Saturday, April 23, 2022

small towns, big personalities












Small towns always seem to be full of big personalities, all of whom want to play their own part, leading to hijinks and hilarious disasters.  Find your next read (or audiobook!) among this list of small towns around the world populated with quirky characters in funny, sentimental stories.

TheRoad To Rose Bend by Naima Simone
Sydney Collins left the small Berkshires town of Rose Bend eight years ago, grieving her sister’s death—and heartbroken over her parents’ rejection. But now the rebel is back—newly divorced and pregnant—ready to face her fears and make a home for her child in the caring community she once knew. The last thing she needs is trouble. But trouble just set her body on fire with one hot, hot smile.

ThePatron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon
The self-appointed mayor of a tiny Italian village is determined to save his hometown no matter the cost in this charming, hilarious, and heartwarming debut novel.

Britt-MarieWas Here by Fredrik Backman
When Britt-Marie walks out on her cheating husband and has to fend for herself in the miserable backwater town of Borg—of which the kindest thing one can say is that it has a road going through it—the fastidious Britt-Marie soon finds herself being drawn into the daily doings of her fellow citizens, an odd assortment of miscreants, drunkards, layabouts. Most alarming of all, she’s given the impossible task of leading the supremely untalented children’s soccer team to victory. In this small town of misfits, can Britt-Marie find a place where she truly belongs?

SecondChance on Cypress Lane by Reese Ryan
Set in Holly Grove Island, North Carolina, a reporter heads back home to recover from a scandal, only to find herself working with the man who once broke her heart.

DelilahGreen Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake
Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls—nothing is there for her but memories of a lonely childhood and a cold and distant stepfamily. When her estranged stepsister pressures her into photographing her wedding, Delilah finds herself back in the godforsaken town she used to call home. Having raised her eleven-year-old daughter mostly on her own while dealing with her unreliable ex and running a bookstore, Claire Sutherland depends upon a life without surprises. And Delilah Green is an unwelcome surprise…at first. When they’re forced together during a gauntlet of wedding preparations—including a plot to save Astrid from her horrible fiancé—Claire isn’t sure she has the strength to resist Delilah’s charms. Even worse, she’s starting to think she doesn’t want to...

TheLast Chance Library by Freya Sampson
June Jones emerges from her shell to fight for her beloved local library, and through the efforts and support of an eclectic group of library patrons, she discovers life-changing friendships along the way.

TheReaders of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
Katarina Bivald's The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend is a sweet, smart, and uplifting story about how books find us, change us, and connect us.

Rise & Shine, Benedict Stone by Phaedra Patrick
Filled with colorful characters and irresistible charm, Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone is a luminous reminder of the unbreakable bonds of family, and shows that having someone to embrace life with is always better than simply getting by on your own.

MyItalian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith
Paul Stuart, a renowned food writer, finds himself at loose ends after his longtime girlfriend leaves him for her personal trainer. To cheer him up, Paul’s editor, Gloria, encourages him to finish his latest cookbook on-site in Tuscany, hoping that a change of scenery (plus the occasional truffled pasta and glass of red wine) will offer a cure for both heartache and writer’s block. But upon Paul’s arrival, things don’t quite go as planned. A mishap with his rental-car reservation leaves him stranded, until a newfound friend leads him to an intriguing alternative: a bulldozer.

SouthPole Station by Ashley Shelby
A warmhearted comedy of errors set in the world’s harshest place, Ashley Shelby's South Pole Station is a wry and witty debut novel about the courage it takes to band together when everything around you falls apart.

BlackberryWine by Joanne Harris
Jay Mackintosh is trapped by memory in the old familiar landscape of his childhood, to which he longs to return. A bottle of home-brewed wine left to him by a long-vanished friend seems to provide the key to an old mystery. As the unusual properties of the strange brew take effect, Jay escapes to a derelict farmhouse in the French village of Lansquenet. There, a ghost from the past waits to confront him.

TheStoried Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
A. J. Fikry’s life is not at all what he expected it to be. He lives alone, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. But when a mysterious package appears at the bookstore, its unexpected arrival gives Fikry the chance to make his life over--and see everything anew.

ColdSassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Olive Ann Burns has given us a timeless, funny, resplendent novel - about a romance that rocks an entire town, about a boy's passage through the momentous but elusive year when childhood melts into adolescence, and about just how people lived and died in a small Southern town at the turn of the century. Inhabited by characters who are wise and loony, unimpeachably pious and deliciously irreverent, Cold Sassy, Georgia, is the perfect setting for the debut of a storyteller of rare brio, exuberance, and style.

TheSecret of Rainy Days by Leslie Hooton
Growing up in Erob, Alabama, Nina "Little Bit" Barnes Enloe lived in the shadow of her imposing and harsh grandmother, Nina "Biggie" Barnes Enloe. Bit believes she can escape her grandmother’s controlling grip once and for all by moving somewhere where she is the only Nina Enloe listed: New York. Yet her world is turned upside down when an unexpected loss forces her to leave her new life in the city and return to Erob, where she must face everything―and everyone―she left behind. In the process, Bit discovers her true identity, learns the hard lessons of acceptance and forgiveness, finds herself falling in love in unexpected places, and finds comfort in the secrets of rainy days.

BigStone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
Self-proclaimed spinster, Ave Maria Mulligan reaches her thirty-fifth year and resigns herself to the single life, filling her days with hard work, fun friends, and good books. Then, one fateful day, Ave Maria’s past opens wide with the revelation of a long-buried secret that will alter the course of her life. Before she knows it, Ave Maria is fielding marriage proposals, trying to claim her rightful inheritance, and planning the trip of a lifetime to Italy—one that will change her view of the world and her own place in it forever.

GardenSpells by Sarah Addison Allen
In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it....

ColdComfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
When a well-educated young socialite in 1930s England is left orphaned and unable to support herself at age twenty-two, she moves in with her eccentric relatives on their farm.

Midnightat the Blackbird Café by Heather Weber
Nestled in the mountain shadows of Alabama lies the little town of Wicklow. It is here that Anna Kate has returned to bury her beloved Granny Zee, owner of the Blackbird Café. It was supposed to be a quick trip to close the café and settle her grandmother’s estate, but despite her best intentions to avoid forming ties or even getting to know her father’s side of the family, Anna Kate finds herself inexplicably drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from so many years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody can’t stop talking about.

SweetTea and Sympathy by Molly Harper
Nestled on the shore of Lake Sackett, Georgia is the McCready Family Funeral Home and Bait Shop. (What, you have a problem with one-stop shopping?) Two McCready brothers started two separate businesses in the same building back in 1928, and now it’s become one big family affair. And true to form in small Southern towns, family business becomes everybody’s business.

ItHappened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
Tessa Bailey is back with a Schitt’s Creek-inspired rom-com about a Hollywood “It Girl” who’s cut off from her wealthy family and exiled to a small Pacific Northwest beach town... where she butts heads with a surly, sexy local who thinks she doesn’t belong. 

MajorPettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
When retired Major Pettigrew strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani village shopkeeper, he is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Brought together by a shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more. 

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

Friday, April 15, 2022

comfort reads

I have a few books that I read over and over and never tire of them.  A bad mood, rough day, challenging circumstance…they all drift away when I open the cover on that familiar world.  A few of those for me are Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall trilogy beginning with Dragonsong (fantasy), Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell (gritty crime), The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister (contemporary fiction), Claiming Ground by Laura Bell (memoir), Stay by Allie Larkin (humor fiction) and Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (romance). Here are a few other great suggestions from readers online!

The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux

Jacquie says: “My favorite comfort go-to read is The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux. It’s a few years old but deals with friendships, loss, a bit of magic, and second chances. Who could want more?”

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Amy says: “It is the one book that I can read over and over, and it puts life into perspective.”

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Karen says: “I have several (or more!) comfort reads, but my most recent is the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. I feel like I am catching up with long-absent friends, and I find out something new about them with each reread.”

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Louise says: “It haunts your heart.”

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Amber says: “I have read it six times, and each time, I have found a new meaning and message. Whenever I have a big change in life or any type of difficulty, this is my go-to book. It is so beautifully written with something for everyone. It reads like a fairy tale but includes wisdom and guidance for those who seek it. Getting ready for my seventh read!”

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

Patty says: “It is the best for comfort and calming and feeling good.”

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Katrina says: “If I had one book to be stranded on an island with, this book would keep me happy. John and Owen just feel like home.”

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

Susan says: “Any time I’m feeling really down, it sweeps me away to a different place and time, with complex characters I can really feel, and the story not just of a love affair, but of a marriage to stand the test of time.”

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Marsha says: “It’s a great perspective on how, when losing someone, we are also grieving for the person we used to be, who we used to be when they were here, and how we are different now with them gone. It’s both a sad but comforting read.”

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata

Kim says: “I’ve read it 23 times since January 2017, and I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. The characters are like old friends, and my heart is always so full after I finish yet another reread.”

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand

Emma says: “Such an uplifting and emotional read.”

Still Life by Louise Penny

Jo says: “Any of Louise Penny’s Gamache series because Three Pines and all the characters feel very much like home/family. The writing is wonderful. And no matter how many times I read them, I always find something new in each book.”

Photo by Inside Weather on Unsplash

 https://www.bookbub.com/blog/favorite-comfort-reads