Therese's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 07 Aug 2024 20:17:13 -0700 60 Therese's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naĂŻve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—TłÜ°ů˛Ô±đ»ĺ
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Therese 4 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Therese
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> Pride and Prometheus 35297458 Pride and Prejudice meets Frankenstein as Mary Bennet falls for the enigmatic Victor Frankenstein and befriends his monstrous Creature in this clever fusion of two popular classics.

Threatened with destruction unless he fashions a wife for his Creature, Victor Frankenstein travels to England where he meets Mary and Kitty Bennet, the remaining unmarried sisters of the Bennet family from Pride and Prejudice. As Mary and Victor become increasingly attracted to each other, the Creature looks on impatiently, waiting for his bride. But where will Victor find a female body from which to create the monster’s mate?

Meanwhile, the awkward Mary hopes that Victor will save her from approaching spinsterhood while wondering what dark secret he is keeping from her.

Pride and Prometheus fuses the gothic horror of Mary Shelley with the Regency romance of Jane Austen in an exciting novel that combines two age-old stories in a fresh and startling way.]]> 371 John Kessel 1481481479 Therese 5 3.63 2008 Pride and Prometheus
author: John Kessel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/02/06
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]]> The Shipping News 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Therese 4 3.88 1993 The Shipping News
author: Annie Proulx
name: Therese
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Less Is Lost (Arthur Less, #2)]]> 60021216 In the follow-up to the best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning Less, the awkward and lovable Arthur Less returns in an unforgettable road trip across America.

“Go get lost somewhere, it always does you good.�

For Arthur Less, life is going surprisingly well: he is a moderately accomplished novelist in a steady relationship with his partner, Freddy Pelu. But nothing lasts: the death of an old lover and a sudden financial crisis has Less running away from his problems yet again as he accepts a series of literary gigs that send him on a zigzagging adventure across the US.

Less roves across the “Mild Mild West,” through the South and to his mid-Atlantic birthplace, with an ever-changing posse of writerly characters and his trusty duo � a human-like black pug, Dolly, and a rusty camper van nicknamed Rosina. He grows a handlebar mustache, ditches his signature gray suit, and disguises himself in the bolero-and-cowboy-hat costume of a true “Unitedstatesian�... with varying levels of success, as he continues to be mistaken for either a Dutchman, the wrong writer, or, worst of all, a “bad gay.�

We cannot, however, escape ourselves—even across deserts, bayous, and coastlines. From his estranged father and strained relationship with Freddy, to the reckoning he experiences in confronting his privilege, Arthur Less must eventually face his personal demons. With all of the irrepressible wit and musicality that made Less a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning, must-read breakout book, Less Is Lost is a profound and joyous novel about the enigma of life in America, the riddle of love, and the stories we tell along the way.]]> 272 Andrew Sean Greer 0316498904 Therese 0 to-read 3.64 2022 Less Is Lost (Arthur Less, #2)
author: Andrew Sean Greer
name: Therese
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/06/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> It All Comes Down to This 58724924
Beck, the eldest, is a freelance journalist whose marriage has long been devoid of passion, and she's recently begun to suspect that her husband, Paul, is hiding something from her. Though middle sister Claire is an accomplished pediatric cardiologist, her own heart is a mess, and her unrequited love for the wrong man is slowly destroying her. And while Sophie, the youngest, appears to have an Instagram-ready life of glamorous work and travel, her true existence is a cash-strapped house of cards that may fall at any moment.

But Marti’s will surprises them with its provision that the family’s summer cottage in Maine must be sold, the proceeds split equally between the three sisters. While there’s a ready buyer in C.J. Reynolds, he’s an ex-con with a complicated past and a tangled history with one of the women.

Choices and consequences, mistakes and misapprehensions, obligations and desires: before long, everyone in this cast of indelible characters will have to come to terms with the ways their lives have turned out differently than they expected, as well as the secrets they’ve been keeping from each other––and themselves.]]> 352 Therese Anne Fowler 1250278074 Therese 5 A Good Neighborhood, my modern take on classic tragedy. Many of you embraced it and supported it, and continue to do so. Thank you so much for that.

The novel had the unfortunate timing of hitting shelves on March 10, the same week the country shut down due to the pandemic. The extensive book tour we’d planned fell into the black hole of those first strange and difficult weeks when no one knew yet what to do in place of in-person store events.

Coming out of that experience, and with all the difficulties and uncertainties of pandemic isolation and political drama, I needed to immerse myself as much as possible in things that made me happy. So, I read happy books. I watched happy TV shows and movies. And late that summer, I began writing a wryly funny story that I populated with a cast of sympathetic characters, then aimed them at a joyful ending.

All went well until early 2021, when I developed some troubling and mysterious health issues. From January through May, I was in and out of doctor’s offices and imaging centers in search of answers and solutions. Amid that, I returned to the story whenever I could, distracting myself in this playground I’d made. I can see now that my anxieties and intentions about making the most of life, about making meaning, got distilled into each of my characters� journeys as well.

I designed It All Comes Down to This to be a big-hearted tale that utilizes dramatic irony, one of my favorite story forms. Everyone’s got a secret, and the reader is in on all of it while the characters are not. The result, I hope, is a smart, entertaining, compelling, even endearing story that in its slightly subversive way also takes on issues of class and feminism and identity. It’s a story about fate and coincidence and choice, about how we can remake ourselves in the face of adversity. It’s about Art. And family. And love.

It's also a story about storytelling: the stories we tell one another, the stories we tell ourselves, and the literal act of writing stories—with a slightly meta twist that I’ll leave for you to discover.

To those of you who’ve been on this writing journey with me since my early days, I thank you for sticking with me. To those of you who are recent or just joining now, welcome! I value you all so much, and I thank you, and I hope you enjoy reading It All Comes Down to This.]]> 3.31 2022 It All Comes Down to This
author: Therese Anne Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/12
shelves:
review:
In early 2020, I released A Good Neighborhood, my modern take on classic tragedy. Many of you embraced it and supported it, and continue to do so. Thank you so much for that.

The novel had the unfortunate timing of hitting shelves on March 10, the same week the country shut down due to the pandemic. The extensive book tour we’d planned fell into the black hole of those first strange and difficult weeks when no one knew yet what to do in place of in-person store events.

Coming out of that experience, and with all the difficulties and uncertainties of pandemic isolation and political drama, I needed to immerse myself as much as possible in things that made me happy. So, I read happy books. I watched happy TV shows and movies. And late that summer, I began writing a wryly funny story that I populated with a cast of sympathetic characters, then aimed them at a joyful ending.

All went well until early 2021, when I developed some troubling and mysterious health issues. From January through May, I was in and out of doctor’s offices and imaging centers in search of answers and solutions. Amid that, I returned to the story whenever I could, distracting myself in this playground I’d made. I can see now that my anxieties and intentions about making the most of life, about making meaning, got distilled into each of my characters� journeys as well.

I designed It All Comes Down to This to be a big-hearted tale that utilizes dramatic irony, one of my favorite story forms. Everyone’s got a secret, and the reader is in on all of it while the characters are not. The result, I hope, is a smart, entertaining, compelling, even endearing story that in its slightly subversive way also takes on issues of class and feminism and identity. It’s a story about fate and coincidence and choice, about how we can remake ourselves in the face of adversity. It’s about Art. And family. And love.

It's also a story about storytelling: the stories we tell one another, the stories we tell ourselves, and the literal act of writing stories—with a slightly meta twist that I’ll leave for you to discover.

To those of you who’ve been on this writing journey with me since my early days, I thank you for sticking with me. To those of you who are recent or just joining now, welcome! I value you all so much, and I thank you, and I hope you enjoy reading It All Comes Down to This.
]]> Meeting in Infinity 1138866 309 John Kessel 0870541641 Therese 5 3.97 1992 Meeting in Infinity
author: John Kessel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Pure Product 1138863 384 John Kessel 0312866801 Therese 5 3.88 1997 The Pure Product
author: John Kessel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Good News from Outer Space 1138865

Lucky Eberhart, George's wife, loses her job for her role in reviving him, and finds that there are worse things on Earth than she had dreamed of in her philosophies.

The Reverend Jimmy-Don Gilray believes that the Day of Judgment will arrive on the stroke of midnight, December 31, 1999. But all bets are off if the Aliens are already here.

Meanwhile, Carla Hazard, Sandy Ellison, and Martha Shummel are finding that this is their lucky day. Or is it all a sinister Alien game?

And Judgment Day approaches...

]]> 402 John Kessel 0312931786 Therese 5 3.66 1989 Good News from Outer Space
author: John Kessel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Corrupting Dr. Nice 1138861 320 John Kessel 0312865848 Therese 5 3.59 1997 Corrupting Dr. Nice
author: John Kessel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Moon and the Other 30753686
After participating in a rebellion that caused his mother’s death, Erno has been exiled from the Society of Cousins. Now, he is living in the Society’s rival colony, Persepolis, when he meets Amestris, the defiant daughter of the richest man on the moon.

Mira, a rebellious loner in the Society, creates graffiti videos that challenge the Society’s political domination. She is hopelessly in love with Carey, the exemplar of male privilege. An Olympic champion in low-gravity martial arts and known as the most popular bedmate in the Society, Carey’s more suited to being a boyfriend than a parent, even as he tries to gain custody of his teenage son.

When the Organization of Lunar States sends a team to investigate the condition of men in the Society, Erno sees an opportunity to get rich, Amestris senses an opportunity to escape from her family, Mira has a chance for social change, and Carey can finally become independent of the matriarchy that considers him a perpetual adolescent. But when Society secrets are revealed, the first moon war erupts, and everyone must decide what is truly worth fighting for.]]> 597 John Kessel 1481481444 Therese 5 3.53 2017 The Moon and the Other
author: John Kessel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/09
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]]> Pride and Prometheus 23689822 here. This is the 2008 novelette version, not the 2018 novel version.

Won the 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novelette and the 2009 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novelette.]]> 38 John Kessel Therese 5 3.57 2008 Pride and Prometheus
author: John Kessel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Booth 58502673 Best Book of the Year
Real Simple - AARP - USA Today

From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth--breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one--is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.

As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country's leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.]]> 470 Karen Joy Fowler 0593331435 Therese 0 to-read 3.76 2022 Booth
author: Karen Joy Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> Mercury Pictures Presents 59109471 The epic tale of a brilliant woman who must reinvent herself to survive, moving from Mussolini's Italy to 1940s Los Angeles

Like many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father's arrest.

Fifteen years later, on the eve of America's entry into World War II, Maria is an associate producer at Mercury Pictures, trying to keep her personal and professional lives from falling apart. Her mother won't speak to her. Her boss, a man of many toupees, has been summoned to Washington by congressional investigators. Her boyfriend, a virtuoso Chinese-American actor, can't escape the studio's narrow typecasting. And the studio itself, Maria's only home in exile, teeters on the verge of bankruptcy.

Over the coming months, as the bright lights go dark across Los Angeles, Mercury Pictures becomes a nexus of European émigrés: modernist poets trying their luck as B-movie screenwriters, once-celebrated architects becoming scale-model miniaturists, and refugee actors finding work playing the very villains they fled. While the world descends into war, Maria rises through a maze of conflicting politics, divided loyalties, and jockeying ambitions. But when the arrival of a stranger from her father's past threatens Maria's carefully constructed facade, she must finally confront her father's fate--and her own.

Written with intelligence, wit, and an exhilarating sense of possibility, Mercury Pictures Presents spans many moods and tones, from the heartbreaking to the ecstatic. It is a love letter to life's bit players, a panorama of an era that casts a long shadow over our own, and a tour de force.]]> 416 Anthony Marra 0451495209 Therese 0 to-read 3.61 2022 Mercury Pictures Presents
author: Anthony Marra
name: Therese
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Spool of Blue Thread 28814772 From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author--now in the fiftieth year of her remarkable career--a brilliantly observed, joyful and wrenching, funny and true new novel that reveals, as only she can, the very nature of a family's life.
     "It was a beautiful, breezy, yellow-and-green afternoon." This is the way Abby Whitshank always begins the story of how she fell in love with Red that day in July 1959. The whole family--their two daughters and two sons, their grandchildren, even their faithful old dog--is on the porch, listening contentedly as Abby tells the tale they have heard so many times before. And yet this gathering is different too: Abby and Red are growing older, and decisions must be made about how best to look after them, and the fate of the house so lovingly built by Red's father. Brimming with the luminous insight, humor, and compassion that are Anne Tyler's hallmarks, this capacious novel takes us across three generations of the Whitshanks, their shared stories and long-held secrets, all the unguarded and richly lived moments that combine to define who and what they are as a family.]]> 369 Anne Tyler 0553394398 Therese 0 to-read 3.48 2015 A Spool of Blue Thread
author: Anne Tyler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> Vigil Harbor 58834839
A decade in the future, in the historic town of Vigil Harbor, there’s been a rash of divorces among the yacht-club set; a marine biologist despairs at the state of the world; a spurned wife is bent on revenge; and the renowned architect Austin Kepner pursues a passion for building homes to withstand the escalating fury of coastal storms. Brecht, Austin’s stepson, has dropped out of college and retreated home from New York after narrowly escaping one of the domestic terrorist acts that, like hurricanes, are becoming all too common.

When two outsiders come to town—one a woman determined to solve the disappearance of a long-lost lover who links her to Austin, the other a man with subversive charms—the fates of Vigil Harbor’s residents become intertwined on one remarkable day and a long-held secret involving a selkie comes to light.

In a Time of Tempests reveals Julia Glass in all of her virtuosity, braiding together multiple voices and several dazzling strands of plot in a story that mingles mortal longings and fears with immortal mysteries of the deep as well as the heart.]]> 416 Julia Glass 1101870389 Therese 0 to-read 3.58 2022 Vigil Harbor
author: Julia Glass
name: Therese
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> Wish You Were Here 57701764 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and The Book of Two Ways comes comes a deeply moving novel about the resilience of the human spirit in a moment of crisis.

Jodi Picoult once again proves she is the master of wading through the darkness to find the light. Wish You Were Here is a powerfully evocative story of resilience and the triumph of the human spirit.
--Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Malibu Rising

Synopsis
Diana O’Toole is perfectly on track. She will be married by thirty, done having kids by thirty-five, and move out to the New York City suburbs, all while climbing the professional ladder in the cutthroat art auction world. She’s an associate specialist at Sotheby’s now, but her boss has hinted at a promotion if she can close a deal with a high-profile client. She’s not engaged just yet, but she knows her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, is about to propose on their romantic getaway to the Galapagos—days before her thirtieth birthday. Right on time.

But then a virus that felt worlds away has appeared in the city, and on the eve of their departure, Finn breaks the news: It’s all hands on deck at the hospital. He has to stay behind. You should still go, he assures her, since it would be a shame for all of their nonrefundable trip to go to waste. And so, reluctantly, she goes.

Almost immediately, Diana’s dream vacation goes awry. Her luggage is lost, the Wi-Fi is nearly nonexistent, and the hotel they’d booked is shut down due to the pandemic. In fact, the whole island is now under quarantine, and she is stranded until the borders reopen. Completely isolated, she must venture beyond her comfort zone. Slowly, she carves out a connection with a local family when a teenager with a secret opens up to Diana, despite her father’s suspicion of outsiders.

In the Galapagos Islands, where Darwin’s theory of natural selection was formed, Diana finds herself examining her relationships, her choices, and herself—and wondering if when she goes home, she too will have evolved into someone completely different.]]> 310 Jodi Picoult 1984818414 Therese 0 to-read 3.86 2021 Wish You Were Here
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Therese
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/11/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> Malibu Rising 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Therese 0 to-read 4.02 2021 Malibu Rising
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Therese
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last Train to London 43386062 The New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Exiles conjures her best novel yet, a pre-World War II-era story with the emotional resonance of Orphan Train and All the Light We Cannot See, centering on the Kindertransports that carried thousands of children out of Nazi-occupied Europe—and one brave woman who helped them escape to safety.

In 1936, the Nazi are little more than loud, brutish bores to fifteen-year old Stephan Neuman, the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family and budding playwright whose playground extends from Vienna’s streets to its intricate underground tunnels. Stephan’s best friend and companion is the brilliant Žofie-Helene, a Christian girl whose mother edits a progressive, anti-Nazi newspaper. But the two adolescents� carefree innocence is shattered when the Nazis� take control.

There is hope in the darkness, though. Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance, risks her life smuggling Jewish children out of Nazi Germany to the nations that will take them. It is a mission that becomes even more dangerous after the Anschluss—Hitler’s annexation of Austria—as, across Europe, countries close their borders to the growing number of refugees desperate to escape.

Tante Truus, as she is known, is determined to save as many children as she can. After Britain passes a measure to take in at-risk child refugees from the German Reich, she dares to approach Adolf Eichmann, the man who would later help devise the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,� in a race against time to bring children like Stephan, his young brother Walter, and Žofie-Helene on a perilous journey to an uncertain future abroad.]]> 480 Meg Waite Clayton 006294696X Therese 5 4.08 2019 The Last Train to London
author: Meg Waite Clayton
name: Therese
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/06
shelves:
review:
"The Last Train to London is a rare thing: intellectually provocative and emotionally moving in equal measure. What a fine tribute to the victims and survivors of the Nazis' early terrors, and to the woman who at great personal risk and sacrifice subverted Hitler's will. Everyone should read this timely, gorgeous book."
]]> A Good Neighborhood 44084930
Thanks to his thriving local business, Brad Whitman is something of a celebrity around town, and he's made a small fortune on his customer service and charm, while his wife, Julia, escaped her trailer park upbringing for the security of marriage and homemaking. Their new house is more than she ever imagined for herself, and who wouldn't want to live in Oak Knoll? With little in common except a property line, these two very different families quickly find themselves at odds: first, over an historic oak tree in Valerie's yard, and soon after, the blossoming romance between their two teenagers.

Told from multiple points of view, A Good Neighborhood asks big questions about life in America today―What does it mean to be a good neighbor? How do we live alongside each other when we don't see eye to eye?―as it explores the effects of class, race, and heartrending star-crossed love in a story that’s as provocative as it is powerful.]]> 311 Therese Anne Fowler 1250237270 Therese 5 A Well-Behaved Woman and Z. There are no real spoilers here. Thanks for reading.




Therese Anne Fowler: The Sum of All Our Parts


Therese Anne Fowler is the New York Times bestselling author of Z and A Well-Behaved Woman. Z has been adapted for television by Amazon Studios, while A Well-Behaved Woman is in development with Sony Pictures Television. A Good Neighborhood, from St. Martin's Press, is a contemporary novel about a tragedy involving two neighboring families in a North Carolina town. The novel takes on divisive issues in American life such as race, class and conservative religion.

Readers of your previous novels, Z and A Well-Behaved Woman, might be a little surprised by the direction you take here. What prompted you to write a contemporary novel?

I'd planned to write another biographical historical novel, if I found a subject whose story engaged me passionately. But as I was researching various ideas for that potential next book, the seeds of A Good Neighborhood took root in my brain almost of their own accord, and grew like Jack's beanstalk. I thought, okay then, that's the book I have to write.

In many ways, this novel is a response story. The tradition of response stories is that other works provoke them, but in this case, I was provoked by my distress over the direction our country is moving. Storytelling has many purposes, one of which is to inspire--I mean, look at The Handmaid's Tale for one powerful example. Storytelling as activism. I can't think of a better use for my time right now.

Readers who know my work will recognize some TAF hallmarks, if you will, in A Good Neighborhood. Regardless of genre, my novels will always have a concern for social issues, interest in flawed but strong female characters and an examination of the troubling that arise from what seemed to be good decisions.

Valerie has a deep connection to her local ecosystem, especially the nearby tree. Did that aspect of her character emerge from your own ecological concerns?

It did, and especially from my anxieties concerning the health of a huge oak in my own backyard after a new house was built next door. Having been a child of the '70s, when green activism became so prevalent, I feel as if environmentalism was built into me--so much so that I used cloth diapers with my firstborn (and no diaper service; I had no money for that) and tried to avoid plastic toys entirely.

I had, and still have, a deep affinity for nature, and I'm deeply troubled by the ongoing deliberate policymaking that disregards science in favor of corporate and individual profit. As Valerie (who's an environmentalist) says in the novel, "Trees are life. Not just my life, but life, period."

One surprising choice in the novel is your use of the neighborhood as a Greek chorus or narrator for the events. Why did you want to emphasize the neighborhood's perspective?

Every time I start a book, I spend a lot of time considering what the best narrative perspective is going to be for that particular story. With Z, it became obvious quickly that the story was Zelda's to tell. With A Well-Behaved Woman, I felt we needed to see not only Alva but the entire Vanderbilt world from a broader perspective than first-person would permit.

When I began A Good Neighborhood, it was clear to me that the story also needed a broader view--but that the view, and therefore the voice of the story, should also be particular, the way it is with a first-person account.

I thought, this is a story about us. These characters are people we know. We live with them, we work with them, they teach our children... and so it felt right that "we" should narrate. Using the collective point of view this way makes the story personal, and the personal is always more effective at conveying a message or lesson, as the narrators here tell us they hope to do.

I found almost every character easy to like, despite their flaws, with the exception of the wealthy patriarch of the Whitman family, Brad. Did you have a model in mind for his self-confident-bordering-on-delusional thinking?

Unfortunately, there are more than plenty of Brad-like men present in our news cycles these days, some of whom we've gotten to see in-depth. I've also known (and still know) a few such men personally.

A Forbes article from last summer [2018] reported on a study detailing how and why such men are often so successful in business, summarizing, "...research has found that narcissists are often socially successful, undeterred by rejection, charming, and highly motivated."

An earlier study's authors wrote, "[H]igh narcissists may be socially callous, but that is no reason for them not to be psychologically healthy. To use a far-fetched metaphor, the mind of a narcissist is like a sports utility vehicle. It is great to be in the driving seat, but fellow motorists must watch out, lest a collision with this mobile fortress demolish their more humble hatchbacks."

That's Brad, and that's our story.

The book tackles many hot-button issues, particularly racial prejudice and the dangers faced by young black or mixed-race men like Xavier. How did you make sure that you approached these issues with a level of sensitivity and understanding?

Yes, definitely a lot of interrelated big issues in this story--which wasn't by design, exactly; rather, I was just reflecting the complexities inherent in the lives and characters of people today. You really can't (and shouldn't, if you're trying to create truth) separate out race and class and gender and beliefs and occupation and culture and family. We are each the sum of all our parts.

Tackling racial prejudice, though, was the most delicate matter. So before I wrote the book, I read a lot of personal essays and articles detailing a wide variety of experiences with prejudice. I watched documentaries and interviews and news programs wherein the subjects recounted their stories, and wherein racial discrimination was examined in all its vast, ugly truth.

I read articles on the ways white authors, even well-meaning ones, too often make egregious mistakes when writing about non-white characters. Drawing from my own educational background in sociology and cultural anthropology helped, as did recalling observations I made while growing up in a diverse community and, later, the experience of being a minority during the three years I lived in the Philippines. And I asked questions of people I knew, including a friend of mine who in many ways resembles Valerie and who read the book in draft.

An author is always obliged to put themselves into the lives of the characters they're depicting. My own approach is something like method acting. Given the parameters of the character's traits and situation(s), how would that character think? What would they say and do? You can only do this well if you're sufficiently armed with information, humble about mistaken apprehensions and able to get out of your own way in order to give a truthful performance. I hope I was able to do so.

One thing that struck me about the book was the complicated power dynamics between and within the two families. Is there something you wanted to capture about how varying levels of privilege can distort relationships?

I think what I was aware of trying to do was simply to represent the complexities that comprise most relationships, and specifically the ones that would arise from putting these characters together.

Many years ago, John Gardner wrote about how if verisimilitude is the writer's object (and really, it had better be), authorial intention must be submissive to the authorial subconscious. A lot of what ends up on the page gets there through what feels like a mysterious organic process that's independent from deliberate authorial direction. For example, the scene in which Julia comes to the neighborhood book club meeting at Valerie's house: until I was writing the sentence about the food she brought, I didn't know she'd bring foie gras, but the choice then triggered other telling details about class and power for Julia versus the others present. The dynamic between Brad and Xavier at the book's opening is another example of just putting the characters in a scene together and then watching it play out as I typed.

But thinking about it concretely now, I wanted to capture what happens when the kind of corrupt thinking that can come from privilege perverts power, and therefore distorts relationships.

What do you think it means to be a good neighbor in an era when Americans seem so divided by class, politics and race?

I think the criteria are the same as they've always been: follow the Golden Rule. I don't mean to sound pat, but it's that simple. And also that hard.

--Hank Stephenson]]> 3.77 2020 A Good Neighborhood
author: Therese Anne Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/08/06
shelves:
review:
I thought I'd share the following interview from the July 16th, 2019 issue of Shelf Awareness, in which I talk about many things including why I decided not to write another biographical-historical novel for my follow-up to A Well-Behaved Woman and Z. There are no real spoilers here. Thanks for reading.




Therese Anne Fowler: The Sum of All Our Parts


Therese Anne Fowler is the New York Times bestselling author of Z and A Well-Behaved Woman. Z has been adapted for television by Amazon Studios, while A Well-Behaved Woman is in development with Sony Pictures Television. A Good Neighborhood, from St. Martin's Press, is a contemporary novel about a tragedy involving two neighboring families in a North Carolina town. The novel takes on divisive issues in American life such as race, class and conservative religion.

Readers of your previous novels, Z and A Well-Behaved Woman, might be a little surprised by the direction you take here. What prompted you to write a contemporary novel?

I'd planned to write another biographical historical novel, if I found a subject whose story engaged me passionately. But as I was researching various ideas for that potential next book, the seeds of A Good Neighborhood took root in my brain almost of their own accord, and grew like Jack's beanstalk. I thought, okay then, that's the book I have to write.

In many ways, this novel is a response story. The tradition of response stories is that other works provoke them, but in this case, I was provoked by my distress over the direction our country is moving. Storytelling has many purposes, one of which is to inspire--I mean, look at The Handmaid's Tale for one powerful example. Storytelling as activism. I can't think of a better use for my time right now.

Readers who know my work will recognize some TAF hallmarks, if you will, in A Good Neighborhood. Regardless of genre, my novels will always have a concern for social issues, interest in flawed but strong female characters and an examination of the troubling that arise from what seemed to be good decisions.

Valerie has a deep connection to her local ecosystem, especially the nearby tree. Did that aspect of her character emerge from your own ecological concerns?

It did, and especially from my anxieties concerning the health of a huge oak in my own backyard after a new house was built next door. Having been a child of the '70s, when green activism became so prevalent, I feel as if environmentalism was built into me--so much so that I used cloth diapers with my firstborn (and no diaper service; I had no money for that) and tried to avoid plastic toys entirely.

I had, and still have, a deep affinity for nature, and I'm deeply troubled by the ongoing deliberate policymaking that disregards science in favor of corporate and individual profit. As Valerie (who's an environmentalist) says in the novel, "Trees are life. Not just my life, but life, period."

One surprising choice in the novel is your use of the neighborhood as a Greek chorus or narrator for the events. Why did you want to emphasize the neighborhood's perspective?

Every time I start a book, I spend a lot of time considering what the best narrative perspective is going to be for that particular story. With Z, it became obvious quickly that the story was Zelda's to tell. With A Well-Behaved Woman, I felt we needed to see not only Alva but the entire Vanderbilt world from a broader perspective than first-person would permit.

When I began A Good Neighborhood, it was clear to me that the story also needed a broader view--but that the view, and therefore the voice of the story, should also be particular, the way it is with a first-person account.

I thought, this is a story about us. These characters are people we know. We live with them, we work with them, they teach our children... and so it felt right that "we" should narrate. Using the collective point of view this way makes the story personal, and the personal is always more effective at conveying a message or lesson, as the narrators here tell us they hope to do.

I found almost every character easy to like, despite their flaws, with the exception of the wealthy patriarch of the Whitman family, Brad. Did you have a model in mind for his self-confident-bordering-on-delusional thinking?

Unfortunately, there are more than plenty of Brad-like men present in our news cycles these days, some of whom we've gotten to see in-depth. I've also known (and still know) a few such men personally.

A Forbes article from last summer [2018] reported on a study detailing how and why such men are often so successful in business, summarizing, "...research has found that narcissists are often socially successful, undeterred by rejection, charming, and highly motivated."

An earlier study's authors wrote, "[H]igh narcissists may be socially callous, but that is no reason for them not to be psychologically healthy. To use a far-fetched metaphor, the mind of a narcissist is like a sports utility vehicle. It is great to be in the driving seat, but fellow motorists must watch out, lest a collision with this mobile fortress demolish their more humble hatchbacks."

That's Brad, and that's our story.

The book tackles many hot-button issues, particularly racial prejudice and the dangers faced by young black or mixed-race men like Xavier. How did you make sure that you approached these issues with a level of sensitivity and understanding?

Yes, definitely a lot of interrelated big issues in this story--which wasn't by design, exactly; rather, I was just reflecting the complexities inherent in the lives and characters of people today. You really can't (and shouldn't, if you're trying to create truth) separate out race and class and gender and beliefs and occupation and culture and family. We are each the sum of all our parts.

Tackling racial prejudice, though, was the most delicate matter. So before I wrote the book, I read a lot of personal essays and articles detailing a wide variety of experiences with prejudice. I watched documentaries and interviews and news programs wherein the subjects recounted their stories, and wherein racial discrimination was examined in all its vast, ugly truth.

I read articles on the ways white authors, even well-meaning ones, too often make egregious mistakes when writing about non-white characters. Drawing from my own educational background in sociology and cultural anthropology helped, as did recalling observations I made while growing up in a diverse community and, later, the experience of being a minority during the three years I lived in the Philippines. And I asked questions of people I knew, including a friend of mine who in many ways resembles Valerie and who read the book in draft.

An author is always obliged to put themselves into the lives of the characters they're depicting. My own approach is something like method acting. Given the parameters of the character's traits and situation(s), how would that character think? What would they say and do? You can only do this well if you're sufficiently armed with information, humble about mistaken apprehensions and able to get out of your own way in order to give a truthful performance. I hope I was able to do so.

One thing that struck me about the book was the complicated power dynamics between and within the two families. Is there something you wanted to capture about how varying levels of privilege can distort relationships?

I think what I was aware of trying to do was simply to represent the complexities that comprise most relationships, and specifically the ones that would arise from putting these characters together.

Many years ago, John Gardner wrote about how if verisimilitude is the writer's object (and really, it had better be), authorial intention must be submissive to the authorial subconscious. A lot of what ends up on the page gets there through what feels like a mysterious organic process that's independent from deliberate authorial direction. For example, the scene in which Julia comes to the neighborhood book club meeting at Valerie's house: until I was writing the sentence about the food she brought, I didn't know she'd bring foie gras, but the choice then triggered other telling details about class and power for Julia versus the others present. The dynamic between Brad and Xavier at the book's opening is another example of just putting the characters in a scene together and then watching it play out as I typed.

But thinking about it concretely now, I wanted to capture what happens when the kind of corrupt thinking that can come from privilege perverts power, and therefore distorts relationships.

What do you think it means to be a good neighbor in an era when Americans seem so divided by class, politics and race?

I think the criteria are the same as they've always been: follow the Golden Rule. I don't mean to sound pat, but it's that simple. And also that hard.

--Hank Stephenson
]]> The Last Romantics 40390714 "The greatest works of poetry are the stories we tell about ourselves."

When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time.

It begins in a big yellow house, with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings—fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden-boy Joe and watchful Fiona—emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they’ve made and to ask what, exactly, they are willing to do for love. 

A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family, The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can lose—and sometimes rescue—the ones we love. A novel that pierces the heart and lingers in the mind, it is also a beautiful meditation on the power of stories—how they guide us through difficult times, help us understand the past, and point the way toward our future.]]> 354 Tara Conklin 0062358200 Therese 0 to-read 3.69 2019 The Last Romantics
author: Tara Conklin
name: Therese
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/11/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Life of Pi 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 Therese 0 currently-reading 3.94 2001 Life of Pi
author: Yann Martel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/05/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> A Well-Behaved Woman 37638194
In 1883, the New York Times prints a lengthy rave of Alva Vanderbilt's Fifth Ave. costume ball--a coup for the former Alva Smith, who not long before was destitute, her family's good name useless on its own. Marrying into the newly rich but socially scorned Vanderbilt clan, a union contrived by Alva's bestfriend and now-Duchess of Manchester, saved the Smiths--and elevated the Vanderbilts.

From outside, Alva seems to have it all and want more. She does have a knack for getting all she tries for: the costume ball--no mere amusement--wrests acceptance from doyenne Caroline Astor. Denied abox at the Academy of Music, Alva founds The Met. No obstacle puts her off for long.

But how much of ambition arises from insecurity? From despair? From refusal to play insipid games by absurd rules? --There are, however, consequences to breaking those rules. One must tread carefully.

And what of her maddening sister-in-law, Alice? Her husband William, who's hiding a terrible betrayal? The not-entirely-unwelcome attentions of his friend Oliver Belmont, who is everything William is not? What of her own best friend, whose troubles cast a wide net?

Alva will build mansions, push boundaries, test friendships, and marry her daughter to England's most eligible duke or die trying. She means to do right by all, but good behavior will only get a woman so far. What is the price of going further? What might be the rewards? There's only one way to know for certain...]]> 400 Therese Anne Fowler 1250095476 Therese 5
If you enjoy Jane Austen or Edith Wharton novels, if reading fiction about real figures from history interests you, or if you share a fascination with the Gilded Age and/or the Vanderbilt family, this book is for you.

]]> 3.89 2018 A Well-Behaved Woman
author: Therese Anne Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/05/04
shelves:
review:
Yes, I'm rating my own novel five stars. Would anyone expect an author to do otherwise?

If you enjoy Jane Austen or Edith Wharton novels, if reading fiction about real figures from history interests you, or if you share a fascination with the Gilded Age and/or the Vanderbilt family, this book is for you.


]]> The Liar's Diary 1502343
Jeanne Cross is an ordinary suburban wife and mother with a seemingly “perfect� life when Ali Mather arrives on the scene, breaking all the rules and breaking hearts. Almost against her will, Jeanne is drawn to this powerfully seductive woman, a fascination that soon begins to infect Jeanne’s husband as well as their teenage son. Though their friendship seems unlikely and even dangerous to their mutual acquaintances, Ali and Jeanne are connected by deep emotional needs, vulnerabilities, and long-held secrets that Ali has been privately recording in her diary.

The diary also holds the key to something darker. Though she can’t prove it, Ali is convinced someone has been entering her house when she is not at home - and not with the usual intentions. What this burglar wants is nothing less than a piece of Ali’s soul.]]> 11 Patry Francis 1423327144 Therese 5 4.00 2006 The Liar's Diary
author: Patry Francis
name: Therese
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/12/14
shelves:
review:

]]> The Last Will of Moira Leahy 6332451
A lost shadow. Moira Leahy struggled growing up in her prodigious twin’s shadow; Maeve was always more talented, more daring, more fun. In the autumn of the girls� sixteenth year, a secret love tempted Moira, allowing her to have her own taste of adventure, but it also damaged the intimate, intuitive relationship she’d always shared with her sister. Though Moira’s adolescent struggles came to a tragic end nearly a decade ago, her brief flirtation with independence will haunt her sister for years to come.

A lone woman. When Maeve Leahy lost her twin, she left home and buried her fun-loving spirit to become a workaholic professor of languages at a small college in upstate New York. She lives a solitary life now, controlling what she can and ignoring the rest—the recurring nightmares, hallucinations about a child with red hair, the unquiet sounds in her mind, her reflection in the mirror. It doesn’t help that her mother avoids her, her best friend questions her sanity, and her not-quite boyfriend has left the country. But at least her life is ordered. Exactly how she wants it.

A shared past. Until one night at an auction when Maeve wins a keris, a Javanese dagger that reminds her of her lost youth and happier days playing pirates with Moira in their father’s boat. Days later, a book on weaponry is nailed to her office door, followed by the arrival of anonymous notes, including one that invites her to Rome to learn more about the blade and its legendary properties. Opening her heart and mind to possibility, Maeve accepts the invitation and, with it, also opens a window into her past. Ultimately, she will revisit the tragic November night that shaped her and Moira’s destinies—and learn that nothing can be taken at face value—as one sister emerges whole and the other’s score is finally settled.

The Last Will of Moira Leahy is a mesmerizing and romantic consideration of the bonds of family, the impossibility of forgetting, and the value of forgiveness.]]> 304 Therese Walsh 0307461572 Therese 5 3.77 2007 The Last Will of Moira Leahy
author: Therese Walsh
name: Therese
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2009/06/12
date added: 2015/05/16
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald]]> 16002030 What comes, here at the dawn of the Jazz Age, is unimagined success and celebrity that will make Scott and Zelda legends in their own time. Each place they go becomes a playground—New York City, Long Island, Hollywood, Paris, and the French Riviera—where they join the endless party of the glamorous, sometimes doomed Lost Generation that includes Ernest Hemingway, Sara and Gerald Murphy, and Gertrude Stein.
Everything seems new and possible, but not even Jay Gatsby’s parties go on forever. Who is Zelda, other than the wife of a famous—sometimes infamous—husband? With brilliant insight and imagination, Therese Anne Fowler brings us Zelda’s irresistible story as she herself might have told it.]]> 375 Therese Anne Fowler 1250028655 Therese 5
Many thanks for your interest in Z. You might appreciate knowing a little bit more about what went into the creation of the novel, and why I chose to write fiction about people whose lives are so thoroughly documented in biographies.

Z is fiction, but my research was extensive and thorough, and in telling the story I've stayed very close to the established facts. My personal approach to biographical fiction is to unearth and then represent the truth, even when it contradicts what people think they know about the characters involved. Much of what we think we know about the Fitzgeralds comes from unreliable sources or has been spun into half-true myth. My mission was to set the record straight.

Popular culture (Midnight in Paris, for one example) has made Zelda into a caricature, reduced her to being only an edgy flapper, or only an unstable, jealous spouse, or only a pathetic, "insane" drain of her husband's creativity and life. She was edgy--sometimes. She was jealous--sometimes. She was unstable--sometimes. But in the same way that none of us can be or should be defined by one aspect of our lives, Zelda cannot be defined so simply either.

Z is the story of a complex and fascinating woman who was so much more than I knew when I began researching her life. She was exceptional in so many ways, but she was also human.

Best wishes,
Therese Anne Fowler]]> 3.76 2013 Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
author: Therese Anne Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/04/24
shelves:
review:
Dear Reader,

Many thanks for your interest in Z. You might appreciate knowing a little bit more about what went into the creation of the novel, and why I chose to write fiction about people whose lives are so thoroughly documented in biographies.

Z is fiction, but my research was extensive and thorough, and in telling the story I've stayed very close to the established facts. My personal approach to biographical fiction is to unearth and then represent the truth, even when it contradicts what people think they know about the characters involved. Much of what we think we know about the Fitzgeralds comes from unreliable sources or has been spun into half-true myth. My mission was to set the record straight.

Popular culture (Midnight in Paris, for one example) has made Zelda into a caricature, reduced her to being only an edgy flapper, or only an unstable, jealous spouse, or only a pathetic, "insane" drain of her husband's creativity and life. She was edgy--sometimes. She was jealous--sometimes. She was unstable--sometimes. But in the same way that none of us can be or should be defined by one aspect of our lives, Zelda cannot be defined so simply either.

Z is the story of a complex and fascinating woman who was so much more than I knew when I began researching her life. She was exceptional in so many ways, but she was also human.

Best wishes,
Therese Anne Fowler
]]> Loving Frank 898885 I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current.

So writes Mamah Borthwick Cheney in her diary as she struggles to justify her clandestine love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright. Four years earlier, in 1903, Mamah and her husband, Edwin, had commissioned the renowned architect to design a new home for them. During the construction of the house, a powerful attraction developed between Mamah and Frank, and in time the lovers, each married with children, embarked on a course that would shock Chicago society and forever change their lives.

In this ambitious debut novel, fact and fiction blend together brilliantly. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America’s greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney’s profound influence on Wright.

Drawing on years of research, Horan weaves little-known facts into a compelling narrative, vividly portraying the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan’s Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world. Mamah’s is an unforgettable journey marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility, leading inexorably ultimately lead to this novel’s stunning conclusion.

Elegantly written and remarkably rich in detail, Loving Frank is a fitting tribute to a courageous woman, a national icon, and their timeless love story.]]> 384 Nancy Horan 0345494997 Therese 5 3.76 2007 Loving Frank
author: Nancy Horan
name: Therese
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 417 Gabriel García Márquez Therese 4 4.10 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Therese
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Secret Life of Bees 37435 The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.]]> 302 Sue Monk Kidd 0142001740 Therese 4 4.10 2001 The Secret Life of Bees
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Therese
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Moby-Dick 402777

Far ahead of its own time, Moby Dick was largely misunderstood and unappreciated by Melville's contemporaries. Today, however, it is indisputably a classic.

As D.H. Lawrence wrote, Moby Dick commands a stillness in the soul, an awe . . . [It is] one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world.

]]> 594 Herman Melville 0553213113 Therese 4 3.56 1851 Moby-Dick
author: Herman Melville
name: Therese
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1851
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/02/04
shelves:
review:

]]> The Day the Falls Stood Still 6519314
But the hopes of young love are constrained by the 1915 conventions of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Tom's working-class pedigree doesn't suit Bess's family, despite their recent fall from grace. Sacked from his position at a hydroelectric power company, Bess's father has taken to drink, forcing her mother to take in sewing for the society women who were once her peers. Bess pitches in as she pines for Tom, but at her young age, she's unable to fully realize how drastically her world is about to change.

Set against the resounding backdrop of the falls, Cathy Marie Buchanan's carefully researched, capaciously imagined debut novel entwines the romantic trials of a young couple with the historical drama of the exploitation of the river's natural resources. The current of the river, like that of the human heart, is under threat: "Sometimes it seems like the river is being made into this measly thing," says Tom, bemoaning the shortsighted schemes of the power companies. "The river's been bound up with cables and concrete and steel, like a turkey at Christmastime."

Skillfully portraying individuals, families, a community, and an environment imperiled by progress and the devastations of the Great War, The Day the Falls Stood Still beautifully evokes the wild wonder of its setting, a wonder that always overcomes any attempt to tame it. But at the same time, Buchanan's tale never loses hold of the gripping emotions of Tom and Bess's intimate drama. The result is a transporting novel that captures both the majesty of nature and the mystery of love.

Also, download the free study guide: .]]> 307 Cathy Marie Buchanan 1401340970 Therese 5 3.70 2009 The Day the Falls Stood Still
author: Cathy Marie Buchanan
name: Therese
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/03/08
shelves:
review:

]]> The Comfort of Lies 15015228
Five years ago, Caroline, a dedicated pathologist, reluctantly adopted a baby to please her husband. She prayed her misgivings would disappear; instead, she's questioning whether she's cut out for the role of wife and mother.

Five years ago, Juliette considered her life ideal: she had a solid marriage, two beautiful young sons, and a thriving business. Then she discovered Nathan's affair. He promised he'd never stray again, and she trusted him.

But when Juliette intercepts a letter to her husband from Tia that contains pictures of a child with a deep resemblance to her husband, her world crumbles once more. How could Nathan deny his daughter? And if he's kept this a secret from her, what else is he hiding? Desperate for the truth, Juliette goes in search of the little girl.

And before long, the three women and Nathan are on a collision course with consequences that none of them could have predicted. Riveting and arresting, The Comfort of Lies explores the collateral damage of infidelity and the dark, private struggles many of us experience but rarely reveal.]]> 323 Randy Susan Meyers 1451673019 Therese 5 3.41 2012 The Comfort of Lies
author: Randy Susan Meyers
name: Therese
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Studio Saint-Ex: A novel 16085310 369 Ania Szado 0307962806 Therese 5 3.56 2013 Studio Saint-Ex: A novel
author: Ania Szado
name: Therese
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2013/01/10
date added: 2013/01/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Painted Girls 12991201
Marie throws herself into dance and is soon modeling in the studio of Edgar Degas, where her image will forever be immortalized as Little Dancer Aged Fourteen. There she meets a wealthy male patron of the ballet, but might the assistance he offers come with strings attached? Meanwhile Antoinette, derailed by her love for the dangerous Émile Abadie, must choose between honest labor and the more profitable avenues open to a young woman of the Parisian demimonde.

Set at a moment of profound artistic, cultural, and societal change, The Painted Girls is a tale of two remarkable sisters rendered uniquely vulnerable to the darker impulses of "civilized society." In the end, each will come to realize that her salvation, if not survival, lies with the other.]]> 357 Cathy Marie Buchanan 1443412341 Therese 5 3.60 2012 The Painted Girls
author: Cathy Marie Buchanan
name: Therese
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/12/12
date added: 2013/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Away 217086 Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York's Lower East Side, to Seattle's Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom's work—her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart—come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.]]> 240 Amy Bloom 1400063566 Therese 4 3.37 2007 Away
author: Amy Bloom
name: Therese
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2009/01/25
date added: 2012/12/29
shelves:
review:

]]> The Raven's Revenge 3359367
Nicholas Montford, the exiled Earl of Ashton, returns to England determined to reclaim his family lands. As a highwayman called the Raven, he takes revenge upon the Puritans who thrived while his family suffered. But when he kidnaps heiress Katherine Welles, thoughts of revenge take second place to kissing her soft lips and teasing the mistrust from her eyes. Can he find redemption in the arms of the woman he plans to betray?]]> 268 Gina Black 160154099X Therese 5 4.18 2007 The Raven's Revenge
author: Gina Black
name: Therese
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2009/04/19
date added: 2012/01/21
shelves:
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]]> The Lovely Bones 12232938
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.]]> 372 Alice Sebold 0316166685 Therese 4 3.87 2002 The Lovely Bones
author: Alice Sebold
name: Therese
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/08/09
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review:

]]> The Lotus Eaters 7133965 On a stifling day in 1975, the North Vietnamese army is poised to roll into Saigon. As the fall of the city begins, two lovers make their way through the streets to escape to a new life. Helen Adams, an American photojournalist, must take leave of a war she is addicted to and a devastated country she has come to love. Linh, the Vietnamese man who loves her, must grapple with his own conflicted loyalties of heart and homeland. As they race to leave, they play out a drama of devotion and betrayal that spins them back through twelve war-torn years, beginning in the splendor of Angkor Wat, with their mentor, larger-than-life war correspondent Sam Darrow, once Helen's infuriating love and fiercest competitor, and Linh's secret keeper, boss and truest friend.

Tatjana Soli paints a searing portrait of an American woman’s struggle and triumph in Vietnam, a stirring canvas contrasting the wrenching horror of war and the treacherous narcotic of obsession with the redemptive power of love. Readers will be transfixed by this stunning novel of passion, duty and ambition among the ruins of war.

]]> 389 Tatjana Soli 0312611579 Therese 5 3.85 2010 The Lotus Eaters
author: Tatjana Soli
name: Therese
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/03/27
date added: 2011/03/27
shelves:
review:

]]> The Bird Sisters 8755291 304 Rebecca Rasmussen 0307717968 Therese 5 3.29 2011 The Bird Sisters
author: Rebecca Rasmussen
name: Therese
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/03/27
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[You Know When the Men Are Gone]]> 8599157
In Fort Hood housing, like all army housing, you get used to hearing through the walls... You learn too much. And you learn to move quietly through your own small domain. You also know when the men are gone. No more boots stomping above, no more football games turned up too high, and, best of all, no more front doors slamming before dawn as they trudge out for their early formation, sneakers on metal stairs, cars starting, shouts to the windows above to throw them down their gloves on cold desert mornings. Babies still cry, telephones ring, Saturday morning cartoons screech, but without the men, there is a sense of muted silence, a sense of muted life.

There is an army of women waiting for their men to return in Fort Hood, Texas. Through a series of loosely interconnected stories, Siobhan Fallon takes readers onto the base, inside the homes, into the marriages and families-intimate places not seen in newspaper articles or politicians' speeches.

When you leave Fort Hood, the sign above the gate warns, You've Survived the War, Now Survive the Homecoming. It is eerily prescient.]]> 226 Siobhan Fallon 0399157204 Therese 5 to-read 3.71 2011 You Know When the Men Are Gone
author: Siobhan Fallon
name: Therese
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/03/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> Rose House 4916588 . 320 Tina Ann Forkner 1400073596 Therese 0 to-read 3.90 2023 Rose House
author: Tina Ann Forkner
name: Therese
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/03/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> Stay 7348523
After the wedding, Van drowns her sorrows in Kool-Aid-vodka cocktails and reruns of Rin Tin Tin, and does what any heartbroken woman in her situation would do: She impulsively buys a German Shepherd over the Internet. The pocket-size puppy Van is expecting turns out to be a clumsy, hundred-pound beast who only responds to commands in Slovak, and Van is at the end of her rope... until she realizes that this quirky giant may be the only living being who will always be loyal to her, no matter what.

Van affectionately names her dog Joe, and together, they work to mend the pieces of Van's shattered heart. And it certainly doesn't hurt that Joe's vet is a rugged sweetheart with floppy blond hair and a winning smile. But when the newlyweds return from their honeymoon, Van is forced to decide just how much she's willing to sacrifice in order to have everything she ever wanted, proving that sometimes life needs to get more complicated before it can get better.]]> 308 Allie Larkin 0525951717 Therese 5 3.86 2010 Stay
author: Allie Larkin
name: Therese
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/03/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Best Staged Plans 10092533 As a professional home stager, Sandy Sullivan is an expert at transforming cluttered rooms into attractive houses ready for sale. If only reinventing her life were as easy as choosing the perfect paint color. She's eager to put her family's suburban Boston home on the market, to downsize, and to simplify her own life. But she must first deal with her foot-dragging husband and her grown son, who has moved back home after college to inhabit the basement "bat cave."


After reading them the riot act, Sandy takes a job staging a boutique hotel in Atlanta recently acquired by her best friend's boyfriend. The good news is that she can spend time with her recently married daughter, Shannon, in Atlanta. The bad news is that Shannon finds herself heading to Boston for job training, leaving Sandy and her southern son-in-law, Chance, as reluctant roommates.

If that's not complicated enough, Sandy begins to suspect that her best friend's boyfriend may be seeing another woman on the side.

Filled with characters who are fresh and original, yet recognizable enough to live in your neighborhood plus plenty of great tips and tricks for fixing up houses, and lives this is a wise and witty story of letting go and moving on.

]]> 256 Claire Cook 1401341179 Therese 5 3.43 2011 Best Staged Plans
author: Claire Cook
name: Therese
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/03/03
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]]> The Four Ms. Bradwells 8725696 The Wednesday Sisters was a word-of-mouth sensation and book club favorite. Now the beloved author is back with a page-turning novel that explores the secrets we keep, even from those closest to us, and celebrates the enduring power of friendship.

Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court. Nicknamed “the Ms. Bradwells� during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979—when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court—the four have supported one another through life’s challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small. Betts was, and still is, the Funny One. Ginger, the Rebel. Laney, the Good Girl. And Mia, the Savant.

But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends� collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past—one that stirs up secrets they’ve kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever.

Once again, Meg Waite Clayton writes inspiringly about the complex circumstances facing women and the heartfelt friendships that hold them together. Insightful and affecting, The Four Ms. Bradwells is also a captivating tale of how far people will go to protect the ones they love.]]> 321 Meg Waite Clayton 0345517083 Therese 0 to-read 3.09 2011 The Four Ms. Bradwells
author: Meg Waite Clayton
name: Therese
average rating: 3.09
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/02/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Weird Sisters 8573020
The Andreas family is one of readers. Their father, a renowned Shakespeare professor who speaks almost entirely in verse, has named his three daughters after famous Shakespearean women. When the sisters return to their childhood home, ostensibly to care for their ailing mother, but really to lick their wounds and bury their secrets, they are horrified to find the others there. See, we love each other. We just don't happen to like each other very much. But the sisters soon discover that everything they've been running from-one another, their small hometown, and themselves-might offer more than they ever expected.]]> 320 Eleanor Brown 0399157220 Therese 5 3.36 2011 The Weird Sisters
author: Eleanor Brown
name: Therese
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/02/27
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]]> The Murderer's Daughters 6674372
Lulu’s mother warned her to never let him in, but when he shows up, he’s impossible to ignore. He bullies his way past ten-year-old Lulu, who obeys her father’s instructions to open the door, then listens in horror as her parents struggle. She runs for help and discovers upon her return that he’s murdered her mother, stabbed her sister, and tried to kill himself.

For thirty years, the sisters try to make sense of what happened. Their imprisoned father is a specter in both their lives, shadowing every choice they make. Though one spends her life pretending he’s dead, while the other feels compelled to help him, both fear that someday their imprisoned father’s attempts to win parole may meet success.

]]> 310 Randy Susan Meyers 0312576986 Therese 5 3.69 2010 The Murderer's Daughters
author: Randy Susan Meyers
name: Therese
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/02/27
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]]> Exposure 9926930 366 Therese Anne Fowler 0345515536 Therese 5 3.64 2011 Exposure
author: Therese Anne Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/01/27
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This, my third novel, was inspired by a crisis my son and our family endured in 2009. Because of that, it's very close to my heart. I hope readers will embrace it as well.
]]> Chosen 8096073 Chosen draws us into the obstacle-strewn path of domestic adoption.�
 —Juliette Fay, author of Shelter Me

A young caseworker increasingly entangled in the lives of adoptive and birth parents faces life-altering choices when an extortion attempt goes horribly wrong in Chosen. Written in the spirit of Jodi Picoult and Anna Quindlen, Chosen is an extraordinary debut novel from Chandra Hoffman that deals with the controversial subject of adoption while providing a riveting read that will equally ensnare lovers of suspense, domestic drama, and literary fiction.
]]> 320 Chandra Hoffman 0061974293 Therese 4 3.40 2010 Chosen
author: Chandra Hoffman
name: Therese
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/12/18
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]]> Mothers and Other Liars 7818120
Ten years ago, Ruby Leander was a drifting nineteen-year-old who made a split-second decision at an Oklahoma rest stop. Fast forward nine years: Ruby and her daughter Lark live in New Mexico. Lark is a precocious, animal loving imp, and Ruby has built a family for them with a wonderful community of friends and her boyfriend of three years. Life is good. Until the day Ruby reads a magazine article about parents searching for an infant kidnapped by car-jackers. Then Ruby faces a choice no mother should have to make. A choice that will change both her and Lark's lives forever.]]> 298 Amy Bourret 0312586582 Therese 5 3.49 2010 Mothers and Other Liars
author: Amy Bourret
name: Therese
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/12/18
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review:

]]> The Glass Castle 7445 THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.]]> 288 Jeannette Walls 074324754X Therese 4 4.32 2005 The Glass Castle
author: Jeannette Walls
name: Therese
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/12/18
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]]> Motherless Brooklyn 328854 Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.]]> 311 Jonathan Lethem 0345803396 Therese 4 3.86 1999 Motherless Brooklyn
author: Jonathan Lethem
name: Therese
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/12/18
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review:

]]> Little Bee 4078927 288 Chris Cleave 038566530X Therese 4 3.62 2008 Little Bee
author: Chris Cleave
name: Therese
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/12/18
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review:

]]> How to Buy a Love of Reading 5975766 Impossible though it is for Carley to imagine loving books, she is in love with a young bibliophile who cares about them more than anything. Anything, that is, but a good bottle of scotch. Hunter Cay, Carley's best friend and Fox Glen's resident golden boy, is becoming a stranger to her lately as he drowns himself in F. Scott Fitzgerald, booze, and Vicodin.
When the Wellses move writer Bree McEnroy - author of a failed meta-novel about Odysseus's journey home through the Internet - into their mansion to write Carley's book, Carley's sole interest in the project is to distract Hunter from drinking and give them something to share. But as Hunter's behavior becomes erratic and dangerous, she finds herself increasingly drawn into the fictional world Bree has created, and begins to understand for the first time the power of stories - those we read, those we want to believe in, and most of all, those we tell ourselves about ourselves. Stories powerful enough to destroy a person. Or save her.]]> 392 Tanya Egan Gibson 0525951148 Therese 5 3.27 2009 How to Buy a Love of Reading
author: Tanya Egan Gibson
name: Therese
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2010/04/26
date added: 2010/04/26
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]]> Matters of Faith 3067091
At age twelve, Marshall Tobias saw his best friend killed by a train. It was then that he began his search for faith-delving into one tradition, then discarding it for another. His parents, however, have little time for spiritual contemplation. Their focus has been on his little sister Megan, who suffers from severe food allergies. Now Marshall is home from college with his first real girlfriend, but there is more to Ada than meets the eye-including her beliefs about the evils of medical intervention. What follows is a crisis that tests not only faith, but the limits of family, forgiveness, and our need to believe.]]> 321 Kristy Kiernan 0425221792 Therese 5 3.50 2008 Matters of Faith
author: Kristy Kiernan
name: Therese
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/01/19
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]]> Real Life and Liars 6033731
For Mirabelle Zielinski's children, happiness always seems to be just out of reach. Her polished oldest daughter, Katya, clings to a stale marriage with a workaholic husband and three spoiled children. Her son, Ivan, so creative, is a down-in-the-dumps songwriter with the worst taste in women. And the "baby," impulsive Irina, who lives life on a whim, is now reluctantly pregnant and hitched to a man who is twice her age. On the weekend of their parents' anniversary party, lies will be revealed, hearts will be broken...but love will also be found. And the biggest shock may come from Mirabelle herself, because she has a secret that will change everything.]]> 337 Kristina Riggle 0061706280 Therese 5 3.44 2009 Real Life and Liars
author: Kristina Riggle
name: Therese
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/10/26
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]]> The Wednesday Sisters 2728347 304 Meg Waite Clayton 0345502825 Therese 5 3.50 2008 The Wednesday Sisters
author: Meg Waite Clayton
name: Therese
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2009/08/25
date added: 2009/08/25
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review:

]]> The Ten-Year Nap 1235499 351 Meg Wolitzer 1594489785 Therese 4 3.04 2008 The Ten-Year Nap
author: Meg Wolitzer
name: Therese
average rating: 3.04
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2009/08/10
date added: 2009/08/10
shelves:
review:
This is a "head" read rather than a "heart" read...somewhat entertaining, yet I wouldn't quite call it entertainment. The story is unabashedly issue-centered, but the characters are interesting, fallible people in whom many/most of us will see something of ourselves.
]]> Barefoot 712313 Visiting Nantucket for the summer, three women seek peace and comfort as they cope with the challenges in their lives--from marriage, infidelity, and the mayhem of motherhood to scandal, tragedy, and illness.
Three women--burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues--tumble onto the Nantucket airport tarmac one hot June day. Vicki is trying to sort through the news that she has a serious illness. Her sister, Brenda, has just left her job after being caught in an affair with a student. And their friend Melanie, after seven failed in vitro attempts, is pregnant at last--but only after learning that her husband is having an affair. They have come to escape, enjoy the sun, and relax in Nantucket's calming air. But into the house, into their world, steps twenty-two-year-old Josh Flynn.
Barefoot weaves these four lives together in a story with enthralling sweep and scope--a novel that is as fun and memorable and bittersweet as that one perfect day of summer.
]]> 416 Elin Hilderbrand 0316018589 Therese 4 3.74 2007 Barefoot
author: Elin Hilderbrand
name: Therese
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2009/07/24
date added: 2009/07/24
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]]> The History of Love 3867
Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives...

An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here]]> 255 Nicole Krauss 0393328627 Therese 0 to-read 3.92 2005 The History of Love
author: Nicole Krauss
name: Therese
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2009/07/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> Children of the Waters 5995545 Orange Mint and Honey explores the connection between love and race, and what it really means to be a family.
Trish Taylor’s white ancestry never got in the way of her love for her black ex-husband, or their mixed race son, Will. But when Trish’s marriage ends, she returns to her family’s Denver, Colorado home to find a sense of identity and connect to her past.
What she finds there shocks her to the very core: her mother and newborn sister were not killed in a car crash as she was told. In fact, her baby sister, Billie Cousins, is now a grown woman; her grandparents had put her up for adoption, unwilling to raise the child of a black man.
Billie, who had no idea she was adopted, wants nothing to do with Trish until a tragedy in Billie’s own family forces her to lean on her surprisingly supportive and sympathetic sister. Together they unravel age-old layers of secrets and resentments and navigate a path toward love, healing, and true reconciliation.]]> 336 Carleen Brice 0345499077 Therese 0 to-read 3.86 2009 Children of the Waters
author: Carleen Brice
name: Therese
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2009/07/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Help 4667024
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.


Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here]]> 464 Kathryn Stockett 0399155341 Therese 4 4.46 2009 The Help
author: Kathryn Stockett
name: Therese
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/07/13
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[All We Ever Wanted Was Everything]]> 2134009 A smart, comic page-turner about a Silicon Valley family in free fall over the course of one eventful summer.

When Paul Miller’s pharmaceutical company goes public, making his family IPO millionaires, his wife, Janice, is sure this is the windfall she’s been waiting years for � until she learns, via messengered letter, that her husband is divorcing her (for her tennis partner!) and cutting her out of the new fortune.

Meanwhile, four hundred miles south in Los Angeles, the Millers� older daughter, Margaret, has been dumped by her newly famous actor boyfriend and left in the lurch by an investor who promised to revive her fledgling post-feminist magazine, Snatch. Sliding toward bankruptcy and dogged by creditors, she flees for home where her younger sister Lizzie, 14, is struggling with problems of her own. Formerly chubby, Lizzie has been enjoying her newfound popularity until some bathroom graffiti alerts her to the fact that she’s become the school slut.

The three Miller women retreat behind the walls of their Georgian colonial to wage battle with divorce lawyers, debt collectors, drug-dealing pool boys, mean girls, country club ladies, evangelical neighbors, their own demons, and each other, and in the process they become achingly sympathetic characters we can’t help but root for, even as the world they live in epitomizes everything wrong with the American Dream. Exhilarating, addictive, and superbly accomplished, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything crackles with energy and intelligence and marks the debut of a knowing and very funny novelist, wise beyond her years.]]> 401 Janelle Brown 0385524013 Therese 5 3.26 2008 All We Ever Wanted Was Everything
author: Janelle Brown
name: Therese
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/06/27
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]]> A Reliable Wife 4929705
What Catherine Land did not realize was that the enigmatic and lonely Ralph Truitt had a plan of his own. And what neither anticipated was that they would fall so completely in love.

Filled with unforgettable characters, and shimmering with color and atmosphere, A Reliable Wife is an enthralling tale of love and madness, of longing and murder.]]> 291 Robert Goolrick 1565125967 Therese 3 3.27 2009 A Reliable Wife
author: Robert Goolrick
name: Therese
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/04/24
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]]> Sophie’s Choice 228560 562 William Styron 0679736379 Therese 0 4.18 1979 Sophie’s Choice
author: William Styron
name: Therese
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1979
rating: 0
read at: 2009/03/31
date added: 2009/03/31
shelves:
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]]> The Bluest Eye 11337 The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel, a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change—in painful, devastating ways.

With its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. The Bluest Eye remains one of Toni Morrison's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.]]> 216 Toni Morrison Therese 4 4.13 1970 The Bluest Eye
author: Toni Morrison
name: Therese
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/03/11
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]]> Speak, Memory 30594 This is an older alternate cover edition for ISBN 0141183225/ 9780141183220. A newer edition may be found here.

From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies of our time. Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov’s life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Luhzin Defense.

One of the 20th century's master prose stylists, Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg in 1899. He studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, where he launched a brilliant literary career. In 1940 he moved to the United States, and achieved renown as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. He taught literature at Wellesley, Stanford, Cornell, and Harvard. In 1961 he moved to Montreux, Switzerland, where he died in 1977.]]> 255 Vladimir Nabokov Therese 4 4.06 1966 Speak, Memory
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Therese
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1966
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/03/10
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]]> Alice in Wonderland 13023 This is an adaptation. For the editions of the original book, see here .

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.]]> 96 Jane Carruth 0517223627 Therese 5 4.03 1865 Alice in Wonderland
author: Jane Carruth
name: Therese
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1865
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/03/10
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]]> The Left Hand of Darkness 18423 The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.]]> 304 Ursula K. Le Guin Therese 5 4.11 1969 The Left Hand of Darkness
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Therese
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1969
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/03/10
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]]> Souvenir 6289863
Seventeen years later, Meg’s marriage has become routine, and she spends her time juggling the demands of her medical practice, the needs of her widowed father, and the whims of her rebellious teenage daughter, Savannah, who is confronting her burgeoning sexuality in a dangerous manner and pushing her mother away just when she needs her most. Then, after a long absence, Carson returns home to prepare for his wedding to a younger woman. As Carson struggles to determine where his heart and future lie, Meg makes a shocking discovery that will upset the balance of everyone around her.]]> 416 Therese Anne Fowler 0345499697 Therese 5 3.66 2007 Souvenir
author: Therese Anne Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/02/27
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]]> Tethered 3301314
It changes even more when Detective Mike Sullivan starts questioning her again about a body she prepared three years ago, an unidentified girl found murdered in a nearby strip of woods. Unclaimed by family, the community christened her Precious Doe. When Clara and Mike learn Trecie may be involved with the same people who killed Precious Doe, Clara must choose between the steadfast existence of loneliness and the perils of binding one’s life to another.]]> 272 Amy MacKinnon 0307408965 Therese 5 3.54 2008 Tethered
author: Amy MacKinnon
name: Therese
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2009/02/26
date added: 2009/02/26
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]]> Reunion 6034321
Celebrity talk show host Blue Reynolds is the queen of daytime television—she is smart, funny, and as down-to-earth as her adoring fans. In the eyes of the world, she has it all. But no one knows about the secret she has harbored for the last twenty years—a secret that could destroy her image, her reputation, and her career. Twenty years ago, she gave birth to a son and put him up for adoption through illegal channels. And every day since, she’s been filled with regret. Now Blue has hired a private investigator to find her son, knowing full well the consequences.

A week in Key West to do her show on location brings Blue a much-needed change of pace—and an unexpected reunion with an old flame, Mitch Forrester. Helping him launch a television series may help her recapture the kind of genuine romance and affection long missing from her life. But it also means having to deal with Mitch’s disapproving son, Julian, who is only nine years younger than Blue. Emotionally battered from his years as a war photographer in the world’s most dangerous hotspots, Julian struggles to get close to his father while making his disdain for Blue crystal clear—which makes his desire for her all the more shocking.

As serendipity and scandal collide, Therese Fowler’s passionate, illuminating novel takes a dramatic turn deep into our own hearts, as the healing power of love—family love, romantic love, and self-love—transforms pain and regrets into promises and second chances.]]> 336 Therese Anne Fowler 0345499700 Therese 5 3.33 2009 Reunion
author: Therese Anne Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/02/18
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]]> The Year of Fog 332348
Six-year-old Emma vanished into the thick San Francisco fog. Or into the heaving Pacific. Or somewhere just beyond: to a parking lot, a stranger’s van, or a road with traffic flashing by. Devastated by guilt, haunted by her fears about becoming a stepmother, Abby refuses to believe that Emma is dead. And so she searches for clues about what happened that morning—and cannot stop the flood of memories reaching from her own childhood to illuminate that irreversible moment on the beach.

Now, as the days drag into weeks, as the police lose interest and fliers fade on telephone poles, Emma’s father finds solace in religion and scientific probability—but Abby can only wander the beaches and city streets, attempting to recover the past and the little girl she lost. With her life at a crossroads, she will leave San Francisco for a country thousands of miles away. And there, by the side of another sea, on a journey that has led her to another man and into a strange subculture of wanderers and surfers, Abby will make the most astounding discovery of all—as the truth of Emma’s disappearance unravels with stunning force.

A profoundly original novel of family, loss, and hope—of the choices we make and the choices made for us�The Year of Fog beguiles with the mysteries of time and memory even as it lays bare the deep and wondrous workings of the human heart. The result is a mesmerizing tour de force that will touch anyone who knows what it means to love a child.]]> 369 Michelle Richmond 0385340117 Therese 4 3.46 2006 The Year of Fog
author: Michelle Richmond
name: Therese
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2009/01/27
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]]> The Breakdown Lane 397904 464 Jacquelyn Mitchard 0060587253 Therese 4 3.54 2006 The Breakdown Lane
author: Jacquelyn Mitchard
name: Therese
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2009/01/27
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review:

]]> The Lake of Dead Languages 120274
Since freshmen year, Jane and her two roommates, Lucy Toller and Deirdre Hall, were inseparable–studying the classics, performing school girl rituals on the lake, and sneaking out after curfew to meet Lucy’s charismatic brother Matt. However, the last winter before graduation, everything changed. For in that sheltered, ice-encrusted wonderland, three lives were taken, all victims of senseless suicide. Only Jane was left to carry the burden of a mystery that has stayed hidden for more than two decades in the dark depths of Heart Lake.

Now pages from Jane’s missing journal, written during that tragic time, have reappeared, revealing shocking, long-buried secrets. And suddenly, young, troubled girls are beginning to die again . . . as piece by piece the shattering truth slowly floats to the surface.

At once compelling, sensuous, and intelligent, The Lake of Dead Languages is an eloquent thriller, an intricate balance of suspense and fine storytelling that proves Carol Goodman is a rare new talent with a brilliant future.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 390 Carol Goodman 034548715X Therese 4 3.78 2002 The Lake of Dead Languages
author: Carol Goodman
name: Therese
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2008/12/27
date added: 2008/12/27
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]]> <![CDATA[On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft]]> 10569 (back cover)]]> 320 Stephen King 0743455967 Therese 4 4.33 2000 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
author: Stephen King
name: Therese
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/24
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]]> Here on Earth 5159
Encountering Hollis again makes March acutely aware of the choices that she has made, and the choices everyone around her has made—including Mrs. Dale, who knew more of love than March could ever have suspected, and her brother Alan, whose tragic history has left him grief-struck, with alcohol as his only solace. Her attraction to Hollis is overwhelming—and March jeopardizes her marriage, her relationship with her daughter and her own happiness in an attempt to reclaim the past.]]> 309 Alice Hoffman 0425169693 Therese 4 3.69 1997 Here on Earth
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Therese
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1997
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/24
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]]> In Her Shoes 14758 Maggie is drop dead gorgeous and irresistible to men. She's going to make it big as a TV presenter, or a singer...or an actress. All she needs is a lucky break. What she doesn't need is her uptight sister Rose interfering in her life. If only Rose would lighten-up, have some fun - and learn how to use a pair of tweezers. Rose and Maggie think they have nothing in common but a childhood tragedy, shared DNA and the same size feet, but they are about to find out that they're more alike than they'd ever believe.]]> 537 Jennifer Weiner 0743495667 Therese 4 3.83 2002 In Her Shoes
author: Jennifer Weiner
name: Therese
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2002
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Good in Bed (Cannie Shapiro, #1)]]> 14748
For twenty-eight years, things have been tripping along nicely for Cannie Shapiro. Sure, her mother has come charging out of the closet, and her father has long since dropped out of her world. But she loves her friends, her rat terrier, Nifkin, and her job as pop culture reporter for The Philadelphia Examiner. She's even made a tenuous peace with her plus-size body.

But the day she opens up a national women's magazine and sees the words "Loving a Larger Woman" above her ex-boyfriend's byline, Cannie is plunged into misery...and the most amazing year of her life. From Philadelphia to Hollywood and back home again, she charts a new course for herself: mourning her losses, facing her past, and figuring out who she is and who she can become.]]> 376 Jennifer Weiner 0743418174 Therese 4 3.76 2002 Good in Bed (Cannie Shapiro, #1)
author: Jennifer Weiner
name: Therese
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2002
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/24
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]]> The Joy Luck Club 7763 Alternate cover editions of ISBN 9780143038092 can be found here.

Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers' advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives � until their own inner crises reveal how much they've unknowingly inherited of their mothers' pasts.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.]]> 288 Amy Tan Therese 5 3.96 1989 The Joy Luck Club
author: Amy Tan
name: Therese
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1989
rating: 5
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]]> The Kitchen God's Wife 12557 416 Amy Tan 0143038109 Therese 5 4.04 1991 The Kitchen God's Wife
author: Amy Tan
name: Therese
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1991
rating: 5
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]]> The Hundred Secret Senses 690866 The Hundred Secret Senses is an exultant novel about China and America, love and loyalty, the identities we invent and the true selves we discover along the way. Olivia Laguni is half-Chinese, but typically American in her uneasiness with her patchwork family. And no one in Olivia's family is more embarrassing to her than her half-sister, Kwan Li. For Kwan speaks mangled English, is cheerfully deaf to Olivia's sarcasm, and sees the dead with her "yin eyes."

Even as Olivia details the particulars of her decades-long grudge against her sister (who, among other things, is a source of infuriatingly good advice), Kwan Li is telling her own story, one that sweeps us into the splendor, squalor, and violence of Manchu China. And out of the friction between her narrators, Amy Tan creates a work that illuminates both the present and the past sweetly, sadly, hilariously, with searing and vivid prose.]]> 406 Amy Tan 080411109X Therese 5 4.01 1995 The Hundred Secret Senses
author: Amy Tan
name: Therese
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1995
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Love Walked In (Love Walked In, #1)]]> 115076
When Martin Grace enters the hip Philadelphia coffee shop Cornelia Brown manages, her life changes forever. But little does she know that her newfound love is only the harbinger of greater changes to come. Meanwhile, across town, Clare Hobbs—eleven years old and abandoned by her erratic mother—goes looking for her lost father. She crosses paths with Cornelia while meeting with him at the café, and the two women form an improbable friendship that carries them through the unpredictable currents of love and life.]]> 307 Marisa de los Santos 0452287898 Therese 4 3.71 2005 Love Walked In (Love Walked In, #1)
author: Marisa de los Santos
name: Therese
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/24
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]]> Souvenir 1498445
Meg Powell and Carson McKay grew were raised side by side on their families� farms, bonded by a love that only deepened. Everyone in their small rural community in northern Florida thought that Meg and Carson would always be together. But at twenty-one, Meg was presented with a marriage proposal she could not refuse, forever changing the course of her life.

Seventeen years later, Meg’s marriage has become routine, and she spends her time juggling the demands of her medical practice, the needs of her widowed father, and the whims of her rebellious teenage daughter, Savannah, who is confronting her burgeoning sexuality in a dangerous manner, and pushing her mother away just when she needs her most. Then, after a long absence, Carson returns home to prepare for his wedding to a younger woman. As Carson struggles to determine where his heart and future lie, Meg makes a shocking discovery that will upset the balance of everyone around her.

Unfolding with warmth and passion, Therese Fowler’s vibrant and moving debut illuminates the possibility of second chances, the naïve choices of youth, the tensions within families, and the wondrous designs of fate. A searing yet redemptive novel, Souvenir is an unforgettable tale about the transforming power of love.]]> 362 Therese Anne Fowler 0345499689 Therese 5 3.75 2007 Souvenir
author: Therese Anne Fowler
name: Therese
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/23
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I'm kind of partial to this book, it being my first published novel and all. :)
]]> Memoirs of a Geisha 930
In "Memoirs of a Geisha," we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.]]> 434 Arthur Golden 0739326228 Therese 4 4.07 1997 Memoirs of a Geisha
author: Arthur Golden
name: Therese
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1997
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> Lolita 960496 352 Vladimir Nabokov 0552081248 Therese 5 4.02 1955 Lolita
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Therese
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1955
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> Gone with the Wind 18405 1037 Margaret Mitchell 0446365386 Therese 5 4.30 1936 Gone with the Wind
author: Margaret Mitchell
name: Therese
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1936
rating: 5
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]]> The Tenth Circle 10909
»In atemberaubender Weise erzählt Jodi Picoult von familiären Missverständnissen, von Verrat und Vergebung. Unerschrocken und mit tiefem Verständnis für ihre Figuren ein absoluter Pageturner.« -Die Washington Post]]> 387 Jodi Picoult 074349671X Therese 4 3.53 2006 The Tenth Circle
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Therese
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> Change of Heart 1609451
One moment June Nealon was happily looking forward to years full of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart. Now her life is a waiting game. Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for justice. In short, waiting for a miracle to happen.

For Shay Bourne, life holds no more surprises. The world has given him nothing, and he has nothing to offer the world. In a heartbeat, though, something happens that changes everything for him. Now, he has one last chance for salvation, and it lies with June's eleven-year-old daughter, Claire. But between Shay and Claire stretches an ocean of bitter regrets, past crimes, and the rage of a mother who has lost her child.

Would you give up your vengeance against someone you hate if it meant saving someone you love? Would you want your dreams to come true if it meant granting your enemy's dying wish?

Once again, Jodi Picoult mesmerizes and enthralls readers with this story of redemption, justice, and love.]]> 448 Jodi Picoult 0743496744 Therese 4 3.93 2008 Change of Heart
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Therese
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> The Pact 10916
So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet—a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.]]> 512 Jodi Picoult 0061150142 Therese 4 4.03 1998 The Pact
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Therese
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> My Sister’s Keeper 10917 New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult is widely acclaimed for her keen insights into the hearts and minds of real people. Now she tells the emotionally riveting story of a family torn apart by conflicting needs and a passionate love that triumphs over human weakness.

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age 13 she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate—a life and a role that she has never challenged ... until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister—and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.

My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life, even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are if that quest makes you like yourself less? Should you follow your own heart or let others lead you? Once again, in My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult tackles a controversial real-life subject with grace, wisdom, and sensitivity.]]> 423 Jodi Picoult 0743454537 Therese 5 4.10 2004 My Sister’s Keeper
author: Jodi Picoult
name: Therese
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> The Scarlet Letter 12296 279 Nathaniel Hawthorne 0142437263 Therese 5 3.43 1850 The Scarlet Letter
author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
name: Therese
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1850
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[The da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)]]> 968 The da Vinci Code, The da Vinci Code, The da Vinci Code, and The da Vinci Code

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci -- clues visible for all to see -- yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion -- an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret -- and an explosive historical truth -- will be lost forever.

The Da Vinci Code heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion.]]> 489 Dan Brown Therese 3 3.92 2003 The da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)
author: Dan Brown
name: Therese
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2003
rating: 3
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> Bel Canto 5826 318 Ann Patchett Therese 5 3.93 2001 Bel Canto
author: Ann Patchett
name: Therese
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> The Bonfire of the Vanities 844235
[Read by Joe Barrett]

*A 2010 Audie Nominee

Tom Wolfe's best-selling modern classic tells the story of Sherman McCoy, an elite Wall Street bond trader who has it wealth, power, prestige, a Park Avenue apartment, a beautiful wife, and an even more beautiful mistress -- until one wrong turn sends Sherman spiraling downward in a humiliating fall from grace.

A car accident in the Bronx involving Sherman, his girlfriend, and two young lower-class black men sets a match to the incendiary racial and social tensions of 1980s New York City. Suddenly, Sherman finds himself embroiled in the most brutal, high-profile case of the year, as prosecutors, politicians, the press, the police, the clergy, and assorted hustlers rush in to further their own political and social agendas. With so many egos at stake, the last priority on anyone's mind is truth or justice, in this bitingly hilarious American satire.]]> 731 Tom Wolfe 033030660X Therese 4 3.91 1987 The Bonfire of the Vanities
author: Tom Wolfe
name: Therese
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1987
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories]]> 2880461 Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, The Wizard of Oz, and Flannery O'Connor intersect. Kessel's four-story modern classic sequence about life on the moon, The Lunar Quartet, makes up the center of the book.

"A sustained exploration of the ways gender dynamics can both empower and enslave us. Kessel's wit sparkles throughout, peaking with the most uproariously weird phone-sex conversation you'll ever read ("The Red Phone")." A-
�Entertainment Weekly

Winner of the Nebula, Sturgeon, Locus, and Tiptree awards, John Kessel is the author of The New York Times Notable Book Meeting in Infinity. He co-edited the anthologies Feeling Very Strange and Rewired. Kessel and his family live in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he co-directs the creative writing program at North Carolina State University.]]> 315 John Kessel 193152050X Therese 5 3.65 2008 The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories
author: John Kessel
name: Therese
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> The Time Traveler's Wife 1960232 0 Audrey Niffenegger 1598950665 Therese 5 4.02 2003 The Time Traveler's Wife
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Therese
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> The Ice Queen 177515 Practical Magic, a miraculous, enthralling tale of a woman who is struck by lightning, and finds her frozen heart is suddenly burning.

Be careful what you wish for. A small town librarian lives a quiet life without much excitement. One day, she mutters an idle wish and, while standing in her house, is struck by lightning. But instead of ending her life, this cataclysmic event sparks it into a new beginning.

She goes in search of Lazarus Jones, a fellow survivor who was struck dead, then simply got up and walked away. Perhaps this stranger who has seen death face to face can teach her to live without fear. When she finds him, he is her opposite, a burning man whose breath can boil water and whose touch scorches. As an obsessive love affair begins between them, both are forced to hide their most dangerous secrets—what turned one to ice and the other to fire.

A magical story of passion, loss, and renewal, The Ice Queen is Alice Hoffman at her electrifying best.]]> 211 Alice Hoffman 0316154385 Therese 4 3.54 2005 The Ice Queen
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Therese
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> Persuasion 4910605 247 Jane Austen Therese 5 4.18 1817 Persuasion
author: Jane Austen
name: Therese
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1817
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> Emma 6969 The newest edition is here. Another alternate cover can be found here.

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.]]> 474 Jane Austen 0141439580 Therese 5 4.05 1815 Emma
author: Jane Austen
name: Therese
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1815
rating: 5
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]]> Sense and Sensibility 920026 Jane Austen 1561387053 Therese 5 3.74 1811 Sense and Sensibility
author: Jane Austen
name: Therese
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1811
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]> We Need to Talk About Kevin 80660 The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry.

Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

]]> 400 Lionel Shriver 006112429X Therese 4 4.07 2003 We Need to Talk About Kevin
author: Lionel Shriver
name: Therese
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/12/22
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]]>