Online Reading My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel from Elizabeth Strout

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 
A new book by Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout is cause for celebration. Her bestselling novels, including Olive Kitteridge and The Burgess Boys, have illuminated our most tender relationships. Now, in My Name Is Lucy Barton, this extraordinary writer shows how a simple hospital visit becomes a portal to the most tender relationship of all—the one between mother and daughter.
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken for many years, comes to see her. Gentle gossip about people from Lucy’s childhood in Amgash, Illinois, seems to reconnect them, but just below the surface lie the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of Lucy’s life: her escape from her troubled family, her desire to become a writer, her marriage, her love for her two daughters. Knitting this powerful narrative together is the brilliant storytelling voice of Lucy herself: keenly observant, deeply human, and truly unforgettable. Read Online Book My Name Is Lucy Barton: A Novel from Elizabeth Strout Full Free

Praise for My Name Is Lucy Barton

“There is not a scintilla of sentimentality in this exquisite novel. Instead, in its careful words and vibrating silences, My Name Is Lucy Barton offers us a rare wealth of emotion, from darkest suffering to—‘I was so happy. Oh, I was happy’—simple joy.”—Claire Messud, The New York Times Book Review

“Spectacular . . . Smart and cagey in every way. It is both a book of withholdings and a book of great openness and wisdom. . . . [Strout] is in supreme and magnificent command of this novel at all times.”—Lily King, The Washington Post
 
“A short novel about love, particularly the complicated love between mothers and daughters, but also simpler, more sudden bonds . . . It evokes these connections in a style so spare, so pure and so profound the book almost seems to be a kind of scripture or sutra, if a very down-to-earth and unpretentious one.”—Marion Winik, Newsday
 
“Potent with distilled emotion. Without a hint of self-pity, Strout captures the ache of loneliness we all feel sometimes.”—Time

“An aching, illuminating look at mother-daughter devotion.”—People

“A quiet, sublimely merciful contemporary novel about love, yearning, and resilience in a family damaged beyond words.”—The Boston Globe

“Sensitive, deceptively simple . . . It is Lucy’s gentle honesty, complex relationship with her husband, and nuanced response to her mother’s shortcomings that make this novel so subtly powerful. . . . [It’s] more complex than it first appears, and all the more emotionally persuasive for it.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Strout maps the complex terrain of human relationships by focusing on that which is often unspoken and only implied. . . . A powerful addition to Strout’s body of work.”—The Seattle Times

“Impressionistic and haunting . . . [Strout] reminds us of the power of our stories—and our ability to transcend our troubled narratives.”—Miami Herald

“Writing of this quality comes from a commitment to listening, from a perfect attunement to the human condition, from an attention to reality so exact that it goes beyond a skill and becomes a virtue.”—Hilary Mantel

“Magnificent.”—Ann Patchett

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Free Ebook: Hold Still: A Novel from Lynn Steger Strong

Maya Taylor, an intense, gifted English professor, has a tendency to retreat when she is needed most, escaping on long morning runs or finding comfort in the well-thumbed novels in her library. But when she sends her daughter Ellie to Florida to care for a friend’s child, it’s with the best of intentions. Twenty and spiraling, Ellie is lost in a fog of drugs and men―desperately in need of a fresh start. Her life with this attractive new family in Florida begins well, but Ellie is crippled by the fear that she’ll only disappoint those around her . . . again. And in the sprawling hours of one humid afternoon, she finally makes a mistake she cannot take back.

The accident hangs over both mother and daughter as they try to repair their fractured relationship and find a way to transcend not only their differences but also their more startling similarities. In Maya’s and Ellie’s echoing narratives, Lynn Steger Strong creates a searing, unforgettable portrait of familial love and the tender heartache of motherhood―from the sweltering Florida heat to the bone-cold of New York in January. Churning toward one fateful day in two separate timelines, Hold Still is a story of before and after and the impossible distance in between.

Heralding the arrival of a profoundly moving new talent, this novel marks a taut and propulsive debut that “builds to a perfect crescendo, an ending that is both surprising and true” (Marcy Dermansky).Hold Still explores the weight of culpability and the depths and limits of a mother’s love. Read Online Book Hold Still: A Novel from Lynn Steger Strong Full Free

Review :

“Lynn Steger Strong paints a portrait of familial love that is real, visceral, and all the more dangerous for being unconditional.” ―Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

“Hold Still is an unblinking examination of family, the mother-child bond, and the storms it must withstand. Lynn Strong pulls no punches in considering not just how deep, but also how misguided a mother’s love can be.”―Elisa Albert, author of After Birth

“Lynn Steger Strong has a great eye for the visible world, a near perfect sensor for those of us living in it, and a deep compassion and curiosity for how we go astray and find ourselves again.” (Richard Ford)

“What keeps the pages turning is the desperate, botched attempts at familial love between family members, none of whom seem to know quite what they want, bringing to mind the Tolstoy quote, ‘Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Here, the mercurial rendering of this particular unhappy family makes it a heart-wrenching read in its very own way.” (Publishers Weekly)

“A tragedy lurks at the heart of Lynn Steger Strong’s achingly sad, achingly beautiful debut novel. How do you forgive your child after she does the unthinkable? How can you not? Hold Still quietly builds to a perfect crescendo, an ending that is both surprising and true.” (Marcy Dermansky, author of Bad Marie)

“Strong has produced a family saga both familiar and strange, told in kaleidoscopic detail, dancing back and forth in time, balletically slow yet always knife tight, philosophical, interrogative and smart. I read with my heart in my throat.” (Rufi Thorpe, author of The Girls from Corona del Mar)

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Free Online Reading The Charm Bracelet: A Novel by Viola Shipman

Lose yourself to the magic of The Charm Bracelet.

Through an heirloom charm bracelet, three women will rediscover the importance of family and a passion for living as each charm changes their lives.

On her birthday each year, Lolly’s mother gave her a charm, along with the advice that there is nothing more important than keeping family memories alive, and so Lolly’s charm bracelet would be a constant reminder of that love.

Now seventy and starting to forget things, Lolly knows time is running out to reconnect with a daughter and granddaughter whose lives have become too busy for Lolly or her family stories.

But when Arden, Lolly’s daughter, receives an unexpected phone call about her mother, she and granddaughter Lauren rush home. Over the course of their visit, Lolly reveals the story behind each charm on her bracelet, and one by one the family stories help Lolly, Arden, and Lauren reconnect in a way that brings each woman closer to finding joy, love, and faith.

A compelling story of three women and a beautiful reminder of the preciousness of family, The Charm Bracelet is a keepsake you’ll cherish long after the final page. Read Online Book The Charm Bracelet: A Novel by Viola Shipman Full Free

Review :

"[An] idyllic setting, and likable characters make Shipman's debut an enjoyable comfort read for fans of women's fiction centered on mother-daughter relationships." -Booklist

"Debut novelist Shipman--a pen name chosen by memoirist Wade Rouse in homage to his grandmother--pulls out all the emotional bells and whistles here; his book reads like a fictionalized guide to living the good life ("Live! Love! Laugh!") and checks all the boxes--family, friends, God, love, and simply living--designed to warm the heart and fill the tear ducts. Smooth writing, unabashed sentimentality." -Kirkus Reviews

"Shipman's charming story of finding peace in oneself, listening to your heart, and remembering all those who came before you will be welcomed by fans of Cecelia Ahern and Debbie Macomber." -Library Journal

“Rich in character and story, The Charm Bracelet is utterly charming!”
-Debbie Macomber, New York Times bestselling author

“The Charm Bracelet is as sweet as three scoops of Dolly’s ice cream. It’s packed with gorgeous scenery, time-honored wisdom, and all kinds of charm.”

-Nancy Thayer, New York Times bestselling author

“There are family heirlooms that wind up in yard sales, and then there are the priceless ones that are passed down from generation to generation. The Charm Bracelet by Viola Shipman is a keeper, a novel like a rare jewel that will be passed down one generation to the next and from one book club member to the next until everyone has read this heartfelt, intergenerational story of love and forgiveness. Viva Viola!”
-Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author

“It made me weep, think, and cry again. It is rare to find a book that makes people cry in a good way. I reread the whole book yet again because I wanted to. That’s how amazingly good it is.”
-Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author

“. . . characters you care for, a story to enjoy, and the hope for a family understanding that anyone would benefit from.” ―Senior Life Times

“Readers will be charmed by the characters, most of all by kooky but wise Lolly (a mix of Viola and Madge Rouse, Wade’s paternal grandmother), who teaches her stressed-out daughter and granddaughter lessons in life and love.”―Good Housekeeping

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Online Reading Before We Visit the Goddess: A Novel from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A beautiful, powerful new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of Sister of My Heart andThe Mistress of Spices about three generations of mothers and daughters who must discover their greatest source of strength in one another—a masterful, brilliant tale of a family both united and torn apart by ambition and love.
The daughter of a poor baker in rural Bengal, India, Sabitri yearns to get an education, but her family’s situation means college is an impossible dream. Then an influential woman from Kolkata takes Sabitri under her wing, but her generosity soon proves dangerous after the girl makes a single, unforgiveable misstep. Years later, Sabitri’s own daughter, Bela, haunted by her mother’s choices, flees abroad with her political refugee lover—but the America she finds is vastly different from the country she’d imagined. As the marriage crumbles and Bela is forced to forge her own path, she unwittingly imprints her own child, Tara, with indelible lessons about freedom, heartbreak, and loyalty that will take a lifetime to unravel.

In her latest novel, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters, and the different kinds of love that bind us across generations. Before We Visit the Goddess captures the gorgeous complexity of these multi-generational and transcontinental bonds, sweeping across the twentieth century from the countryside of Bengal, India, to the streets of Houston, Texas—an extraordinary journey told through a sparkling symphony of voices. Read Online Book Before We Visit the Goddess: A Novel from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Full Free

Review :

“I will never forget Sabitri, Bela, and Tara: grandmother, mother, and daughter after my own heart. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni cycles through generations of time, until we come to know our ancestresses—and the goddess. A lovely book.”
(Maxine Hong Kingston, author of I Love a Broad Margin to My Life)

“Tender, bittersweet, beautifully wrought tales about love and longing, exile and loneliness. I was reminded of the songs of separation sung by Bhojpuri women: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni discovers new nuances in the ‘biraha’ that creeps into the lives of migrants.” (Amitav Ghosh, author of The Glass Palace)
“The always enchanting and enlightening Divakaruni spins another silken yet tensile saga about the lives of women in India and as immigrants in America…Divakaruni’s gracefully insightful, dazzlingly descriptive, and covertly stinging tale illuminates the opposition women must confront, generation by generation, as they seek both independence and connection." (Booklist (Starred Review))
“Richly drawn characters…a novel of quiet but deeply affecting moments.” (Kirkus Reviews)

"Three generations of headstrong Bengali women, their passions, secrets, regrets and mysteries, come to life through Divakaruni’s storytelling wizardry… Divakaruni brings us from the poor villages to the upper crust urban families, from India to Texas, to show how three courageous women struggle toward independence.” (BBC.com)

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