The 8 books on this stack
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Shipping News
Annie Proulx · 1993
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, The Shipping News is a vigorous, darkly comic, at times magical portrait of the contemporary North American family, and "a rare creation, a lyric page-turner" ( Chicago Tribune ). At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman is wrenched violently out of his world when his two-timing wife meets her just desserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle’s struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons—and the unpredictable forces of nature and society—and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery. The Shipping News “is charged with sardonic wit—alive, funny, a little threatening: packed with brilliantly original images…and now and then, a sentence that simply takes your breath away” ( USA TODAY ).
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Winesburg, Ohio
Sherwood Anderson · 1919
George Willard is a young reporter on the Winesburg Eagle to whom, one by one, the inhabitants of Winesburg, Ohio, confide their hopes, their dreams, and their fears. This town of friendly but solitary people comes to life as Anderson's special talent exposes the emotional undercurrents that bind its people together. In this timeless cycle of short stories, he lays bare the life of a small town in the American Midwest. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Small Things Like These
Claire Keegan · 2021
**OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK 2024** ** NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB PICK 2024** NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING CILLIAN MURPHY A New York Times Bestseller * Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize * Winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction One of the New York Times 's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century The Irish Times Best Book of the 21st Century "A hypnotic and electrifying Irish tale that transcends country, transcends time." --Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, a tale of one man's courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church. An international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.
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Snow Falling on Cedars
David Guterson · 1997
Contemporary / British English It is 1954 and Kabuo Miyamoto is on trial for murder. He is a Japanese American living on the island of San Piedro, off the north-west coast of America. The Second World War has left an atmosphere of anger and suspicion in this small community. Will Kabuo receive a fair trial? And will the true cause of the victim's death be discovered?
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Peyton Place
Grace Metalious · 1900
Three women are forced to come to terms with their identity, both as women and as sexual beings, in a small, conservative, gossipy New England town, with recurring themes of hypocrisy, social inequities and class privilege in a tale that includes incest, abortion, adultery, lust and murder. It sold 60,000 copies within the first ten days of its release and remained on the New York Times best seller list for 59 weeks. The novel spawned a franchise that would eventually run through four decades. Twentieth Century-Fox adapted it as a major motion picture in 1957, and Metalious wrote a follow-up novel that was published in 1959, called Return to Peyton Place, which was also filmed in 1961 using the same title. The original 1956 novel was adapted again in 1964, in what became a wildly successful prime time television series for 20th Century Fox Television that ran until 1969
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The Shampoo Effect
Jenny Jackson · 2026
'I devoured THE SHAMPOO EFFECT . . . it's funny, drama-fuelled, and full of Jackson's breezy wit.' Coco Mellors, Sunday Times bestselling author of BLUE SISTERS 'So breezily readable and laugh-out-loud funny while excavating the deepest truths about motherhood, family, and forgiveness.' CATHERINE NEWMAN, author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS 'An absolute DELIGHT . . . a must, must, must for your summer reading list' Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of THE PERFECT COUPLE 'Funny, sharp and charming' Rebecca Serle, New York Times bestselling author of IN FIVE YEARS OVER ONE LONG SUMMER, WHO KNOWS WHAT MIGHT COME OUT IN THE WASH? When writer Caroline Lash arrives in Greenhead, she falls immediately for its scenic beaches and New England charm - and even harder for Van Whittaker, a gorgeous, fleece-wearing, litter-collecting, kayak enthusiast. She meets his friends: Augusta, old money and uptight; Fran, drowning in everyone else's problems whilst keeping two kids (and an inebriated husband) afloat; and Bailey, who is sexy, confident... and inconveniently pregnant with Van's child. Determined nothing will dull the shine of her new romance, Caroline joins the friends as they run wild through Greenhead, drinking on houseboats, gossiping on beaches while their children paddle, and playing risky games. It seems the fun will last forever - until it doesn't. As decades-old friendships and marriages begin to fracture, Caroline's place in their world is called into question. And with all the group's most tightly held secrets at stake, who knows what might come out? Dazzlingly funny, sexy, and as juicy as it is astute, The Shampoo Effect is a story of late-night parties, early mornings with small children, and old friends finally growing up - despite all their best efforts.
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Empire Falls
Richard Russo · 2001
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • The bestselling author of Nobody's Fool and Straight Man delves deep into the blue-collar heart of America in a work that overflows with hilarity, heartache, and grace. “Rich, humorous ... Mr. Russo’s most seductive book thus far.” — The New York Times Welcome to Empire Falls, a blue-collar town full of abandoned mills whose citizens surround themselves with the comforts and feuds provided by lifelong friends and neighbors and who find humor and hope in the most unlikely places, in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Richard Russo. Miles Roby has been slinging burgers at the Empire Grill for 20 years, a job that cost him his college education and much of his self-respect. What keeps him there? It could be his bright, sensitive daughter Tick, who needs all his help surviving the local high school. Or maybe it’s Janine, Miles’ soon-to-be ex-wife, who’s taken up with a noxiously vain health-club proprietor. Or perhaps it’s the imperious Francine Whiting, who owns everything in town–and seems to believe that “everything” includes Miles himself. Look for Richard Russo's new book, Somebody's Fool , coming soon.
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Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout · 2007
Elizabeth Strout's acclaimed novel Olive Kitteridge is now the basis for a HBO drama starring Academy Award-winner Frances McDormand. Olive Kitteridge: indomitable, compassionate and often unpredictable. A retired schoolteacher in a small coastal town in Maine, as she grows older she struggles to make sense of the changes in her life. She is a woman who sees into the hearts of those around her, their triumphs and tragedies. We meet her stoic husband, bound to her in a marriage both broken and strong, and a young man who aches for the mother he lost - and whom Olive comforts by her mere presence, while her own son feels overwhelmed by her complex sensitivities. A penetrating, vibrant exploration of the human soul, the story of Olive Kitteridge will make you laugh, nod in recognition, wince in pain, and shed a tear or two.