Here are 100 books that My Name Is Mary Sutter fans have personally recommended if you like
My Name Is Mary Sutter.
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I grew up in a culture that both fears and embraces spirits or outrightly rejects the idea that spirits live on beyond death. I grew up on stories of rolling calves and duppies that caused havoc among the living. Since then, I’ve been fascinated by what haunts us—whether it be our familial spirits that float among the living and continue to play a role in our lives, our memories, or our past actions. I’ve written three books that play with this idea of past actions lingering long into the characters’ lives and returning in unexpected ways.
This book is a longtime favorite of mine. Toni Morrison was a master at blending the personal story and the political, and in this book, she blends the true story of a mother who kills her child to prevent slave catchers from returning the baby to life as a slave.
Morrison’s fictional Sethe is haunted by the ghost of the baby she killed and the memories of her difficult life as a slave. This is one of the novels I return to time after time, both for the beauty of the writing and the portrayal of a mother’s love, guilt, and the lingering impact of slavery.
'Toni Morrison was a giant of her times and ours... Beloved is a heart-breaking testimony to the ongoing ravages of slavery, and should be read by all' Margaret Atwood, New York Times
Discover this beautiful gift edition of Toni Morrison's prize-winning contemporary classic Beloved
It is the mid-1800s and as slavery looks to be coming to an end, Sethe is haunted by the violent trauma it wrought on her former enslaved life at Sweet Home, Kentucky. Her dead baby daughter, whose tombstone bears the single word, Beloved, returns as a spectre to punish her mother, but also to elicit her…
In my years on the crime beat, I often met good people who did bad things and criminals with good intentions and good hearts. We tend to draw a line between good and evil, putting ourselves on the good side. From that perspective, we sit in judgment, believing we are incapable of evil because it’s “over there.” Inaccessible. Unfathomable. But that line is fictional. We redraw it constantly to feel good about ourselves and avoid empathizing with the worst of human nature. What I love about these five novels is that they expose that truth. The twists remind me that even my own line is blurred and ever-shifting.
I love historical fiction, especially when authors throw in a touch of crime. So, that’s what first drew me to this book.
What kept me reading and what made me rank this novel so highly is the gradual unlayering of the main character as the story progresses. Sure, Kya is a victim and a survivor, but she is so much more, and she is capable of more than I could have anticipated. As in some of my other favorite novels, it’s that loyalty to human nature, the understanding that circumstances can make good choices wrong and poor choices right, that pulled me in.
If I had known the ending when I started the book, I might not have believed it possible, but Delia Owens made it work.
OVER 12 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE A NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
For years, rumours of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be…
I grew up watching my mother suffer under a strict patriarchal religion. She never felt she had a choice in her life, and yet she always remained a dreamer, collecting newspaper articles about events in history that interested her. They piled up in a box and I’ve no idea what she thought to do with them. She would thumb through them between bouts of standing over a ringer washer or hanging wet clothing outside in freezing weather. There were 15 of us, you can imagine the laundry. I never saw her cry…despite working like a mule. I admire her and women like her for getting through.
The book chronicles Kidd’s evolution from a patriarchal religion into a spirituality that honors her as a woman. She’d built her reputation and made her livelihood as a Christian writer and speaker, and she risked everything: career, marriage, family, and friends in leaving that behind. I was making a similar journey when I found the book, leaving behind the organized religion I’d grown up with and significantly, married into. Fighting broke out when I quit attending services, and I received a lot of condemnation for seeking to free myself from a religion thousands of years old. How dare I! I was letting my immediate, and not so immediate, family and community down. I was headed for damnation. Kidd’s book uplifted and supported my decision. It’s honest, too, in addressing one’s internal conflicts about change. The book gave me the courage to face my fears, my guilts, and keep following my…
"A masterpiece of women’s wisdom."—Christiane Northrup, M.D.
"The journey to capture her feminine soul and live authentically . . . makes a fascinating, well-researched and well-written story."—Publishers Weekly
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of its publication, a newly reissued edition of the bestselling author’s classic work of feminine spiritual discovery, with a new introduction by the author.
"I was amazed to find that I had no idea how to unfold my spiritual life in a feminine way. I was surprised, and, in fact, a little terrified, when I found myself in the middle of a feminist spiritual reawakening."—Sue Monk…
I grew up watching my mother suffer under a strict patriarchal religion. She never felt she had a choice in her life, and yet she always remained a dreamer, collecting newspaper articles about events in history that interested her. They piled up in a box and I’ve no idea what she thought to do with them. She would thumb through them between bouts of standing over a ringer washer or hanging wet clothing outside in freezing weather. There were 15 of us, you can imagine the laundry. I never saw her cry…despite working like a mule. I admire her and women like her for getting through.
The title says a lot about why this book moved me. Susan La Flesche was a warrior for her people, and what greater reason do any of us have for our existence? La Flesche overcame impossible odds and gave up a great deal to become a doctor. Time and again she risked her life to travel to homes in the dead of night or through snowstorms to reach someone who needed her. That dedication and drive inspire me. Reading the book makes me roll my eyes at my own short list of accomplishments. Also, I was raised close to the famous Indian School in Genoa, Nebraska. I grew up fascinated by the buildings and the haunted feelings in the classrooms. Starita’s lyrical descriptions of the land also transported me back.
"An important and riveting story of a 19th-century feminist and change agent. Starita successfully balances the many facts with vivid narrative passages that put the reader inside the very thoughts and emotions of La Flesche." —Chicago Tribune
On March 14, 1889, Susan La Flesche Picotte received her medical degree—becoming the first Native American doctor in U.S. history. She earned her degree thirty-one years before women could vote and thirty-five years before Indians could become citizens in their own country.
By age twenty-six, this fragile but indomitable Native woman became the doctor to her tribe. Overnight, she acquired 1,244 patients scattered…
I grew up in Latin America (& briefly in Europe) and my connections and regard for the people, culture, and natural setting resulted in my novel, A Place in the World. I have lived in six countries and appreciate the experiences. I love languages and history and like to travel, at least vicariously with a good book. I hope you enjoy my book picks as much as I have! I am a writer, former university lecturer, and environmental scientist, with an MS in geology and a passion for botany. This background enabled me to weave aspects of natural science, as well as Latino culture, into my writing.
I met Alan Brennert at a book reading and have been a fan ever since. Molokai is the Hawaiian island where lepers were isolated below towering cliffs. The saga of the colony, Kalaupapa, is revealed by Rachel Kalama, a little Hawaiian girl diagnosed with leprosy in 1892. Wrenched from her home, she is quarantined on Kalaupapa. In spite of this tragic life Rachel survives and forms friendships among the memorable, ostracized characters. She grows up and even marries; in 1940 a cure is found.
Ohana, family, is a recurring theme as the residents make their own connections. As a frequent visitor to Hawaii, I’ve come to love not just the setting but respect the culture. I found this to be a beautifully written, engrossing story.
Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in idyllic Honolulu in the 1890s, dreams of seeing far-off lands, but at the age of seven Rachel's dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy. Forcibly removed from the family, she's sent to an isolated leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka'i. In exile Rachel finds a family of friends to replace the family she's lot - but loss remains a constant shadow as Rachel watches those she loves succumb to the ravages of leprosy. Moloka'i is a story of hope, dignity, and the strength of the human spirit.
I never expected to write a zombie story, let alone a novella series. I don’t usually do scary. I avoid horror movies and choose books with pretty covers. I think that’s why my books, like those on this list, walk the line of horror without plunging all the way in. There’s a delight in being spooked, but not if it leads you to recurring nightmares. I want books that will set my heart racing, but don’t plant a lingering fear. The books on this list will raise the hair on your arms, but won’t keep you up at night…unless, of course, it’s because you can’t put them down.
Easily the goriest of my choices, Schwartz’s story offers readers a bit of everything.
It is a historically set mystery with a bit of gruesome science fiction woven in. Throw in a bit of grave-robbing and a lot of dissection in the name of science, and you have a gothic tale reminiscent of Mary Shelley that explores the challenges of a female scientist fighting to be accepted in world that refuses to permit women to become surgeons.
It manages to be both disturbing and endearing, and a story so well-told that you won’t want to put it down.
'Dana Schwartz is one of the brightest of the next generation of young writers' NEIL GAIMAN
Edinburgh, 1817.
Hazel Sinnett is a lady who wants to be a surgeon more than she wants to marry.
Jack Currer is a resurrection man who's just trying to survive in a city where it's too easy to die.
When the two of them have a chance encounter outside the Edinburgh Anatomist's Society, Hazel thinks nothing of it at first. But after she gets kicked out of renowned surgeon Dr. Beecham's lectures for being the wrong gender, she realizes that her new acquaintance might…
I'm a philosopher with a specialization in bioethics. My work is at the intersection of policy and practice. It is grounded in a deep commitment to public education, engagement, and empowerment, as well as a strong desire to “make the powerful care.” I maintain that “the human genome belongs to us all. It’s something we have in common, and so we all have the right to have a say.” I believe the pivotal question that we all need to ask is “What kind of world do we want to live in?” Once we have an answer to this question, we can meaningfully address the more pointed question, “Will CRISPR technology help us build that world?”
This work of fiction highlights the potential dangers of genetic engineering.
It invites the reader to imagine a world in which it is possible to genetically modify early-stage human embryos, making changes that will determine the life-trajectory of the newborn.
In this world, Dr. Saul Kramer, a geneticist, and the head of a successful IVF clinic, uses CRISPR technology not to correct disease-causing genes in unhealthy embryos, but rather to insert a gene for a fatal genetic disease into healthy embryos.
Children born of these genetically modified embryos die in the first year of life. Notably, this is not a whodunnit, but a morality tale framed around the question of whether Dr. Kramer is a murderer.
For fans of Julia Buckley and Tess Gerritsen, a debut featuring a killer in plain sight using a microscopic murder weapon, the cutting edge gene-editing technology: CRISPR.
Boston geneticist Dr. Saul Kramer is on the cutting edge of genetic disease research. Revered among clients at his IVF clinic, he harbors a dark secret. In addition to helping infertile couples conceive healthy babies, Dr. Kramer is obsessed, for his own dark reasons, with an alternate mission as well. In certain patients, he uses the gene editing technology CRISPR to tamper with embryos, not to improve the health of the embryos, but…
I enjoy combining science, wit, and satire in my stories. I’ve observed life for 75 years, practiced food-animal veterinary medicine, and used molecular biology to earn a PhD in microbiology. The evolution of virulence in pathogens has long been an interest of mine. From observation, I’ve learned never to underestimate the destructive power of a well-intentioned fool, and that no situation is so bad that an idiot can’t make it worse. Heroes are flawed. They make mistakes, but they grow. They kick themselves in the ass and move on. Their opponents aren’t supermen, either.
Pandemicincludes my two favorite themes: molecular biology and viral infections. It introduces a problem I’ve seen discussed in a scientific journal. If a gene editing tool (CRISPR/Cas 9) is used to raise pigs whose hearts have important human proteins so they are recognized as “self” by a human’s immune system, the waiting lists for heart transplants would be a thing of the past. However, a virus, avirulent in the pig but fatal to people, could accidentally be carried along with those hearts. The ensuing coverups make things exponentially worse.
New York Times-bestselling author Robin Cook takes on the cutting-edge world of gene-modification in this pulse-pounding new medical thriller.
When an unidentified, seemingly healthy young woman collapses suddenly on the New York City subway and dies upon reaching the hospital, her case is an eerie reminder for veteran medical examiner Jack Stapleton of the 1918 flu pandemic. Fearful of a repeat on the one hundredth anniversary of the nightmarish contagion, Jack autopsies the woman within hours of her demise and discovers some striking anomalies: first, that she has had a heart transplant, and second, that, against all odds, her DNA…
When you write a book, it’s natural to put yourself in it. You’re the avenger, the rookie agent, the hard-drinking detective. But how many of us volunteer to be the corpse? I sit here every day in the cancer unit at a public Thai hospital and smile at folks who won’t be around much longer. I wrote fifteen books in a series about a coroner. I painted the victims colorfully when they were still alive but how much respect did I show them once they were chunks of slowly decaying meat? From now on my treatment of the souls that smile back at me will take on a new life.
You don’t necessarily have to like an author to admire their grasp of the subject matter and few writers have a better slab-side manner than Cornwell. She knows her stuff and you can perhaps forgive her the smartarsery that she can’t resist. But she does go out of her way to give the victims and their families closure.
In this #1 New York Times bestseller Dr. Kay Scarpetta is on a deadly mission that will pull her in two opposite directions: toward protecting her career or toward the truth...
Remains were all that was left of the stowaway. He arrived in Richmond's Deep Water Terminal-the ghastly cargo of a ship from Belgium. The decomposed body gives Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta no clues to its identity-or the cause of death. But an odd tattoo soon leads her on an international search to Interpol's headquarters in Lyon, France-and towards a confrontation with one of the most savage killers…
As a kid, I read by flashlight under the covers and loved family vacations because long car rides meant hours of reading time (they still do!). I love belonging to book clubs because of the variety. Stories I might not have chosen, but end up loving. For years I devoured romance novels, especially historical and westerns. When my husband said, “You should write a book, you’ve read so many.” I decided to try and now have over 70 published romance novels, 50+ with Harlequin, Mills & Boon, and one young adult book that I co-wrote with two of my granddaughters. I hope my recommendations provides your book club with lively discussions!
This is one of those books that a reader doesn’t forget.
I can discuss the sweeping story of a young woman who flees her home during the American Civil War and the trial and tribulations she encounters for years. It was first published in 1979 and is still a top seller. The fact it was written in the 70’s is one of the reasons it provides so many subjects for discussion.
The author did a great job with the characters, but also with the settings and secondary characters. The end has an unexpected, but welcome, surprise.
I remember my grandmother and her friends discussing this book when it was first released, and is one I’ve read more than once.
A woman burdened by war ...A doctor torn between passion and duty ...A sweeping tale of love in the face of dishonor from the incomparable storyteller - Kathleen Woodiwiss. Alaina MacGaren is forced to flee the devastation of her homeland in the guise of a young boy, only to find sanctuary in the arms of an enemy. Cole Latimer is a dashing Yankee surgeon who has served the Union faithfully, and his tender heart compels him to help a ragged, innocent 'lad' in need - never suspecting the rags conceal a bewitching belle suspected of being a rebel spy. But…
