Book picks similar to
Soul Food: For Better, for Worse by Leslie E. Banks
_author-sex-female
diversity-challenge
drama
family
Sunday Dinners
Jon Rance - 2015
Staying that way is an entirely different story. From the bestselling author of This Thirtysomething Life, Happy Endings and This Family Life, comes a comedy drama about parenthood, marriage, love, life and roast dinners. Perfect for fans of Mike Gayle, Matt Dunn and David Nicholls. The Wilde family have always had a roast dinner on Sundays. Greg Wilde made sure of it. Him, his wife, Lizzy, and their three children around the table; for years it was the glue that held them together. But now with the children all grown up and moving out, and Greg and Lizzy’s marriage facing an uncertain future, their lives are becoming increasingly unstuck. Greg soon begins to realise that creating a happy family is one thing, but staying that way is an entirely different story. Told from each of the family's perspectives at their monthly Sunday roast dinners, this is a bittersweet comedy about parenthood, marriage, love, life and roast dinners.
Four Sisters
Val Wood - 2019
Matty has had to care for her three younger sisters ever since their mother’s death ten years ago. She and the girls’ beloved father have worked hard to keep the family together and now it’s time to celebrate as Matty turns eighteen. But their joy is short-lived when tragedy suddenly strikes and their father disappears on his way to London. The sisters have no way of knowing what has happened to him – only that he hasn’t returned home. With little money left they’re now forced to battle life’s misfortunes alone…
Winnie Of The Waterfront
Rosie Harris - 2004
Her father, Trevor, adores her but she is neglected by her feckless mother, Grace. When war comes Trevor Molloy is called up. He fears for Winnie and persuades Sandy Coulson to wheel her to school each day in a converted pram. Two years older than her, Sandy sticks up for Winnie and promises to be her lifelong friend. But Grace is drinking very heavily and loses one job after another. To pay the rent on the one squalid room they are now living in she takes Winnie in the pram out begging until she is given a warning by the police. When Trevor is reported 'Missing Presumed Dead' Grace goes on a drinking spree, meets with an accident and dies. And Winnie is left loveless and alone...
Hybrid Hearts
Romy Lockhart - 2022
When Amanda's life is put in danger, Cheryl and Jillian rush to help their best friends. Working as a team, there's more to be gained than lost.Hybrid Hearts is a steamy, suspenseful paranormal romance novella featuring all of the main characters from the first four books in the Hybrid Shifters world. Be warned, there are spoilers in this story if you've never read the novels Vicious Love, Shifting Hearts, Hybrid Hearts and Runaway Mate.
Ships That Pass
Shashi Deshpande - 2012
Ships That Pass tells the story of Tara and Shaan, near strangers to each other after fourteen years of being married, and Tara's sister, Radhika, recently engaged, almost on a whim, to someone she barely knows. Even as Radhika tries to understand how a once ideal marriage has come undone, and struggles with her own feelings for an older man, tragedy strikes: Tara dies in mysterious circumstances and Shaan is arrested for murder. In the aftermath, Radhika realizes that while life may seldom turn out as expected, the only hope lies in finding the courage to take one's chances. A meditation on the nature of love and marriage, this subtle novella is vintage Shashi Deshpande. '[A] mesmerizing writer. . .you can never walk away from her stories.' About the AuthorShashi Deshpande, daughter of the renowned Kannada dramatist and Sanskrit scholar Shriranga, was born in Dharwad. She studied economics in Mumbai, then moved to Bangalore, where she gained a degree in law. Her writing career began in 1970, initially with short stories, of which several volumes have been published. She is also the author of eight novels, the best known of which are That Long Silence, which won the Sahitya Akademi award and is considered a landmark in Indian writing in English; The Dark Holds No Terror; Small Remedies; Moving On; and The Country of Deceit.
Much Ado About a Kiss
Heather Tullis - 2017
Running the café she’d practically been raised in: Check. Her artwork in a gallery: Check. Volunteering on the library board: Check. The one thing she doesn’t need right now is a guy in her life—especially her brother’s irritating best friend from high school, so when the two men announce that they are moving home to start a ski and mountain bike shop in town, she isn’t pleased. If only she could completely forget that one kiss she and Austin shared in high school. Why does he have to upset her just-fine world? Not this time. Not if she can help it. But can she?
The Reluctant Time Traveler
Lynda Eymann - 2006
Before she can complete her task, she may need to resort to a little murder and experience a bit of Hellfire, but that's to be expected when the threads of time are ruled by sexist Thraeder pigs. Fortunately, a certain irresistible man (who happens to be the ultimate feminist) makes everything worthwhile in the end. CATEGORY: Time Travel Romance. (Not, in general, for sexist Thraeder pigs.)
Jam Butties and a Pan of Scouse
Maggie Clarke - 2017
The story covers Maggie Clarke's upbringing in the tenements close to the docks, the River Mersey and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal: an area notorious for having the worst slums in Britain, yet the closest community as well.At the tender age of 11, Maggie Clarke finds herself the matriarch of the family when her Irish mother runs off with another man. Leaving school at 14 to work at a local factory putting sticks into lollies, she is determined to make a better life for herself and her family - before starting her own family with her childhood sweetheart, who she marries at 19 after 'falling in the family way'. She has one night of married life with her husband before he is sent to India with the Navy and is devastated when she never hears from him again, presuming him a casualty of the war that is raging at home and abroad. Another tragedy strikes when Maggie's brother Tommy is also claimed by the war, leaving her father inconsolable, but Maggie knows life has to go on and falls in love with Joseph, an Irish settler who she has 8 children with. But her happiness is short-lived as her first husband suddenly appears out of the blue demanding a divorce, and her new husband drinks away what little money they have, returning in fits of rage that leave Maggie and her children hungry and afraid. Many times she is only able to feed her brood by the kindness of neighbours putting a 'pan of scouse' on the range for her, or feeding her kids jam butties to help out. Maggie's story sweeps across the changing face of Liverpool, from its squalid dock streets, the tenement blocks and cobbled roads to the decline of the docklands, new council housing, the rise of the Mersey beat, the Beatles and the energy and passion of a city that is home to a cast of colourful characters with the resilience to withstand the heartbreak and hardships that only the poorest can know.
Joy School / Until The Real Thing Comes Along
Elizabeth Berg - 2005
Unable to fit in at school, she forges alliances where she can: with her housekeeper, with a pimply fellow misfit named Cynthia, and with the gorgeous Taylor, who gets her kicks out of shoplifting. Most frustrating of all is Katie's imperfect friendship with the proprietor of a local gas station, a handsome 23-year-old who shares her love of checkers but doesn't return her crush. With humour and an eye for telling detail, Berg conveys the way each uncompromising element of Katie's life ultimately offers her more than she had anticipated.Until The Real Thing Comes AlongPatty Murphy is facing that pivotal point in a woman's life when her biological clock ticks as insistently as a beating heart. Will she find Mr Right and start a family? But Patty is in love - with a man who is not only attractive and financially sound, but sensitive and warmhearted. There's just one small problem: He is also gay. Against her better judgment, and pleas from family and friends, Patty refuses to give up on Ethan. Every man she dates ultimately leaves her aching for the gentle comfort and intimacy she shares with him. But even as she throws eligible bachelors to the wayside to spend yet another platonic night with Ethan, Patty longs more and more for the consolation of loving and being loved. In the meantime she must content herself with waiting - until the real thing comes along . . .
Living a Lie: A Novel Based on a True Story
Rachel San - 2020
A charming and mysterious man. And a life teeming with secrets.
Nicole is a young divorcée who finds herself in a new relationship with a partner who is seemingly perfect in every way.Razi is well-educated, a wealthy and successful businessman, and a man of the world, who manages to deceive her and everyone else around him, thanks to his uncanny charisma.Six months into their relationship, Nicole discovers that Razi is married. She then finds out that his former business partner committed suicide under dubious circumstances.Despite everything, Nicole and Razi get married and raise a family, and life looks more promising than ever.However, over the years, Nicole’s inner voice repeatedly warns her that bigger things are happening behind her back. She decides to find out who her husband and the father of her children really is.Her search leads her to discover new and shocking information about Razi’s life. Now she must do whatever it takes to save herself and her children from a destructive relationship, and a life of deceit which defies the imagination.
Out of North Korea
Alana Terry - 2018
Ian McAllister has searched the world over, hunting for that all-elusive perfect photograph. He finds it on a tourist trip to North Korea when he stumbles upon a young street kid foraging for roots. Unaware that this single act will brand him a spy and cost his freedom, Ian takes the shot. Now he must pay the penalty. A true-to-life novel about an American imprisoned behind North Korea's closed borders. A gripping tale of courage, faith, and hope from award-winning Christian novelist Alana Terry.
The Mourners' Bench: A Novel
Susan Dodd - 1998
But her quiet, isolated life takes an unexpected turn when her sister's husband, Wim, appears, a man she has not seen for ten years, since their urgent love affair ended in tragedy. Wim, now dying of cancer, feels the need to see Leandra one last time.In alternating, distinctly American voices -- one the twang of a New England Yankee, the other a gentle Southern drawl -- these two characters tell a wistful, wonderfully evoked story, from their first meeting, when Leandra was summoned to Boston to care for her pregnant, depressed sister, to the growing passion that led them beyond common sense and caution. As the narrative alternates between past and present, Leandra and Wim lay claim to the love they've denied themselves and each other.With a sure sense of language and the kind of detail that rings with truth, Susan Dodd creates characters who will resonate in the reader's mind long after their tale reaches its inevitable end. Soft-spoken, sensitive, and deeply moving, The Mourners' Bench is literary fiction at its best, a powerfully eloquent novel of love, loss, regret, and rediscovery.
Inshallah
Alys Einion - 2014
Her new life is strange and confusing and sometimes frightening. Amanda can barely understand Arabic and the treatment of the women of the family seems wrong to a girl raised in Wales. To add to her problems, Mohammed proves to be verbally and physically abusive - especially once they have their own flat away from the protection of the wider family. Somehow Amanda must escape, but not without her children.