Clark is the wild child I longed to be growing up. Although her family story is tragic and well-explored, how she inhabits her world of nature and allows it to inhabit her is stunning. Once again, she is a young woman who is an outcast who manages to rise above her limitations and those placed on her by society.
Beyond the incredible storytelling and intriguing plot lines, I was mesmerized by the natural world of the North Carolina marshes, being as much a main character as Kaya herself. The intricate details of the lushness and cruelty of the natural world were incredible. In looking back at my favorite novels, one of the commonalities is the writing’s ability to come alive in my head and to take up a permanent space as much as my own lived memories. This novel is one of those.
OVER 12 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE A NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
For years, rumours of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be…
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.
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…
I love being by the water. Most of my vacations are spent at tropical destinations. There’s something pretty amazing about reading a book at the water’s edge, near a palm tree, with the breeze and the salty smell of the wonderful warm air as pelicans swoop across the surface.
I’ve added this book to this list because I love Joan Crawford. I love Hollywood and all the gossip, glitz, and glamor that goes along with it.
This particular story is told by her daughter Christina about how a photograph is perceived to be happy, but what really happened, as told by the author, is two different stories.
A true vaudeville legend personality exposed, which makes it a great beach read.
The 40th anniversary edition of the "shocking" #1 New York Times bestseller with an exclusive new introduction by the author (Los Angeles Times).
When Christina Crawford's harrowing chronicle of child abuse was first published in 1978, it brought global attention to the previously closeted subject. It also shed light on the guarded world of Hollywood and stripped away the facade of Christina's relentless, alcoholic abuser: her adoptive mother, movie star Joan Crawford.
Christina was a young girl shown off to the world as a fortunate little princess. But at home, her lonely, controlling, even ruthless mother made her life a…
I love being by the water. Most of my vacations are spent at tropical destinations. There’s something pretty amazing about reading a book at the water’s edge, near a palm tree, with the breeze and the salty smell of the wonderful warm air as pelicans swoop across the surface.
I love being in Key West with the main character. There are palm trees swaying and boats on the water as the character dives in, searching for treasure. I also liked the dark, seedy graveyard scenes and urban legends the island people tell.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Wrecker needs to deal with smugglers, grave robbers, and pooping iguanas—just as soon as he finishes Zoom school. Welcome to another wild adventure in Carl Hiaasen's Florida!
Valdez Jones VIII calls himself Wrecker because his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather salvaged shipwrecks for a living.
So is it destiny, irony, or just bad luck when Wrecker comes across a speedboat that has run hard aground on a sand flat? The men in the boat don't want Wrecker to call for help—in fact, they'll pay him to forget he ever saw them.
I am Susie Black. Before I became an award-winning, humorous, cozy mystery author, I had a successful career as a ladies’ swimwear sales exec. As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time in Florida. I interacted with progressive, traditional, and conservative buyers and sellers from large cities to small towns all over the Sunshine State. My experiences gave me a unique perspective on the social mores and hierarchy of Florida’s diverse, multi-layered, and complicated society.
Maybe it’s because, as a woman who worked in a historically male-dominated industry, I always root for the underdog—be it a newbie with the chutzpah to say no to a pushy buyer or a small town fighting off a huge conglomerate. Give me a character who is a caricature of an amusement park scion, dialog dripping with sarcasm, and a zany plot that spits in the eye of corporate America.
I led the applause as S. V. Date gleefully poked fun at the greediness of big business while indicting a state government that, for a price, was more than happy to go along for the ride.
A witty satire of planned communities introduces readers to Serenity, Florida--the lifelong dream of amusement park scion Waldo Whipple--a town on the verge of a very public nervous breakdown. 10,000 first printing.
I am Susie Black. Before I became an award-winning, humorous, cozy mystery author, I had a successful career as a ladies’ swimwear sales exec. As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time in Florida. I interacted with progressive, traditional, and conservative buyers and sellers from large cities to small towns all over the Sunshine State. My experiences gave me a unique perspective on the social mores and hierarchy of Florida’s diverse, multi-layered, and complicated society.
Since I was ten, my parents insisted I watch every major party-political convention. So, it was no surprise that now as an adult political junkie, I devoured every page of this book. I loved the what-ifs the book translated to in today’s political picture.
I marveled at how author Dorsey deftly took the unquestioning tool of the powerful special interests incumbent Florida Governor and transformed him into a candidate with a conscience three weeks before the next election. I gave a standing ovation to Dorsey, who used zippy dialog and a fast-paced plot to hysterically make mincemeat of the hypocritical, holier-than-thou morals of an alley cat displayed by state party officials.
If you like your humour dark and twisty, then you'll love Tim Dorsey's outrageous Serge Storms series of crime novels. The Republicans' "golden boy" and a loyal, unquestioning tool of the powerful special interests handsome, unthreatening, Florida governor-by-default Marlon Conrad seems a virtual shoo-in for re-election. That is, until he undergoes a radical personality shift during a bloody military action in the Balkans. Now it's just three weeks before the election and Marlon is suddenly talking about "issues" and "reform" as he crosses the length and breadth of his home state with an amnesiac speechwriter and a chief of staff…
I am Susie Black. Before I became an award-winning, humorous, cozy mystery author, I had a successful career as a ladies’ swimwear sales exec. As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time in Florida. I interacted with progressive, traditional, and conservative buyers and sellers from large cities to small towns all over the Sunshine State. My experiences gave me a unique perspective on the social mores and hierarchy of Florida’s diverse, multi-layered, and complicated society.
I bet it’s because I lived on a houseboat for ten years that this hilarious book grabbed me by the sea legs and never let me go. Nothing tickles my funny bone more than a group of people who have nothing in common and are thrown together on a boat out to sea but going in circles.
The antics of this ship of fools on a gambling boat who are seemingly clueless as to the ship’s nefarious real business make for a madcap tale of side-splitting laughter.
The Extravaganza of the Seas is a 5,000-ton cash cow, a top-heavy tub whose sole function is to carry gamblers three miles from the Florida coast, take their money, then bring them back so they can find more money. Travelling this trip are Fay Benton, a single mom and cocktail waitress, desperate for something to go right for a change; Johnny and the Contusions, a ship's band with so little talent they are, well, the ship's band; Arnold and Phil, two refugees from the Beaux Arts Senior Centre; Lou Tarant, a wide, bald man who has killed nine people, though…
I’m an author of over seventy romance books and have been a romance reader all my life. I think the first book I wrote (at the age of eight) featured a kiss. Yes, I was precocious, but in my defense, I was spying on my much older sister and her boyfriend at the time. Reading and writing romance is my passion, and I love spending my days creating independent, intelligent, and feisty heroines and hot, smart, modern men. I’m lucky enough to spend my days doing what I love. I hope you love the books on my list, and that they bring you as much pleasure (and an escape from reality) as they did me.
This is a seriously funny book full of great dialogue. It’s also a great premise…the hero who makes a bet with his friend to sleep with said friend’s very cranky ex-girlfriend.
Min has just been recently dumped by a man she didn’t love, but she’s not in the mood to deal with any man’s ****. Cal is stupidly handsome, successful, and charming, but he needs to be brought down a peg or ten. This is opposites attract romance with lots of heart!
I started out my writing career in romance and romantic suspense but discovered my humor gene when I wrote my first chick lit novel. Who knew I could write humor? Certainly not me! I bungle every joke I’ve ever tried to tell. But suddenly humor was flowing from my fingertips onto my computer screen. Seeing this new side to my writing, my agent suggested I try my hand at a humorous cozy mystery. Suddenly I found my true calling. I left the world of romance behind and settled into the world of murder and mayhem, complete with a large dollop of laughter.
Technically, Stephanie Plum isn’t an amateur sleuth because she works as a bounty hunter, but since she was never trained and tends to succeed despite her bungling and ineptitude, I consider her an amateur sleuth. Besides, when you’re sorely in need of a good laugh to release some endorphins, you can’t go wrong spending a few hours with Stephanie and her colorful cohorts. This twenty-seventh outing in the long-running series is one of the best when it comes not only to the humor, but it offers up a well-plotted story, and lots of red herrings. Plus, there’s plenty of Grandma Masur in this one. What more could you ask for?
From “the most popular mystery writer alive” (The New York Times), the twenty-seventh thrilling entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series isn’t just the biggest case of Stephanie Plum’s career. It’s the adventure of a lifetime.
When Stephanie’s beloved Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair…and the keys to a life-changing fortune.
But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure, they discover that they’re not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way—along…
Ever since I discovered science fiction and fantasy as a kid, I loved playing in other worlds. It didn’t take me long to start creating my own to play in, so I thought I might as well write them down. I also learned that it’s more fun to throw disparate elements and genres together. Why not throw some time travel and aliens in a Western? Or put some aliens and a little cyberpunk in an alternate history? I always find the most interesting worlds are the ones where things are not so easily categorized.
This is a cyberpunk classic, but what I really love about it is the combination of modern computer technology with Sumerian mythology, the Tower of Babel myth, and how well Stephenson is able to integrate them, so we have hackers throwing around Sumerian terms like 'me' and 'nam-shub'.
And for me, I love that there’s just a lot of cool stuff happening here, like a biker with an atomic bomb on a deadman switch, a nuclear-powered needle gun. And our lead character is named Hiro Protagonist. But probably the biggest point for me is that despite the dystopian setting, there really is more hope in this story than one would think.
The “brilliantly realized” (The New York Times Book Review) breakthrough novel from visionary author Neal Stephenson, a modern classic that predicted the metaverse and inspired generations of Silicon Valley innovators
Hiro lives in a Los Angeles where franchises line the freeway as far as the eye can see. The only relief from the sea of logos is within the autonomous city-states, where law-abiding citizens don’t dare leave their mansions.
Hiro delivers pizza to the mansions for a living, defending his pies from marauders when necessary with a matched set of samurai swords. His home is a shared 20 X 30…
