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Recommendations based on A Thread of Graceby Mary Doria Russell
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Children of God
by Mary Doria Russell
Follows the struggles of a religious family in the face of a mysterious alien race.
Father Emilio Sandoz is a Jesuit priest who has returned to Earth and is recovering from his experiences on the planet Rakhat (detailed in The Sparrow ). He is exposed to Father Vincenzo Giuliani's ... (Wikipedia)
The Sparrow
by Mary Doria Russell
A Jesuit mission to an alien planet ends in tragedy, raising questions about faith, morality, and the nature of God.
In the year 2019, the SETI program at Arecibo Observatory discovers radio broadcasts of music from the vicinity of Alpha Centauri . The first expedition to Rakhat, the world that is sending the ... (Wikipedia)
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
by Helen Simonson
A widower finds love and acceptance in an unlikely place, challenging social conventions.
You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as ... (Goodreads)
Doc
by Mary Doria Russell
A tale of a doctor's quest to understand an alien race, and the moral dilemmas he faces.
The year is 1878, peak of the Texas cattle trade. The place is Dodge City, Kansas, a saloon-filled cow town jammed with liquored-up adolescent cowboys and young Irish hookers. Violence is random and ... (Goodreads)
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)
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead
An escaped slave's daring escape to freedom, fighting against the brutality of slavery.
The story is told in the third person, focusing mainly on Cora. Scattered single chapters also focus on Cora's mother Mabel, the slavecatcher Ridgeway, a reluctant slave sympathizer named Ethel, and ... (Wikipedia)
Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel
Post-apocalyptic exploration of a world drastically changed after a pandemic.
An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse,, Station Eleven, tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Birth of Venus
by Sarah Dunant
A passionate story of love and art set in 15th century Florence.
Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. ... (Goodreads)
Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman
A young man discovers his magical family history and learns to use his new supernatural powers.
Anansi Boys is the story of Charles "Fat Charlie" Nancy, a timid Londoner devoid of ambition, whose unenthusiastic wedding preparations are disrupted when he learns that his father (Mr. Nancy) has ... (Wikipedia)
A Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry
A gripping story of four unlikely lives intertwined in the tumult of India's caste system.
The book exposes the changes in Indian society from independence in 1947 to the Emergency called by Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi . Mistry was generally critical of Indira Gandhi in the book. ... (Wikipedia)
O Pioneers!
by Willa Cather
A tale of a family's struggles and triumphs, as they pioneer a new life in a changing landscape.
The book is divided into five parts, each of which has numerous chapters. On a windy January day in Hanover, Nebraska, Alexandra Bergson is with her five-year-old brother Emil, whose little kitten ... (Wikipedia)
Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett
A story of redemption and transformation amidst a hostage crisis.
Set in an unspecified South American country, , the story begins at a birthday party thrown at the country's vice presidential home in honor of Katsumi Hosokawa, the visiting chairman of a large ... (Wikipedia)
Suite Française
by Irène Némirovsky
A story of love and loss set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied France.
The first two stories of a masterwork once thought lost, written by a pre-WWII bestselling author who was deported to Auschwitz and died before her work could be completed. By the early l940s, when ... (Goodreads)
Beautiful Ruins
by Jess Walter
A romantic story of fate, secrets, and destiny, spanning from Italy in the 1960s to present day.
"The best novel of the year." — Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air A #1 New York Times bestseller, this “absolute masterpiece” (Richard Russo) is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the ... (Goodreads)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy
A young woman's struggles against societal expectations, and her journey of resilience and self-realization.
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141439594 . When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting ... (Goodreads)
The Girl with No Shadow
by Joanne Harris
A magical tale of a woman with a dark past, struggling to balance her family, career, and the temptation of her supernatural abilities.
Vianne Rocher, now with two daughters, Anouk and Rosette, has forsaken magic and adventure for a monotonous life running a small chocolaterie in the Montmartre district of Paris. Vianne is now known ... (Wikipedia)
Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane
by Suzanne Collins
A young boy must confront a prophecy to save his family and the world from a dark force.
Several months have passed since the events of the first novel , when Gregor and his baby sister Boots first fell into the subterranean city of Regalia (a part of the " Underland ") and undertook a ... (Wikipedia)
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
by Jamie Ford
A touching story of the intersection of love, family, and culture during World War II.
Henry Lee, the son of Chinese parents in Seattle , Washington, is the only Asian child at his elementary school. His father makes him wear an "I Am Chinese" button so he will not be mistaken for a ... (Wikipedia)
Ireland
by Frank Delaney
A storyteller travels through Ireland, sharing tales of its history, culture, and people, weaving together a rich tapestry of the Emerald Isle.
In the winter of 1951, a storyteller arrives at the home of nine-year-old Ronan O'Mara in the Irish countryside. The last practitioner of an honored, centuries-old tradition, the Seanchai enthralls ... (Goodreads)
Lily and the Octopus
by Steven Rowley
A man's journey with his beloved dog, exploring the bond between humans and animals.
A 42-year-old writer finds that a small octopus has attached itself to the head of his aging dachshund , Lily. Rowley, a 43-year-old paralegal and screenwriter, had sold several unproduced ... (Wikipedia)
The Perfume Collector
by Kathleen Tessaro
A woman discovers secrets of her past, uncovers forgotten memories.
A remarkable novel about secrets, desire, memory, passion, and possibility. Newlywed Grace Monroe doesn’t fit anyone’s expectations of a successful 1950s London socialite, least of all her own. When ... (Barnes & Noble)
When the Emperor Was Divine
by Julie Otsuka
A Japanese-American family's struggle of survival in the face of wartime discrimination.
In "When the Emperor was Divine," Author Julie Otsuka gives a fictional retelling of the Japanese American experience during the Internment period of WWII. The story follows a Japanese American ... (Wikipedia)
Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
by Suzanne Collins
Gregor and his friends embark on a dangerous quest to find a cure for a deadly plague that threatens the Underland.
Despite the difficulties it has caused for his family, Gregor finds it hard to distance himself from the Underland . When he receives word that a plague has broken out and his bond Ares is one of the ... (Wikipedia)
The Shoemaker's Wife
by Adriana Trigiani
Two Italian immigrants forge a love story amongst the struggles of making a life in America.
The majestic and haunting beauty of the Italian Alps is the setting of the first meeting of Enza, a practical beauty, and Ciro, a strapping mountain boy, who meet as teenagers, despite growing up in ... (Goodreads)
Still Missing
by Chevy Stevens
A woman's struggle to free herself from captivity, and reclaim her life.
On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals - sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient ... (Goodreads)
The Summer Before the War
by Helen Simonson
A small English town on the brink of World War I, as lives and loves intertwine.
The bestselling author of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand returns with a breathtaking novel of love and war that reaches far beyond the small English town in which it is set. East Sussex, 1914. It is ... (Goodreads)
Saving Fish from Drowning
by Amy Tan
A group of friends on a spiritual journey in the jungles of Burma, meeting unexpected turns of fate.
The story concerns a group of American tourists travelling the Burma Road from China to Myanmar, and the comic confusions that occur when they are kidnapped by a group of Karen people who believe one ... (Wikipedia)
The Blackhouse
by Peter May
A murder mystery set in a remote Scottish island, delving into a dark past.
A brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith. A MURDER Detective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to ... (Goodreads)
Sold
by Patricia McCormick
A young girl's fight for freedom after being sold into the sex trade in Nepal.
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl living with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures, like raising her ... (Wikipedia)
Woman on the Edge of Time
by Marge Piercy
A woman is sent to the future to see the potential of a utopian society and how it can be achieved.
In the 1970s, an impoverished but intelligent thirty-seven-year-old Mexican-American woman Consuelo (Connie) Ramos, a resident of Spanish Harlem , is unfairly incarcerated in a New York mental ... (Wikipedia)
