Book picks similar to
Sally by J. Schlenker


giveaways
historical-fiction
review
giveaway

Partner Pursuit


Kathy Strobos - 2021
    Until she bumps into Jake—her new neighbor. Jake is a fun-loving music marketing executive who might just be The One.He’s funny, caring, supportive—and able to kill water bugs in the bathroom.But Jake will never date a woman married to her job. His father was a workaholic lawyer who never had time for family. And she’s just got the case of a lifetime—the one she needs to win to make partner. Working 24/7 at the office may not even be enough hours to pull off a victory.If only she had not met him now.Audrey is determined to prove that she can juggle work and romance—even if managing court cases, candlelit dinners, and bike rides around Manhattan is a lot harder than it looks. She keeps canceling dates for yet another case crisis.But when making partner is like a game of musical chairs and the last seat is a business-class alone, which partnership will she choose?

The Last Collection: A Novel of Elsa Schiaparelli and Coco Chanel


Jeanne Mackin - 2019
    Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli are fighting for recognition as the most successful and influential fashion designer in France, and their rivalry is already legendary. They oppose each other at every turn, in both their politics and their designs: Chanel's are classic, elegant, and practical; Schiaparelli's bold, experimental, and surreal.When Lily Sutter, a recently widowed young American teacher, visits her brother, Charlie, in Paris, he insists on buying her a couture dress--a Chanel. Lily, however, prefers a Schiaparelli. Charlie's beautiful and socially prominent girlfriend soon begins wearing Schiaparelli's designs as well, and much of Paris follows in her footsteps.Schiaparelli offers budding artist Lily a job at her store, and Lily finds herself increasingly involved with Schiaparelli and Chanel's personal war. Their fierce competition reaches new and dangerous heights as the Nazis and the looming threat of World War II bear down on Paris.

Booth


Karen Joy Fowler - 2022
    Junius Booth--breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one--is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country's leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.

The Means That Make Us Strangers


Christine Kindberg - 2019
    But who are your people?Adelaide has lived her whole life in rural Ethiopia, where she and her family are the only white people she knows. Then her family moves to South Carolina, in 1964.Adelaide promises she'll return to Ethiopia and become part of the village for good. But until she turns eighteen, Adelaide must adjust to this strange, white place everyone tells her is home. Then Adelaide becomes friends with the five African-American students who sued for admission into the white high school. As life in Greenville becomes more interesting, home becomes a much more complex equation.Adelaide must finally choose where she belongs: the Ethiopian village where she grew up, to which she promised to return? Or this new place where she's become part of something bigger?

Moon Water


Pam Webber - 2019
    Nettie’s lifelong nemesis is jabbing her with perfectly polished nails, while her hellfire and brimstone preacher refuses to baptize her. Amid this turmoil, a Monacan Indian medicine woman gives her a cryptic message about a coming darkness, a blood moon whose veiled danger threatens Nettie and those she loves. To prepare for the darkness, Nettie and her best friend, Win, make a treacherous journey into the mountains to build a mysterious dreamcatcher of ancient elements.

In the Company of Like-Minded Women


Elaine Russell - 2018
    Three sisters are reunited in 1901 Denver following a family rift many years before. Each sister faces critical decisions regarding work and love as they are swept up in the movement for women’s rights.

The Simple Soul of Susan


Noel Branham - 2017
    Will she still cling to the simple, small-town life she has always cherished, or will she chart a new path by overcoming this unforeseen trial?Calder Hurtz hopes to escape his dumpy Texas town for a promising career and life away from the dusty dirt roads...and even farther away from his family’s tragic loss. In his escape, he intends to leave behind his simple childhood ideals of family and love, but perhaps he will learn that redefining one’s identity isn’t that simple after all.Can two hospitalizations, two confessions of love, and one betrayal bring two simple souls together?Compulsively readable, The Simple Soul of Susan is an engaging, soul-endearing romance and a mesmerizing debut.“I don’t remember ever smiling so much while reading a book.”-Melanie, Paperback Darling“...a literary gem that must be experienced.” -Nicole, Christian Fiction Girl

Only Lies Remain


Val Collins - 2020
    But when Danny's body turns up fifteen years later and his wife, Maura, is implicated in his murder, accusations and old rumours surface.Aoife rushes in to clear her mother-in-law's name. But why is it that Maura's story surrounding Danny's disappearance doesn't quite add up?Aoife's investigation uncovers old secrets, long-held jealousies, and lies upon lies. With every new revelation, Aoife realises she doesn't know her family at all. Now her new boss is acting strangely, her best friend is more and more distant and her husband is no help at all.With her support network crumbling and her family threatened, Aoife must race to keep one step ahead of danger before more innocent lives are lost. But how will she uncover the truth when only lies remain?

The Hidden Child


Louise Fein - 2021
    How far are they willing to go to protect their charmed life—even if it means abandoning their child to a horrific fate? Eleanor Hamilton is happily married and mother to a beautiful four-year-old girl, Mabel. Her wealthy husband, Edward, a celebrated war hero, is a leading light in the burgeoning Eugenics movement—the very ideas that will soon be embraced by Hitler—and is increasingly important in designing education policy for Great Britain.But when Edward and Eleanor’s otherwise perfectly healthy daughter develops debilitating epileptic seizures, their world fractures. Mabel’s shameful illness must be hidden or Edward’s life’s work will be in jeopardy and the family’s honor will be shattered.When Eleanor discovers Edward has been keeping secrets, she calls into question everything she believed about genetic inferiority, and her previous unshakeable faith in her husband disintegrates. Alarmed, distressed, and no longer able to bear the family’s burden, she takes matters into her own hands.

Letters for Scarlet


Julie C. Gardner - 2016
    Although she spent a decade burying that desperate girl and her regrets, each page resurrects the past, dragging Corie back to a time when all she craved was Scarlet Hinden’s friendship and Tuck Slater’s heart. But she couldn’t keep them both and keep her word.Scarlet is haunted in her own way, by memories of Corie and of a night that left her wishing she were dead. But Scarlet is not only alive, she’s carrying new life: a baby she never wanted and is terrified to have. Convinced she would be a disastrous mother, she questions whether or not she deserves the love of any man. Especially the father of her child."Letters for Scarlet" traces one friendship from deep roots to branches torn by broken promises and loss.

Astor Place Vintage


Stephanie Lehmann - 2013
    When a vintage clothing store owner in New York City discovers a journal from 1907, she finds her destiny at stake as the past and present collide. The past has a seductive allure to Amanda Rosenbloom, especially when it comes to vintage clothing. She’s devoted to running her shop, Astor Place Vintage, but with Manhattan’s rising rents and a troubled economy, it’s tough to keep the business alive. Meanwhile, she can’t bring herself to end an affair with a man who really should be history. When Amanda finds a journal sewn into a fur muff she’s recently acquired for the shop, she’s happy to escape into the world of Olive Westcott, a young lady who lived in New York City one hundred years ago.As Amanda becomes immersed in the journal, she learns the future appeals to Olive. Olive looks forward to a time when repressive Victorian ideas have been replaced by more modern ways of thinking. But the financial panic of 1907 thrusts her from a stable, comfortable life into an uncertain and insecure existence. She’s resourceful and soon finds employment, but as she’s drawn into the social circle of shopgirls living on the edge of poverty, Olive is tempted to take risks that could bring her to ruin. Reading Olive’s woes, Amanda discovers a secret that could save her future and keep her from dwelling in the past.It’s Olive, however, who ends up helping Amanda, through revelations that come in the final entries of the journal. As the lives of these two women merge, Amanda is inspired to stop living in the past and take control of her future.

Promise Season


Lee Evie - 2019
    A spy. A promise.JOSEON DYNASTY, KOREA.A humid summer storm rages across the Pavilion, the greatest entertainment house in the sprawling city of Hanyang. Within its stifling walls a gisaeng slave girl hides a fugitive in her bed, unexpectedly saving the life of a young man who is not all he seems.Immediately Seorin is thrust into a razor-edged world of conspiracy and spies, doomed rebellion and murky intrigue. For the first time in years, she glimpses an opportunity for change.Yet it is not her freedom Seorin so desperately desires, but something far more precious. She will risk anything, even death, to gain it.A dark and romantic historical adventure set in old Korea.

Spring House


Mary Ellen Taylor - 2019
    With the help of her fiancé’s caring best friend, it’s sure to draw much-needed tourist revenue to Cape Hudson, a town rich in southern history.However, it’s Spring House, the caretaker’s cottage on the grounds, that holds the most intriguing history for Megan. In a cache of old letters, she’s drawn into the captivating life of a young woman who embarked on her own dream adventure a century ago. With each one, Megan is swept away into her enthralling world—and all its secrets. But Megan has secrets too.Now, as one woman’s past unfolds in each revealing letter, Megan will discover more about herself and about the emotional tides of family that can be weathered with those you love and trust the most.

Kiss the Earth


Neal Sehgal
    KISS THE EARTH is a collection of poetry, prose, and photography that explores the bliss of falling in love, perseverance through adversity, finding peace within one’s self, and reverence for all that this life has for us to experience.

Her Hidden Genius


Marie BenedictMarie Benedict - 2022
    Christie and The Only Woman in the Room.Rosalind Franklin has always been an outsider―brilliant, but different. Whether working at the laboratory she adored in Paris or toiling at a university in London, she feels closest to the science, those unchanging laws of physics and chemistry that guide her experiments. When she is assigned to work on DNA, she believes she can unearth its secrets.Rosalind knows if she just takes one more X-ray picture―one more after thousands―she can unlock the building blocks of life. Never again will she have to listen to her colleagues complain about her, especially Maurice Wilkins who'd rather conspire about genetics with James Watson and Francis Crick than work alongside her.Then it finally happens―the double helix structure of DNA reveals itself to her with perfect clarity. But what unfolds next, Rosalind could have never predicted.Marie Benedict's powerful new novel shines a light on a woman who sacrificed her life to discover the nature of our very DNA, a woman whose world-changing contributions were hidden by the men around her but whose relentless drive advanced our understanding of humankind.