Here are 53 books that Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You fans have personally recommended if you like
Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You.
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I love to read and write about complex characters and particularly the âunlikeableâ female character. Many readers connect with my characters because they are flawedâthey donât always think or do what we want them to, or what we think they should do, which is often (frustratingly) the case with the real-life people we love and care about. Real, complex people exist in real, complex relationships, including friendships that donât always serve themâor that do serve them, but in unconventional or superficially unclear ways. I think that reading about contradictory, inconsistent, and confused characters in relationships helps us to be kinder and more empathetic peopleâand, quite possibly, better friends.
Before reaching middle school, I pretty much believed that my friendsâwho they were and how many I hadâdetermined my value. But my circle could be fickle; girls were ostracized for minor infractions (you bought the same coat as me!) I lived with daily fear of being dropped.
So Catâs Eye captivated me with its lack of sentimentality in depicting (some) girlsâ friendships. Elaine, a middle-aged artist, returns alone to Toronto, the city where she grew up, for a retrospective of her work. The trip gives Elaine space to reflect on her life in that city, and Cordelia, her childhood âfriendâ, is central to her memories.
Cordelia tormented and humiliated Elaine, even putting her life in danger, yet Elaine remained loyal to her for years. It felt very real to me that this toxic relationship would continue to preoccupy Elaine into her functional adulthood. Girlhood friendships are often fraught, and AtwoodâŚ
Elaine Risley, a painter, returns to Toronto to find herself overwhelmed by her past. Memories of childhood - unbearable betrayals and cruelties - surface relentlessly, forcing her to confront the spectre of Cordelia, once her best friend and tormentor, who has haunted her for forty years. 'Not since Graham Greene has a novelist captured so forcefully the relationship between school bully and victim...Atwood's games are played, exquisitely, by little girls' LISTENER An exceptional novel from the winner of the 2000 Booker Prize
Second novels rarely get the love that they deserve. People come to them with all kinds of presumptions and expectations, mostly based on whatever they liked (or didnât like!) about your first novel, and all writers live in fear of the dreaded âsophomore slump.â I spent a decade trying to write my second novel and was plagued by these very fears. To ward off the bad vibes, I want to celebrate some of my favorite second novels by some of my favorite writers. Some were bona fide hits from the get-go, while others were sadly overlooked or wrongly panned, but theyâre all brilliant, beautiful, and full of heart.
Lorrie Moore is another one of my favorite writers and someone Iâve been lucky enough to write about on multiple occasions. Her first novel, Anagrams, is smart, fun, and resolutelyâeven defiantlyâweird. Her second novel, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? is all those things and more.
Berie, the narrator, is on a bad vacation in Paris, where her marriage is teetering on the brink of collapse. Instead of dealing with her obnoxious husband, she thinks back to the summer she turned fifteen and the profound friendship she forged with a girl she worked with at a Disney-knockoff theme park in upstate New York.
Like Home Land, this novel has its cultists, and Iâm happy to count myself among them. Moore, like Lipsyte, is a stylist as unmistakable as she is unprecedented, someone whose sentences I would recognize anywhere. This slim coming-of-age novel bears all her hallmarksâcomic timing, gimletâŚ
"Touches and dazzles and entertains. An enchanting novel." --The New York Times
In this moving, poignant novel by the bestselling author of Birds of America we share a grown womanâs bittersweet nostalgia for the wildness of her youth.
The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in theâŚ
Maybe itâs because I come from a family that expresses conflict, shall we say, indirectly, but nothing fascinates me the way relationships do. What do we desire, what do we offer? And how much more do we care about friendships and family bonds than world peace? I also love stories about passions we pursue professionally, and ever since I fell in love with the food and wine world, thatâs the world Iâve written about and the world in which my charactersâ intense relationships play out. Real drama plays out over a drink or at a dinner table, and of course a glass of wine only unleashes a little more.
I know I have those lost friendships I still wonder aboutâwe worked together, lived together, traveled to beach towns together, drank tequila together! We went to very bad bars and made very bad decisions together! Howâd we lose touch?âand thank God these brilliant writers do too.
Schappell and Offill gather a cocktail partyâs worth of lost platonic loves, reminding me that Iâm not alone and giving meaningful thought to the monumental importance of friendship and the pain of losing it.
Losing a friend can be as painful and as agonizing as a divorce or the end of a love affair, yet it is rarely written about or even discussed. THE FRIEND WHO GOT AWAY is the first book to address this near-universal experience, bringing together the brave, eloquent voices of writers like Francine Prose, Katie Roiphe, Dorothy Allison, Elizabeth Strout, Ann Hood, Diana Abu Jabar, Vivian Gornick, Helen Schulman, and many others. Some write of friends who have drifted away, others of sudden breakups that took them by surprise. Some even celebrate their liberation from unhealthy or destructive relationships. YetâŚ
The Oracle of Spring Garden Road
by
Norrin M. Ripsman,
The Oracle of Spring Garden Road explores the life and singular worldview of âCrazy Eddie,â a brilliant, highly-educated homeless man who panhandles in front of a downtown bank in a coastal town.
Eddie is a local enigma. Who is he? Where did he come from? What brought him to aâŚ
Maybe itâs because I come from a family that expresses conflict, shall we say, indirectly, but nothing fascinates me the way relationships do. What do we desire, what do we offer? And how much more do we care about friendships and family bonds than world peace? I also love stories about passions we pursue professionally, and ever since I fell in love with the food and wine world, thatâs the world Iâve written about and the world in which my charactersâ intense relationships play out. Real drama plays out over a drink or at a dinner table, and of course a glass of wine only unleashes a little more.
Iâm a little obsessed with the sheer ferocity with which Elisa Albert writes the world, and when I this short, sharp novel the phrase that stuck in my head was, âThis is all teeth.â And boy, do I mean that in a good way.
Ari Walker is still trying to get her footing after the birth of her baby when Mina, a former cult musician, moves to town and the two bond hard. I still think about Albertâs description of Mina, her round cheeks and her messy hair and the jarring realization that this woman is not affecting carelessness with standard beauty norms, but truly does not give a good goddamn. Itâs about those people who are both alien and intimate and who make you more yourself.
Sometimes I'm with the baby and I think: you're my heart and my soul, and I would die for you. Other times I think: tiny moron, leave me the fuck alone
A year has passed since Ari gave birth and still she can't locate herself in her altered universe. Sleep-deprived, lonely and unprepared, she struggles through the strange, disjointed rhythms of her days and nights. Her own mother long dead and her girlhood friendships faded, she is a woman in need. When Mina - older, alone, pregnant - moves to town, Ari sees hope of a comrade-in-arms. Perhaps the hostileâŚ
Growing up, I witnessed my mother have a number of precognitive episodes. I later realized I was very intuitive at times. As a technical analyst in commodities I recognized that intuition was playing a huge part in my success in calling the markets. Feeling uncomfortable in groups, I became very much an introvert. I feel othersâ strong emotions and even their physical pain at times. Itâs painful to watch shows where people are fighting or being hurt. Later in life I realized there was a name for my discomfort. Clairsentience. Writing/reading paranormal stories about others is not only comforting to me, but psychologically grounding as well.
Detective Paranormal: I love reading Indie books like Book 1 in thePsychic Detective Ellen Owensseries because they offer such diverse styles. Mitchell takes care to develop her characters beyond their career roles, which I like.
Detective Owens struggles to accept her gifts, which can be a blessing and a curse for her. Visions arenât readily accepted as evidence in police work; however she quickly learns they canoffer leads. When Ellen spies a woman at a cemetery several times wearing the same clothes, sheâs drawn into a 1978 cold case where an editor named Regina Mitchell disappears, leaving her young son behind. Although a psychic newbie, Ellenâs family isnât, so she has her mother for support as she winds her way through this complex old and cold case.
If you love crime and ghost stories, then you'll love this novel which combines these two genres. Homicide detective Ellen Owens has recently moved into a new home just outside of her hometown, Columbus, Georgia. After a chance sighting of two grieving women, at a nearby cemetery, Ellen and her partner Nathan are drawn into a thirty year-old cold case.
In 1978, a young editor named Regina Ann Mitchell went missing on her way to a work related party. The only thing ever found of her was her car, parked next to a bridge crossing over the Chattahoochee river.
I consider myself a seeker. Several experiences, such as experiencing the buzzing that Robert Monroe mentions, seeing objects with my eyes closed, and meeting a spirit guide, led me to realize that the universe is more mysterious than what science can explain. Perhaps we will develop the technology to measure these phenomena someday. Or maybe we already have? The US Army's âStargate Project,â deemed as unhelpful, is one example, but what about the projects they haven't declassified? Itâs fun to think about. Combined with a huge interest in astronomy, I enjoy learning from a variety of sources, never holding anything tightly, because what we know is always changing.
Far Journeys is a profound and unusual book. The story in which Robert Monroe, who was a radio executive, finds himself having spontaneous out-of-body experiences sometimes reads like science fiction. Yet it is his honest account. Dedicated to an exploration of human consciousness, he later founded a nonprofit called The Monroe Institute, which pioneered research into changing brainwaves using only binaural sounds. Monroe kept pushing the envelope with his explorations, learning to explore places beyond our world that most have only dreamed of; and itâs given me such great inspiration for my stories. It also blew my mind and helped me make sense when I had my own glimpses of the energetic realm that he describes here. This is technically his second book, but I feel itâs even better to start here.
The sequel to Monroe's Journey Out Of The Body is an amazing parapsychological odyssey that reflects a decade of research into the psychic realm beyond the known dimensions of physical reality.
Even before I found Lovecraft and Stephen King and my world turned, I was raised on Doyle, Wells, Hodgson, and Robert Louis Stevenson which gave me both a love of the "gentleman detective" era and a deep love of the late Victorian/early Edwardian historical period in general. Once you merge that with my abiding interest in all things weird and spooky, you can see where a lot of my stories come from. There seems to be quite a burgeoning market for this kind of mixing of detection and supernatural, and I intend to write more... maybe even a lot more.
Silence is much more cerebral than Carnacki, more prone to solve his mysteries from the comfort of his armchair over a pipe of tobacco. But don't let the leisurely pace fool you; Blackwood brings the chills like few others can, and you might find yourself looking over your shoulder more than once, or even getting up to put a stronger light on. If creeping dread is your thing, Blackwood's your man for it.
One of the former British writers of supernatural tales in the twentieth century, Algernon Blackwood (1869â1951) wrote stories in which the slow accumulation of telling details produced a foreboding atmosphere of almost unendurable tension. Blackwood's literary renown began in 1908 with the publication of a highly successful collection of stories, John Silence â Physician Extraordinary, featuring a "psychic doctor." This volume contains all five of the John Silence stories from the 1908 edition plus one additional tale. Edited and with an informative introduction by S. T. Joshi, noted occult fiction authority, the stories include "A Psychical Invasion," in which SilenceâŚ
Iâve led a storied life. One of six children, I married and divorced before the age of 20 and moved from Santa Cruz, California to New York City in my early 30s. I carved out my career as a writer while scraping by on government assistance as a single mom. They say write what you know, and I did just that. My first novel, Garden of Lies, became a New York Times bestseller, skyrocketing me from poverty to financial security. Iâve since gone on to publish 20 novels about family relationships, romantic love, and reversals of fortune. With more to come!
Give me a mystery with a fast-paced narrative and an interesting hero or heroine, and Iâm hooked. This mystery, the first in a series, ticks all the boxes. When Maddie, an autistic dog handler and rumored animal psychic, discovers a dead body, she tells one reporter, "The crows told me where to look.â With that line, the book takes off down a path with many twists and turns. I fell in love with Maddie, the quirky and courageous heroine, but what resonated with me most, as one of five sisters, is the relationship between Maddie and her big sister Kenzie. The two are tight. Kenzie sees it as her role to nurture and corral Maddie in equal measures, forever trying and often failing to get her to act ânormal.â Maddie chafes under her guidance but adores her. The strong and often complicated bond between sisters is vividly depicted here. IâŚ
Can she save herself by saving the dog she loves?From Library Journal Women's Summer Reading and Romantic Times Editor's Choice author Marta Acosta comes a "heart-breaking and heart-warming" story about taking risks, making friends, and finding love, while staying true to yourself.
Broken-hearted Maddie Whitney, aka Mad Girl, is a dog trainer whose significant behavioral issues make her an outcast in the quirky small town of Coyote Run. When Maddie discovers a murdered woman in a field, she impulsively claims that she's an animal psychic to promote her canine rehabilitation center and save the family ranch.
My grandmother had what we in the South call the sight. I have it as wellâthat sense of foreboding. Of knowing what will happen next. Some call it a premonition, others Deja vu. Whatever you call it, I think itâs something weâve all experienced at some point in our lives. Empathy, telepathy, telekinesisâŚthe list is endless. Thereâs no proof that psychic abilities exist, but thereâs no proof that they donât, either. I find the concept fascinating, so when I started writing, it was a natural fit for me to combine my love for thrillers and mysteries with the added twist of psychic ability. I hope you love it too.
Eloise Montgomery is my kind of protagonist. She survives a tragedy, suffers a great loss, and, waking up from a coma, finds herself with a new and frightening psychic ability. One that she puts to good use.
I like her grit and determination, along with her moments of doubt and despair. Sheâs human. A normal, everyday woman is thrust into a life she didnât expect and is making the best of itâa situation I can identify with. Except for her psychic ability. That I donât have, but how cool would that be?
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger delivers a spellbinding novella, told in three parts, featuring reluctant psychic Eloise Montgomery. This in-depth exploration of Eloise is a perfect way for newcomers to be introduced to The Hollows, and experience the sense of place Unger is building that "rivals Stephen King's Castle Rock for continuity and creepiness." (The News & Observer - Raleigh) It is also a treasure trove of insight and greater understanding of connections for those already drawn deep into The Hollows. Includes an author introduction to The Hollows, and an excerpt from the bestseller Ink and Bone--a chillingâŚ
My grandmother had what we in the South call the sight. I have it as wellâthat sense of foreboding. Of knowing what will happen next. Some call it a premonition, others Deja vu. Whatever you call it, I think itâs something weâve all experienced at some point in our lives. Empathy, telepathy, telekinesisâŚthe list is endless. Thereâs no proof that psychic abilities exist, but thereâs no proof that they donât, either. I find the concept fascinating, so when I started writing, it was a natural fit for me to combine my love for thrillers and mysteries with the added twist of psychic ability. I hope you love it too.
My favorite part of this book is the supporting characters. T.J., Dobbs, and Sparkyâthe wonder dog. Funny, smart, and wise, the two older gents carry the story from beginning to end, taking the townâs new arrival under their protective wings.
Itâs Jessie, the new girl in town, who has the psychic ability, but itâs T. J. and Dobbs, who figure out how to put the pieces together. Like all my favorite books, there is mystery, suspense, and romance, but what I really like is the psychic element. Itâs different from most.
From Ninie Hammon, the sorceress of psychological suspense, comes the first book of her long-anticipated and thrilling new Through The Canvas series: Black Water - a book that won't stop squeezing your book-loving heart before the final page.
Bailey Donahue was supposed to stay dead...
After witnessing her husband's murder, Bailey's been ripped from her life and secreted away in the Witness Protection Program.
Too bad the sleepy town of Shadow Rock was the wrong place to hide.
Believed dead by the mafia, Bailey finds herself trapped in a torturous limbo, walled-off from her old life. But that's where sheâŚ