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Recommendations based on Charms for the Easy Lifeby Kaye Gibbons
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Ellen Foster
by Kaye Gibbons
A young girl's struggle to find a permanent home and family in the face of abuse and neglect.
Ellen is an only child who does not have a real home, even at the time when both her parents are still alive. Her father is " trash " and has a drinking problem , and the whole atmosphere is one of ... (Wikipedia)
Big Stone Gap
by Adriana Trigiani
A small-town woman's journey of self-discovery, finding love and purpose in unexpected places.
Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the tiny town of Big Stone Gap is home to some of the most charming eccentrics in the state. Ave Maria Mulligan is the town's self-proclaimed ... (Goodreads)
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)
A Virtuous Woman
by Kaye Gibbons
A woman's struggle to overcome poverty and take control of her own destiny.
When Blinking Jack Stokes met Ruby Pitt Woodrow, she was twenty and he was forty. She was the carefully raised daughter of Carolina gentry and he was a skinny tenant farmer who had never owned ... (Goodreads)
The Bean Trees
by Barbara Kingsolver
A young woman's journey of self-discovery and resilience as she takes on motherhood and a new life.
Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she ... (Goodreads)
Sullivan's Island
by Dorothea Benton Frank
A woman returns to her childhood home on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, and confronts family secrets and personal demons.
The New York Times bestseller—in paperback for the first time! Set in the steamy, stormy landscape of South Carolina, Sullivan's Island tells the unforgettable story of one woman's courageous journey ... (Goodreads)
The Shell Seekers
by Rosamunde Pilcher
A family explores their past, present, and future while examining the importance of treasured objects.
Shifting in time, the novel tells the story of Penelope Keeling, the daughter of unconventional parents (an artist father and his much-younger French wife), examining her past and her relationships ... (Wikipedia)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
A coming of age story set in Brooklyn, depicting a young girl's struggles and growth.
The novel is split into five "books", each covering a different period in the characters' lives. Book One opens in 1912 and introduces 11-year-old Francie Nolan, who lives in the Williamsburg ... (Wikipedia)
Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger
A young boy's journey of faith, hope, and courage in the midst of tragedy.
Once in a great while, we encounter a novel in our voluminous reading that begs to be read aloud. Leif Enger's debut, Peace Like a River , is one such work. His richly evocative novel, narrated by an ... (Goodreads)
A Piece of the World
by Christina Baker Kline
A woman's journey of self-discovery as she comes to terms with a painting that made her famous.
A New York Times bestseller. "Exquisite. A must-read.” —Kristin Hannah From the #1, New York Times, bestselling author of the smash bestseller, Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of ... (Barnes & Noble)
What Alice Forgot
by Liane Moriarty
A woman wakes up with amnesia and must reconstruct her life, rediscovering truths hidden in her past.
FROM THE #1, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF, THE HUSBAND'S SECRET, AND, BIG LITTLE LIES,. A “cheerfully engaging”(,Kirkus Reviews,) novel for anyone who’s ever asked herself, “How did I get ... (Barnes & Noble)
Standing in the Rainbow
by Fannie Flagg
A comedic story of a small town in Alabama and its eccentric inhabitants, highlighting the beauty of human relationships.
Along with Neighbor Dorothy, the lady with the smile in her voice, whose daily radio broadcasts keep us delightfully informed on all the local news, we also meet Bobby, her ten-year-old son, destined ... (Goodreads)
Between, Georgia
by Joshilyn Jackson
A small town is torn apart by a feud between two families, and a young girl caught in the middle must choose where her loyalties lie.
Nonny Frett understands the meaning of the phrase "in between a rock and a hard place" better than any woman alive. She's got two mothers, "one deaf-blind and the other four baby steps from flat ... (Goodreads)
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
by Helen Simonson
A widower finds love and acceptance in an unlikely place, challenging social conventions.
You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as ... (Goodreads)
Empire Falls
by Richard Russo
A small town's citizens struggle to find meaning and find their place in a rapidly changing world.
Set in the decaying, nearly bankrupt, small town of Empire Falls, Maine, this is the story of the unassuming manager of the Empire Grill, Miles Roby, who has spent his life in the town. The town, and ... (Wikipedia)
A Town Like Alice
by Nevil Shute
A young woman's courageous journey from a Japanese war camp to a new life in Australia.
The story falls broadly into three parts. In post-World War II London, Jean Paget, a secretary in a leather goods factory, is informed by solicitor Noel Strachan that she has inherited a considerable ... (Wikipedia)
People of the Book
by Geraldine Brooks
A journey through time as an ancient book is discovered and its secrets revealed.
The "complex and moving" ( The New Yorker ) novel by Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks follows a rare manuscript through centuries of exile and war. Inspired by a true story, "People of the ... (Goodreads)
The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss
A journey through a web of intertwining stories, searching for the meaning of love.
Approximately 70 years before the present, the 10-year-old Polish-Jewish Leopold (Leo) Gursky falls in love with his neighbor Alma Mereminski. The two begin a relationship that develops over the ... (Wikipedia)
Summer
by Edith Wharton
A young woman's romantic and social journey of self-discovery in the high society of 19th century New England.
At the start of the novel, young Charity Royall is bored with her life in the small town of North Dormer. She was born to poor parents from "up the Mountain" who gave her up to the town's learned ... (Wikipedia)
The Persian Pickle Club
by Sandra Dallas
A group of women in Kansas during the Great Depression, finding friendship and courage through quilting.
In her magical, memorable novel, Sandra Dallas explores the ties of loyalty and friendship that unite the women in a, quilting circle in Depression-era Kansas,It is the 1930s, and hard times have hit ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Madonnas of Leningrad
by Debra Dean
A story of resilience, courage, and perseverance in the face of tragedy and trauma.
Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. And while the elderly Russian woman cannot hold on to fresh memories—the details of her grown children's lives, the ... (Goodreads)
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jamie Ford
A touching story of the intersection of love, family, and culture during World War II.
Henry Lee, the son of Chinese parents in Seattle , Washington, is the only Asian child at his elementary school. His father makes him wear an "I Am Chinese" button so he will not be mistaken for a ... (Wikipedia)
Under the Dome
by Stephen King
Small town experiences a sudden and mysterious isolation, leading to chaos and terror.
At 11:44 a.m. on October 21, 2017, the small Maine town of Chester's Mill is abruptly and gruesomely separated from the outside world by an invisible, semipermeable barrier of unknown origin. The ... (Wikipedia)
Lost Lake
by Sarah Addison Allen
A woman and her daughter visit a magical lake in Georgia, where they find healing, love, and a sense of belonging.
A, New York Times, bestseller! "Tender and enchanting" —,Southern Seasons, "An endearing tale of surprising second chances." –, Booklist, (starred review) The first time Eby Pim saw Lost Lake, it was ... (Barnes & Noble)
My Ántonia
by Willa Cather
A young man's reminiscences of his childhood in rural Nebraska, and of his friendships with the immigrants he met there.
Orphaned Jim Burden rides the trains from Virginia to Black Hawk, Nebraska, where he will live with his paternal grandparents. Jake, a farmhand from Virginia, rides with the 10-year-old boy. On the ... (Wikipedia)
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
Confronting the past and present, a woman struggles to reconcile her beliefs with those of her hometown.
Jean Louise "Scout" Finch, a single 26-year-old, returns from New York to her hometown, Maycomb, Alabama, for her annual fortnight-long visit to her father Atticus, a lawyer and former state ... (Wikipedia)
Gap Creek
by Robert Morgan
A rural family's struggles with poverty and hardships of life in the Appalachians.
Gap Creek's main character is a young girl, Julie, who does everything she possibly can to help her family and her new husband, Hank. Julie works hard to help her family when they need it, some even ... (Wikipedia)
The Chaperone
by Laura Moriarty
A woman's journey of self-discovery while escorting a young dancer to New York City.
The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both. Only a few years before becoming a ... (Goodreads)
The Invention of Wings
by Sue Monk Kidd
A powerful story about a girl's journey to freedom, despite the limitations of slavery.
Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now ... (Goodreads)
The Patron Saint of Liars
by Ann Patchett
A woman's escape from an unhappy marriage leads to a chance at finding true love.
The book is divided into four sections: Habit, Rose, Son, and Sissy In 1906, George Clatterbuck witnesses a miracle as his daughter, June Clatterbuck, is healed by water from a spring in the back ... (Wikipedia)
