Book picks similar to
Diminished Capacity by Sherwood Kiraly
fiction
wanted
funny
somewhere-out-there
These Boots Weren't Made for Walking
Melody Carlson - 2007
But reality tromps all over her expectations. Cassie’s job is abruptly eliminated–and her love life obliterated, when her longtime boyfriend dumps her for a “friend.” Her self-esteem in tatters, Cassie limps home to the resort town she once so eagerly fled–only to find her recently divorced mother transformed into a gorgeous fifty-something babe with a thriving social life. Cassie wrestles with envy and apathy as she considers the dismal shape of her own physique and romantic prospects. What will it take for her to jump back into life and regain her stride?This sassy and hilarious novel leads readers on a romp through the wilds of relationships, romance, career, and spirituality, revealing that, while God’s plans may look drastically different than our own, it’ll always be a perfect fit.
The List
Joanna Bolouri - 2013
It's been a year since she found her boyfriend Alex in bed with another woman, and multiple cases of wine and extensive relationship analysis with best friend Lucy have done nothing to help. Faced with a new year but no new love, Phoebe concocts a different kind of resolution. The List: ten things she's always wanted to do in bed but has never had the chance (or the courage!) to try. A bucket list for between the sheets. One year of pleasure, no strings attached. Simple, right? Factor in meddlesome colleagues, friends with benefits, getting frisky al fresco and maybe, possibly, true love and Phoebe's got her work cut out for her.[*Novel contains adult material*]
The Return
Nicholas Sparks - 2020
Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, NC. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked as an orthopedic surgeon sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any. Tending to his grandfather's beloved bee hives while gearing up for a second stint in medical school, Trevor isn't prepared to fall in love with a local . . . and yet, from their very first encounter, his connection with Natalie Masterson can't be ignored. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she's hiding. Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road from his grandfather's cabin. Claiming to be 19, she works at the local sundries store and keeps to herself. When he discovers she was once befriended by his grandfather, Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather's death, but she offers few clues -- until a crisis triggers a race that will uncover the true nature of Callie's past, one more intertwined with the elderly man's passing than Trevor could ever have anticipated. In his quest to unravel Natalie and Callie's secrets, Trevor will learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness . . . and that in life, to move forward, we must often return to the place where it all began.
The Pastor's Wife
Jennifer AlLee - 2009
But when "the other woman" in her marriage turned out to be her husband's congregation, she ran. Six years later, she's back in the small community of Granger, Ohio, for the reading of a will that names both her and Nick as beneficiaries. Now, Maura must face the husband - and the congregation - she left behind.
Messing with Matilda
Cat Lavoie - 2018
She reluctantly finds herself back in the tiny hometown she fled a lifetime ago—determined to lay low and avoid running into anyone she used to know. So why is she reconnecting with her former best friend and putting up with the bridezilla antics of Amber, her high school nemesis? When Matilda is tasked with keeping the bride-to-be’s heartbroken ex away from the ceremony, she discovers she has history with the man who’s trying to sabotage the wedding. Matilda quickly realizes that teaming up with cute and quirky—but hopelessly devoted—Silas Flynn could be mutually beneficial. He needs help wooing the woman he considers the love of his life and Matilda can't pass up the chance to finally get back at the meanest of the mean girls by assisting Silas in his attempts to disrupt her wedding. Will everything go according to plan for this mismatched pair? Or will working so closely together make uptight Matilda and laid-back Silas lose sight of their common goal? One thing's for sure—things are about to get messy.
Unconventional
Maggie Harcourt - 2017
She likes to stay behind the scenes, planning and organizing...until author Aidan Green - messy haired and annoyingly arrogant - arrives unannounced at the first event of the year. Then Lexi's life is thrown into disarray.In a flurry of late-night conversations, mixed messages and butterflies, Lexi discovers that some things can't be planned. Things like falling in love...
Get Well Soon
Julie Halpern - 2007
Here she meets a roommate with a secret (and a plastic baby), a doctor who focuses way too much on her weight, and a cute, shy boy who just might like her.But wait! Being trapped in a loony bin isn’t supposed to be about making friends, losing weight, and having a crush, is it? In her fiction debut, Julie Halpern finds humor in the unlikeliest of places, and presents a character whose voice—and heart—will resonate with all of us who have ever felt just a little bit crazy.
My Mother's Daughter
Judith Henry Wall - 2000
It's a bittersweet celebration as Mary Sue is scheduled for a mastectomy in the morning. When Mary Sue's boyfriend finally shows up, she has already gone to bed. Drunk and angry, he trips, breaks his neck, and dies. Horrified, the three other women put him in his car and send it careening into the lake.How these women deal with their awful secret parallels their lives and relationships to this point. Pamela is at the beck and call of her rich and boorish husband. Gretchen gave up a promising career to marry an adulterous man who eventually left her for his secretary. Dixie -- also divorced -- is involved in an extended long-distance affair with a handsome but married vineyard owner; as she plays the role of the dreaded "other woman, " even her closest friends can't know. And Mary Sue, the ebullient cheerleader, had lived an idyllic married life until she found her husband carrying on with a sexy widow. Shattered, she convinced herself to fall in love with a contentious and truculent drunk.In addition to keeping their terrible secret, the women must continually deal with their ever-complicated lives and relationships. And it is these trials, and the struggle to find one's place in a world where everyone is younger and prettier that is at the heart of this moving and ultimately triumphant novel.
Ayoade on Top
Richard Ayoade - 2019
It’s a journey deep within, in a way that’s respectful and non-invasive; a journey for which we will all pay a heavy price, even if you’ve waited for the smaller paperback edition.Ayoade argues for the canonisation of this brutal masterpiece, a film that celebrates capitalism in all its victimless glory; one we might imagine Donald Trump himself half-watching on his private jet’s gold-plated flat screen while his other puffy eye scans the cabin for fresh, young prey."
The Hunger Moon
Suzanne Matson - 1997
So she packs up her spare life, leaves her boyfriend behind, and heads across the country in search of a new place to begin. Settling in Boston, her life is suddenly changed by the chance meeting of two unlikely women: Eleanor, a seventy-eight year old widow who is stripping away the layers of her past, and June, an ambitious dance student who relies on a psychic to help manage her estranged relationships--all the while keeping a shocking secret. As these three resilient women of different backgrounds and ages face their own particular demons, Charlie becomes their shared center. Drawing strength from each other and the maternal bond that unites them, they soon discover that the lives they have run from just may be their saving grace. . . .
Blue Italian
Rita Ciresi - 1996
With an ear for acid dialogue and an eye for everyday ironies, Ciresi unfolds Rosa Salvatore's tale: growing up on fantasies, guilt, and fagioli in the New Haven working-class Italian neighborhood of Pizza Beach; working her way through a local college by slinging hash, while agonizing over her thighs and aching for passion; landing a job and meeting Gary Fisher, a nice Jewish lawyer from Flushing with a great butt and angst of his own. Rosa and Gary fall in love, make love, get married, fight, make up, fight again--until Gary is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Rosa realizes the power of her love--and the crushing force of regret.Frank and warm, crackling with razor-sharp wit, Blue Italian is a love story about an ill-fated couple who almost missed realizing how much they loved each other. It establishes Rita Ciresi as a writer with a unique gift for language, character, and emotion--a novelist to read, and a novelist to watch.
The Next Best Thing
Jennifer Weiner - 2012
Four years later, she’s hit the jackpot when she gets The Call: the sitcom she wrote, The Next Best Thing, has gotten the green light, and Ruthie’s going to be the show-runner. But her dreams of Hollywood happiness are threatened by demanding actors, number-crunching executives, an unrequited crush on a boss, and her grandmother’s impending nuptials. Set against the fascinating backdrop of Los Angeles show business culture, with an insider’s ear and eye for writer’s rooms, bad behavior backstage and set politics, Jennifer Weiner’s new novel is a rollicking ride on the Hollywood rollercoaster and a heartfelt story about what it’s like for a young woman to love, and lose, in the land where dreams come true.
All Wrapped Up
Holly Smale - 2015
Also includes a BONUS previously unpublished GEEK GIRL short story TEAM GEEK!
The Colour of Shadows
Phyllida Shrimpton - 2019
was he right to do so? Saffron must work that out...Seventeen year old Saffron discovers a secret in the attic - a secret that changes both her past and her future...Having believed ten years ago that her mother had become ill and subsequently died, Saffron learns that her mother is in fact alive and well. Angry at the years of deceit from her father and step mother, she goes in search of the truth about her mother - and leaves home. Homeless and alone, Saffron has to deal with the mental turmoil and anger at her father as she processes the lies she has been told. And then Saffron comes face to face with the dangers of being a homeless teenage girl...
Still Happy: Includes "The Book of Homer"
Elizabeth Berg - 2017
Her first, "Make Someone Happy," did indeed make many people happy, and so, due to popular demand, she has put together a second volume, which includes “The Book of Homer,” a tribute to her beloved dog who recently died. "Still Happy," like "Make Someone Happy," exemplifies Berg’s gift, as the Boston Globe said, “in her ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, the remarkable in the everyday.”