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Recommendations based on Circle of Friendsby Maeve Binchy
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Tara Road
by Maeve Binchy
Two women, one from Ireland and one from America, swap houses for the summer and find unexpected connections and new beginnings.
With each new book, Maeve Binchy continues a remarkable progression of sales and audience growth, reaching fans of all ages and backgrounds with her matchless wit, warmth, and sheer storytelling ... (Goodreads)
Evening Class
by Maeve Binchy
A group of strangers come together to learn Italian, forging relationships, finding love and understanding.
Among the many evening classes starting all over Dublin is an 'Introduction to Italian'. On the surface it could be just one of hundreds in which some students will succeed and some will fall along ... (Goodreads)
The Glass Lake
by Maeve Binchy
A family drama set in a small Irish town, revolving around a mother's disappearance and the secrets that come to light.
Helen McMahon disappears when her daughter Kit is 12 years old, and it is suspected that she drowned in the local lake. Kit finds a letter from her mother and burns it before reading it, fearing that ... (Wikipedia)
The Shell Seekers
by Rosamunde Pilcher
A family explores their past, present, and future while examining the importance of treasured objects.
Shifting in time, the novel tells the story of Penelope Keeling, the daughter of unconventional parents (an artist father and his much-younger French wife), examining her past and her relationships ... (Wikipedia)
The Art of Racing in the Rain
by Garth Stein
An uplifting story of a race car driver and the bond between humans and animals.
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by ... (Goodreads)
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
by Judy Blume
A young girl's journey of self-discovery, navigating the transition from childhood to adolescence.
Margaret Simon is just eleven going on twelve when her family moves from New York City to Farbrook, New Jersey. Margaret's mother is Christian and her father is Jewish . Margaret has been raised ... (Wikipedia)
White Oleander
by Janet Fitch
A young girl's struggles to survive in a series of foster homes, finding strength in her resilience.
Astrid Magnussen is a 12-year-old girl living in Los Angeles , California with her mother, Ingrid Magnussen, a self-centered and eccentric poet. Astrid's father, Klaus Anders, left before Astrid was ... (Wikipedia)
Good in Bed
by Jennifer Weiner
A story of finding identity, redemption, and self-love in spite of life's challenges.
Candace (Cannie) Shapiro is a smart, sarcastic, and successful entertainment journalist living in Philadelphia . Although she has a small group of close friends, including her best friend Samantha, ... (Wikipedia)
The Thorn Birds
by Colleen McCullough
A powerful tale of forbidden love, set in rural Australia in the early 20th century.
The story begins in New Zealand on 8 December 1915, the fourth birthday of Meghann "Meggie" Cleary who is the only daughter of Padriac ("Paddy"), an Irish farm labourer, and Fiona ("Fee"), his wife. ... (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)
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving
A boy's search for faith, set against a backdrop of unlikely events.
The story is narrated by John Wheelwright, a former citizen of New Hampshire who has become a voluntary expatriate from the United States, having settled in Toronto , Ontario , Canada and taken on ... (Wikipedia)
Ramona and Her Mother
by Beverly Cleary
A young girl's journey of understanding her family dynamics and learning to grow up.
"People should not think being seven and a half years old was easy, because it wasn't." , At last, Ramona's father, Robert, has a job again, so the Quimbys host a brunch to celebrate. Ramona is ... (Wikipedia)
Where the Heart Is
by Billie Letts
A journey of resilience and courage, as a young woman faces her struggles with poverty and hardship.
This novel opens with Novalee and Willy Jack, her then boyfriend, traveling from Tennessee to California , where Willy Jack claims he was promised by his cousin, J. Paul, a job working at a train ... (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)
Man and Boy
by Tony Parsons
A father's struggle to hold onto his son and his family amidst turmoil and tragedy.
HE HAD TO FACE THE TOUGHEST JOB OF HIS LIFE. AND HE NEVER ONCE THOUGHT HE'D BE ON HIS OWN. Harry had it all: a beautiful wife, an adorable four-year-old son, and a high-paying media job. But on the ... (Goodreads)
Midwives
by Chris Bohjalian
A midwife's journey of self-discovery, uncovering secrets of her own past.
The time is 1981, and Sibyl Danforth has been a dedicated midwife in the rural community of Reddington, Vermont, for fifteen years. But one treacherous winter night, in a house isolated by icy roads ... (Goodreads)
September
by Rosamunde Pilcher
A story of family, friends and romance, spanning across generations and continents.
As spring comes to Scotland and the hills burst into life, a dance is planned for September. The invitations summon home the group of people Violet Aird has cared for most in her long life. The ... (Goodreads)
The Bridges of Madison County
by Robert James Waller
An unexpected and passionate love affair between a married woman and a traveling photographer.
The story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for the fulfillment of a girlhood ... (Goodreads)
The Green Mile
by Stephen King
A prison guard discovers the power of redemption, and miracles, when he meets a mysterious inmate.
Featuring a first-person narrative told by Paul Edgecombe, the novel switches between Paul as an old man in the Georgia Pines nursing home writing down his story in 1996, and his time in 1932 as the ... (Wikipedia)
The Cider House Rules
by John Irving
A moral journey through the rural landscape of 1940s Maine, exploring issues of responsibility, family, and love.
Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood trying to be "of use" as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks : After a ... (Wikipedia)
Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese
A sweeping journey of two twin brothers and their search for identity, belonging and family.
The story is told by the protagonist, Marion Stone. He and his conjoined twin Shiva are born at Mission Hospital (called "Missing" in accordance with the local pronunciation), Addis Ababa , in ... (Wikipedia)
Nineteen Minutes
by Jodi Picoult
A small town is rocked by a school shooting, examining lives of those involved and the aftermath.
The story begins on March 6, 2007 in the small town of Sterling, New Hampshire , tracking the lives of a number of characters on an "ordinary day." The characters include Alex Cormier, a superior ... (Wikipedia)
She's Come Undone
by Wally Lamb
A young woman's trial-filled journey to self-acceptance and self-preservation.
Dolores Price is heartbroken when her handsome, but irresponsible father, Tony, leaves their suburban home for another woman. She and her mother, Bernice, move into her uptight Catholic grandmother's ... (Wikipedia)
I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith
An unconventional family living in a crumbling castle navigate life, love, and the pursuit of happiness.
The novel takes place between April and October in a single year in the 1930s. The Mortmain family is genteel, poor, and eccentric. Cassandra's father is a writer suffering from writer's block who ... (Wikipedia)
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)
The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey
A couple's dream of a child comes true in the Alaskan wilderness, but with unexpected consequences.
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart–he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she ... (Goodreads)
Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters
A thrilling tale of two women who conspire to swindle a wealthy gentleman.
Sue Trinder, an orphan raised in "a Fagin -like den of thieves" by her adoptive mother, Mrs Sucksby, is sent to help Richard "Gentleman" Rivers seduce a wealthy heiress. Posing as a maid, Sue is to ... (Wikipedia)
A Woman of Substance
by Barbara Taylor Bradford
The rags-to-riches story of Emma Harte, who overcomes poverty and adversity to build a retail empire.
One of the top-ten bestselling novels ever written. “An extravagant, absorbing novel of love, courage, ambition, war, death and passion.” —,The New York Times, Barbara Taylor Bradford’s The Emma ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Client
by John Grisham
A young boy is thrust into a legal battle, as he tries to protect himself and his family.
Boyd Boyette, a United States Senator from Louisiana, goes missing. Because of his vocal opposition to a proposed major toxic landfill project by a company known to be Mafia-backed, murder is ... (Wikipedia)
Thr3e
by Ted Dekker
A suspenseful thriller about a man on the run from a mysterious killer.
Kevin Parson, a 28-year-old seminary student, has his life turned upside-down when a killer named Richard Slater decides to stalk him. If he can "confess his sin" Slater will stop killing. But he ... (Wikipedia)
