LITERARY CLASSICS
Alcott, Louisa May
Little Women
Chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, as they grow into young women during the Civil War and afterwards.
Austen, Jane
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth Bennett’s unpleasant first meeting with the proud Mr. Darcy leads to surprising consequences.
Also: Emma; Sense and Sensibility
Cather, Willa
My Antonia
Through Jim Burden’s endearing, smitten voice, we revisit the immigrant experience at the turn of the century on the great western plain. Antonia embodies all of the longing and work that made life so hard for pioneer women.
Hilton, James
Goodby Mr. Chips
A professor at a boys’ prep school in England remembers his life and the people he has known.
James, Henry
Washington Square
Catherine Sloper is neither bright nor beautiful, but she is an heiress, and that is enough to bring her the attentions of a fortune-hunting suitor. Her cold and distant father is determined to protect her from certain heartache. But is the cure worse than the disease?
Also: Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove
Llewelyn, Richard
How Green Was My Valley
Huw Morgan comes-of-age in a small, turn-of-the-century Welsh mining town.
Montgomery, Lucy Maud
Anne of Green Gables
The misadventures of the irrepressible and wildly imaginative Anne Shirley, a red headed orphan, adopted by an elderly brother and sister on Prince Edward Island. Series runs to eight books.
Pym, Barbara
Excellent Women
Mildred Lathbury, the narrator of Pym's book is a never-married woman in her 30s--which in 1950s England makes her a nearly confirmed spinster. Hers is a pretty unexciting life, centered about her small church, and part-time job. But Mildred is far more perceptive and witty than even she seems to think, and when Helena and Rockingham Napier move into the flat below her, there seems to be a chance for her life to take a new direction.
Smith, Betty
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Poignant story of childhood and family relationships involving the Nolans and their children, Francie and Neely, who live in the Williamsburg slums from 1902 until 1919.
Welty, Eudora
The Optimist’s Daughter
After the death of her father, Laurel McKelva Hand and her silly and vulgar young stepmother, Fay, go back to the small Mississippi town where she grew up. Alone in the old house, Laurel finally comes to an understanding of the past, herself, and her parents.
Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth
Beautiful Lily Bart seems to have everything necessary for marrying well in New York City society-except her own money. Her quest to find a wealthy husband comes to a scandalous end when she is accused of being a rich man’s mistress.
Also: The Age of Innocence
‘HOMESPUN’ TALES
Chiaverini, Jennifer
The Quilter’s Apprentice
Sarah and Matt McClure move to the small town of Waterford, Pennsylvania, for a fresh start. Unable to land a fulfilling job, Sarah reluctantly accepts a temporary position helping elderly Sylvia Compson prepare her family estate for sale. A friendship develops as Sylvia teaches Sarah how to quilt. Both women confront some uncomfortable truths about their families and learn how to restore joy to their lives.
Followed by: Round Robin, The Cross-Country Quilters, The Runaway Quilt, and Quilter’s Legacy.
Dallas, Sandra
The Persian Pickle Club
The Great Depression has hit the town of Harveyville, Kansas hard, and times are tough. For young farmwife Queenie Bean and her friends, the highlight of each week is their quilting session. A new member with a hankering for a newspaper career begins to pry into a secret the “Pickles” have sworn to keep, and they must close ranks to protect one of their own.
Edgerton, Clyde
Walking Across Egypt
Set in a small town in North Carolina, 78-year-old Mattie Riggsbee has one regret: she has no grandchildren and her two unmarried children don’t seem in any hurry to provide one. Along comes Wesley Benfield, a wayward teenager and an orphan. Share some time with Mattie and you will enjoy good food, gospel music, and some wise and witty advice.
Flagg, Fannie
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café
Evelyn Couch, an unhappy, frumpy housewife befriends elderly Ninny Threadgoode in a nursing home. Evelyn learns to be more assertive as she listens to Ninny’s tales about the irrepressible Idgie and her friend Ruth, who ran the café in Whistle Stop, Alabama back in the 1930’s.
Also: Welcome to the World, Baby Girl! and Standing in the Rainbow.
Hinton, J. Lynne
Friendship Cake
Five churchgoing women form Hope Springs, North Carolina who come together to create a church cookbook quickly become a source of solace, support, and strength for each other.
Followed by: Garden of Faith and Forever Friends
Karon, Jan
At Home in Mitford
Beneath the cheerfulness of Father Tim Kavanagh, a small-town rector, is an aching loneliness. Slowly the empty places in his heart get filled: first with a gangly stray dog, then a seemingly stray boy and finally with his independent and Christian-wise next-door neighbor. The village of Mitford, nestled in the North Carolina hills, comes vividly and humorously to life.
Followed by: A Light in the Window;, These High, Green Hills; Out to Canaan; A New Song; A Common Life: The Wedding Story; In This Mountain; Shepherds Abiding.
Medlicott, Joan
The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love
When 60-ish Amelia inherits a rundown farmhouse in rural North Carolina, she and her two friends pool their resources and move from a dismal Philadelphia boarding house to the tiny hamlet of Covington over the objections of their adult children. As the women renovate the house and grounds, they rebuild meaningful lives for themselves.
Followed by: The Gardens of Covington and From the Heart of Covington.
White, Bailey
Quite a Year for Plums
Meet the peculiar yet loveable inhabitants of a small Georgia town, people whose primary concerns are plants, domestic animals, and looking after one another.
Also: Sleeping at the Starlight Motel
Whitney, Otto
How to Make An American Quilt
Eight women gather together over the years to piece together an extraordinary quilt of their own imaginative devising. And as they stitch, we listen to the stories they have to tell of their successes and failures, their lives and loves, their dreams, desires, and the surprise and sometimes joy of living.
FROM THE U.S.
Burns, Olive Ann
Cold Sassy Tree
When Will Tweedy’s Granpa Rucker suddenly marries Miss Love Simpson, his store’s young (and a Yankee to boot) milliner, barely three weeks after his wife’s death, it scandalizes the small, pious Southern town.
Followed by: Leaving Cold Sassy
de Hartog, Jan
The Peaceable Kingdom
Tells the story of the Quakers from their persecuted beginnings in 17th century England, to their new life in the New World through the horrors of WWII.
Price, Eugenia
Don Juan McQueen
After the American Revolution, John McQueen flees to Florida and settles in St. Augustine.
Siddons, Anne Rivers
Colony
As South Carolina-born ninety-year-old Maude Gasciogne Chambliss awaits the arrival of her granddaughter to pick her up from her Maine summer retreat, she looks back on a full lifetime of summers of friendship, love, and loss spent in this wealthy getaway.
Also: Homeplace, The House Next Door
Sparks, Nicholas
The Notebook
Noah Calhoun reads from his well-worn notebook to an aging woman who cannot remember the most cherished moments of her life. He tells his own story, a story of love found, lost, and re-discovered.
Also: Message in a Bottle; A Walk to Remember; The Rescue
Spencer, LaVyrle
Then Came Heaven
Set during the 1950’s in small town Minnesota, devoted husband and father, Eddie Olczak, the handyman for St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, is left with the challenge of raising his two daughters when his wife is killed in a tragic accident. The girls’ teacher, a nun who has always been uncertain of her calling, offers her help to the grieving widower. As time passes, they must realize that friendship has turned into something else, and they both must summon the courage to look within their hearts and make their own choices.
West, Jessamyn
The Friendly Persuasion
Stories about a Quaker couple, Jess and Eliza Birdwell, who move from Ohio to Southern Indiana, where they raise their family and help runaway slaves escape on the underground railroad. While their religious sect is strongly opposed to violence and war, their faith is sorely tested when the Civil War hits close to home.
Windle, Janice Woods
True Women
Follows three generations of the author’s female ancestors-the proud, wise and stong-willed women of Seguin, Texas from the Alamo to the years following World War II.
Followed by Hill Country.
GENTLE BRIT-LIT
Binchy, Maeve
The Copper Beach
Nine characters in a small Irish town share their life stories.
Also: Scarlet Feather
Brookner, Anita
Hotel du Lac
Edith Hope (a.k.a. romance author Veronica Wilde) has been banished by her friends to a stately hotel in Switzerland. During her stay she befriends some of the other guests, each of whom has his or her own tale. Edith struggles to come to terms with her career and love--the lack, the benefits, and the meaning thereof.
Also: Brief Lives
Brown, Carrie
Lamb in Love
Norris Lamb and Vida Stephen have known each other forever. Every day she’s nodded to the postmaster when calling for her mail. Both believe themselves somehow lacking the instinct for romance.
Also: Rose’s Garden
Buchan, Elizabeth
Consider the Lily
Matt, Kit and Daisy are the best of friends. But when Kit decides he must save the family estate by marrying Matty, Daisy is forced to choose another suitor.
Huth, Angela
Land Girls
During World War II, three young women from different backgrounds arrive at the farm of John and Faith Lawrence to work the field under England’s Land Army plan. Boy-hungry Prue, brainy Agatha and dreamy Stella find themselves thrown together, sharing an attic room and developing friendships that will last a lifetime, on a farm.
Lennox, Judith
The Secret Years
The friendship of four young people in the summer of 1914 turns to jealousy and suspicion when a priceless heirloom disappears. When they meet again after the war, they are strangers and it is many years before they come to terms with that long-ago August day.
McCullough, Colleen
The Ladies of Missalonghi
Set in the early 1900s in the tiny town of Byron, nestled in the Australia's Blue Mountains, it tells of the blossoming of Missy Wright, 33-year-old spinster and poor relation of the town's ruling family, the Hurlingfords. Missy, her widowed mother and crippled aunt live in genteel poverty, victims of the Hurlingford inheritance policy that gives riches and power to the male members of the family. Under the tutelage of a distant cousin, Missy acquires spunk, hope and the means to a happy ending.
Pilcher, Rosamunde
The Shell Seekers
Set in London and Cornwall from World War II to the present, tells the story of the Keeling family, particularly Penelope, whose most treasured possession is The Shell Seekers, which her father painted and left to her as a remembrance. But it is the fate of the painting that just may tear the family apart.
Also: Coming Home; September
Sheepshanks, Mary
Picking up the Pieces
Fifty-ish widow Kate is trying to cope with the difficulties-and occasional pleasures-of the single life. But when her daughter and granddaughter become dependent on her, Kate realizes it is time to step outside her family’s preconceived notions.
Also: A Price for Everything; Facing the Music
Smith, Dodie
I Capture the Castle
Over the course of six months in 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain, who lives with her family in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle English castle, keeps a journal in order to hone her writing skills. She fills her journal with poignant entries about her eccentric family and first love.
Stewart, Mary
Rose Cottage
War widow Kate Herrick travels to Rose Cottage to retrieve some family papers for her grandmother and finds evidence of a break-in. The papers are missing. She soon uncovers a web of intrigue and discovers love where she least expects it.
Woodhouse, Sarah
Meeting Lily
After Nan’s husband dies, she decides to remain in Italy and turn her estate into a small hotel where eccentric visitors come and go-except Mayor Bagshot, who dies in her best bed, thus turning life at the hotel upside-down and inside out.
MYSTERIES
Atherton, Nancy
Aunt Dimity’s Death
Don’t be unsettled by the ghost of Aunt Dimity. Atherton paints a gentle place where oatmeal cookies, stuffed bunnies, and cozy cottages bring warmth and joy to the heart of every reader. There are ten books in the series.
Barron, Stephanie
Jane and the Unpleasantnessat Scargrave Manor
This is the first in a series of six (so far) “Jane Austen Mysteries.” When the squire of a country manor in Hertfordshire is found lifeless in his bed, foul play is suspected and Jane is called upon to unravel the mystery. Barron employs Jane as the first-person narrator and adeptly re-creates Austen's voice and delightful humor.
Berenson, Laurien
Hush Puppy: A Melanie Travis Mystery
A little humor, a little murder, and a mystery that is abundant with dog lore. This series is a light-hearted adventure that will charm dog fanciers and cozy fans. There are many titles in this series.
Braun, Lillian Jackson
The Cat Who Sang For the Birds
All you have to know is that Jim Qwilleran lives in Moose County with his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Each book in this series is a mix of crime, and cats that are sometimes smarter than the people they own.
Brown, Rita Mae and Sneaky Pie Brown
Murder, She Meowed
Amateur sleuth Mary Minor Harrison, her cat Mrs. Murphy and corgi Tee Tucker enter the world of steeplechase racing when two jockeys are murdered. The “authors” have penned another clever and sassy mystery that probes the depths of human depravity and the heights of feline genius. There are many titles in this series.
Gilman, Dorothy
The Unexpected Mrs. Polifax
The first book in the beloved Mrs. Pollifax series gives the background as to how this elderly, yet irrepressible grandmother joins the CIA. Bored and disillusioned with her life, she decides to volunteer to be a spy with the CIA. This series will provide humor, suspense, and charm.
Kemelman, Harry
Friday The Rabbi Slept Late
Rabbi David Small is forced into crime solving when he is implicated in a murder near his temple. There are many titles in this series.
McCall Smith, Alexander
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
Precious Ramotswe is a detective solving crimes through an innate, self-possessed wisdom that combined with an understanding of human nature, invariably penetrates into the heart of a puzzle. The setting is modern-day Botswana, and the mysteries are those that draw her to this profession to “help people with problems in their lives.” Immediately upon setting up shop in a small storefront in Gaborone, she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter.
The story of Mme Ramotswe continues in several sequels.
Mortimer, John
Rumpole on Trial
Rumpole, ever defender of the downtrodden criminal element, the very British barrister, captures and challenges the inner workings of the British system of justice in a series of tales. There are many Rumpole tales.
Myers, Tamar
Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth: A Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery with Recipes
Magdalena Yoder is a mean-spirited Mennonite innkeeper who offers service with a sneer to the "well-heeled, highfalutin customers" patronizing her PennDutch Inn in southern Pennsylvania. This is a good series for readers who like cozy mysteries, with quirky characters, and a lot of humor. There are many titles in this series.
Peters, Elizabeth
Seeing a Large Cat
While Amelia Peabody, feisty, turn-of-the-century Egyptologist detective, and her family are on an archeological dig in Egypt, an ancient tomb yields a much more modern murder. There are many titles in this series.
Peters, Ellis
A Morbid Taste For Bones
This is the first of what will ultimately come to be twenty Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, former crusader turned herbalist monk living in the 12th century world of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. In Brother Cadfael, Ms. Peters (a/k/a Edith Pargeter) created a most engaging detective. His experiences as a crusader have left him with a keen sense of reality, a certain element of world-weariness and a deep sense of morality, thus enabling Cadfael to apply the church's teachings in a truly wise manner, always coming to solutions which are as just as they are compassionate and pragmatic.
Riggs, Cynthia
Deadly Nightshade
Victoria Trumbull is a spry ninety-two year old woman who lives on Martha's Vineyard year round. She has more energy than most people half her age, goes hiking, writes poetry and reads to the residents of the retirement home. The “Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries” (there are four) will give the reader a sense of the vineyard as well as a funny, cozy, murder mystery.
NONFICTION
Gethers, Peter
The Cat Who Went to Paris (921)
The touching and humorous adventures of a reformed cat hater and his feline.
Gilbreth, Frank
Cheaper by the Dozen (921)
A father who believes a family can be run like a factory and a mother who is his partner in everything except discipline raise 12 lively children.
Herriot, James
All Creatures Great and Small (921)
Yorkshire veterinary surgeon relates the wonder of working with animals and the farmers and townspeople of the Yorkshire Dales.
Kuralt, Charles
On the Road with Charles Kuralt (917.3)
Kuralt recounts his life’s adventures traveling America’s backroads.
Mayes, Frances
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy (921)
The author describes the obstacles-and meals-she encounters while restoring a Tuscan villa.
Mayle, Peter
A Year in Provence (944.92)
A funny, month-by-month account of the charms and frustrations of moving into an old French farmhouse and adapting to a new way of life.
White, Bailey
Sleeping at the Starlite Motel:
And Other Adventures on the Way Back Home (818.54)
Humorous sketches of the NPR correspondent’s travels.
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From the U.S.
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