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Recommendations based on Gap Creekby Robert Morgan
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
Back Roads
by Tawni O'Dell
After his mother's imprisonment, a young man struggles to care for his three younger sisters in a small Pennsylvania town.
Harley Altmyer should be in college drinking beer and chasing girls. He should be freed from his stifling coal town with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead he's marooned in the ... (Wikipedia)
We Were the Mulvaneys
by Joyce Carol Oates
A family unravels after a traumatic event shatters their close-knit bond.
Michael and Corinne Mulvaney are the parents of four children: Michael Jr., Patrick, Marianne, and Judd. Living in a picture perfect farm in upstate New York , the Mulvaneys own a successful roofing ... (Wikipedia)
Drowning Ruth
by Christina Schwarz
A tragic tale of family secrets and tragic consequences.
Amanda and Mathilda are two sisters who live in rural Wisconsin ; they are very close, but very different. While Mathilda is petite, well-liked, pretty, and adventurous, Amanda is tall, clumsy, ... (Wikipedia)
Open House
by Elizabeth Berg
A woman's search for a sense of belonging, exploring the importance of human connection.
Throughout the 20 years of her marriage, Samantha Morrow has been content with her life, though she knows it isn't perfect. She has a nice home, a great son, and a husband she loves. But everything ... (Wikipedia)
The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
A mysterious storyteller reveals a dark family secret, transforming the lives of those around her.
Vida Winter, a famous novelist in England, has evaded journalists' questions about her past, refusing to answer their inquiries and spinning elaborate tales that they later discover to be false. Her ... (Wikipedia)
Icy Sparks
by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
A young girl with Tourette's syndrome navigates life in rural Kentucky during the 1950s.
The story focuses on a grown-up Icy Sparks recounting her childhood and adolescence struggling with accusations of Tourette's Syndrome . The novel begins with Icy Sparks, a 10-year-old girl living in ... (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)
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)
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)
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)
Stones from the River
by Ursula Hegi
A dwarf girl navigates life in a small German town during WWII, facing discrimination and secrets.
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780684844770 From the highly acclaimed, award-winning author of Floating in My Mother's Palm comes a stunning novel about ordinary people living in extraordinary ... (Goodreads)
Vinegar Hill
by A. Manette Ansay
A struggling family moves in with the husband's parents in a small town, facing tension and secrets that threaten to tear them apart.
In a stark, troubling, yet ultimately triumphant celebration of self-determination, award-winning author A. Manette Ansay re-creates a stifling world of guilt and pain, and the tormented souls who ... (Goodreads)
Orphan Train
by Christina Baker Kline
A story of two women's intertwined lives, spanning generations and crossing continents.
The #1 New York Times Bestseller “A lovely novel about the search for family that also happens to illuminate a fascinating and forgotten chapter of America’s history. Beautiful.”—Ann Packer Moving ... (Barnes & Noble)
Fall on Your Knees
by Ann-Marie MacDonald
A multi-generational saga of secrets, tragedy, and resilience in a family of sisters.
At the start of the 20th century, James Piper sets fire to his dead mother’s piano and heads out across Cape Breton Island to find a new place to live. Working as a piano tuner, he meets and ... (Wikipedia)
Black and Blue
by Anna Quindlen
A woman's journey of self-discovery, as she escapes an abusive marriage and reclaims her life.
For eighteen years, Fran Benedetto kept her secret. And hid her bruises. And stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father. And because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then ... (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)
Cane River
by Lalita Tademy
An epic tale tracing the history of four generations of African-American women in Louisiana.
A, New York Times, bestseller and Oprah's Book Club Pick-the unique and deeply moving saga of four generations of African-American women whose journey from slavery to freedom begins on a Creole ... (Goodreads)
The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion
by Fannie Flagg
A woman discovers the truth about her family's past, unlocking a legacy of secrets.
Poland, 1909 Stanislaw is determined to escape the Russians and follow his brother to America, a land where anything seems possible. Wisconsin, 1941 With all the men off to war, Fritzi and her ... (Goodreads)
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
by Ayana Mathis
A multigenerational story of an African-American family's struggles and successes.
“A remarkable page-turner of a novel.” —,Chicago Tribune, In 1923, fifteen-year-old Hattie Shepherd, swept up by the tides of the Great Migration, flees Georgia and heads north. Full of hope, she ... (Barnes & Noble)
A Virtuous Woman
by Kaye Gibbons
A woman's struggle to overcome poverty and take control of her own destiny.
When Blinking Jack Stokes met Ruby Pitt Woodrow, she was twenty and he was forty. She was the carefully raised daughter of Carolina gentry and he was a skinny tenant farmer who had never owned ... (Goodreads)
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)
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)
The Hundred Secret Senses
by Amy Tan
A woman discovers her Chinese-American heritage with the help of her sister's spirit.
The story focuses on the relationship between Chinese-born Kwan and her younger, Chinese-American sister Olivia, who serves as the book's primary narrator. Olivia and Kwan's relationship begins when ... (Wikipedia)
The Shipping News
by Annie Proulx
A man's attempt to rebuild his life in a small Newfoundland town, discovering compassion and joy.
The story centers around Quoyle, a newspaper reporter from upstate New York , whose father had emigrated from Newfoundland . Shortly after his parents' joint suicide, Quoyle's unfaithful and abusive ... (Wikipedia)
The Killing Hour
by Lisa Gardner
A serial killer is on the loose, targeting lone women at night. Detective D.D. Warren must race against time to catch the killer before he strikes again.
Each time he struck, he took two victims. Day after day, he waited for the first body to be discovered–a body containing all the clues the investigators needed to find the second victim, who ... (Goodreads)
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
Life of an isolated bookseller is transformed when an unexpected visitor brings unexpected joy.
“Marvelously optimistic about the future of books and bookstores and the people who love both.”—, The Washington Post, A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his ... (Barnes & Noble)
The Whistler
by John Grisham
A corrupt judge and his accomplice are exposed by a whistleblower, leading to a dangerous game of cat and mouse.
A mysterious source contacts the (fictional) Florida Board on Judicial Conduct (BJC), , promising information that will reveal the identity and crimes of the most corrupt judge in U.S. history. ... (Wikipedia)
The Last Juror
by John Grisham
A small-town journalist's journey to uncover the truth of a decades-old murder case.
In 1970, a 23-year-old college dropout named Willie Traynor realizes that his dreams of becoming a Pulitzer -winning journalist will never come true. He moves to Clanton, Mississippi for an ... (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)
Bad Luck and Trouble
by Lee Child
Jack Reacher and his team join forces to solve a dangerous mystery that threatens their lives.
A man with two broken legs is thrown out of a corporate helicopter from 3,000 feet above the California desert. Seventeen days after that, Reacher is roaming alone with no objectives, no phone, no ... (Wikipedia)
