Book picks similar to
Words To Shape My Name by Laura McKenna


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straight-novels-rated-4-0-or-more
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Red Sky in Morning


Paul Lynch - 2013
    A visceral and meditative novel that marks the debut of a stunning new talent.A tense, thrilling debut novel that spans two continents, from "a writer to watch out for" (Colum McCann).It's 1832 and Coll Coyle has killed the wrong man. The dead man's father is an expert tracker and ruthless killer with a single-minded focus on vengeance. The hunt leads from the windswept bogs of County Donegal, across the Atlantic to the choleric work camps of the Pennsylvania railroad, where both men will find their fates in the hardship and rough country of the fledgling United States. Language and landscape combine powerfully in this tense exploration of life and death, parts of which are based on historical events. With lyrical prose balancing the stark realities of the hunter and the hunted, Red Sky in Morning is a visceral and meditative novel that marks the debut of a stunning new talent.

Steamy


Tawdra KandleTracie Delaney - 2021
    These are all original, never before published tales from established favorites and exciting new talent.Warning: reading this anthology may leave you in need of a cold shower or a warm body (or two). Succumbing to temptation has never felt so good.Steamy. An anthology that sizzles.Someone to Fix by Eliza Peake Devil's Bride by Sarah Bale First Time Feels by Lasairiona McMaster Heating Up by Heather Kinnane Out of Sight by Tracie Delaney The Marriage Pact by Delancey Stewart Embracing Her One by Danielle Pays Bumper Crop by Jessie Harper The Wild One by Tawdra Kandle Waiting for the Rapture by Michelle Mink Promises Kept by Jamie Garrett Waiting on Wood by L. Ann Back to You by Cynthia Terelst Sweet Tooth by K.D. Elizabeth Country Songs & Righting Wrongs by Dylann Crush Nobody's Perfect by Nadia Mack Rocks by Ivy Nelson Lost Raven by Diana A. Hicks Cupid's Target by Melinda De Ross Hot SEAL, Cold Water by Cat Johnson

The Making of Mollie


Anna Carey - 2017
    Then she notices that her older sister Phyllis and the family’s maid Maggie are plotting something. They discover a stash of leaflets demanding votes for women. Phyllis has joined the suffragette cause! Will Mollie get involved too? And how far should a girl go for her beliefs?

Til Death We Do Part


Bruno Beaches - 2021
    Through decades of quiet dedication and single-minded devotion he has achieved the successes one strives for in life, both with his family and career. Close to retirement and to sitting back and enjoying the fruits of a successful career and marriage, a malicious spurious complaint at work should have no material consequences on his life, but it starts a domino effect, and before long he finds himself shockingly dismissed, divorced, without a home, and with a criminal record. This story explores a convoluted tragic journey of divorce, rich with emotion, loss, betrayal, revenge and confusion. Along the way it explores the dynamics of what makes a relationship weak and vulnerable, or strong and resolute. It’s not a miserable story, but one of resilience, hope, and true love. It is told with an immense depth of feeling, insight, humour and faith, and there are many truly surprising twists and turns as the story unfolds.

The Walworth Farce


Enda Walsh - 2008
    “If there is a bleaker, funnier or more desperate play in Edinburgh this year, I’ll eat my hat.”—GuardianA brilliant new play by the author of Disco Pigs and this year’s winner of the Edinburgh First Fringe Award for Outstanding New Writing.

Dust


Eva Marie Everson - 2021
    But Allison rises to the challenge of raising Westley's toddling daughter as though she were her own. Over the course of their lifetime together, Allison, Westley, and Michelle form the strong bond of family. As Allison struggles with infertility and finding her way during a time of great change for women, others--some she knows and others whom she never meets--brush and weave against the fabric of her life, leaving her with more questions than answers. From teen bride to grandmother, Allison's life chronicles the ups and downs of an ordinary woman's life to examine the value of what we all leave behind.

Spooks for Sale


Carolyn Ridder Aspenson - 2020
    Just without the extra pay.Now I’m showing old homes, and every single one of them is haunted. As a witch, I’m not supposed to be able to see ghosts. But I do. And they know I do. And I know they know I do. And, oh boy.Worse yet, an apparition that looks an awful lot like my boss’s dead partner has come knocking, and demanding I solve her murder. I’ve been given an ultimatum: help or die. It looks like I can’t really trust anyone any more. Will my cat, mouse familiar, and a new shapeshifter friend be enough to help me get the job done in what little time I have left?

Loving and Giving


Molly Keane - 1988
    Maman is beautiful and adored. Dada, silent and small, mooches contendedly around the stables. Aunt Tossie, of the giant heart and bosom, is widowed but looks splendid in weeds. The butler, the groom, the landsteward, the maids, the men - each as a place and knows it. Then, astonishingly, the perfect surface is shattered; Maman does something too dreadful ever to be spoken of.'What next? Who to love?' asks Nicaranda. And through her growing up and marriage her answer is to swamp those around her with kindness - while gradually the great house crumbles under a weight of manners and misunderstanding.

The Fourteenth of September


Rita Dragonette - 2018
    In doing so, she jeopardizes both the army scholarship that will secure her future and her relationship with her military family. But Judy’s doubts have escalated with the travesties of the war. Who is she if she stays in the army? What is she if she leaves?When the first date pulled in the Draft Lottery turns up as her birthday, she realizes that if she were a man, she’d have been Number One—off to Vietnam with an under-fire life expectancy of six seconds. The stakes become clear, propelling her toward a life-altering choice as fateful as that of any draftee.The Fourteenth of September portrays a pivotal time at the peak of the Vietnam War through the rare perspective of a young woman, tracing her path of self-discovery and a “Coming of Conscience.” Judy’s story speaks to the poignant clash of young adulthood, early feminism, and war, offering an ageless inquiry into the domestic politics of protest when the world stops making sense.

The Year of Necessary Lies


Kris Radish - 2015
    It’s 1903, the world is poised for drastic change, and Julia Briton is a naive, beautiful Boston socialite who suffers a series of devastating losses and discovers that her beloved husband is involved in the plume trade—the massive slaughter of birds for use in the fashion industry. When Julia is secretly ushered into the early 20th century by a group of brazen female activists, she boldly risks everything and embarks on a perilous journey to the wilds of untamed Florida, a place of great danger where men will stop at nothing to get what they want and where one man, and a faithful friend, force her to make yet more life-changing decisions. Years later, when Julia’s great-granddaughter, Kelly, discovers some hidden tape recordings in her famous great-grandmother's dresser and learns the real truth about Julia’s year, a year that changed the course of history, she must decide what to do with her grandmother's incredible legacy. Will she keep the real “secret of the year”, or will she be brave enough to follow her own heart?

Dog-Heart


Diana McCaulay - 2010
    Alternating between the perspectives of the woman and the boy, the story engages with issues of race and class, examines the complexities of relationships between people of very different backgrounds, and explores the difficulties faced by individuals seeking to bring about social change through their own actions. The dramatic climax and tragic choices made grow from the gulf of incomprehension between middle-class and poor Jamaicans and provide penetrating insights into the roots of violence in impoverished communities.

A World of Thieves


James Carlos Blake - 2002
    Sonny secretly believes that he, too, is a natural outlaw and persuades his uncles to take him on as a partner. But when a bank job goes bad, Sonny is sent to jail, where he unintentionally kills a policeman who is the son of the most feared lawman in Louisiana, widely known as "John Bones."After nine months in the infamous Angola penitentiary, Sonny makes a harrowing escape and manages to reunite with Buck and Russell. The carefree trio head out for the boomtowns of west Texas, where the money flows as freely as the oil, unaware that vengeance follows close behind, as the cool, calculating John Bones begins a relentless campaign to hunt down Sonny ... no matter what.

L'Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems


Elisa Gabbert - 2016
    Drama. Elisa Gabbert's L'HEURE BLEUE, OR THE JUDY POEMS, goes inside the mind of Judy, one of three characters in Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner, a play about the dissolution of a marriage in the midst of political revolution. In these poems, Gabbert imagines a back story and an emotional life for Judy beyond and outside the play. Written in a voice that is at once intellectual and unselfconscious, these poems create a character study of a many-layered woman reflected in solitude, while engaging with larger questions of memory, identity, desire, surveillance, and fear.

Fool's Sanctuary


Jennifer Johnston - 1988
    It seems very remote to Miranda Martin, who thinks of nothing but the future during the Indian summer. Then Andrew, her officer brother, comes home, bringing eccentric, likeable Harry. As the summer fades, the scene is set for tragedy.

Sprat Morrison (Horizons)


Jean D'Costa - 1990
    The stories are selected both for their appeal to young people and for the quality of the writing.