Book picks similar to
Butterfly Stitching by Shermin Kruse
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The Quilt
Rochelle Carlton - 2014
She is engaged to a handsome artist, lives above an windswept beach, and has a rapidly growing list of clients. But in a heartbeat everything changes, and she is left staring at an empty future. It starts with her naked fiancé disappearing in the rear-view mirror, and ends with news so devastating she collapses, sobbing, on the filthy floor of an airport toilet. It is the day that changes Joanne forever. Paul Clarke looks like a man that has stepped out of the pages of a women's magazine. He is living on Twin Pines Station, a farm shrouded in mystery following the disappearance of his grandmother. The small town community expect Paul to marry his spoilt, pregnant girlfriend, and settle in the area like the previous generations of the Clarke family. But not everything is as it appears, and life for Paul is about to be turned upside down. A tragic twist of fate brings Joanne and Paul together. But neither is looking for romance, and both are struggling with loss and the deceptions of the past. What unfolds is an unforgettable story of friendship, family and changes born through love. "This should become a TV series or a movie. It is that good in my opinion." - Mr Butler "Moving, rousing and beautifully written." - Jackie Parry "Being away from New Zealand it was such an indulgence to be given such wonderful imagery." - Meilyrox “All these threads come together in bold colors and powerful strands in Rochelle Carlton's compelling novel "The Quilt: Unraveled" to render vividly life's harsh realities in a story that is both personal and intimate.. This multi-generation family saga is immense in scope (and intense).” – Mark Fine Mature content warning. This book contains language that may offend some readers.
The Moon Sisters
Therese Walsh - 2014
Olivia, an 18-year-old who can taste words and see sounds, blinds herself by staring at the sun, then decides to walk to the remote setting of her mother's unfinished novel to resuscitate her hopes and dreams. Jazz, 22, plagued by unresolved conflict with her mother and a hidden trove of her unsent letters, takes a job in a funeral home before being forced back into the role of her sister’s keeper.The sisters’ journey through the wilds of West Virginia, disaster-prone from the start, takes a turn when they meet two train-hoppers with dangerous secrets, and Jazz learns that Olivia holds a dark secret of her own in the form of their mother's final unread letter. Mistrust, resentments and new attachments threaten to tear the two apart, until a final bizarre misadventure forces them to decide what’s really important.This mesmerizing coming-of-age novel, with its sheen of near-magical realism, is a moving tale of family and the power of stories.
All We Had
Annie Weatherwax - 2014
Jobs are hard to find, men come and go. But when a set of unexpected circumstances strands them in Fat River, a small rural town in upstate New York, life takes a turn. Fat River becomes the first place they call home. The modest economic security they gain gives them peace and space for friends. The people of Fat River—Hank and Dotty Hanson, the elderly owners of the local hardware store being driven out of business by the new Walmart; Mel, the flawed, but kindhearted owner of the town diner where Rita finds work; and the cross-dressing Peter Pam, the novel’s voice of warmth and reason—become family. Into this quirky utopia comes Vick Ward, a smooth-talking broker who entices Rita with a subprime mortgage and urges her to buy the ramshackle house she and her daughter have been renting. Tough and quick-witted, thirteen-year-old Ruthie—whose sardonic voice and plain-spoken observations infuse All We Had with disarming honesty and humor—never minded her hardscrabble existence as long as her mother was by her side. Through it all, the two have always been the center of one another’s lives. But when financial crisis hits, their luck takes a different turn. All We Had offers an unflinching look at the devastating choices a mother must make to survive and is an achingly funny, heart wrenching tale about love and loss, told with humor and razor sharp vision
Mr. Good Enough
Jamie Farrell - 2014
She’s simply tired of waiting for the universe to deliver her Mr. Perfect. So she’s turning to the dating website she created, MisterGoodEnough.com, to finally find her future.Online matchmaking is perfect for Maddie, because:A) History has proven she’s a poor judge of decent husband material.B) The dating pool in her crumbling little hometown is all but dried up.C) She wants babies.Trent Sawyer is not Mr. Good Enough material, because:A) Twelve years ago, he stomped the stuffing out of Maddie’s naïve little teenage heart.B) The man might look good in a tool belt, but she’s sure he’s up to something nefarious.C) He doesn’t want kids. Ever.But if Maddie were to fall for a guy like Trent, it would only be because:A) When he apologizes, he apologizes big.B) He’s fixing their little farm town, one dilapidated home at a time.C) Her world is a brighter place with him in it.So should Maddie:A) Go for Mr. Second Best and the family she’s always wanted?B) Take her Mr. Almost Perfect without the babies she craves?Either way, there’s nothing simple about settling for Mr. Good Enough.
Drive for Five: The Remarkable Run of the 2016 Patriots
Christopher Price - 2017
They become larger than life and bigger than anyone ever thought possible, leaping off the field, the court, or the diamond and into the annals of not only history, but the very fabric of the American milieu. We all just witnessed such a moment on February 5th, 2017, when the New England Patriots battled back from the largest deficit in Super Bowl history to once again become world champions and secure Tom Brady's legacy as the greatest quarterback of all time.Amid a season of controversy, turmoil, and the most tumultuous political climate of our lifetime, the Patriots won. In spite of becoming entangled in the national spotlight on several occasions, the Patriots won. And in spite of being faced with any number of circumstances that would sink almost every other franchise in the NFL, the Patriots won.The season began with the fallout around Deflategate and losing their MVP-caliber quarterback for the first four games of the season, but honestly, the Deflategate saga was just a small part of it all.This is the story of how the Patriots rallied together as a team to surpass their obstacles on and off the football field and how that led to a remarkable run to the title - and the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.Complete with player interviews, behind-the-scenes stories never told before, and content provided by Patriots players themselves, Drive for Five provides a unique level of insight and access to the story behind the legendary New England Patriots' 2016 season.
The Walking
Laleh Khadivi - 2013
The journey is beset by trouble from the start, but over the treacherous mountains they go, on foot to Istanbul and onward by freighter to the Azores.There, after a painful parting, Saladin alone continues on the final leg, on a cargo plane all the way to Los Angeles. He will have a new life in California, but will never be whole again without his beloved brother and the living heritage that has always defined him.
The Walking is the second novel in a trilogy about Khadivi's homeland of Iran, a country poised between the ancient and the modern and tossed by political winds that have buffeted the entire globe. Here, Khadivi tells the story of exodus from homeland, an experience that hundreds of thousands of Iranians underwent, and which millions of others, from different places around the world, have also experienced. In the story of two brothers, Khadivi brilliantly explores the tension alive in all immigrants, between the love and attachment to the place they must leave, and the hopes and dreams that lie in the places they are headed.
Glow
Jessica Maria Tuccelli - 2012
Eleven-year-old Ella McGee sits on a bus bound for her Southern hometown. Behind her in Washington, D.C., lie the broken pieces of her parents’ love story—a black father drafted, an activist mother an activist mother of Scotch-Irish and Cherokee descent confronting racist thugs. But Ella’s journey is just beginning when she reaches Hopewell County, and her disappearance into the Georgia mountains will unfurl a rich tapestry of family secrets spanning a century. Told in five unforgettable voices, Glow reaches back through the generations, from the red-clay dust of the Great Depression to the Blue Ridge frontier of 1836, where slave plantations adjoin the haunted glades of a razed Cherokee Nation. Out of these characters’ lives evolves a drama that is at once intimately human and majestic in its power to call upon the great themes of our time—race, identity, and the bonds of family and community.Lushly conceived, cinematically detailed, and epic in historical scope, Glow announces an extraordinary new voice in Southern fiction.
The Fighting Season
Bram Connolly - 2016
Matt Rix, the ultra tough commando who led the ambushed platoon, swears vengeance. Rix is one of Special Forces' most lethal operators. He'll neutralise Rapier - whatever it takes.But in Afghanistan's brutal war, not all things are as they seem.'The Fighting Season is military fiction of the first order: as tough as nails and packed with the insider knowledge of someone who has done it for real.' - Matthew Reilly'Action packed, gritty and authentic to the core.' - Merrick Watts
The Day We Met
Dusti Bowling - 2011
At least, she did. Enticed by a chance with the boy she's had a crush on for years, Lenna abandons her values and her lifelong friends to hang out with the popular crowd. What she gets in return couldn't be further from her expectations. Feeling used and alone and facing an unexpected pregnancy, Lenna struggles to regain control of her life, her parents' trust, and the love of her best friend, Will. But when her pregnancy takes an unexpected turn, taking away what little control she thought she had, she must find the strength to make the most heart-wrenching decision of all. A beautiful story of love, faith, and forgiveness, The Day We Met will make you laugh, make you cry, and touch your heart forever.
Stockings and Cellulite
Debbie Viggiano - 2010
Suddenly single, Cass throws herself into the business of getting over Stevie with gusto. Her main problems now are making her nine-year-old twins happy, juggling a new social life with a return to work and avoiding being arrested by an infuriating policeman who always seems to turn up at the most inopportune moments. Then, just when Cass is least prepared, and much to Stevie's chagrin, she crashes head over heels in love with the last person she'd ever expected.
Marrying Missy
Sarah Elle Emm - 2011
Tate Sullivan is in a fix: her best friend, Missy Martin, is getting married. With constant criticism from Missy Martin, Buckhead heiress and bride-to-be; stress from her intense nursing job; and a short-temper on the rise from her high powered, attorney husband, Georgia-native, Tate Sullivan is engaged in the ultimate balancing act.Tate has to cope with sleep-deprived night shifts, her closet nicotine habit, her husband's apparent workaholism, her mother's meddlesome behavior, and her ongoing attempt to educate Missy about not making borderline racist remarks about everyone who doesn't have money or look like her. When a collision with a runaway Golden Retriever lands Tate in the arms of the newcomer to Atlanta, Dr. Jackson Greenfield, Tate begins to think her mother has concocted the ultimate scheme. Wedding planning has never been so nerve-racking...or dangerous. Marrying Missy reveals the complexity of those who are merely planning a wedding, preparing for a marriage, and those who aren't sure what their marriage is-or has become. Sarah Elle Emm captures the world of wedding planning for a particular Georgia princess, but sublimely reveals all that is so often forgotten in that process-love and marriage. - the Publisher
A Place at the Table
Susan Rebecca White - 2013
A rich, beautiful novel about three unlikely, complex characters who meet in a chic Manhattan café and realize they must sacrifice everything they ever knew or cared about to find authenticity, fulfillment, and love.A Place at the Table tells the story of three richly nuanced characters whose paths converge in a chic Manhattan café: Bobby, a gay Southern boy who has been ostracized by his family; Amelia, a wealthy Connecticut woman whose life is upended when a family secret finally comes to light; and Alice, an African-American chef whose heritage is the basis of a famous cookbook but whose past is a mystery to those who know her.As it sweeps from a freed-slave settlement in 1920s North Carolina to the Manhattan of the deadly AIDs epidemic of the 1980s to today’s wealthy suburbs, A Place at the Table celebrates the healing power of food and the magic of New York as three seekers come together in the understanding that when you embrace the thing that makes you different, you become whole.
It Takes A Village To Kill Your Husband
Jethro Collins - 2012
Hollis Whitney is a successful and fabulous HGTV hostess on the brink of turning 40. She also happens to be madly in love with her carpenter even though she is married to sleazy movie director Frank Fielder. When Hollis discovers that Frank is diddling his latest (and much younger) leading lady, she sets out on a mission to kill him off. Her bitchy Beverly Hills friends catch wind of her plan and insist on helping her plot out the perfect murder. Together the women use their power and connections to help Hollis dig the hole that will bury Frank – figuratively and literally. What follows is a tale of the unique skills each woman brings to the plan and a moving story about long-lost love, finding yourself, onion rings and the importance of pink. Killing your husband could just be the secret to a happy ending.
The Same Sky
Amanda Eyre Ward - 2015
Unable to conceive, she’s trying desperately to adopt but her destiny is quickly altered by a young woman she’s never met.Fearless thirteen-year-old Carla Trujilio is being raised by her grandmother in Honduras along with her four year old twin brothers. Her mother is sending money home from Texas where she’s trying to make a better life for her family, but she only has enough to bring one son to her. When Carla’s grandmother dies, Carla decides to take her fate into her own hands and embarks on a dangerous journey across the border with Junior, the twin left behind.Two powerful journeys intersecting at a pivotal moment in time: Alice and Carla’s lives will be forever and profoundly changed. Heartbreaking, emotional, and arresting, this novel is about finding the courage to trail blaze your own path in life with faith, hope and love, no matter the struggle or the tragedy.
Gone So Long
Andre Dubus III - 2019
Like Dubus’s already- classic memoir, Townie, and his novel House of Sand and Fog (a #1 New York Times bestseller), Gone So Long is a profound exploration of the struggle between the selves we wish to be, and the ones—shaped by chance and circumstance, as well as character—that we can’t escape.