Book picks similar to
Oyster by Michael Pedersen


poetry
scottish
poetry-and-prose
scotland

Everything Begins Elsewhere


Tishani Doshi - 2012
    These new poems are powerful meditations born on the joineries of life and death, union and separation, memory and dream, where lovers speak to each other across the centuries, and daughters wander into their mothers' childhoods. As much about loss as they are about reclamation, Doshi's poems guide us through an 'underworld of longing and deliverance', making the exhilarating claim that through the act of vanishing, we may be shaped into existence again. Everything Begins Elsewhere was followed by her third collection, Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods, in 2018.

Rock Paper Scissors


Alice Feeney - 2021
    When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife. Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts – paper, cotton, pottery, tin – and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget.Rock Paper Scissors is the latest exciting domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, New York Times bestselling author Alice Feeney.

Pine


Francine Toon - 2020
    The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men. Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she's gone. In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren's mother a decade ago. Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father's turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it's no longer clear who she can trust. In spare, haunting prose, Francine Toon creates an unshakeable atmosphere of desolation and dread. In a place that feels like the end of the world, she unites the gloom of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.

The Island House


Posie Graeme-Evans - 2011
    candidate in archaeology, arrives on the ancient Scottish island of Findnar. After years of estrangement from her father, himself an archaeologist who recently died, Freya has come to find out what she can about his work. As she reads through his research notes, she sees he learned a great deal about the Viking and Christian history of the island. But what he found only scratches the surface of the discoveries Freya is about to make.In 800 A.D. a Pictish girl named Signy loses her entire family during a Viking raid. She is taken in by the surviving members of the Christian community on Findnar, but when she falls deeply in love with a Viking boy, she is cast out. She eventually becomes a nun and finds herself at the center of the clash between the island’s three religious cultures. The tragedy of her story is that, in the end, she must choose among her adopted faith, her native religion, and the man she loves.Centuries apart, Freya and Signy are each on the verge of life-changing events that will bring present-day and Viking-era Scotland together. The Island House plunges the reader into a past that never dies and a love that reaches out across a thousand years.

The Comfort Book


Matt Haig - 2021
    But then we never think about food more than when we are hungry and we never think about life rafts more than when we are thrown overboard.”The Comfort Book is Haig’s life raft: it’s a collection of notes, lists, and stories written over a span of several years that originally served as gentle reminders to Haig’s future self that things are not always as dark as they may seem. Incorporating a diverse array of sources from across the world, history, science, and his own experiences, Haig offers warmth and reassurance, reminding us to slow down and appreciate the beauty and unpredictability of existence.

Monsters


Emerald Fennell - 2015
    Set in the Cornish town of Fowey, all is not as idyllic as the beautiful seaside town might seem. The body of a young woman is discovered in the nets of a fishing boat. It is established that the woman was murdered. Most are shocked and horrified. But there is somebody who is not - a twelve-year-old girl. She is delighted; she loves murders. Soon she is questioning the inhabitants of the town in her own personal investigation. But it is a bit boring on her own. Then Miles Giffard, a similarly odd twelve-year-old boy, arrives in Fowey with his mother, and they start investigating together. Oh, and also playing games that re-enact the murders. Just for fun, you understand... A book about two twelve-year-olds that is definitely not for kids.

Second Chance (Short Story #1 from Reunion Flirts!)


Lisa Scott - 2013
    Ten years later, Tripp McCall is now a rich business tycoon, offering to help her organize an over-the-top class reunion. Chelsea suspects he’s just trying to show her what she lost. But Chelsea doesn’t care about his money; she misses his humor, his gray eyes and soft lips. Could he ever give her a second chance?

Fox 8


George Saunders - 2013
    That is, until Fox 8 develops a unique skill: He teaches himself to speak "Yuman" by hiding in the bushes outside a house and listening to children's bedtime stories. The power of language fuels his abundant curiosity about people—even after "danjer" arrives in the form of a new shopping mall that cuts off his food supply, sending Fox 8 on a harrowing quest to help save his pack.

Half a World Away


Mike Gayle - 2019
    She provides for her son by cleaning houses she could never afford. Taken into care as a child, Kerry cannot forget her past.Noah Martineau is a successful barrister with a beautiful wife, daughter and home in fashionable Primrose Hill. Adopted as a young child, Noah never looks back.When Kerry contacts Noah, the sibling she lost on the day they were torn apart as children, she sets in motion a chain of events that will change both of their lives forever.By turns funny and moving, Half a World Away is a story that will stay with you long after you read its final page.

At the Water's Edge


Sara Gruen - 2015
    To Maddie’s horror, Ellis decides that the only way to regain his father’s favor is to succeed in a venture his father attempted and very publicly failed at: he will hunt the famous Loch Ness monster and when he finds it he will restore his father’s name and return to his father’s good graces (and pocketbook). Joined by their friend Hank, a wealthy socialite, the three make their way to Scotland in the midst of war. Each day the two men go off to hunt the monster, while another monster, Hitler, is devastating Europe. And Maddie, now alone in a foreign country, must begin to figure out who she is and what she wants. The novel tells of Maddie’s social awakening: to the harsh realities of life, to the beauties of nature, to a connection with forces larger than herself, to female friendship, and finally, to love.

Nobody Loves A Ginger Baby


Laura Marney - 2005
    Not being happy all the time makes them stressed out of their tights. Carol practises uninhibited sex which ends with her panty liner stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe. Donnie, after a mystery bite in a third world country, thinks he's incubating a nest of spiders up his bum. Daphne gets fat. She makes soup all the time and wonders if Woolworth's sell a hose pipe to fit a Vauxhall Vectra. Pierce is a poet; a fat balding womaniser who's only steady relationship is with a cup at the sperm bank. He's the only one not on anti-depressants, and he's the hero.

The Shell Collector


Anthony Doerr - 2001
    Doerr explores the human condition in all its varieties-metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending hearts-and conjures nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of his characters contend with tremendous hardship; some discover unique gifts; all are united by their ultimate deference to the mysteries of the universe outside themselves.

Wolf Moon Security: Complete 5-Part Series


Camilla Blake - 2019
    Get ready for a unique spin on those shifter-security-team novels we all love—with fays, pipers, hunters, and kick-ass vacationers adding their own mix of sassiness, secrets, and supernatural gifts to the visceral force that is Wolf Moon Security. Book One It’s spring break. Naomi Billing is ready to party—and on a mission to cheer up best friend and self-proclaimed nerd Gwen after her recent relationship breakup. Problem is, they’re vacationing on Wolf Moon Island. A spring-break paradise. Partying teens wishing they never had to leave. Problem is… some never will. For Wolf Moon Island has a long-held, fiercely guarded secret. And best friends Naomi and Gwen are about to—unwittingly—blow it wide open. Book Two Naomi Billing has always been a party animal. Now, she feels… well, just animal. For the fourth night in a row, she has been snapping awake with a bitter scream lodged in her throat and inhuman claws at the ends of her fingers. As the derwos of the Wolf Moon Island Pack, Orrick Erikson knows that Naomi is forbidden territory for him. So how come she is getting under his skin and driving him absolutely crazy, in a good way—and he knows he is totally going to let her? Book Three Emily Gray, Wolf Moon Island’s resident doctor, has long known the secret of the island’s inhabitants, and has got her manipulation of wolfsbane down to a fine art, enabling her to slow down her patients’ metabolisms enough to be able to operate on them. But the more alpha they get, the more difficult things become. And there is no one more alpha than her current patient. But that is not the only secret Emily knows… Tayte’s father, Mason, is a cruel man who spends his days in a wheelchair drinking himself into a stupor and lashing out viciously at his son. Tayte has had his fair share of surprises recently. He’s just discovered he has a baby on the way with Emily. And a sister he knew nothing about. But the secret Emily holds today is so huge it’s going to change his life. Forever. Book Four Hope Nassir is an agent working for the Council that governs all supernatural beings, including werewolves. She came to Wolf Moon Island on assignment, to watch over new ’wolf Naomi Billing to make sure she learns to control her ’wolf before an innocent is hurt. But Hope has another reason for visiting the island, a personal reason: she’s convinced her father died there. Caught by Rowson trying to spy on Naomi and her illegal lover, Orrick Erikson, Hope convinces him to help her research the island and find the woman she suspects of being her biological mother. Rowson agrees, unaware that his choice to help Hope will take them down a road that could destroy them, or save the entire pack. Or maybe both. Book Five Growing up human on an island inhabited by werewolves did nothing to help Gabby understand their unique nature any more than the average person. When Lunacy begins to tighten its grip on the island, Hugh puts himself in danger to protect her, but when she confesses her love to him, he pushes her away, refusing to allow himself to even entertain the idea of a romance. But as she joins Hugh, and his pack of family and friends struggle to find a way to end the spread of Lunacy, Hugh becomes erratic, his behavior confusing and frightening.

Home Behind Her, Hope Ahead: Cowboy Romance Novel


Serenity Spacey - 2020
    She is cooking and cleaning and hiding something. She meets Paul, the new equestrian teacher, who does cowboy rodeo events and seems entirely uninterested in the school, except when it comes to getting by with the minimum amount of work. Rachel discovers that Paul is recovering from a fire that happened on his ranch. Rachel doesn’t want to get too familiar with him or anybody since she has a secret, which has to do with being the witness at a trial long ago. Rachel is afraid all the time, and it’s unclear why. Paul begins to fall for her but isn’t sure he will ever get to the bottom of what’s troubling her. Can they find happiness? A standalone short story ending Happily Ever After and unlimited reading with Kindle Unlimited!

No Matter the Wreckage


Sarah Kay - 2014
    No Matter the Wreckage presents readers with new and beloved work that showcases Kay's knack for celebrating family, love, travel, history, and unlikely love affairs between inanimate objects ("Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire"), among other curious topics. Both fresh and wise, Kay's poetry allows readers to join in on her journey of discovering herself and the world around her. It's an honest and powerful collection.