Here are 100 books that Through the Glass fans have personally recommended if you like
Through the Glass.
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I am a published author, memoir-writing instructor, and retired clinical psychologist. I wrote an initial memoir as a chronological account of my dysfunctional marriages and recovery from them, but lately, I have become very interested in what is termed âhybrid memoirs.â Hybrid memoirs combine personal memoirs with major incidents and research into issues similar to those in the memoir or the culture and laws surrounding them. Since my new book combines my memoir with an account of a crime that affected all the citizens in the country village where I grew up, I have gravitated to memoirs featuring crime as part of the story.
I loved how this book is a memoir and research into trauma that affects people their whole lives. Through conversations and interviews, Rosner tells the story of the holocaust and its psychological effect on those who survived and those whose relatives perpetrated or witnessed the horrors.
I like that she looks into PTSD that many suffer from and how she states that horrors or abuse have to be acknowledged to be healed.Â
As featured on NPR and in The New York Times, Survivor Cafe is a bold work of nonfiction that examines the ways that survivors, witnesses, and post-war generations talk about and shape traumatic experiences.
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa storiesâall 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 argueâŠ
I am a published author, memoir-writing instructor, and retired clinical psychologist. I wrote an initial memoir as a chronological account of my dysfunctional marriages and recovery from them, but lately, I have become very interested in what is termed âhybrid memoirs.â Hybrid memoirs combine personal memoirs with major incidents and research into issues similar to those in the memoir or the culture and laws surrounding them. Since my new book combines my memoir with an account of a crime that affected all the citizens in the country village where I grew up, I have gravitated to memoirs featuring crime as part of the story.
I love murder mysteries, and this is the story of a real-life murder. Marzano-Lesnevichâs memoir, as well as her journalistic story of the murder, intertwines to make a compelling book.
She unveils her own personal story as well as the personal story of the murderer and his victim.Â
'Part memoir, part true crime, wholly brilliant.' - Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train.
When law student Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is asked to work on a death-row hearing for convicted murderer and child molester Ricky Langley, she finds herself thrust into the tangled story of his childhood. As she digs deeper and deeper into the case she realizes that, despite their vastly different circumstances, something in his story is unsettlingly, uncannily familiar.
The Fact of a Body is both an enthralling memoir and a groundbreaking, heart-stopping investigation into how the law is personal, composed of individual stories, andâŠ
I am a published author, memoir-writing instructor, and retired clinical psychologist. I wrote an initial memoir as a chronological account of my dysfunctional marriages and recovery from them, but lately, I have become very interested in what is termed âhybrid memoirs.â Hybrid memoirs combine personal memoirs with major incidents and research into issues similar to those in the memoir or the culture and laws surrounding them. Since my new book combines my memoir with an account of a crime that affected all the citizens in the country village where I grew up, I have gravitated to memoirs featuring crime as part of the story.
I was immediately drawn into the story and admired how the author wrote three parts skillfully and had the tenacity to drive many miles to find the people who took part in the original story to portray what happened. Â
I found this to be a powerful book in many ways. It combines the story of the 1959 murder of a family in small-town Alberta, the possible miscarriage of justice, the authorâs search for the truth about the case, and a fictional account of a family in which things turned out differently. Â
In 1959 Ray and Daisy Cook and their five children were brutally slain in their modest home in the central Alberta town of Stettler. Robert Raymond Cook, Ray CookÂs son from his first marriage, was convicted of the crime, and had the infamy of becoming the last man hanged in Alberta. Forty-six years later, a troublesome character named Louise in a story that Betty Jane Hegerat finds herself inexplicably reluctant to write, becomes entangled in the childhood memory of hearing about that gruesome mass murder. Through four years of obsessively tracking the demise of the Cook family, and dancing aroundâŠ
Stealing technology from parallel Earths was supposed to make Declan rich. Instead, it might destroy everything.
Declan is a self-proclaimed interdimensional interloper, travelling to parallel Earths to retrieve futuristic cutting-edge technology for his employer. It's profitable work, and he doesn't ask questions. But when he befriends an amazing humanoid robot,âŠ
I am a published author, memoir-writing instructor, and retired clinical psychologist. I wrote an initial memoir as a chronological account of my dysfunctional marriages and recovery from them, but lately, I have become very interested in what is termed âhybrid memoirs.â Hybrid memoirs combine personal memoirs with major incidents and research into issues similar to those in the memoir or the culture and laws surrounding them. Since my new book combines my memoir with an account of a crime that affected all the citizens in the country village where I grew up, I have gravitated to memoirs featuring crime as part of the story.
I am acquainted with Janet and was eager to read her book. This tale of her marriage and the huge trip she and her husband made from South Africa to Cairo is extraordinary, even as a travel book, but the story of her marriage as they made their journey is equally compelling.
They faced many challenges, but then they faced an ultimate challenge on the journey (I wonât give it away!)Â Â
Despite having everything she could ask for, Janet Wilson couldn't shake a sense of emptiness in her life-or her desire to return to the continent of her birth. After much back-and-forth, she and her husband reached an agreement: they would embark on a daring adventure, driving 25,000 miles across Africa. What they couldn't anticipate then was how this trip would challenge almost every belief, opinion, and value they held.
Over the course of their journey, Janet and her husband collided with the world and each other. There were tears and laughter. They shared thrilling highlights and challenges that forced themâŠ
In the acknowledgments in my novel I mention my late mother âwho might have wanted to flee, but didnât.â My pregnant mother driving eight hours down the Fraser Canyon. Baby me âin a cardboard boxâ in the front seat, my brothers, armed with pop guns, in the back. My dad, having finally found work, gone ahead alone. We didnât tell this as a story of her courage and strength. It was considered funny. But after I became a mother, I had a clearer vision of the stress and poverty of my motherâs life. My novel, and the ones Iâm recommending, show compassion for women as mothers, and for their children, who are sometimes left behind.
I was moved by the profound look into a young manâs grief and guilt and confusion that Canadian author Matt Cohen offered us in this, his last novel. Carlâs mother is dead, killed at the age of 51 in a car accident for which Carl is (mostly) responsible. After the funeral, Carl fled. Now, three years later, heâs back in his hometown, population 684, attempting to start over and reconnect with his seven-year-old daughter. Itâs a long, hard fight for redemption in a town where the habitantsâa grand cast of themâhave long memories of who Carl was and what he did. Matt Cohen died a few weeks after the book won the Governor Generalâs Prize for English-Language Fiction.
A touching and resonant story of a man who returns to the small town of West Gull, Ontario, to mend his family's legacy of alcohol and violence, to reconnect with his young daughter, and to reconcile himself with the spirit of his beautiful mother, killed several years earlier in a tragic accident. Elizabeth and After masterfully wraps us up in the lives of Carl and his family, and the other 683 odd residents of this snowy Canadian hamlet.
I have loved history since I was a child, and very early on, I realized that history was not something that was made only by famous people. My own relatives had migrated, worked at different jobs, served in wars, etc., and ordinary people like them have been the most important drivers of events. I had a chance to study in Mexico in my early twenties and rapidly fell in love with its people and history. Yet, ever since I was a child, I have been interested in the history of wars. My work on the Mexican-American War combines all of these passions.
I grew up in upstate New York near the Canadian border, and one of the crucial battles of this war was fought there. When I was growing up, we were told this war was a successful one for the United States, and Taylor shows how this was true in some ways but not very true at all in others.Â
This is a sprawling tale with a huge cast of characters, and it includes the perspectives of ordinary people from various groups.
In the early nineteenth century, Britons and Americans renewed their struggle over the legacy of the American Revolution, leading to a second confrontation that redefined North America. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylorâs vivid narrative tells the riveting story of the soldiers, immigrants, settlers, and Indians who fought to determine the fate of a continent. Would revolutionary republicanism sweep the British from Canada? Or would the British contain, divide, and ruin the shaky republic?  In a world of double identities, slippery allegiances, and porous boundaries, the leaders of the republic and of the empire struggled to control their own diverse peoples.âŠ
Nature writer Sharman Apt Russell tells stories of her experiences tracking wildlifeâmostly mammals, from mountain lions to pocket miceânear her home in New Mexico, with lessons that hold true across North America. She guides readers through the basics of identifying tracks and signs, revealing a landscape filled with the marksâŠ
My passion for mining history was sparked when I lived in Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories. One of my students wanted to write a short essay on the Pine Point Mine, which he claimed had cheated the community by making so much money, providing few jobs, and leaving a big mess after closing. I offered to drive the student out to tour the abandoned mine and was blown away by the dozens of open pits and abandoned haul roads that had been carved out of the northern forest. From that day on, I was hooked on mining history, hungry to learn as much as possible about these abandoned places.
I have rarely encountered a book that captures the local impacts of mining as well as Lianne Leddyâs Serpent River Resurgence. I was impressed with how the author, a Serpent River First Nation member, used oral history and family stories to document how the uranium rush at Elliot Lake, Ontario, irrevocably altered the ability of Serpent River members to hunt, fish, and gather off the land.
To me, the book's real strength was the authorâs refusal to depict her fellow community members as victims, highlighting their successful campaign for environmental cleanup of the toxic legacies that remained long after the uranium mines had closed.Â
Serpent River Resurgence tells the story of how the Serpent River Anishinaabek confronted the persistent forces of settler colonialism and the effects of uranium mining at Elliot Lake, Ontario. Drawing on extensive archival sources, oral histories, and newspaper articles, Lianne C. Leddy examines the environmental and political power relationships that affected her homeland in the Cold War period.
Focusing on Indigenous-settler relations, the environmental and health consequences of the uranium industry, and the importance of traditional uses of land and what happens when they are compromised, Serpent River Resurgence explores how settler colonialism and Anishinaabe resistance remained potent forces inâŠ
Iâve been addicted to reading mysteries and crime fiction since I was a kid, and I naturally fell into writing in these genresâIâm currently in the midst of penning my fourth series! Thereâs nothing better than discovering a new, well-written series and following along with interesting, complicated main characters over several books. These favourite recommendations of mine will take you to Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, and my very own Canada without ever having to leave home. Hopefully, youâll discover some new authors, and their main characters will bring you as much enjoyment as theyâve given me.
I absolutely love Bluntâs writing in this series. It is nuanced and beautifully paired with the troubled, multi-faceted characters. The books are set in the fictional town of Algonquin Bay, based in North Bay in Northern Ontario, a part of the country I know well having grown up a bit farther north and west. The setting permeates the storiesâsmall town, dead of winter, lots of bush and conifer trees. The discovery of a body in a mine shaft fits perfectly. John Cardinal, lead cop, is struggling to help his clinically depressed wife and has recently been demoted. Heâs a compelling character and so well drawn as is his new partner Lise Delorme. The books have been made into a gritty television series with superb acting, but Iâd say read the books first because the writing is just that good.
"One of the best novels of [the year]. . . Giles Blunt has a tremendous talent." -Tony Hillerman
"Forceful . . . surprising . . . [Blunt's] insights into suffering and madness give his characters their true voice." -The New York Times
In the quiet Canadian town of Algonquin Bay, a frozen body has been found in an abandoned mine shaft. She is quickly identified as Katie Pine, a teenager who had disappeared months ago. At the time, Detective John Cardinal insisted that Katie was no ordinary runaway. His relentless pursuit and refusal to give up on the case gotâŠ
Even though I have not lived in the Midwest for fifty years, I remain a Midwesterner. It is in how I speak (adding an ârâ to wash), what I like to eat (Cincinnati chili), and explains my favorite smell (the inside of a barn). Both as a reader and writer, I want to know where the story is âfrom.â What does this place look like? Smell like? What is the cadence of the charactersâ speech? All this translates into an immersive experience and that is something I look for both in a book I pick up and in one I write.
Hazel Micaellef, 62, a police officer in a small town in Ontario, is divorced, overweight, has back problems, and drinks too much. I am from a small town and divorced. Liquor is not my vice. I am, however, completely at home in the fictional and slightly seedy Port Dumas where locals have long memories. When human bones are found on land that formerly housed orphans, many of the townâs ugly secrets bubble up.The plot is complex and the setting immersive. I would not necessarily want to live in a place like Port DumasâŠbut I have.
The new novel in this acclaimed series is brilliantly paced, addictively suspensefulâthe author's best yet. Hazel Micallef (played by Susan Sarandon in the recent film of the series' debut, The Calling) has become one of crime writing's most memorable detectives. The Night Bell moves between the past and the present in Port Dundas, Ontario, as two mysteries converge. A discovery of the bones of murdered children is made on land that was once a county foster home. Now it's being developed as a brand new subdivision whose first residents are already railing against broken promises and corruption. But when threeâŠ
The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circularâŠ
I love stories where people have fantastical powers, especially if theyâre set in our world. I grew up with Marvel and DC telling me stories about people who could always be counted on to save the day. But I had a frustration. Those comic stories often ended badly when it came to relationships. If a character was in love, they invariably broke up, or the love interest was kidnapped or killed. Iâve collected these awesome examples of stories where superpowers donât mean being alone. They capture the blend that Iâve tried to create in my own books: an exciting story full of adventure that can also warm the heart.
High school is hard enough to survive. Adding teleportation makes it freakinâ impossible. Our hero, Cole, is an adorable nerd about to finish his senior year of high school when he suddenly develops the talent of teleportation (including one adventure when he accidentally zaps himself into his locker). Mysterious men in black start showing up wherever he is and Cole needs to figure out what heâs doing fast if he wants to escape. Luckily, his latest crush, Malik, is proving to be a steadfast friend and maybe a little more. Nathan has an amazing talent for bringing his characters to life and creates some of the sweetest love stories Iâve ever read. Heâs a fellow comic-book fan and fans of the X-Men and Avengers will love his stories.
Being the kid abducted by old Ms. Easton when he was four permanently set Coleâs status to freak. At seventeen, his exit plan is simple: make it through the last few weeks of high school with his grades up and his head down.
When he pushes through the front door of the school and finds himself eighty kilometers away holding the door of a museum he was just thinking about, Cole faces facts: heâs either more deluded than old Ms. Easton, or he just teleported.
Now every door is an accident waiting to happenâespecially when Cole thinks about Malik, who,âŠ
