Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

We Need to Talk About Kevin: A Novel (P.S.)

We Need to Talk About Kevin: A Novel (P.S.)

by Lionel Shriver

In this gripping novel of motherhood gone awry, Lionel Shriver approaches the tragedy of a high-school massacre from the point of view of the killer's mother.In letters written to the boy's father, mother Eva probes the upbringing of this more-than-difficult child and reveals herself to have been the reluctant mother of an unsavory son. As the schisms in her family unfold, we draw closer to an unexpected climax... (more)

All over but the Shoutin'

by Rick Bragg

This haunting, harrowing, gloriously moving recollection of a life on the American margin is the story of Rick Bragg, who grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama, seemingly destined for either the cotton mills or the penitentiary, and instead became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times. It is the story of Bragg's father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running... (more)

Last Kiss

by Luanne Rice

New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice returns to Hubbard’s Point, Connecticut, and to characters from her beloved Beach Girls , to tell the haunting story of a close-knit community grappling with a heartbreaking mystery, and of a woman rebuilding her world and reclaiming a love she believed lost a lifetime ago. A face on a poster, a name in the news, an inexplicable tragedy. A promising young man... (more)

Earth Has No Sorrow

by Michelle Blake

In this sequel to the critically-acclaimed The Tentmaker , Episcopalian priest Lily Connor seeks to find a friend who may be a victim of a vicious hate crime.

The Story of a Marriage: A Novel

by Andrew Sean Greer

From the bestselling author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli , a love story full of secrets and astonishments set in 1950s San Francisco “We think we know the ones we love.” So Pearlie Cook begins her indirect and devastating exploration of the mystery at the heart of every relationship, how we can ever truly know another person. It is 1953 and Pearlie, a dutiful housewife, finds herself living in the... (more)

Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Unabridged)

Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Unabridged)

by Anne Lamott

With the trademark wisdom, humor, and honesty that made Anne Lamott's book on faith, Traveling Mercies , a runaway bestseller, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith is a spiritual antidote to anxiety and despair in increasingly fraught times. The world is a more dangerous place than it was when Lamott's Traveling Mercies was published five years ago. Terrorism and war have become the new normal;... (more)

The Grandmothers : Four Short Novels

by Doris Lessing

With the four short novels in this collection, Doris Lessing once again proves that she is unrivalled in her ability to capture the truth of the human condition. The Grandmothers Two women, close friends, fall in love with each other's teenage sons, and these passions last for years, until the women end them, promising a respectable old age. Victoria and the Staveneys A poor black girl has... (more)

The English Teacher

by Lily King

Chosen by the Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly as one of the Best Novels of 2005, Lily King's new novel is a story about an independent woman and her fifteen-year-old son, and the truth she has long concealed from him. Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. She has since become a fixture and one of the best teachers Fayer has ever had. By living on campus, on an... (more)

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Tags: mothers/sons