American author Alice Sebold published “The Lovely Bones” in 2002. It is the tale of a young woman who, following her rape and murder, observes from her own special Heaven as her friends and loved ones strive to move on with their lives as she is confronted with her own passing.
“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”
The story of Susie Salmon begins, who is watching life on earth go on without her while trying to adjust to her new home in heaven, a place that is very different from what she had anticipated. Her friends are spreading rumors about her whereabouts, her killer is attempting to hide his tracks, and her grieving family is breaking apart. The Lovely Bones manages, somehow, to create a story full of hope, humor, suspense, and even joy out of awful tragedy and loss.
The Secret Life of Bees is a 1964 South Carolina-set novel about Lily Owens, whose life has been molded by the hazy memory of the afternoon her mother was murdered. Lily chooses to set both of the town’s most virulent racists free when Rosaleen, her strong-willed black “stand-in mother,” taunts them. They flee to Tiburon, South Carolina, a place where the truth about her mother’s background may be found. Lily is taken in by an oddball group of three black beekeeping sisters, who show her around their fascinating world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna. Women will share and pass on this amazing book on divine female strength to their daughters in the coming years.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn’t know a thing about life.”
“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”
“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.”
“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”
“Sunset is the saddest light there is.”
“The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.”
The bestselling author of Riding Lessons presents an atmospheric, gritty, and fascinating story of star-crossed lovers, situated in the circus world around 1932.
Jacob Jankowski, who has just become orphaned and is now stranded, boards a passing train and joins a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits. This second-rate circus is striving to survive the Great Depression by having one-night stands in countless towns. Jacob, a veterinary student who was on the verge of graduating, is tasked with taking care of the circus’s animal collection. There, he meets August, the charming but deranged animal trainer, who is married to Marlena, the stunning young star of the equestrian act. He also encounters Rosie, an elephant who at first seems impossible to teach until he finds a method to get to her.
Water for Elephants is exquisitely written and has a fantastic feeling of place and time. In a society where even love is considered a commodity that few can afford, it depicts the tale of a romance between two people who triumph over extraordinary circumstances.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“When two people are meant to be together, they will be together. It’s fate.”
“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”
“Keeping up the appearance of having all your marbles is hard work, but important.”
“Life is the most spectacular show on earth ♥”
“The more distressing the memory, the more persistent it’s presence. ”
One unprecedented move is about to be taken by three regular women. Skeeter, who is twenty-two years old, graduated from Ole Miss and has since moved back home. Even though she may have a degree, it is 1962 in Mississippi, and Skeeter’s mother won’t be content until she has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would often seek comfort from the lady who reared her, her loving maid Constantine, but Constantine has vanished, and no one would tell Skeeter where she has fled.
Aibileen is a smart, regal black maid who is parenting her seventeenth child who is white. After losing her beloved son, who passed away while his superiors turned a blind eye, something inside of her changed. Despite knowing that both of their hearts might be crushed, she is dedicated to the young girl she tends after.
Kathryn Stockett invents three exceptional people with pitch-perfect voices, whose will to begin a campaign of their own transforms a community and the way in which mothers, daughters, carers, and friends see one another. The Help is a profoundly touching book that is full of poignancy, comedy, and hope. It is a timeless and enduring tale about the lines we follow and the ones we can’t control.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”
“All I’m saying is, kindness don’t have no boundaries.”
“Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.”
“Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.”
“Stuart needs “space” and “time,” as if this were physics and not a human relationship.”
The Kite Runner is a masterfully written book that is set in a nation that is about to be destroyed and tells the unforgettable, heartbreaking tale of the unexpected connection between a rich child and the son of his father’s servant. It discusses the influence of reading, the cost of betrayal, the potential for forgiveness, as well as the influence of dads upon their sons—their affection, their sacrifices, and their falsehoods.
The Kite Runner is the first Afghan book to be published in English. It recounts a grand tale of family, devotion, and friendships against a never-before-told historical backdrop, evoking the expansive canvases of nineteenth-century Russian writers. The catastrophic history of Afghanistan during the past 30 years is the focus of this narration, which is outdated in style. The Kite Runner is a unique and potent debut that is equally engrossing and sensitive on an emotional level.
Best Quotes from the book:
“For you, a thousand times over” “And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”
“For you, a thousand times over”
“And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”
“There is only one sin. and that is theft… when you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.”
“it always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.”
This is the remarkable love tale of Clare and Henry, who were married at ages 22 and 30 respectively and met when Clare was six and Henry was 36. It’s impossible, but Henry has a disease that causes his genetic clock to periodically reset, causing him to be unexpectedly transported into the past or the future. Henry and Clare’s battle to conduct regular lives in the face of this force they can neither stop nor control is profoundly affecting and completely unforgettable.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I sit quietly and think about my mom. It’s funny how memory erodes, If all I had to work from were my childhood memories, my knowledge of my mother would be faded and soft, with a few sharp memories standing out.”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
“Henry loves my hair almost as though it is a creature unto itself, as though it has a soul to call its own, as though it could love him back.”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
“Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love intensified by absence?”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
“absence can be present, like a damaged nerve, like a dark bird”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
“Every minute of his life since then has been marked by her absence, every action has lacked dimension because she is not there to measure against. And when I was young I didn’t understand, but now, I know, how absence can be present, like a damaged nerve, like a dark bird.”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
This magnificent debut novel, a literary sensation, and instant bestseller portrays one of Japan’s most famous geishas’ real confessions with perfect authenticity and exquisite lyricism.
Memoirs of a Geisha take us into a world where looks are everything, virginity is sold to the highest bidder, ladies are taught how to seduce the most powerful men, and love is ridiculed as a delusion. It is an original and outstanding piece of fiction that is thrilling, sexual, romantic, and absolutely unforgettable.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains.”
“This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.”
“He was like a song I’d heard once in fragments but had been singing in my mind ever since.”
“I dont think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.”
“Sometimes,” he sighed, “I think the things I remember are more real than the things I see. ”
Dinah is her name. Her existence is only briefly and violently hinted at in the Book of Genesis passages that are more familiar about her father, Jacob, and his twelve sons. This book describes the customs and conflicts of ancient womanhood—the red tent world—in Dinah’s words. The tale of her mothers, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah, the four wives of Jacob, is where it all starts. They care about Dinah and send her presents that help her get by during her hardworking youth, call to midwifery, and move to a new country. Dinah’s story establishes a close connection to the past by drawing on a spectacular time of early history. The Red Tent is incredibly moving because it blends intricate storytelling with an important contribution to contemporary fiction: a fresh perspective on biblical women’s society.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“The painful things seemed like knots on a beautiful necklace, necessary for keeping the beads in place.”
“I wanted to cry, but I realized that I was too old for that. I would be a woman soon and I would have to learn how to live with a divided heart.”
“Of all life’s pleasures, only love owes no debt to death.”
“Death is no enemy, but the foundation of gratitude, sympathy, and art. Of all life’s pleasures, only love owes no debt to death.”
“If you want to understand any woman, you must first ask about her mother and then listen carefully. ”
In A Thousand Splendid Suns, the brutality, fear, hope, and faith of this nation are expressed in intimate, human words against the turbulent backdrop of the past thirty years in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion to the Taliban’s rule to the post-Taliban rebuilding. The sad sweep of war brings two generations of characters together in this story, and their personal lives—the battle to survive, to build a family, to achieve happiness—are inextricably linked to the events unfolding all around them.
A Thousand Splendid Suns, powered by the same storytelling talent that made The Kite Runner a revered classic, is both a fascinating account of 3 decades of Afghan history and a profoundly emotional novel about family and friendship. A spectacular accomplishment, it is a powerful, heartbreaking novel about a merciless time, an unexpected bond, and unbreakable love.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Marriage can wait, education cannot.”
“One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs,
Or the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls.”
“Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.”
“A society has no chance of success if its women are uneducated…”
“Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason.”
A tender, poignant story of unwavering love in a family that gave the author the ferocious desire to build out a prosperous life on her own terms despite its obvious imperfections.
Jeannette Walls was raised by parents whose values and obstinate nonconformity served as both a curse and a blessing for them. Four kids were born to Rex and Rose Mary Walls. They initially led a nomadic lifestyle, traveling between Southwest desert settlements and camping in the mountains. When Rex was sober, he captivated his children’s attention by teaching them about physics, geology, and, most importantly, how to live freely. Rex was a captivating, bright man. Rose Mary, a writer and painter who couldn’t stomach having to support her family, referred to herself as an “excitement addict.” Making an artwork that would endure a lifetime was more appealing than preparing a dinner that would be eaten in fifteen minutes.
The Walls eventually returned to the depressing West Virginia mining town, and the family from which Rex Walls had tried everything in his power to flee when the money ran out or the romanticism of the nomadic existence faded. He ingested. He took the cash for groceries and vanished for many days. As the family’s instability worsened, Jeannette and her siblings were left to fend for themselves. They helped one another cope with their parents’ betrayals until they eventually had the means and the determination to leave the house.
Not only does Jeannette Walls’ ability to escape with her wits, courage, and determination astound us, but she also portrays her parents with such warmth and kindness. Hers is a tale of triumph over all adversity as well as a beautiful, touching account of unwavering love in a family that, despite its severe defects, gave her the burning desire to forge a prosperous life on her terms. Jeannette Walls concealed her ancestry for 20 years. She now shares her own narrative.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.”
“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
“I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.”
“Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.”
“If you don’t want to sink, you better figure out how to swim”
Marie-Laure, whose father works at the Museum of Natural History, resides in Paris close by. When Marie-Laure is twelve years old, the Nazis have taken over Paris, and her father and daughter leave for Saint-Malo, a walled city where Marie-great Laure’s uncle lives alone in a tall home by the sea. They may be transporting the most priceless and hazardous treasure in the museum.
Orphan Werner Pfennig grows up in a mining village in Germany with his younger sister, fascinated by a rudimentary radio they discover that transmits news and tales from locations they have never visited or imagined. Werner gains proficiency in creating and maintaining these essential new tools and is hired to use his skill to find the resistance. Doerr skillfully illustrates the ways people attempt to be kind to one another in spite of all circumstances by weaving together the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner.
The breathtakingly beautiful, immediately successful New York Times bestseller by Anthony Doerr tells the story of a blind French girl and a German boy who cross paths in occupied France as they both struggle to survive the destruction of World War II.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”
“Don’t you want to be alive before you die?”
“But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don’t you do the same?”
“So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?”
“All your life you wait, and then it finally comes, and are you ready?”
Yann Martel wrote the fantasy adventure book Life of Pi, which was released in 2001. Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, the main character and a Tamil child from Pondicherry, begins to investigate moral and practical questions at a young age. After being stuck on a ship in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days following a shipwreck, he makes it alive alongside Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.”
“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”
“When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.”
“You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”
“I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.”
The captivating, frank, and lyrical narrative of a renowned author’s quest for worldly pleasure, commitment to religion, and what she truly desired in life. Elizabeth Gilbert experienced an early-onset midlife crisis about the time she turned 30. She had a spouse, a home, and a fulfilling career—everything an educated, aspirational American woman was meant to want. But instead of experiencing joy and contentment, she was overcome by fear, grief, and perplexity. She experienced a divorce, a crippling depression, another failed relationship, and the destruction of all she had ever imagined herself to be.
Gilbert made a drastic decision in order to move past all of this. She got rid of her possessions, left her work, and started an unaccompanied year-long journey around the globe in order to allow herself the space and time to discover who she truly was and what she truly desired. The captivating history of that year is presented in Eat, Pray, Love. Her goal was to travel to three locations where she could investigate a single feature of her personality against the backdrop of a society that has historically excelled at that particular aspect of personality study. She learned the art of joy in Rome, where she also picked up Italian and put on the happiest 23 pounds of her life.
With the assistance of a local guru and a surprisingly knowledgeable cowboy from Texas, she set off on a four-month spiritual journey to India to learn the art of devotion. She learned the technique of striking a balance between earthly pleasures and heavenly transcendence in Bali. She adopted an ancient medicine man as her teacher and experienced the best kind of love: an unanticipated one.
A powerfully written and heartfelt tale of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love explores what might happen when you take ownership of your own happiness and stop attempting to live up to social norms. Those who have become aware of the relentless need for change will undoubtedly be moved by it.
Years of “Marsh Girl” rumors pervaded the sleepy fishing community of Barkley Cove. Kya Clark is wild and untamable; she has no business in a civilized society. Thus, when the well-known Chase Andrews is discovered dead in late 1969, the neighborhood quickly suspects her.
Kya, however, is not who they claim. She is a born naturalist who attended school for one day before learning from the countryside and observing the deceitful signals of fireflies to understand the true ways of the world. She has the ability to remain alone forever, but eventually, she starts to long to be caressed and loved. Kya discovers a brand-new and unexpected world after being drawn to two young guys from the area who are all taken by her untamed beauty—until the unimaginable occurs.
In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens contrasts a beautiful hymn to nature with a moving coming-of-age tale and eerie mystery. The thought-provoking, sage, and profoundly emotional debut book by Owens remind us that we are always being formed by the child within of us and are equally vulnerable to the violent and beautiful mysteries that nature holds. The plot concerns the impact of solitude on the actions of a young woman who, like all of us, is genetically predisposed to group membership. The rich ecosystem and natural history of its wild inhabitants are dusted with hints of mystery.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.”
“Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.”
“Unworthy boys make a lot of noise”
“Why should the injured, the still bleeding, bear the onus of forgiveness?”
“If anyone would understand loneliness, the moon would.”