I loved this book by Abraham Verghese because he so richly described the landscape, circumstances, and characters of three generations that I felt I knew them personally and “felt” their story as if it were my own.
I fell in love with the characters, rejoiced in their good fortunes, and mourned their losses and mistakes, yet what struck me was their love for each other and for their work.
I saw how inherited trauma affects families who, though aware, may not be able to break the cycle no matter how vigilant they are and how mourning these losses and trauma inescapably shapes who we are. It showed me that good people do exist, and in the final analysis, we are more alike than we admit.
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret
“One of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. It’s epic. It’s transportive . . . It was unputdownable!”—Oprah Winfrey, OprahDaily.com
The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of…
Despite it being a dark tale, I loved this book by Barbara Kingsolver because I learned again how poverty and addiction can be connected.
By describing so vividly how normal people like me can get addicted to opioids, I felt compassion and sorrow for the characters. It was a hard read, but it taught me what I should have known: not to judge people on external appearances because you never know what loss or hurt they come from.
I saw how easily the “good” kid became a bad one, how hunger, destitution, and pain, through no fault of your own, can lead to crime and desperation, and how the desire to belong and be loved can make people do unthinkable things. I saw that it could have easily been me.
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…
In this book by Maggie Smith, I understood my divorced self more clearly than ever before through her tearing apart the many threads in the disintegration of her marriage.
In the time since my divorce thirty years ago, I have not had the words to do justice to the pain and betrayal I felt, nor could I have attempted to describe the power and freedom I felt in finding myself anew once freed from the ropes of a dead, conventional marriage, but Ms. Smith did it beautiful without pity or whining, reminding me that sometimes, cutting ties and starting anew is truly the right thing to do.
It made me feel vindicated, understood, and stronger for it.
"[Smith]...reminds you that you can...survive deep loss, sink into life's deep beauty, and constantly, constantly make yourself new." -Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author
The bestselling poet and author of the "powerful" (People) and "luminous" (Newsweek) Keep Moving offers a lush and heartrending memoir exploring coming of age in your middle age.
"Life, like a poem, is a series of choices."
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins…
This book is a rise-from-the-ashes hero’s story of overcoming abuse, trauma, and unbearable odds, of being waylaid by both family and religion’s promise of love, and harnessing the resilience to find the way home.
It offers a rare window into Eastern European immigrant culture and reads like a page-turning thriller. Especially relevant today, a time when marginalized people are finally finding a voice, this memoir will serve as an inspiration to people everywhere, encouraging them to overcome their obstacles and achieve their dreams.
