Book picks similar to
Early Leaving by Judy Goldman
fiction
bookcrossing
adult-fiction
reviewed-by-patrons
The Wednesday Sisters
Meg Waite Clayton - 2008
Then one evening, as they gather to watch the Miss America Pageant, Linda admits that she aspires to write a novel herself, and the Wednesday Sisters Writing Society is born. The five women slowly, and often reluctantly, start filling journals, sliding pages into typewriters, and sharing their work. In the process, they explore the changing world around them: the Vietnam War, the race to the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they believe about themselves. At the same time, the friends carry one another through more personal changes—ones brought about by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success. With one another’s support and encouragement, the Wednesday Sisters begin to embrace who they are and what they hope to become, welcoming readers to experience, along with them, the power of dreaming big.
In Love And Friendship
Benita Brown - 2003
A school outing to Cullercoats Bay almost ends in tragedy when two girls are cut off by the incoming tide. But from the panic and confusion something wonderful emerges – a lifelong friendship between three girls; Ruth, Lucy and Esther. Each is a world apart from the other two, but together they form a strong and unbreakable bond that will see them through the years ahead, when the happy, carefree days of childhood are nothing but a distant memory...
While My Sister Sleeps
Barbara Delinsky - 2009
Their careers are flourishing—Molly is a horticulturist and Robin is a world-class runner—and they are in the prime of their lives. So when Molly receives the news that Robin has suffered a massive heart attack, she couldn’t be more shocked. At the hospital, the Snow family receives a grim prognosis: Robin may never regain consciousness.As Robin’s parents and siblings struggle to cope, the complex nature of their relationship is put to the ultimate test. Molly has always lived in Robin’s shadow and her feelings for her have run the gamut, from love to resentment and back. The last time they spoke, they argued. But now there is so much more at stake. Molly’s parents fold under the devastating circumstances, and her brother retreats into the cool reserve that is shattering his own family. It’s up to Molly to make the tough decisions, and she soon makes discoveries that destroy some of her most cherished beliefs about the sister she thought she knew. Once again New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky brings us a masterful family portrait, filled with thought-provoking ideas about the nature of life itself, how emotions affect the decisions we make, and how letting go can be the hardest thing to do and the greatest expression of love all at the same time.
Little Children
Tom Perrotta - 2004
There's Todd, the handsome stay-at-home dad dubbed "The Prom King" by the moms at the playground, and his wife, Kathy, a documentary filmmaker envious of the connection Todd has forged with their toddler son. And there's Sarah, a lapsed feminist surprised to find she's become a typical wife in a traditional marriage, and her husband, Richard, who is becoming more and more involved with an internet fantasy life than with his own wife and child. And then there's Mary Ann, who has life all figured out, down to a scheduled roll in the hay with her husband every Tuesday at nine P.M.They all raise their kids in the kind of quiet suburb where nothing ever seems to happen - until one eventful summer, when a convicted child molester moves back to town, and two parents begin an affair that goes further than either of them could ever have imagined.
The Stain
Harry Kraus - 1997
A caring doctor in a state of panic. A young woman deceived and dying. They all bear the wounds of darkness. At what cost comes the cure?The newspapers in and around town are shouting the question: Is he a hero, a murderer, or a fool?Dr. Seth Berringer is wondering himself. In desperation he tried to take things into his own hands--and now those hands are stained with blood.He's caught in a cover-up with worldwide scientific and spiritual implications. And only the truth can set him free.Fiction as real as the dark impulses of the human heart"The Stain is as current as today's headlines, yet as eternal as God's truths. Surgeon Harry Kraus has combined his medical expertise with a gripping tale of modern medical mayhem that will keep you up tonight " --Angela Elwell Hunt, Best-selling author
Talk Before Sleep
Elizabeth Berg - 1993
"Until that moment, I hadn't realized how much I'd been needing to meet someone I might be able to say everything to."They met at a party. It was hate at first sight. Ruth was far too beautiful, too flamboyant. Not at all Ann's kind of person. Until a chance encounter in the bathroom led to an alliance of souls. Soon they were sharing hankies during the late showing of "Sophie's Choice," wolfing down sundaes sodden with whipped cream, telling truths of marriage, mortality, and love, secure in a kind of intimacy no man could ever know. Only best friends understand devil's food cake for breakfast when nothing else will do. After years of shared secrets, guilty pleasures, family life and divorce, they face a crisis that redefines the meaning of friendship and unconditional love.
The Garden of Last Days
Andre Dubus III - 2008
April, a stripper, has brought her daughter to work at the Puma Club for Men. There she encounters Bassam, a foreign client both remote and too personal and free with his money. Meanwhile, another man, AJ, has been thrown out of the club, and he’s drunk, angry, and lonely. From these explosive elements comes a relentless, raw, and page-turning narrative that seizes the reader by the throat with psychological tension, depth, and realism.
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Kim Edwards - 2005
David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's Syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split-second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself. So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century - in which these two families, ignorant of each other, are yet bound by the fateful decision made that long-ago winter night. Norah Henry, who knows only that her daughter died at birth, remains inconsolable; her grief weighs heavily on their marriage. And Paul, their son, raises himself as best he can, in a house grown cold with mourning. Meanwhile, Phoebe, the lost daughter, grows from a sunny child to a vibrant young woman whose mother loves her as fiercely as if she were her own.
Refiner's Fire
Sylvia Bambola - 2000
This book's "secret underground society" is not Nazi war criminals, however-it's the persecuted Christian church. Yuri and Alexander Deyneko, separated as teens in postwar times, are reunited thirty-five years later in 1980s Bucharest. Now on separate sides of Nicolae Ceausescu's Iron Curtain, the secret life of one brother, a top army official and clandestine Christian, and the ambition of the other- now the American Ambassador to Romania-puts them on a collision course with each other. Fates hang on an issue of conscience. Great writing propels readers through the plot toward a gripping climax.
The Hungry Season
T. Greenwood - 2010
It’s been five years since novelist Samuel Mason and his family vacationed at the lakeside cottage in northeastern Vermont, close to where Sam grew up. Back then, he and his wife enjoyed noisy, chaotic, and pretty much perfect summer getaways with their twins, Franny and Finn. But this year at Lake Gormlaith, there are only three of them. Ever since Franny’s death, the Masons have been flailing, one step away from falling apart. This trip is Sam’s last, best hope of rescuing his son from a destructive path and salvaging what’s left of his family. As he struggles with grief, writer’s block, and a looming deadline, his wife, Mena, tries to repair the marital bond she once thought was unbreakable. But even in this secluded place, the unexpected—in the form of an overzealous fan, a surprising friendship, and a second chance—can change everything.
The China Coin
Allan Baillie - 1991
Allan Baillie's masterpiece – an exciting journey into China set against the background of Tiananmen Square.
Daydreamer
Brea Brown - 2010
Nor has she ever… well, you know. But so what? She has a job, a cat, and an active imagination. And in Libby’s Fantasy World, her love life is perfect. Enter Jude Weatherington, fresh off the plane from England. While Libby would never dream of talking to him, she does dream of him. Fantasy Jude is refined, romantic, and completely wrapped up in Libby. There’s just one problem: he’s not real. Real Jude's no slouch, either. He's quirky and clever, and easy to talk to. His strange vocabulary and sexy accent keep things interesting, too. There’s just one problem: he’s not a fantasy. The more Libby gets to know Real Jude, the more he starts to pull ahead of the fantasy version. But Jude hates secrets. And if he knew the truth about her, it would no longer be a mystery to him—or anyone—why she's still single. He'd run away as fast as he could. Or maybe not.A girl can dream, right?
A Likely Story
Donald E. Westlake - 1984
(Or maybe Mary will find a fella of her own who can start contributing to the support.)So Tom's surefire bestseller, The Christmas Book is begun, and Tom's troubles begin. His editor quits, Ginger doesn't want to get married, Mary won't give him a divorce, his new editor announces she's pregnant (and quits), the woman in an iron lung enters his life, and a third editor begins work on the book. Then things really get complicated.
Flying Crows
Jim Lehrer - 2004
“Birdie Carlucci” claims he has lived there since 1933, hiding out in the storeroom of a Harvey House restaurant. Kansas City cop Lieutenant Randy Benton decides to discover the truth behind Birdie’s tale—and finds himself on a ride that leads ever backward into our country’s bloodstained past.Benton’s investigation reveals the story of young Birdie, incarcerated in a brutal insane asylum where the preferred method of treatment is beating with a baseball bat. In that hopeless environment, though, he’s befriended by another patient, Josh Lancaster, once dismissed as a lost cause but snatched back from the brink by a compassionate doctor. But what is the secret of Lancaster’s involvement in an infamous Civil War encounter between Confederate bushwhackers and Union soldiers? And what truly happened after Birdie escaped from the asylum on the famous Flying Crow train?As Benton returns to the present day, he wonders: How much, if any of it, really took place? What were the true public and private traumas of these two troubled men who can’t forget what they’ve seen or merely imagined?Inspired by real events, Flying Crows is a novel that moves as inexorably as a train in the night to a shattering conclusion—one that reveals the many meanings of imprisonment and escape, and all the eccentricities and tragedies of the American soul.
Icing on the Cake
Laura Castoro - 2007
The problem is that fad diets and fitness crazes are ruining sales and she's barely staying afloat. Liz's luck seems to be changing when her ex dies without changing his will, leaving her the main beneficiary. Unfortunately one of the things she inherits is the advertising agency she left behind to pursue her dream of baking. Her partner? The newly widowed husband stealer--Brandi, with a heart over the i. As the new co-owner of Talbot Advertising, in the toilet since the death of her ex (that's right, she's now the proprietor of two failing businesses), Liz is more determined than ever to break out and make a name for herself as an artisan baker extraordinaire, providing her products can catch the eye of the Nabisco Food scout who is as elusive as he is mysterious.