Book picks similar to
Horace Winter Says Goodbye by Conor Bowman
contemporary
book-club
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fiction
The American Girl
Rachael English - 2017
Rose Moroney is seventeen, smart, spirited – and pregnant. She wants to marry her boyfriend. Her ambitious parents have other plans. She is sent to Ireland, their birthplace, to deliver her daughter in a Mother and Baby home. Against Rose's will, her baby is taken for adoption. Dublin 2013. Martha Sheeran’s life has come undone. Her marriage is over, and her husband has moved on with unsettling speed. Under pressure from her teenage daughter, she starts looking for the woman who gave her up for adoption more than forty years before. Martha's search for her birth mother leads her to the heart of long-buried family secrets and forces her to question everything she thought she knew. When her first love, Paudie Carmody, re-enters the frame, she's also forced to take a hard look at her own life. From Boston to rural Ireland; from Dublin back to Boston, The American Girl is a heart-warming and enthralling story about mothers and daughters, love and cruelty and, ultimately, the struggle for acceptance – and the embrace of new horizons.
Married to a Cave Man
Damien Owens - 2017
Vincent and Julie. Leo and Deirdre. Three young couples doing their best to keep the magic alive amid the nappies, bills and dirty dishes in recession-hit Dublin. When each of these husbands decides that he deserves a man cave — a space where he can get away from it all and be alone with his toys — simmering tensions come to the boil. A heartfelt comic novel about the trials of modern marriage. It's about compromise. It's about respect. It's about resisting the urge to murder your partner while they sleep.
Southern Solstice
Sarah Sadler - 2015
As her impetuous mother orchestrates a reunion with a first love, Larken becomes entangled in a dilemma where she must choose between an intriguing, passionate plastic surgeon—who is anything but superficial—and the annoyingly irresistible man who has silently loved her forever.
Twenty-one Truths About Love
Matthew Dicks - 2019
But Dan doesn’t just want to save his failing bookstore and his family’s finances he wants to do something special.Dan is an obsessive list maker; his story unfolds entirely in his lists, which are brimming with Dan’s hilarious sense of humor, unique world-view, and deeply personal thoughts. When read in full, his lists paint a picture of a man struggling to be a man, a man who has reached a point where he’s willing to do anything for the love of his life.
The Stolen Child
Lisa Carey - 2017
From one side of St. Brigid’s Island, the mountains of Connemara can be glimpsed on the distant mainland; from the other, the Atlantic stretches as far as the eye can see. This remote settlement, without electricity or even a harbor, has scarcely altered since its namesake saint set up a convent of stone huts centuries ago. Those who live there, including sisters Rose and Emer, are hardy and resourceful, dependent on the sea and each other for survival. Despite the island’s natural beauty, it is a place that people move away from, not to—until an outspoken American, also named Brigid, arrives to claim her late uncle’s cottage.Brigid has come for more than an inheritance. She’s seeking a secret holy well that’s rumored to grant miracles. Emer, as scarred and wary as Rose is friendly and beautiful, has good reason to believe in inexplicable powers. Despite her own strange abilities—or perhaps because of them—Emer fears that she won’t be able to save her young son, Niall, from a growing threat. Yet Brigid has a gift too, even more remarkable than Emer’s. As months pass and Brigid carves out a place on the island and in the sisters’ lives, a complicated web of betrayal, fear, and desire culminates in one shocking night that will change the island, and its inhabitants, forever.Steeped in Irish history and lore, The Stolen Child is a mesmerizing descent into old world beliefs, and a captivating exploration of desire, myth, motherhood, and love in all its forms.
Make Yourself at Home
Ciara Geraghty - 2021
It’s the only place left to goWhen Marianne’s carefully constructed life and marriage fall apart, she is forced to return to Ancaire, the ramshackle seaside house perched high on a cliff by the Irish Sea. There she must rebuild her relationship with her mother, Rita, a flamboyant artist and recovering alcoholic who lives by her own rules.Marianne left home when she was fifteen following a traumatic and tragic incident. She never planned to return, and now she has to face the fact that some plans don’t work out the way you wanted them to. But she might just discover that, sometimes, you have to come to terms with the story of your past before you can work out the shape of the future…Set on the wild Irish coast, with an unforgettable cast of characters, this deeply emotional novel is full of Ciara Geraghty’s trademark heart and poignancy.
46% Better Than Dave
Alastair Puddick - 2019
Dave Brookman’s new next-door neighbour is ruining his life. Because in a bizarre coincidence, he’s also called Dave Brookman, he’s the same age and he even grew up in the same town. There is one big difference, though. This new Dave is vastly more successful in every way. As Dave starts questioning everything about himself, suddenly his perfect life seems a lot less than perfect. And what starts as friendly rivalry soon turns into obsessive jealousy and crazy behaviour that could see Dave lose it all. Can he get a grip before it’s too late? NetGalley previews: It’s Keeping Up With The Jones in a book!!! Read it!! You will love every page like I did. Amazing job!! This is my third Alastair Puddick story and still I’m impressed. I really care about his antiheroes, flawed characters that for some reason or other - usually their inner-self struggle with what the world throws at them. After George Thring and Freddie Winters, this time it’s all about Dave Brookman. We meet Dave and his family at the point when his new neighbour moves in, by some twisted fate also called Dave Brookman. Neighbour-Dave and his family are seemingly all that our Dave aspires to: ace career, big bucks, flashy cars, great hair, gorgeous wife - the kind of uber-Joneses that bring Dave’s world crashing down into a smouldering heap. This, to me, is the most agonising, personal, gut-wrenching, heartfelt of Puddick’s novels to date. A self-imposed ego inferno, but surely there is hope for Dave? I read this in a day and thoroughly enjoyed it! Dave Brookman’s life is great, he has a lovely wife and 2 children and a career he is good at. This all changes when he gets a new neighbour, also called Dave Brookman, who seems to be doing considerably better in life than the original. Original Dave made me laugh and at times feel really frustrated with him, I quite identified with his wife throughout! Though this is an easy, funny read, this book does make you stop and consider our constant need to compare ourselves to others and measure ourselves against self imposed factors. I’ll be going to read the author’s other books right away. A witty and unique take on the the literary doppelgänger archetype that questions the constant need of human beings to constantly compare themselves to other, to measure themselves against self-imposed factors. Alastair Puddick's novel makes you reflect on the human truth of comparing their self with everybody else, all the while offering a humorous novel that will give you a good time!
Nora Webster
Colm Tóibín - 2014
Toibin's portrayal of the intricacy and drama of ordinary lives brings to mind of the work of Alice Munro. Set in Wexford, Ireland, and in breathtaking Ballyconnigar by the sea, Colm Toibin's tour de force eighth novel introduces the formidable, memorable Nora Webster. Widowed at 40, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who rescued her from the stifling world she was born into. Wounded and self-centred from grief and the need to provide for her family, she struggles to be attentive to her children's needs and their own difficult loss. In masterfully detailing the intimate lives of one small family, Toibin has given us a vivid portrait of a time and an intricately woven tapestry of lives in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, and where well-meaning gestures often have unforeseen consequences. Toibin has created one of contemporary fiction's most memorable female characters, one who has the strength and depth of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler. In Nora Webster, Colm Toibin is writing at the height of his powers.
The Lending Library
Aliza Fogelson - 2020
How is a small-town art teacher supposed to cope without the never-ending life advice and enjoyment that books give her? Well, when she’s as resourceful and generous as Dodie, she turns her sunroom into her very own little lending library.At first just a hobby, this lit lovers’ haven opens up her world in incredible ways. She knows books are powerful, and soon enough they help her forge friendships between her zany neighbors—and attract an exciting new romance.But when the chance to adopt an orphaned child brings Dodie’s secret dream of motherhood within reach, everything else suddenly seems less important. Finding herself at a crossroads, Dodie must figure out what it means to live a full, happy life. If only there were a book that could tell her what to do…
The Lesser Bohemians
Eimear McBride - 2016
She struggles to fit in—she’s young and unexotic, a naive new girl—but soon she forges friendships and finds a place for herself in the big city.Then she meets an attractive older man. He’s an established actor, 20 years older, and the inevitable clamorous relationship that ensues is one that will change her forever.A redemptive, captivating story of passion and innocence set across the bedsits of mid-1990s London, McBride holds new love under her fierce gaze, giving us all a chance to remember what it’s like to fall hard for another.
Eliza Starts a Rumor
Jane L. Rosen - 2020
It wasn't supposed to happen this way. When Eliza Hunt created The Hudson Valley Ladies' Bulletin Board fifteen years ago she was happily entrenched in her picture-perfect suburban life with her husband and twin preschoolers. Now, with an empty nest and a crippling case of agoraphobia, the once-fun hobby has become her lifeline. So when a rival parenting forum threatens the site's existence, she doesn't think twice before fabricating a salacious rumor to spark things up a bit.It doesn't take long before that spark becomes a flame.Across town, new mom and site devotee Olivia York is thrown into a tailspin by what she reads on the Bulletin Board. Allison Le is making cyber friends with a woman who isn't quite who she says she is. And Amanda Cole, Eliza's childhood friend, may just hold the key to unearthing why Eliza can't step out of her front door.In all this chaos, one thing is for sure...Hudson Valley will never be the same.Funny, romantic, raw, and hopeful, this is a story about being a woman and of the healing power of sisterhood.
I Wished For You
Amy Huberman - 2012
Since then Amy has gone on to star in Comedy Central's Threesome and her fan-base is growing all the time.I Wished For You is the story of Grace who is at that age where there are six weddings a year and the question on everyone's lips is: who's next? She and her boyfriend Robbie seem the perfect fit, but when he unexpectedly goes down on bended knee, Grace freaks out. Cue the mother of all meltdowns.On top of that, Grace's passion for fashion is not exactly fulfilled by her job - dressing well-to-do ladies with way more money than style. Cue - in her addled state after the bended knee fiasco - losing it in work, with disastrous consequences.Into Grace's train-wreck of a life comes Verity - ex-Hollywood costume lady and vintage clothing queen. Verity is not called the Vintage Vixen for nothing: she has seen it all and done it all and her life makes Grace's look about as exciting as Songs of Praise. Verity tells Grace that the secret of happiness is to discover her 'heart wish'. If only Grace could work out what her heart's greatest wish really is ...Amy Huberman is both a star and a trendsetter, but as a writer she is blessed with an earthy, off-beat and irreverent sense of humour which makes her a gifted and original story teller.Praise for Hello, Heartbreak'Will have you laughing out loud ... lovely' Cosmopolitan'Witty, observant and very Bridget Jones-like, this brilliant read is thoroughly enjoyable' Closer Magazine'Like Jane Austen on ecstasy' Sunday Independent'A funny romantic comedy ... like Bridget Jones on Viagra' Irish Daily Mail'Fun, bubbly, gutsy and lively' U Magazine'Tender, romantic and laugh aloud funny' Irish Examiner'Sharp and sassy' Irish Tatler'She can really write ... a deserved No 1' Irish Independent
From a Low and Quiet Sea
Donal Ryan - 2018
The dreamer. The penitent. From war-torn Syria to small-town Ireland, three men, scarred by all they have loved and lost, are searching for some version of home. Each is drawn towards a powerful reckoning, one that will bring them together in the most unexpected of ways.
Small Things Like These
Claire Keegan - 2020
During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.
The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton
Eleanor RayEleanor Ray - 2021
But now she simply collects them. Aquamarine bottles, bright yellow crockery, deep Tuscan red pots (and the odd slow-cooker) take up every available inch of space in her house. Having suffered a terrible tragedy—one she staunchly refuses to let herself think about, thank you very much—she’s decided that it’s easier to love things than people. Things are safe. Things will never leave you. But when a new family moves in next door with two young boys, one of whom has a collection of his own, Amy’s carefully managed life starts to unravel, prompting her to question why she began to close herself off in the first place. As Amy embarks on a journey back into her past, she has to contend with nosy neighbors, a meddlesome government worker, the inept police, and a little boy whose love of bulldozers might just let Amy open up her heart—and her home—again. Quirky and charming, big-hearted and moving, The Missing Treasures of Amy Ashton proves that it’s never too late to let go of the things that don’t matter...and welcome the people who do.