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Recommendations based on Olive, Againby Elizabeth Strout
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Olive Kitteridge
by Elizabeth Strout
An exploration of the life of a small-town woman, revealing her struggles and emotional complexities.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. At times stern, at other times ... (Goodreads)
Anything Is Possible
by Elizabeth Strout
An exploration of the interconnected lives of a small town's inhabitants, and the power of redemption.
Short story collection Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others. Here are two sisters: one ... (Goodreads)
My Name Is Lucy Barton
by Elizabeth Strout
A woman's journey of self-reflection, uncovering secrets from her past.
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn't spoken for many years, comes to see her. Her unexpected visit forces Lucy to confront ... (Goodreads)
My Brilliant Friend
by Elena Ferrante
A story of two friends' lives, exploring the intricacies of female friendship and life in a Neapolitan neighbourhood.
A modern masterpiece from one of Italy's most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante's inimitable style lends ... (Goodreads)
The Giver of Stars
by Jojo Moyes
A group of women in Kentucky during the Great Depression form a traveling library, facing challenges and finding friendship.
From the author of, Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond. Alice ... (Goodreads)
Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
Post-apocalyptic exploration of a world drastically changed after a pandemic.
An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse,, Station Eleven, tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Lacuna
by Barbara Kingsolver
Exploring the ties between art, politics and identity in tumultuous 1930s Mexico.
The novel tells the story of Harrison William Shepherd beginning with his childhood in Mexico during the 1930s. His parents are separated so he lives back and forth between the United States with his ... (Wikipedia)
There There
by Tommy Orange
A powerful novel that follows the lives of twelve Native Americans living in Oakland, California, as they prepare for a powwow.
The book begins with an essay by Orange, detailing "brief and jarring vignettes revealing the violence and genocide that Indigenous people have endured, and how it has been sanitized over the ... (Wikipedia)
Rules of Civility
by Amor Towles
An ambitious young woman looks to make her mark in 1930s New York, learning the complex rules of high society.
This sophisticated and entertaining first novel presents the story of a young woman whose life is on the brink of transformation. On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a ... (Goodreads)
The World That We Knew
by Alice Hoffman
In Nazi-occupied France, a mother sends her daughter away with a mystical creature to keep her safe. A tale of love, loss, and survival.
In 1941, during humanity’s darkest hour, three unforgettable young women must act with courage and love to survive, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Marriage of ... (Goodreads)
Beloved
by Toni Morrison
A haunting story of loss and resilience in the aftermath of slavery.
Beloved begins in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio , where the protagonist Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman, has been living with her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver at 124 Bluestone Road. The book ... (Wikipedia)
Letters from Rifka
by Karen Hesse
A young Jewish girl flees Russia in 1919, hoping to reach America and escape persecution. Her journey is filled with danger and uncertainty.
During the Russian Civil War of 1919, Rifka and her family must flee Russia because the Russian army are after her one of her brothers for leaving the army; the penalty for that is death for the ... (Wikipedia)
The Door
by Magda Szabó
A mysterious doorkeeper guards the door between two worlds, changing the lives of two women.
The novel begins with Magda, the narrator, recounting the recurring dream that haunts her in her old age. As Magda explains, after waking up from this dream, she is forced to face the fact that "I ... (Wikipedia)
Winter Garden
by Kristin Hannah
A family drama that explores the complex relationships between a mother and her two daughters, set against the backdrop of World War II and the Leningrad Siege.
Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn’t know her mother?, From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane, and, True Colors, comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that ... (Goodreads)
Firefly Lane
by Kristin Hannah
A lifelong friendship between two women, navigating through life's ups and downs.
From the New York Times bestselling author of On Mystic Lake comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . . In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her ... (Goodreads)
Stoner
by John Williams
An academic's life of quiet desperation, finding solace in literature.
William Stoner is born on a small farm in 1891. After high school, the county agent advises he go to agriculture school. Stoner enrolls in the University of Missouri , where all agriculture students ... (Wikipedia)
Parable of the Sower
by Octavia E. Butler
A post-apocalyptic story of survival, hope, and the power of community.
This highly acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from award-winning author Octavia E. Butler "pairs well with, 1984, or, The Handmaid's Tale," (John Green,, New York Times,)–now with a ... (Barnes & Noble)
Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
An exploration of race, identity, and belonging as two Nigerian immigrants experience life in America and beyond.
Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to ... (Goodreads)
This Tender Land
by William Kent Krueger
Four orphans escape a cruel boarding school and embark on a journey down the Mississippi River during the Great Depression.
INSTANT, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLER! “If you liked, Where the Crawdads Sing, you’ll love, This Tender Land, ...This story is as big-hearted as they come.” —, Parade, The unforgettable story of four ... (Barnes & Noble)
Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters
A thrilling tale of two women who conspire to swindle a wealthy gentleman.
Sue Trinder, an orphan raised in "a Fagin -like den of thieves" by her adoptive mother, Mrs Sucksby, is sent to help Richard "Gentleman" Rivers seduce a wealthy heiress. Posing as a maid, Sue is to ... (Wikipedia)
The Stranger Diaries
by Elly Griffiths
A Gothic murder mystery set in a school where a teacher's death mirrors the plot of a famous ghost story.
Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare’s colleagues and ... (Goodreads)
The Round House
by Louise Erdrich
A teenage boy seeks justice for a crime committed against his mother in a Native American community.
The novel opens with Joe Coutts and his father, Judge Bazil Coutts, pulling out saplings from their house's garden and foundation. They realize Joe's mother and Bazil's wife, Geraldine Coutts, has ... (Wikipedia)
Everything My Mother Taught Me
by Alice Hoffman
A daughter reflects on the lessons her mother taught her, revealing the complexities of their relationship and the power of love.
In this haunting short story of loyalty and betrayal, a young woman in early 1900s Massachusetts discovers that in navigating her treacherous coming-of-age, she must find her voice first. For ... (Goodreads)
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
by Peter Cameron
A coming-of-age story of a teenage boy struggling to cope with change and life's struggles.
James Sveck, 18, is an isolated young adult caught in the summer before he is to begin college at Brown University . The only person in his life with whom he is able to successfully relate is his ... (Wikipedia)
Clock Dance
by Anne Tyler
A woman's life changes when she receives a call to care for her son's ex-girlfriend's daughter. She discovers new relationships and a sense of purpose.
Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life: when she was eleven and her mother disappeared, being proposed to at twenty-one, the accident that would make her a widow at ... (Goodreads)
Disappearing Earth
by Julia Phillips
Two sisters go missing in a remote Russian town, unraveling the lives of its inhabitants. A haunting exploration of loss, identity, and community.
In an isolated town in Far Eastern part of Russia two young girls go missing. The literary review aggregator Book Marks reported that 75% of critics gave the novel a "rave" review and 25% gave it a ... (Wikipedia)
In One Person
by John Irving
A coming-of-age story of a bisexual man fighting for acceptance in a world of intolerance.
A New York Times bestselling novel of desire, secrecy, and sexual identity, In One Person is a story of unfulfilled love—tormented, funny, and affecting—and an impassioned embrace of our sexual ... (Goodreads)
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore
by Matthew J. Sullivan
A gripping mystery set in a bookstore, revealing secrets from the past.
When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this “intriguingly dark, twisty” ( Kirkus Reviews ) debut novel from an award-winning short ... (Barnes & Noble)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer
A young boy's quest to find the lock that matches a mysterious key his father left behind.
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and ... (Goodreads)
The Fifth Child
by Doris Lessing
A family's life is upended when the fifth child arrives, disrupting the balance of their world.
When David Lovatt meets Harriet at an office party, they both immediately fall in love. They both share the same conservative outlooks, which they perceive to be a rarity in the London of the 1960s. ... (Wikipedia)
