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Katy O.'s avatar

I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger is so absolutely fabulous that I'm shocked not to see it more! It's especially wonderful if you are familiar with the Minnesota / Wisconsin shoreline of Lake Superior.

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

I have read other books by him. He is a beautiful writer. Not good if you want a fast pace, but excellent if you want to bathe in beautiful storytelling and memorable characters.

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Carrie's avatar

I hadn't heard of this one - thanks for the rec!

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Tiffany's avatar

Ella Minnow Pea: a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable by Mark Dunn

Recounts what happens when the citizens of an island must rely on all their ingenuity to communicate in an increasingly limited language when the government progressively bans letters from the alphabet.

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Heather's avatar

I enjoyed this book so much

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

I have almost picked that book up several times! Such a creative idea! Thanks for the rec. :)

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Lennette Daniels's avatar

Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressman Taylor. Great little book (only 67 pages) that will show how fascism took over in Germany.

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Bookishly Delightful's avatar

It blew me away!

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Liz's avatar

No Two Persons by Erica Bauermeister is so so good. It’s like a love letter to books and the power of reading the right book at the right time

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

Is it sappy? I don't like Hallmark-y books.

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patherkal@gmail.com's avatar

Not at all

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Dara's avatar

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

I have a friend who has been after me to read that book for YEARS. I will read it....as soon as I understand what the heck it is about! 😆 j/k. I am going to try and get to it this year.

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Michele K's avatar

The Bible. True story.

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Sharon Fleming's avatar

And stranger than fiction! Can't make these truths up!

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Ericka's avatar

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane (ugh, the art by Jackie Morris is STUNNING), A Charm of Goldfinches by Matt Sewell (all small little delightful books with interesting writing.) Oh, and the picture book The Lonely Mailman by Susanna Isern - very touching and gorgeous illustrations.

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Amy's avatar

I second Lost Spells.... the art work and writing are so well matched.

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Jen G's avatar

there’s a beautiful song based on The Lost Words https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg1xFYpXuWA

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

Based on the titles alone, I'm going to look into those!

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Lynn's avatar

The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson. Great Character writing. Helen of Pasadena by Lian Dolan. Laugh out loud hilarious and strong sense of place (😉) if you are familiar at all with Pasadena

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

I have heard The Summer Before the War is good, too.

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Valerie Batey's avatar

The Fortunes of War by Olive Manning, a six-book series made up of two trilogies about a young married British couple who were living in Bucharest in the early years of WWII. A TV series was made of it starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh in the late 1980s.

Also, Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner, about a historian who explores the lives of his grandparents, and the challenges faced by his grandmother, a pioneer in the American West. And lastly, I enjoyed The Rules of Civility by Amor Towles the most of all his books so far.

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

Oh wow. Those sound really good! Just added them on goodreads. Thanks!

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Kate's avatar

Dear Fran, Love Dulcie: Life and Death in the Hills and Hollows of Bygone Australia by Victoria Twead. This was based on two penpals from Australia and US and their letters. It is one of those (shortish) books that just stays with you as the stories shared are so descriptive of those early times (1950s).

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Gretared's avatar

Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit because…well…

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Emily Kerr's avatar

Love Hope in the Dark. It's about time to reread it.

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Katherine Rice's avatar

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

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Karen's avatar

Also "There, There" by the same author and dealing with the same narrative arc.

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Margaret Allbee's avatar

There There was good. Hard to read, but good. He has talent.

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Gretared's avatar

Those are sooo good

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Sam Tackeff's avatar

Truthfully a LOT of people know about it, but Garth Nix's Sabriel is in my top and I re-read for comfort: Sabriel is a tom-boyish teenage girl protagonist saving the world (by being smart and a dose of magic) with her ornery magical cat named Mogget.

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Tullia Ropp's avatar

The audio book is narrated by Tim Curry and it's just great

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Jocelyn's avatar

I feel the same way about Lirael. 💕

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Sam Tackeff's avatar

YES me too. I mean, I like all of them, but the first two were truly delightful.

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Rebecca Merrell's avatar

The three books written by my grandmother, Betty Merrell, written under her pen name Leigh Merrell that are now out of print: Tenoch, Mary in Command and Prisoners of Hannibal. You can still find some on Amazon. They are fabulous historical fiction novels!

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Danielle's avatar

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It's always next to my bed.

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Jennifer Morgan's avatar

Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown. Lady Pirate, kidnapped chef, adventure on the high seas and characters I think about daily even five years later!

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