1. The Shoemaker’s Wife by Adrianna Trigiani. Got swept up in the epic saga and didn’t see the end coming!
2. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Burbery. Again, an ending I did not see coming.
3. Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness By Tracy Kidder. A heartbreakingly true story.
4. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Another sweeping saga of twin brother who become doctors and their journey from Africa to America.
5. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Fiction based on the roundup of Jews in Paris, May 1942. The story flows back and forth from the victims in 1942 to a modern day journalist retracing the past.
6. Room by Emma Donoghue. The very premise is a tear-jerker: child born in captivity to his mother and her sexually-abusive jailer.
7. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. They carried malaria tablets, love letters, 28-pound mine detectors, dope, illustrated bibles, each other. Story of men at war.
8. Life of Pi by Yann Martel. this would be even more of a tear-jerker in a second reading, once one comprehends the ending…
9. Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel. Another “hard-to-read” great read by Martel.
10. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. Powerful, heart-wrenching story of love and healing.
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© Gail Park and Making Life An Art, 2009-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Gail Park and Making Life An Art with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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I love Life of Pi! So much so that I dedicated a chapter of my BA thesis to it. Gorgeous text. I really like your choices!
Thanks! I sifted through years of Goodreads titles I’ve read to come up with these. For the longest time I only read mystery novels. Then when I had to read and moderate books for the PageTurners Book Discussion Group at the library, I started reading these historical fiction and non-fiction and I have a hard time now getting interested in the mysteries anymore.
I loved Cutting for Stone. Such a good story, it had me teary eyed a few times within the story.
Priceless reads that gives us meaningful answers.
Have you read any of these? Which is your favorite? My list isn’t in any particular order, but I think Secret Life of Bees was most impactful at the time of reading.
Sarah’s Key was a heartbreaker. Aside from Life of Pi and Life of Bees I haven’t read these. Will have to add to my list. So many books…..