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Recommendations based on The Lifeboatby Charlotte Rogan
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
The Light Between Oceans
by M.L. Stedman
A lighthouse keeper and his wife make a heartbreaking decision that has lifelong repercussions.
Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found, here, Australia, 1926. After four harrowing years fighting on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns home to take a job as the lighthouse ... (Goodreads)
The Leftovers
by Tom Perrotta
A family struggles to cope with the mysterious disappearance of loved ones in a post-apocalyptic world.
Several years after a rapture-like event in which millions of people worldwide suddenly vanish without explanation, the citizens of Mapleton, Ohio are still struggling to cope with the massive loss ... (Wikipedia)
Starter for Ten
by David Nicholls
Brian, a working-class student, navigates university life, love, and a quiz bowl competition in 1980s England.
The story, told in first-person narrative , is set in 1985 and chronicles the misadventures of student Brian Jackson in his first year at an unnamed university . A somewhat obsessive collector of ... (Wikipedia)
News of the World
by Paulette Jiles
Captain Kidd travels through Texas in 1870, reading the news to townspeople. He is tasked with returning a young girl to her family.
The book opens in 1870 on the wild border between Texas and Indian Territory , where a 10-year-old girl has been released after four years of captivity. Kiowa raiders had killed her family and taken ... (Wikipedia)
Defending Jacob
by William Landay
A father must defend his son who is accused of murder, unraveling the truth of a complex crime.
Andy Barber is an assistant district attorney in Newton , Massachusetts. He is investigating the murder of a 14-year-old boy, Ben Rifkin, who was a classmate of his son Jacob and was found stabbed to ... (Wikipedia)
Miller's Valley
by Anna Quindlen
A coming-of-age story of Mimi Miller, who grows up in a small town that is slowly being flooded.
For generations the Millers have lived in Miller’s Valley. Mimi Miller tells about her life with intimacy and honesty. As Mimi eavesdrops on her parents and quietly observes the people around her, ... (Goodreads)
The Language of Flowers
by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
A young woman's journey of healing and redemption through the power of flowers.
The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in ... (Goodreads)
The Lock Artist
by Steve Hamilton
A young man with a talent for lock-picking navigates life as a criminal and falls in love with a girl who needs his help.
"I was the Miracle Boy, once upon a time. Later on, the Milford Mute. The Golden Boy. The Young Ghost. The Kid. The Boxman. The Lock Artist. That was all me.,But you can call me Mike." Marked by ... (Goodreads)
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
by Rachel Joyce
An elderly man's unexpected quest of faith, discovering the power of hope and love.
Harold Fry, 65, has cut the lawn outside his home at Kingsbridge on the south coast of Devon when he receives a letter. A colleague of twenty years ago, Queenie Hennessy, has cancer and is in a ... (Wikipedia)
The Absolutist
by John Boyne
Two friends in World War I grapple with identity, loyalty and love in the face of tragedy.
It is September 1919: twenty-one-year-old Tristan Sadler takes a train from London to Norwich to deliver a package of letters to the sister of Will Bancroft, the man he fought alongside during the ... (Goodreads)
The Whistling Season
by Ivan Doig
A coming-of-age story set in rural Montana in 1909, following a family's struggles and triumphs during the homesteading era.
"Can't cook but doesn't bite." So begins the newspaper ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper, sound morals, exceptional disposition" that draws the hungry attention of widower Oliver ... (Goodreads)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
by Jesse Andrews
A teenage boy's unconventional journey of friendship and healing in the face of death.
Greg Gaines is a senior at Benson High School. A social loner, he navigates high school life by gaining everyone's acquaintance but staying clear of any particular clique. His only real friend is ... (Wikipedia)
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)
A Week in Winter
by Maeve Binchy
A tale of friendship, love, and unexpected connections in a small Irish village.
Stoneybridge is a small town on the west coast of Ireland where all the families know one another. When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the ... (Goodreads)
The Stone Diaries
by Carol Shields
A woman's life story told through a series of vignettes, examining the joys and sorrows of life.
The book is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a seemingly ordinary woman whose life is marked by death and loss from the beginning, when her mother dies during childbirth. Through ... (Wikipedia)
Raven Black
by Ann Cleeves
A murder mystery set on the Shetland Islands, unraveling secrets embedded in the local community.
Winner of Britain’s coveted Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award, Ann Cleeves introduces a dazzling new suspense series to mystery readers.,Raven Black, begins on New Year’s Eve with a lonely outcast named ... (Goodreads)
Life After Life
by Kate Atkinson
A woman lives multiple lives, reflecting on choices and consequences and the power of love.
The novel has an unusual structure, repeatedly looping back in time to describe alternative possible lives for its central character, Ursula Todd, who is born on 11 February 1910 to an ... (Wikipedia)
The Universe Versus Alex Woods
by Gavin Extence
An unlikely friendship between a young man and an elderly man, sharing an extraordinary experience.
A rare meteorite struck Alex Woods when he was ten years old, leaving scars and marking him for an extraordinary future. The son of a fortune teller, bookish, and an easy target for bullies, Alex ... (Goodreads)
Dark Fire
by C.J. Sansom
A lawyer investigates a mystery surrounding the death of a famous scientist, unearthing secrets of the past.
It is 1540, and Henry VIII has been on the throne for thirty-one years when Matthew Shardlake, the lawyer renowned as " the sharpest hunchback in the courts of England," is pressed to help a friend's ... (Goodreads)
The Buddha in the Attic
by Julie Otsuka
A story of Japanese picture brides, told through a chorus of their collective voice.
There is no plot in the usual sense of specific individuals going through particular events. The novel is told in the first person plural, from the point of view of many girls and women, none of whom ... (Wikipedia)
My Cousin Rachel
by Daphne du Maurier
A young man's journey of suspicion and intrigue, searching for the truth about his mysterious cousin.
Ambrose Ashley is the owner of a large country estate on the Cornish coast and has been guardian to his orphaned cousin Philip since he was three years old. On Sundays, Philip's godfather , Nick ... (Wikipedia)
Into the Water
by Paula Hawkins
A gripping murder mystery, uncovering secrets hidden in a town's haunted past.
Following the unexplained death of her sister, Nel, in a pool at the foot of a cliff, Jules Abbott returns to Beckford, a fictional town in Northumberland , to care for her niece, Lena. The novel is ... (Wikipedia)
The Art Forger
by Barbara A. Shapiro
An aspiring artist embarks on a daring mission to forge a stolen masterpiece.
A Barbara A. Shapiro tour de force. On March 18, 1990, thirteen works of art worth today over $500 million were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. It remains the largest ... (Goodreads)
The Little Paris Bookshop
by Nina George
A heartbroken bookseller sails through France on a literary journey to heal his own broken heart.
“There are books that are suitable for a million people, others for only a hundred. There are even remedies—I mean books—that were written for one person only…A book is both medic and medicine at ... (Goodreads)
An Officer and a Spy
by Robert Harris
A story of espionage and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Dreyfus Affair.
Upon being promoted to run the Statistical Section , the top secret headquarters of French military intelligence, Georges Picquart begins to discover that the evidence used to convict Alfred Dreyfus ... (Wikipedia)
The Racketeer
by John Grisham
An imprisoned lawyer discovers a sinister plot, using his knowledge of the law to uncover the truth.
Malcolm Bannister is an African American attorney in a small-town Virginia law firm. A real estate transaction which he undertook in good faith turns out to have involved the purchase of a secluded ... (Wikipedia)
The Prisoner of Heaven
by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
A man's mysterious past entangles him in a web of secrets, love and revenge.
Daniel Sempere has settled into married life well and his son is shortly turning one year old. He is living above the family bookshop, Sempere & Sons with his elderly father, his wife Beatriz and son ... (Wikipedia)
Flight Behavior
by Barbara Kingsolver
A woman's struggle to reconcile her faith and environmentalism as she faces a mysterious ecological disaster.
Dellarobia Turnbow is a 28-year-old discontented housewife living with her poor family on a farm in Appalachia . On a hike to begin an affair with a telephone repairman, Turnbow finds millions of ... (Wikipedia)
The Affair
by Lee Child
An ex-military cop investigates a murder that leads him to uncover a deeper conspiracy.
In March 1997, Maj. Jack Reacher is briefed by his superior Leon Garber on a troubling development in Carter's Crossing, Mississippi : a woman has been found murdered, her throat slit, with signs of ... (Wikipedia)
Beautiful Ruins
by Jess Walter
A romantic story of fate, secrets, and destiny, spanning from Italy in the 1960s to present day.
"The best novel of the year." — Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air A #1 New York Times bestseller, this “absolute masterpiece” (Richard Russo) is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the ... (Goodreads)
