Why am I passionate about this?

Good question. I’ve always found equilibrium in quiet, unpopulated spaces—woods, gardens, and, of course, books. Now, at 56, even though I am happily married and close to friends and family I love, I seek the solitude that nurtured me in childhood. I wonder why. Did the pandemic nudge me to embrace my most essential self? This is why I chose the theme “Girls on Islands” because even if it’s not our natural state, don’t we all experience isolation? Yet, as John Donne reminds us, no girl is an island; she is “a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” The following works of fiction embody this duality.


I wrote

And We Stay

By Jenny Hubbard,

Book cover of And We Stay

What is my book about?

It’s about a seventeen-year-old girl on a metaphorical island: a girls’ boarding school far from home, where she’s sent mid-year…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Euphoria

Jenny Hubbard Why did I love this book?

The “girl” in this novel is a young anthropologist (inspired by the real-life Margaret Mead), and the island is New Guinea, 1933. King, a writer’s writer, has crafted a complex page-turner that’s as tight as a drum. It’s a stunner, down to the final perfect sentence, which knocked the breath out of me. I don’t think I’ve read a book in the past five years that compares craft-wise.

By Lily King,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Euphoria as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The New York Times Top Ten Bestseller

From the author of Writers & Lovers, Euphoria is Lily King's gripping novel inspired by the true story of a woman who changed the way we understand our world.

'Pretty much perfect' - Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Rodham

In 1933 three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes, her intelligent and aggressive husband Fen, and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange couple and becomes totally enthralled. Within months…


Book cover of Orphan Island

Jenny Hubbard Why did I love this book?

Long-listed for the National Book Award in 2017, this fable may have been written for kids, but it has haunted me for four years. A green wooden boat delivers one child per year to a magical, adult-free island. But the boat does not depart empty; an older child must climb aboard. This elegant allegory invites readers of any age to contemplate what childhood is and what it means to have to leave it behind.

By Laurel Snyder,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Orphan Island as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 8, 9, 10, and 11.

What is this book about?

A National Book Award Longlist title!

"A wondrous book, wise and wild and deeply true." —Kelly Barnhill, Newbery Medal-winning author of The Girl Who Drank the Moon

"This is one of those books that haunts you long after you read it. Thought-provoking and magical." —Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series

In the tradition of modern-day classics like Sara Pennypacker's Pax and Lois Lowry's The Giver comes a deep, compelling, heartbreaking, and completely one-of-a-kind novel about nine children who live on a mysterious island.

On the island, everything is perfect. The sun rises in a sky filled with dancing…


Book cover of The Carnival at Bray

Jenny Hubbard Why did I love this book?

This Printz Honor and Morris Award winner sails us straight into the soul of sixteen-year-old Maggie, who is uprooted from Chicago by her mother and mother’s boyfriend and replanted in a small town on the Irish coast. Foley writes with an authentic, intelligent voice (always), and I love that she populates this novel with flawed adult characters who play integral roles in Maggie’s blossoming.

By Jessie Ann Foley,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Carnival at Bray as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

ALA 2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults
Chicago Weekly Best Books of 2014
A Michael L. Printz Honor Award Winner
Winner, 2014 Helen Sheehan YA Book Prize
Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2014
Finalist, William C. Morris Award

It's 1993, and Generation X pulses to the beat of Kurt Cobain and the grunge movement. Sixteen-year-old Maggie Lynch is uprooted from big-city Chicago to a windswept town on the Irish Sea. Surviving on care packages of Spin magazine and Twizzlers from her rocker uncle Kevin, she wonders if she'll ever find her place in this new world. When first…


Book cover of This One Summer

Jenny Hubbard Why did I love this book?

The Tamakis, who are cousins, collaborated on this Caldecott and Printz Honor winner about a long-time summer friendship between two girls (and two families) that takes a dark turn. Though the setting is lakeside, the island is that lonely, mysterious territory between childhood and adulthood. After I finished it, I recommended it to everyone I knew who had never read a graphic novel before.

By Mariko Tamaki, Jillian Tamaki (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked This One Summer as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

Every summer, Rose goes with her mum and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mum and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. It's a summer of secrets and sorrow and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.


Book cover of Island of the Blue Dolphins

Jenny Hubbard Why did I love this book?

This gem of historical fiction that won the Newbery Medal sixty years ago tells the story of a Native American girl who survived alone on an island for eighteen years (St. Nicholas Island, 75 miles off the coast of California). O’Dell focuses on the year that Karana is twelve, who tells her own story in unadorned, affecting prose.

By Scott O’Dell,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked Island of the Blue Dolphins as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 7, 8, 9, and 10.

What is this book about?

Twelve-year-old Karana escapes death at the hands of treacherous hunters, only to find herself totally alone on a harsh desolate island. How she survives in the face of all sorts of dangers makes gripping and inspiring reading.

Based on a true story.


Explore my book 😀

And We Stay

By Jenny Hubbard,

Book cover of And We Stay

What is my book about?

It’s about a seventeen-year-old girl on a metaphorical island: a girls’ boarding school far from home, where she’s sent mid-year after her boyfriend’s suicide. At first Emily Beam selects her own society, but not until she opens the door to her roommate, a favorite teacher, and the poems of Emily Dickinson does she reckon with her past.

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All They Need to Know

By Eileen Goudge,

Book cover of All They Need to Know

Eileen Goudge Author Of All They Need to Know

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Why am I passionate about this?

Author Baker

Eileen's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

On the run from her abusive husband, Kyra Smith hits the road. Destination unknown. With a dog she rescued in tow, she lands in the peaceful California mountain town of Gold Creek and is immediately befriended by an openhearted group of women who call themselves the Tattooed Ladies. They’re there for Kyra—and for each other.

The maternal Frannie is a tattoo artist struggling with a troubled daughter. Suzy is a self-described fashionista grandma bearing a painful estrangement from her son. Then there’s Jo, whose storybook marriage is shadowed by a grim medical diagnosis. And bookstore owner Marisol. She longs for…

All They Need to Know

By Eileen Goudge,

What is this book about?

A woman escaping a violent past finds new friendships, romance, and tenuous sanctuary in an emotionally gripping novel by New York Times bestselling author Eileen Goudge.

On the run from her abusive husband, Kyra Smith hits the road. Destination unknown. With a neglected dog she rescued in tow, she lands in the peaceful California town of Gold Creek and is immediately befriended by an openhearted group of women called the Tattooed Ladies Club. They're there for Kyra-and for each other.

The maternal Frannie is a tattoo artist struggling with a troubled daughter. Suzy is a self-described fashionista grandma bearing a…


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