Here are 100 books that The Forgotten Hours fans have personally recommended if you like
The Forgotten Hours.
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I grew up in a household with a secret at its center, one that I've long suspected held trauma. Long before the formation of the family I was born into, my mother was a divorcee with a young child, my eldest sister (a fact I only found out by finding a photo of my parents’ wedding with my sister in it!). My mother refused to tell my sister anything about her biological father or the circumstances of the divorce, saying only that she “preferred to pretend that part of her life had never happened.” I never did learn the full story. Needless to say, novels that give their protagonist that chance are very close to my heart.
Trust me when I say I’ve never read another story like this one!
To say Rosemary grew up in an unusual household is an understatement, and I love how her circumstances, coupled with the fact that she sees no real reason to find them odd, made me question some of my basic assumptions about family, even what it means to be a human being.
Because this story is told from Rosemary’s point of view, I enjoyed being “on the inside” and given the chance to see life from her perspective, and therefore to accept Fern, her twin sister, with no questions asked. And it’s hard not to love Fern, even when society at large doesn’t agree!
The New York Times bestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club introduces a middle-class American family that is ordinary in every way but one in this novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize.
Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. “I was raised with a chimpanzee,” she explains. “I tell you Fern was a chimp and already you aren’t thinking of her as my sister. But until Fern’s expulsion...she was my twin, my…
A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.
German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…
I grew up in a household with a secret at its center, one that I've long suspected held trauma. Long before the formation of the family I was born into, my mother was a divorcee with a young child, my eldest sister (a fact I only found out by finding a photo of my parents’ wedding with my sister in it!). My mother refused to tell my sister anything about her biological father or the circumstances of the divorce, saying only that she “preferred to pretend that part of her life had never happened.” I never did learn the full story. Needless to say, novels that give their protagonist that chance are very close to my heart.
I’m sure I’ve never laughed out loud so many times while reading a book that explores the effects of deep trauma.
What I love here is that we barely know the extent of Eleanor’s childhood trauma until the very end. What we experience instead is the increasingly interesting life of someone who doesn’t at all fit into the social world as we know it but is about as endearing in her innocence and brute honesty as they come.
The way Eleanor Oliphant sees the world made me appreciate how ridiculous so many of our social rituals can be. I rooted for her every step of the way and came away almost wishing I could wear her particular goggles when walking through my own life.
"Beautifully written and incredibly funny, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about the importance of friendship and human connection. I fell in love with Eleanor, an eccentric and regimented loner whose life beautifully unfolds after a chance encounter with a stranger; I think you will fall in love, too!" -Reese Witherspoon
No one's ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine.
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of…
I grew up in a household with a secret at its center, one that I've long suspected held trauma. Long before the formation of the family I was born into, my mother was a divorcee with a young child, my eldest sister (a fact I only found out by finding a photo of my parents’ wedding with my sister in it!). My mother refused to tell my sister anything about her biological father or the circumstances of the divorce, saying only that she “preferred to pretend that part of her life had never happened.” I never did learn the full story. Needless to say, novels that give their protagonist that chance are very close to my heart.
Parvati, one of two female protagonists in this extraordinary novel, is one of my favorite characters of all time.
We sense from the very beginning that she has suffered many traumas in her life, but this is not where the story lingers. I was moved by the inner strength that keeps Parvati moving forward every day, even when she is near the end of her life, even when things look grim.
What I love most about this book is the willingness of this old woman, who has every reason to be guarded, to make space for a friendship that changes everything and allows her to see, perhaps for the first time, just how very special she is.
More than a decade since her bestselling novel, The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar continues Bhima's unforgettable story in this stunning sequel.
"The women at the heart of this novel inhabit the harsh world of the urban Indian poor, and struggle separately and together for dignity and survival. Thrity Umrigar has written a moving human tale that vividly brings to life both the women and the city of Mumbai."-Salman Rushdie
Bhima, the unforgettable main character of Thrity Umrigar's beloved national bestseller The Space Between Us, returns in this triumphant sequel-a poignant and compelling novel in which the former servant struggles…
The Extraordinary Journey of David Ingram
by
Dean Snow,
An ordinary sailor named David Ingram walked 3600 miles from Mexico to Canada over the course of eleven months in 1568-9. There, he and two companions were rescued by a French ship on the Bay of Fundy. They were the first Englishmen to explore the interior of North America.
I grew up in a household with a secret at its center, one that I've long suspected held trauma. Long before the formation of the family I was born into, my mother was a divorcee with a young child, my eldest sister (a fact I only found out by finding a photo of my parents’ wedding with my sister in it!). My mother refused to tell my sister anything about her biological father or the circumstances of the divorce, saying only that she “preferred to pretend that part of her life had never happened.” I never did learn the full story. Needless to say, novels that give their protagonist that chance are very close to my heart.
What often looms as large as a given trauma is the burden of keeping it a secret, and I love this book for its gentle exploration of how that burden manifests, repeats, and reverberates through three generations of women.
Faye’s complicated and beautiful story would be enough to carry an entire novel, but Faye inadvertently teaches her daughters to bury their own self-doubts and shame, creating an echo of hurt and healing that took my breath away.
These three women were very real to me, and I was so attached to each of them by the end of the book that I was ready to drive up to Maine, knock on their door, and invite myself in.
In an unforgettable saga of survival, motherhood, sisterhood, and the secrets that haunt us, one desperate decision creates a fault line that spans decades and threatens to break a family wide open.
In 1946, two German sisters, child refugees in a program dubbed Operation Shamrock, arrive in Ireland to live in foster care while Europe recovers from war. Nearly fifty years later, on a fateful day in a bustling Maine farmhouse, an Irish newspaper clipping threatens to unravel Faye Sullivan's carefully constructed life with husband William and daughters Maeve and Molly, a life already on the brink of collapse.
Everyone experiences stress, loss, grief, and disconnection in life. We often feel isolated and alone in our sorrow and pain. For many years, I’ve shared openly about my personal challenges, starting in 2003 with my Babyfruit blog about my multiple miscarriages to the speeches I’ve given around the world in the 90s, to several of the books I’ve written. Through storytelling, I try to turn my heartbreak into lessons—to turn my pain into tangible steps that can help others navigate hard things and feel less alone. Helping others is part of my healing process.
So many people are grieving and may not understand what they are feeling, especially when what they are grieving seems undefined or ambiguous—such as the loss of a job, a marriage, or watching a loved one slowly slip away due to illness or age.
The author of this book is a grief educator who sets out to define and validate “ambiguous grief” and provide tools for moving forward on a healing journey.
Expanding on Pauline Boss's seminal work on ambiguous loss, this book explores the complications and deviations from traditional grief when mourning a loss, but not a death-and offers real solutions for healing.
Grief isn't always the result of something finite, marking a death or complete end. Soul-shattering grief can also be activated by a dramatic shift in an important relationship, such as a divorce or significant breakup, a life-changing medical diagnosis, or a broken connection with an addicted child. How do we grieve people who are still alive, but no longer who they once were to us?
I love writing my steamy, happily ever after romance novels. Billionaires are my Prince Charmings and they have a lot to offer the heroines I write. However, none of my heroines are weak. They are strong and they love the billionaires for who they are, not what they offer. I want a world full of romance, steam, and happily ever afters, so that’s what I love to write. My books are perfect for a relaxing day on the beach that will leave you feeling good.
Nora Roberts is the absolute queen of romance. She is often the first author anyone recommends in the genre, and as such, I am a huge fan.
Hideaway has a scrappy heroine, but the real reason I love this book is Dillon. He’s hard-working and protective and just right for Cate.
I also really enjoyed the other background characters and relationships. So many times romance novels focus only on the two leads (with good reason!) but it’s always nice when the characters have outside relationships, especially good ones. Dillon’s relationships made me smile and love him all the more as a romance hero.
A powerful new novel from global bestseller Nora Roberts about finding what matters most in the least expected places.
If you're after the perfect pick-me-up, take-me-away-from-the-world read, then she's your woman' The GuardianOne day, she thought, one moment, one innocent game. How was it that day, that moment, that game never seemed to end? Caitlyn Sullivan is just nine years old when a game of Hide and Seek at a family party will change her life forever. The betrayal she experienced that night will shape Caitlyn's life, and for years she runs and runs, hiding from the aftermath of…
A series of galactic empire building, space battles, and the personal struggle of an exiled war leader to bring down the Galactic Empire that killed his mother and destroyed the Keeno Order.
I am a childhood abuse survivor, author, and therapist, and I am always looking for books to help me better understand the crazy healing process. I have done over two decades of therapy and have been working with clients for over twenty-eight years. In addition, I serve as an expert witness on behalf of plaintiffs who have experienced different types of trauma. Educating myself and getting the perspective from other clinicians and experts has helped me be a better therapist and expedited my therapy process!
This book, by Danielle Delaney, PhD. (10-10-10 Publishing, February 2017) is written by a survivor that I connected to after I went public about surviving childhood abuse.
It is a beautifully written book and offers the reader hope in the aftermath of living through horrific abuse experiences as a teenager. Delaney affirms the enormous amount of work and time it takes to recover from traumas like kidnapping and sexual assault.
UNVEIL AN ESSENTIAL & UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE ABOUT HEALING FROM DEEP TRAUMA
You CAN heal ENTIRELY from severe, deep trauma - without needing a lobotomy. Through her first book, Expect Delays, Dr. Danielle Delaney shares with you the traumatic experiences of her assaults, and her journey of recovery and growth into the powerful woman and trauma expert that she is today. Recovery is not a simple path, and you will encounter detours and delays along the winding road. You will discover and uncover knowledge from the first chapter, Demolition, when an unexpected and terror-inducing life event totals you, to the final…
The truth is, I’ve never fit in. I'm always asking questions like: Why do we do it that way? And, what if we tried this instead? These types of questions, however, though intriguing to me and other creatives, make the keepers of the status quo really nervous. As a professor and narrative inquiry researcher, I study the stories of people who've been silenced—extracting the characters, plot, and setting these narratives have in common. For workplace abuse survivors, a salient theme is they think big! To support this mission, I'm on the Executive Board and serve as the Education Director for the National Workplace Bullying Coalition and am a regular contributor to Psychology Today.
I am a voracious reader, digesting several books a week. Every once in a while, a book stops me in my tracks, charging me to yell to myself and anyone who will listen - “Yes, yes, that is it!” This is exactly how I felt when I read Janoff-Bulman’s explanation of how trauma sleeps not in the “what” of the story but in how that “what” shatters our assumptions of a benevolent world, making us question if the world is inherently good, if events are meaningful, and whether we are truly worthy.
As both a survivor and researcher of workplace abuse, bullying on the job shatters all of these assumptions - charging the target to doubt the benevolence of the workplace, the predictability of the work environment, and the innate belief that we are inherently worthy despite the workplace gossip that hijacked our narrative.
This book investigates the psychology of victimization. It shows how fundamental assumptions about the world's meaningfulness and benevolence are shattered by traumatic events, and how victims become subject to self-blame in an attempt to accommodate brutality. The book is aimed at all those who for personal or professional reasons seek to understand what psychological trauma is and how to recover from it.
An avid reader from an early age, what has moved me most were the characters who faced adversity and fought to overcome it. In my 30s, I lost my way, followed a guru, and took almost a decade to realize I was in a cult. Psychotherapy helped me get out and led me to become a psychotherapist. The books I've recommended have encouraged and inspired me to heal and to grow, to build a good, strong, healthy life–even though I fell more than once and didn't know for sure if I could get back up. I hope these books will inspire you as they inspired me.
This is an outstanding book on healing from trauma, and I've read literally hundreds. This book transformed the way I practice psychotherapy; it transformed the way I understand what trauma does to the mind and body, and it transformed my relationship with myself. Fisher gets right to the heart of what brings most people into psychotherapy: self-alienation. Lots of people say, "I'm beating myself up," casually, without realizing the price they are paying for how habitually critical, punitive, discouraging, and condemning they are toward themselves!
Most people have compassion for others, but can't imagine how they could use that compassion internally. Internal compassion is what heals trauma, and this book, like no other I know, lays out, with depth and complexity, how to get there.
Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors integrates a neurobiologically informed understanding of trauma, dissociation, and attachment with a practical approach to treatment, all communicated in straightforward language accessible to both client and therapist. Readers will be exposed to a model that emphasizes "resolution"-a transformation in the relationship to one's self, replacing shame, self-loathing, and assumptions of guilt with compassionate acceptance. Its unique interventions have been adapted from a number of cutting-edge therapeutic approaches, including Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, mindfulness-based therapies, and clinical hypnosis. Readers will close the pages of Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors with a…
Wales between the wars, a place of poverty and a world full of anguish. Yet, there is hope. Within family, within community, and most of all in the brave heart of one young girl.
Set in the lush Dulais Valley; Carrie is fated to a life of hardship and sorrow,…
I’m fascinated by our connections to animals, our similarities and differences, and how we communicate. Large mammals have always been my favorites, but like many people, I started noticing birds in my backyard during the pandemic lockdowns. As an author of middle-grade novels, my stories have been inspired by something interesting I’ve learned about a particular animal. I started writing my novel after learning that whooping cranes had nested in Texas for the first time in over a century. I knew I had to give that momentous nest sighting to a bird-loving girl who’d appreciate the visitation by these rare and majestic birds!
This book helped me relive one of the bright spots of the pandemic lockdowns of 2020, when author Stephanie Lucianovic chronicled her son’s Zoom classroom spiraling into chaos when the teacher was disconnected from the class.
That fun and messy narrative unfolded in a Twitter thread known as #ZoomOfTheFlies. Imagine my delight when I saw that real-life event woven into Lucianovic’s novel.
In this engaging novel in verse, I identified with Archie as he navigated through the upheaval of the pandemic lockdowns and struggled to make his voice heard over so much noise. I felt like I was in the company of a trustworthy friend who finds hope and connection amid isolation and uncertainty.
A poignant and necessary story about finding hope during difficult times, set in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Archie's life--and the whole world--is turned upside down by Covid-19. Suddenly there are no more Friday night dinners out, no more going to school, no more hanging out with friends . . . no leaving the house at all.
Even though he's inside with his family all day every day, Archie can't help but feel more alone than ever before. While everyone else seems to be adapting to their new normal just fine, it's like Archie is permanently on mute,…
