My favorite books to understand people and their motivations

Why am I passionate about this?

I was intrigued to write this creative nonfiction book because it is a true story. It’s Mobile’s oldest and most famous legend. After extensive research, I discovered Boyington had two unqualified jurors, and all was based on circumstantial evidence. Still, he was hanged at age nineteen. A group of Mobilians formed the Boyington Oak Society, and we’ve applied for a posthumous pardon. My play is produced annually at Oakleigh Historic Museum. It has also been optioned for a movie, and the script is written.


I wrote...

Boyington Oak: A Grave Injustice

By Mary S. Palmer,

Book cover of Boyington Oak: A Grave Injustice

What is my book about?

In 1834, unqualified jurors and circumstantial evidence determined the fate of printer, poet, and musician Charles Boyington, a nineteen-year-old hanged for the murder of his critically ill best friend. As he predicted would happen to prove his innocence, an oak tree grew from his gravesite in Mobile, AL. It still stands almost 200 years later.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Mary S. Palmer Why did I love this book?

It intrigued me because of the storyline. I also loved the style. The idea of redemption and its religious connotations rang true. Characters were easy to equate to and the plot development was different and extremely clever. Its brevity was also appealing. It inspired me when writing my book.

By Mitch Albom,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Five People You Meet in Heaven as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A STUNNING 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF THE MASTER STORYTELLER'S INSPIRATIONAL CLASSIC

To his mind, Eddie has lived an uninspiring life. Now an old man, his job is to fix rides at a seaside amusement park.

On his eighty-third birthday, Eddie's time on earth comes to an end. When a cart falls from the fairground, he rushes to save a little girl's life and tragically dies in the attempt. When Eddie awakens, he learns that the afterlife is not a destination, but a place where your existence is explained to you by five people - some of whom you knew, others…


Book cover of Ava's Man

Mary S. Palmer Why did I love this book?

Rick Bragg’s obsession with a grandfather he ever knew was fascinating. This was a man who lived during the Great Depression. He didn’t wear clothes with holes in them because that was popular, he did it because those were the only clothes he owned. It unveiled the ability of an ordinary man to do extraordinary things, an impressive accomplishment.

By Rick Bragg,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Ava's Man as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • With the same emotional generosity and effortlessly compelling storytelling that made All Over But the Shoutin’ a beloved bestseller, Rick Bragg continues his personal history of the Deep South.

This time he’s writing about his grandfather Charlie Bundrum, a man who died before Bragg was born but left an indelible imprint on the people who loved him. Drawing on their memories, Bragg reconstructs the life of an unlettered roofer who kept food on his family’s table through the worst of the Great Depression; a moonshiner who drank exactly one pint for every gallon he sold; an unregenerate…


Book cover of The Bridges of Madison County

Mary S. Palmer Why did I love this book?

The style of this book was inviting. This lonely lady with a mundane life finds excitement in an affair that is brief. Also the fact that her children were surprised to discover what happened after her death is touching. I consider it a different way to tell a tale and to make it believable.

By Robert James Waller,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Bridges of Madison County as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fall in love with one of the bestselling novels of all time -- the legendary love story that became a beloved film starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.

If you've ever experienced the one true love of your life, a love that for some reason could never be, you will understand why readers all over the world are so moved by this small, unknown first novel that they became a publishing phenomenon and #1 bestseller.

The story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting…


Book cover of Bittersweet Memories of Last Spring

Mary S. Palmer Why did I love this book?

This story of a young man moving to a new country is interesting because it shows the difficulties he has to go through. They are not only financial but also mental. He has to make adjustments to his thinking to fit into the new culture and he needs to learn a new language. He also has to work long hours to survive. But he does survive and becomes very successful by adapting and being versatile.

By Ardain Isma,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bittersweet Memories of Last Spring as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In 1980, 17-year-old Yrvin Lacroix is in a sailboat from Haiti bound for Miami, Florida in search of a better life. He leaves behind his beloved mother, his siblings, and Régine-his childhood sweetheart to whom he has made a promise to return.

In Miami, despite his precarious situation as a refugee, Yrvin joins Haitian exiles in the fight against the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti as well as the struggle for refugee rights. He believes a win against the odds will help him shape the course of his life.

As time passes, Yrvin's love and passion for Régine begins to fade.…


Book cover of The Screwtape Letters

Mary S. Palmer Why did I love this book?

This Christian writer captures the attention of readers with his unusual approach. His ironic portrayal of human actions is unique. The correspondence between an old devil and his nephew is classic in its cleverness. It teaches the results of falling to temptations and how the devil works to cause an ordinary young man to become his prey.

By C. S. Lewis,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

On its first appearance, The Screwtape Letters was immediately recognized as a milestone in the history of popular theology. Now, in it's 70th Anniversary Year, and having sold over half a million copies, it is an iconic classic on spiritual warfare and the power of the devil.

This profound and striking narrative takes the form of a series of letters from Screwtape, a devil high in the Infernal Civil Service, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior colleague engaged in his first mission on earth trying to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. Although…


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Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

By Gabrielle Robinson,

Book cover of Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

Gabrielle Robinson Author Of Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Retired english professor

Gabrielle's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

Gabrielle found her grandfather’s diaries after her mother’s death, only to discover that he had been a Nazi. Born in Berlin in 1942, she and her mother fled the city in 1945, but Api, the one surviving male member of her family, stayed behind to work as a doctor in a city 90% destroyed.

Gabrielle retraces Api’s steps in the Berlin of the 21st century, torn between her love for the man who gave her the happiest years of her childhood and trying to come to terms with his Nazi membership, German guilt, and political responsibility.

Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past

By Gabrielle Robinson,

What is this book about?

"This is not a book I will forget any time soon."
Story Circle Book Reviews

Moving and provocative, Api's Berlin Diaries offers a personal perspective on the fall of Berlin 1945 and the far-reaching aftershocks of the Third Reich.

After her mother's death, Robinson was thrilled to find her beloved grandfather's war diaries-only to discover that he had been a Nazi.

The award-winning memoir shows Api, a doctor in Berlin, desperately trying to help the wounded in cellars without water or light. He himself was reduced to anxiety and despair, the daily diary his main refuge. As Robinson retraces Api's…


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