Book picks similar to
Divining Rod by Michael Knight


fiction
favorites
dictionary-recommendations
southern-writers

Paint it Black


Janet Fitch - 2006
    But when she receives a call from the coroner, asking her to identify her lover's body, her bright dreams all turn to black. As Josie struggles to understand Michael's death and to hold onto the world they shared, she is both attracted to and repelled by his pianist mother, Meredith, who blames Josie for her son's torment. Soon the two women are drawn into a twisted relationship that reflects equal parts distrust and blind need.With the luxurious prose and fever pitch intensity that are her hallmarks, Janet Fitch weaves a spellbinding tale of love, betrayal, and the possibility of transcendence.

Cairnaerie


M.K.B. Graham - 2017
     Geneva Snow commits the unforgivable Southern sin. No longer the apple of her father’s eye, she is a pariah, defying her society's most sacrosanct rule. To protect her—and hoping for a change of heart—her shattered yet steadfast father hides her at Cairnaerie, his mountain estate. But his iron-willed daughter is unrepentant. After years of solitude, an older and wiser Geneva is finally mellowing, and she is desperate to leave a legacy worthy of the father she loved and lost. To that end, she engages an unwitting young history professor for help to escape Cairnaerie long enough to attend the wedding of her granddaughter—a girl dangerously unaware of her lineage. But when a postman’s malevolence and a colleague’s revenge converge, Geneva's long-kept secret is exposed. For a second time, she faces a calamity of her own making. Only this time, there is no place to hide.

FACTORY GIRL: part 1 of 6


Stephanie Bond - 2019
    I'm Hattie Morehead, and for a 19-year-old, I've screwed up my life pretty good so far. I grew up in a town in Tennessee the size of a mud puddle, and I'd planned to be somewhere else by now doing something important. Instead I got myself pregnant, dropped out of high school, and took a job at the same sewing factory that sucked the life out of my mother and my grandmother.My relatives are shady, my friends are freaks, and my romantic prospects are dim. But this small-town girl has big dreams: Someday I'm gonna get out of here. Someday everyone will know my name. Because someday instead of sewing designer clothes for minimum wage, I'll have my own clothing line.I admit, at times that day seems far, far away. But I'm gonna make it happen. I simply have to.For now, I'm hanging in and hanging on... by a thread._______________________This FACTORY GIRL, Part 1 novella is a month's worth of daily segments: JULYThe Part 1 novella is JULY, Part 2 is AUGUST, Part 3 is SEPTEMBER, Part 4 is OCTOBER, Part 5 is NOVEMBER, part 6 is DECEMBER.(In total there are 6 parts to FACTORY GIRL.)Don't miss out on this funny, poignant story everyone is talking about!_____________________OTHER multi-part serials by Stephanie Bond:COMA GIRL, parts 1-6   You can learn a lot when people think you aren't listening.TEMP GIRL, parts 1-6    Change is good... but not great.COMEBACK GIRL, parts 1-6   Home is where the hurt is.

Airships


Barry Hannah - 1978
    The twenty stories in this collection are a fresh, exuberant celebration of the new American South — a land of high school band contests, where good old boys from Vicksurg are reunited in Vietnam and petty nostalgia and the constant pain of disappointed love prevail. Airships is a striking demonstration of Barry Hannah's mature and original talent.

The Murderer's Daughters


Randy Susan Meyers - 2010
    He’s always hungered for the love of the girl’s self-obsessed mother; after she throws him out, their troubles turn deadly.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.http://us.macmillan.com/themurderersd...

The Dylanist: A Novel


Brian Morton - 1991
    Scott Fitzgerald described (L.A. Weekly).

The Lighthouse: A Novel


Michael D. O'Brien - 2020
    A man without any family, he sees himself as a silent "vigilant", performing his duties courageously year after year, with an admirable sense of responsibility.He cherishes his solitude and is grateful that his interactions with human beings are rare. Even so, he is haunted by his aloneness in the world and by a feeling that his life is meaningless. His courage, his integrity, his love of the sea and wildlife, of practical skills and of learning are, in the end, not enough. He is faced with internal storms and sometimes literal storms of terrifying power.From time to time he becomes aware that messengers are sent to him from what he calls "the awakeness" in existence, "the listeningness." But he cannot at first recognize them as messengers nor understand what they might be telling him, until he finds himself caught up in catastrophic events, and begins to see the mysterious undercurrents of reality—and the hidden face of love."They that go down to the sea in ships, trading upon the waters, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep."- Psalm 107: 23

Please Please Please


Renee Swindle - 1999
    Always has. Always will. After all, she's been spoiled rotten ever since she witnessed her mother's death as a child, and she's made the most of it-especially with her dad. So when her oldest friend, Deborah, begins to date a fine-looking, fine-acting man named Darren-Babysister doesn't think twice: she wants Darren for herself. And what Babysister wants...There are just a few little problems with their secret love affair. Babysister's devoted boyfriend is one. And Darren's lingering doubts about dumping Deborah--light-skinned, church-going, beautiful--is another. But Babysister won't let go, even after Darren crawls back to Deborah--and marries her. Following her love-crazed heart, Babysister jeopardizes friendship, family, and her own self-esteem, until a little dose of reality shows her how much she's been missing all along.

Rosamunde Pilcher: A Third Collection of Three Complete Novels. The Empty House / The Day of the Storm / Under Gemini


Rosamunde Pilcher - 1999
    The Empty House is about being in love with the wrong man; The Day of the Storm is about discovering family—and its secrets; and Under Gemini is about deception. A wonderful new omnibus edition of three full-length novels by one of America's favorites.

Chocolate Star


Sheila Copeland - 1997
    Then the way to fame was leading him toward a mistake that could send him straight to hell...She never looked back.Lies, drugs, too many men-- golden skinned singer Topaz Black would do anything to get a hit to the top of the charts, even walk away from her friends and family. But surrounded by greed and lust, the love the longed for seemed to be slipping away forever.He broke all the rules.Brought up in South Central L.A., movie producer Gunther Lawrence learned early how to get the wealth and women he wanted-- and to turn his back on his roots. Now, blinded by Hollywood's glitter, his illusions may shatter when he discovers who really controls his career.As their lives touch, ignite, and explode, three talented African-Americans pursue fame at any cost...and the price may be their happiness...or their lives..An alternate selection of the Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club

A Mumbai Murder Mystery


Meeti Shroff-Shah - 2021
    Her pregnant best friend Sanjana’s father has killed himself.And yet, just hours before, he was telling Sanjana that he couldn’t wait to hold his grandchild in his arms. What triggered this desperate act? And why is their young maid so terrified?Radhi is determined to uncover the truth. But the deeper she digs beneath the diamond-studded prayer meetings and the lavishly catered ‘pure-veg’ brunches, the faster she finds herself drawn into a web of festering grievances, hidden agendas and long-buried secrets.Fans of Richard Osman, Victoria Dowd, Ian Moore, Vaseem Khan, Louise Penny and Shamini Flint will devour this brilliant, atmospheric murder mystery.ABOUT MEETI SHROFF-SHAHMeeti is an award-winning copywriter, content writer and mother (though no awards for this yet). When she isn’t busy writing ads that make toothpaste sound like an aphrodisiac, Meeti can be found plotting the murder of perfectly innocent people. Meeti lives with her daughter and husband in Mumbai.

Georgia Under Water: Stories


Heather Sellers - 2001
    These are miraculous stories of survival, perhaps even forgiveness. To some of us Georgia's life would be unthinkable. Sellers makes us believe it is well worth living. "Heather Sellers writes delicious, dangerous prose. She starts you twenty-three floors up in condo squalor, nips across for dysfunction in Disney country, threatens incest in Hotlanta, and comes to grief on the Gulf. The dead-credible life of Georgia Jackson-ineffably sweet, thoroughly in love with her own luscious body, half in love with her lush of a father-skids at the edge of the surreal. Her story had me laughing through the lump in my throat. An original. A knockout debut."-Janet Burroway

Parkside Community Church: The Complete Collection


Katie Crabapple - 2013
    Follow the lives of Pastor Dan and Anna as they meet, get engaged and begin their lives together. This anthology combines the short stories: A Bride for Pastor Dan, Ready Made Family, The Bridesmaid, Riley’s Song and Heartbreak.

Saved


Jack Falla - 2008
    Now late in his career, Savard and his teammate and best friend, Cam Carter, are trying to fulfill their boyhood dreams of winning a Stanley Cup before they retire. A surprise late-season trade pits the friends against each other in a playoff series both could lose but only one can win. Saved takes the reader into the rinks, dressing rooms, planes, buses, and hotels that are the backdrop to the long grind of an NHL season. That grind is made bearable by the likes of players such as Bruno Govoni, whose cell phone ring tone is the orgasmic moaning of a porn star Loretta (Lash) LaRue; of Phil Flipside Palmer, the only person besides the Kingsmen who knows all the words to Louie Louie or that Child of the Moon was the flipside of the Rolling Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash; and team enforcer Kevin Quigley, who claims all his fights are retaliations, but sometimes I retaliate first. Most sports novels bring the game to the reader. Saved brings the reader to the game. Praise for Jack Falla Falla's graphic portrayal of a violent sport (and its colorful players) and his insider's view of how hockey is played, coached, and officiated is exciting, surefire entertainment. -- Publishers Weekly on Saved Literary hot chocolate that will warm your heart. ---Robert Lipsyte, The New York Times, on Home Ice The best hockey book ever. ---John Buccigross, ESPNsportscaster, on Home Ice Possibly the best hockey book since Ken Dryden's The Game, ---Toronto Globe and Mail, on Home Ice

Sister North


Jim Kokoris - 2003
    Newly addicted to watching Sister North, a nun with a popular television show, Sam embarks on a trip to Lake Eagleton, Wisconsin, to see the nun personally, seeking forgiveness and spiritual guidance. In Lake Eagleton, he finds out much more about Sister North, himself, and falling in love than he ever expected. "Sister North" is a novel of forgiveness and hope that takes a poignant and humorous look at what passes for love and faith in the twenty-first century.