My professional writing life began as an award-winning screenwriter. HarperCollins, Bookouture, and others have published my bestselling novels and audiobooks. My latest book, The Gable House, is about two veterinarians, and required a lot of research about animals. Months after its publication, my father died. Four months later, I adopted a rescue dog. Exhausted by grief, fourteen years older than the last time I adopted a dog, I was utterly unprepared. Seven months, untold number of walking miles, dog park visits, and two dog training series later, Jojo and I are extremely close, equally high energy, (I’m lying–she still wipes me out,) and enjoying our lives.
I wrote
The Gable House: A totally addictive feel-good romance
I read this book before I lost my own father in January 2021, which makes it even more powerful for me now. I completely understand how the author, Helen MacDonald, became completely lost when her own father died. Like Helen, my father was a larger-than-life character and instead of throwing myself into training a falcon, I’ve thrown myself into working with the dog in my profile pic. What’s fantastic about this book is learning about the world of falconry, which is unlike anything I’ve ever read. Ms. MacDonald is a wonderful writer with a keen sense of place and time. You can smell the wet earth, see the low cloudy sky, and feel elation the first time her hawk successfully returns. This is a beauty of a book by a skilled writer.
One of the New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year
ON MORE THAN 25 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR LISTS: including TIME (#1 Nonfiction Book), NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine (10 Favorite Books), Vogue (Top 10), Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle (Top 10), Miami Herald, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top 10), Library Journal (Top 10), Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Slate, Shelf Awareness, Book Riot, Amazon (Top 20)
The instant New York Times bestseller and award-winning sensation, Helen Macdonald's story of adopting and raising one of…
Doing my research for The Gable House, I re-read this entire series. This one in particular, as James Herriot moves to the Yorkshire Dales and meets the brothers who run the practice, not only stands up to the test of time, it’s even more fun and soothing as the world gets more complicated. I went a step further, reading Herriot’s short stories about cats to my bed-ridden father. We both laughed, astounded at Herriot’s grasp of the animal and human world and his sense of humor. More research revealed that Herriot, which was a pen name, suffered from depression, something his son shared in a frank but loving biography about his father. It’s not surprising to me that a man who could so deeply relate to other species had some demons of his own. It doesn’t diminish from his accomplishments in the slightest. It just makes his literary output, and his humanity, even more impressive.
A tie-in to the PBS Masterpiece series and Christmas special, available on streaming and home video.
All Creatures Great and Small is first volume in the multimillion copy bestselling series. Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world's most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients.
For fifty years, generations of readers have flocked to Herriot's marvelous tales, deep love of life, and extraordinary storytelling abilities. For decades, Herriot roamed the remote, beautiful Yorkshire Dales, treating every patient that came his way from smallest to largest, and observing animals and humans alike…
Vivian Amberville - The Weaver of Odds
by
Louise Blackwick,
Vivian Amberville is a popular dark fantasy book series about a girl whose thoughts can reshape reality.
First in the series, The Weaver of Odds introduces 13-year-old Vivian to her power to alter luck, odds, and circumstances. She is a traveler between realities, whose imagination can twist reality into impossible…
This adventure story is set in England is about a colony of rabbits trying to establish a community as they leave the safety of their warren. They’re led by a pair of brave brothers and they encounter tragedy, humans, other enemies along the way. Loads of people say it has political undertones, but to me, it’s about family and holding it together when nothing is going right. I still remember this book decades later. My husband and I occasionally quote the funnier scenes. As I age, it’s the charming things I remember about this book, not the sad parts. This is a classic.
One of the best-loved children's classics of all time, this is the complete, original story of Watership Down.
Something terrible is about to happen to the warren - Fiver feels sure of it. And Fiver's sixth sense is never wrong, according to his brother Hazel. They had to leave immediately, and they had to persuade the other rabbits to join them.
And so begins a long and perilous journey of a small band of rabbits in search of a safe home. Fiver's vision finally leads them to Watership Down, but here they face their most difficult challenge of all .…
This is one of those books that grabs you by the teeth immediately. It’s worth previewing a few pages. If you don’t love the story and the setting, which is a gorgeously described farm with a large role in the story, it’s not your thing. The book is a coming-of-age retelling of Hamlet and considered to be a fine example of The Great American Novel and was a book club pick by Oprah. Honestly, these are the least important things about this book. What I still clearly remember is the raw emotions, the tender portrayal of the mute boy forced to become a man, saving his dogs and hopefully, his family.
A literary debut of stark and striking brilliance - a coming-of-age story, set in the remote wilderness of northern Wisconsin.
Born mute and able to communicate only by sign, the brilliant Edgar Sawtelle leads an idyllic life with his parents Gar and Trudy. For generations, the Sawtelles have raised and trained a breed of dog whose thoughtful companionship is epitomised by Almondine, Edgar's lifelong companion. But when his beloved father mysteriously dies, Edgar blames himself, if only because his muteness left him unable to summon help. Grief-stricken and bewildered by his mother's desperate affair with her dead husband's brother, Edgar's…
A corrupt kingdom. A rising darkness. Can a broken warrior save a world?
Mithranar is a country divided by ignorance and magic. Oppressed by their winged folk rulers, humans struggle to eke out an existence. Their only help comes from the mysterious Shadowhawk, a criminal who has evaded all attempts…
Some Pig. If this sentence means nothing to you, stop right now and find a copy of this classic. It’s a masterpiece of literature about what it means to be human. I’m not sure how many times my mother read this book to me before I read it myself. What is crystal clear is the summer day I lined up for the movie version and was enveloped in the dark and the story. Rather than a sinking feeling of disappointment at losing the inner world of the story to a mediocre film rendering, I was enchanted. Decades later, it was great fun introducing my two daughters to this lovely book.
Puffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child.
On foggy mornings, Charlotte's web was truly a thing of beauty . Even Lurvy, who wasn't particularly interested in beauty, noticed the web when he came with the pig's breakfast. And then he took another look and he saw something that made him set his pail down. There, in the centre of the web, neatly woven in block letters, was a message. It said: SOME PIG!
This is the story of a little girl named Fern, who loves a little pig named Wilbur - and of Wilbur's dear friend,…
Freya Johanssen needs a fresh start. A recently heartbroken and newly qualified veterinarian, she will take any job that gets her away from Seattle—for now. Her plan is to spend two years in the small town of Whisper Falls, and then head back to the city and civilization.
When Trent Crossley shows up, her carefully laid plans are blown to pieces. He’s the last person she expected—or wanted—ever to see again. She thinks he’s an arrogant party boy; he thinks she’s an uptight perfectionist. Now he’s in her clinic, and the fluttering in her stomach must mean she’s still mad at him. The only thing they agree upon is a competition for the job. Eight weeks building a clientele and a clinic they both want and need. It’s a fight till the end until they both make the mistake of caring about one another. Or are those emotions just one more gambit because neither one of them is willing to lose?
Serendipity is a magical story told by a grandmother to a granddaughter, introducing us to the traditional way of living of the Scottish Travellers and their Cant language.
A fantasy tale for children of 8 years old and older inspired by three real places in Scotland. Serendipity takes us to…
This book is an elegiac meditation on the will to survive. Tor, a beluga whaler, and his wife, Astrid, a botanist specializing in Arctic flora, are stranded during the dark season of 1937-38 at his remote whaling station in the Svalbard archipelago when they misjudge ice conditions and fail to…