Powered by a book like {foo}
Recommendations based on The Dive from Clausen's Pierby Ann Packer
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
A Map of the World
by Jane Hamilton
A story of tragedy, resilience and redemption, revealing the fragility of life.
One unremarkable June morning, Alice Goodwin is, as usual, trying to keep in check both her temper and her tendency to blame herself for her family's shortcomings. When the Goodwins took over the ... (Goodreads)
I Know This Much Is True
by Wally Lamb
A man's journey of self-discovery, coming to terms with family trauma and understanding his identity.
The novel takes place in Three Rivers, Connecticut in the early 1990s. Dominick Birdsey's identical twin , Thomas Birdsey, suffers from paranoid schizophrenia . With medication, Thomas is able to ... (Wikipedia)
Empire Falls
by Richard Russo
A small town's citizens struggle to find meaning and find their place in a rapidly changing world.
Set in the decaying, nearly bankrupt, small town of Empire Falls, Maine, this is the story of the unassuming manager of the Empire Grill, Miles Roby, who has spent his life in the town. The town, and ... (Wikipedia)
Foreign Affairs
by Alison Lurie
Two American professors find love and self-discovery while on sabbatical in England.
Unmarried fifty-four-year-old Virginia Miner (Vinnie), a professor at Corinth University who specializes in children's literature, is off to London for another research trip. She loves England and ... (Wikipedia)
The Dogs of Babel
by Carolyn Parkhurst
A man's journey to uncover the truth behind his wife's sudden death using the only witness – their pet dog.
Paul Iverson called home to find a police officer answering the phone and suggesting him to come home. When he comes home he finds his wife, Alexandra "Lexy" Ransome, dead, fallen from an apple tree. ... (Wikipedia)
Prodigal Summer
by Barbara Kingsolver
Three interconnected stories of nature, romance, and family in the Appalachian Mountains.
Prodigal Summer tells the story of a small town in Appalachia during a single, humid summer, when three interweaving stories of love, loss and family unfold against the backdrop of the lush wildness ... (Wikipedia)
The Gravedigger's Daughter
by Joyce Carol Oates
Rebecca Schwart, daughter of a gravedigger, struggles to escape her past and build a new life.
Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1936, the Schwarts immigrate to a small town in upstate New York. Here the father—a former high school teacher—is demeaned by the only job he can get: gravedigger and cemetery ... (Goodreads)
Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier
A Confederate soldier's homecoming journey, filled with danger and adventure.
The novel opens in a Confederate military hospital near Raleigh, North Carolina , where Inman is recovering from battle wounds during the American Civil War . The soldier is tired of fighting for a ... (Wikipedia)
Run
by Ann Patchett
A story of two estranged sisters coming together and finding strength in each other.
This novel tells the story of Bernard Doyle, an Irish Catholic Boston politician. He and wife Bernadette have one biological son and later adopt African-American brothers Tip and Teddy. (The ... (Wikipedia)
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See
Story of two women in 19th-century China, exploring the power of female friendship.
In rural Hunan province called Puwei (nicknamed the Common Beauty Village), a county in China, Lily is destined to become a, laotong, pair with Snow Flower, a girl of the same age from Tongkou (the ... (Wikipedia)
The Pilot's Wife
by Anita Shreve
A woman's journey of overcoming personal tragedy to find strength and courage.
The novel is about Kathryn Lyons, whose husband, Jack Lyons, dies in a plane crash over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Malin Head , Ireland. As she and her daughter Mattie try to cope with this ... (Wikipedia)
Keeping Faith
by Jodi Picoult
A mother's legal battle to keep her daughter's faith against a court ruling.
When Mariah White catches her husband, Colin White, having an affair with another woman for the second time in their marriage, he files for divorce and gives her full custody of their child, Faith. ... (Wikipedia)
The Little Friend
by Donna Tartt
A young girl sets out to avenge her brother's mysterious death.
In the mid-1960s, on Mother's Day , Robin, the eldest child and only son of the Dufresnes, a white family living in Mississippi, is found hanging from a tree on the family property. Only nine years ... (Wikipedia)
Sarah's Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
A French journalist unravels an untold story of the Holocaust, uncovering hidden secrets.
From beloved international sensation and #1, New York Times, bestselling author Tatiana de Rosnay come's her most celebrated novel, Sarah's Key,—now in mass market paperback!, Paris, July 1942: ... (Barnes & Noble)
Lost in a Good Book
by Jasper Fforde
A journey through the magical world of fiction as a character attempts to find a way out of the book.
Three months after the events of The Eyre Affair , Thursday Next is happily married to Landen Parke-Laine and working as a literary detective out of Swindon . One day, Thursday meets her father, a ... (Wikipedia)
The Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri
A young Indian-American's journey of reconciling two different cultures and his own identity.
The story begins as Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli, a young Bengali couple, leave Calcutta , India, and settle in Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts . Ashoke is an engineering student at the ... (Wikipedia)
Fever 1793
by Laurie Halse Anderson
A young girl's fight for survival in the midst of a deadly fever epidemic in Philadelphia.
An epidemic of fever sweeps through the streets of 1793 Philadelphia in this novel from Laurie Halse Anderson where "the plot rages like the epidemic itself" ( The New York Times Book Review ). ... (Barnes & Noble)
Hopeless
by Colleen Hoover
A young girl's journey to find hope and strength in the midst of life's darkest moments.
From the #1, New York Times, bestselling author of, All Your Perfects, comes the beginning of Sky and Dean’s passionate love story—where well-kept secrets threaten to opens wounds of a dark past. ... (Barnes & Noble)
Plain Truth
by Jodi Picoult
A young Amish woman faces the consequences of a difficult decision, navigating the boundaries of faith, justice, and freedom.
The novel recounts the story of how a dead infant found on an Amish farm rocks the entire community. As the police investigate the death, they discover that the baby was not stillborn , but instead ... (Wikipedia)
Garden Spells
by Sarah Addison Allen
A tale of family secrets and magical powers, set in a small Southern town.
Claire Waverley lives alone in small Bascom, North Carolina. The only person she's close to is an elderly relative named Evanelle, who has the gift of giving people exactly what they need before they ... (Wikipedia)
Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger
A young boy's journey of faith, hope, and courage in the midst of tragedy.
Once in a great while, we encounter a novel in our voluminous reading that begs to be read aloud. Leif Enger's debut, Peace Like a River , is one such work. His richly evocative novel, narrated by an ... (Goodreads)
Snow Falling on Cedars
by David Guterson
A murder trial in a small, coastal town reveals secrets of the past and its inhabitants.
Set on the fictional San Piedro Island in the northern Puget Sound region of the state of Washington coast in 1954, the plot revolves around a murder case in which Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese American ... (Wikipedia)
Crazy Rich Asians
by Kevin Kwan
An entertaining look at the extravagant lifestyles of the ultra-wealthy in Singapore.
The book is told from the perspective of five main characters: Rachel Chu, Nicholas (Nick) Young, Eleanor Young, Astrid Leong, and Edison Cheng. The story revolves around the grand wedding of ... (Wikipedia)
Little Bee
by Chris Cleave
A Nigerian refugee's quest for survival and a British woman's search for redemption.
Using alternating first-person perspectives , the novel tells the stories of Little Bee, a Nigerian refugee, and Sarah O'Rourke (née Summers), a magazine editor from Surrey . After spending two years ... (Wikipedia)
The Pact
by Jodi Picoult
A tragic story of teenage friends struggling with a tragic lapse in judgment.
In the fall of 1979, the Golds, consisting of a recently pregnant Melanie Gold and her husband Michael Gold, moved into the small town of Bainbridge, New Hampshire . They moved in next door to the ... (Wikipedia)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith
A coming of age story set in Brooklyn, depicting a young girl's struggles and growth.
The novel is split into five "books", each covering a different period in the characters' lives. Book One opens in 1912 and introduces 11-year-old Francie Nolan, who lives in the Williamsburg ... (Wikipedia)
Are You Sleeping
by Kathleen Barber
A true crime podcast reopens a murder case, unraveling secrets and causing chaos for the victim's family.
Estranged twins Josie and Lanie Buhrman lost both their parents when they were fifteen years old. , Their father was murdered, and their mother ran away to join a cult. Thirteen years later the ... (Wikipedia)
I'll Be Your Blue Sky
by Marisa de los Santos
A woman inherits a house from a stranger and discovers secrets that lead her on a journey of self-discovery and healing.
The New York Times bestselling author revisits the characters from her beloved novels Love Walked In and Belong to Me in this captivating, beautifully written drama involving family, friendship, ... (Barnes & Noble)
I Don't Know How She Does It
by Allison Pearson
A working mother juggles career, family, and social obligations while trying to maintain her sanity.
Delightfully smart and heartbreakingly poignant, Allison Pearson's smash debut novel has exploded onto bestseller lists as "The national anthem for working mothers." Hedge-fund manager, wife, and ... (Goodreads)
Paint it Black
by Janet Fitch
A young woman struggles with grief and self-destruction after her boyfriend's suicide. Set in the 1980s Los Angeles punk scene.
Josie Tyrell, art model, runaway, and denizen of LA's rock scene finds a chance at real love with Michael Faraday, a Harvard dropout and son of a renowned pianist. But when she receives a call from ... (Goodreads)
