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When Crickets Cry

Charles Martin · back to the book

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24 books with the same feel

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A Walk to Remember

Nicholas Sparks · 240 pages

There was a time when the world was sweeter....when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats.... Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the s

Chronic IllnessAmerican SouthHeartwarmingSmall Town
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My Own Country: A Doctor's Story

Abraham Verghese · 424 pages

By the bestselling author of Cutting for Stone, a story of medicine in the American heartland, and confronting one's deepest prejudices and fears. Nestled in the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee, the town of Johnson City had always seemed exempt from the anxieties of modern American life. But when the local hospital treated its first AIDS patient, a crisis that had once seemed an “urban pro

Chronic IllnessMedicineAmerican SouthSmall Town
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Home to Holly Springs

Jan Karon · 355 pages

American SouthSecret PastChristian FictionSmall Town
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The Crossroads Cafe

Deborah Smith · 378 pages

Widowed ProtagonistAmerican SouthSmall TownEmotional
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Midwives

Chris Bohjalian · 312 pages

Sibyl is a respected midwife, accused of murder after she performs a caesarian on a mother whom she believes to have died of a stroke during a long and difficult labour. A trial ensues to decide whether Sibyl has committed murder. The story is told from Sibyl's daughter's viewpoint.

MedicineWidowed ProtagonistSmall TownEmotional
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Change of Heart

Jodi Picoult · 464 pages

A spellbinding tale of a mother's tragic loss and a criminal's last chance at finding salvation from the bestselling author of Nineteen Minutes.One day June Nealon was happily anticipating a lifetime of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart. Now her life is a waiting game. Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for

Chronic IllnessMedicineWidowed ProtagonistEmotional
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The Shipping News

Annie Proulx · 337 pages

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, The Shipping News is a celebration of Annie Proulx's genius for storytelling and her vigorous contribution to the art of the novel. Quoyle, a third-rate newspaper hack, with a "head shaped like a crenshaw, no neck, reddish hair...features as bunched as kissed fingertips," is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing

Secret PastWidowed ProtagonistSmall TownContemporary Fiction
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The Mill River Recluse

Darcie Chan · 400 pages

From the outside, Mill River looks like any sleepy little Vermont town where everyone knows everyone and people never need to lock their doors. There are newcomers for whom this appeals, from police officer Kyle Hansen and his daughter Rowen, who are starting over after heartache, to Claudia Simon, the schoolteacher who is determined to reinvent herself. But on closer inspection, there are those i

Secret PastWidowed ProtagonistSmall TownHeartwarming
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Everything We Keep

Kerry Lonsdale · 296 pages

Sous chef Aimee Tierney has the recipe for the perfect life: marry her childhood sweetheart, raise a family, and buy out her parents' restaurant. But when her fiancé, James Donato, vanishes in a boating accident, her well-baked future is swept out to sea. Struggling to reconstruct her life, she delves deeper into James's disappearance. What Aimee uncovers is an ocean of secrets that make her quest

Secret PastWidowed ProtagonistEmotionalContemporary Fiction
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The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Gabrielle Zevin · 279 pages

A.J. Fikry's life is not what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is failing, and his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen. He is isolating himself from all the people of Alice Island and from Amelia, the Knightley Press sales rep who refuses to be deterred by A.J.'s bad attitude. And then a mysterious package appears at the bookstore that gives A.J

Widowed ProtagonistHeartwarmingEmotionalSmall Town
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Widowed ProtagonistAmerican SouthSmall TownChristian Fiction
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Remarkably Bright Creatures

Shelby Van Pelt · 368 pages

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night cleaner shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat over thirty years ago keeping busy has helped her cope. One night she meets Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium who sees everything, but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his hum

Widowed ProtagonistHeartwarmingEmotionalSmall Town
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After the Rain

Karen White · 372 pages

Freelance photographer Suzanne Paris has been on her own since she was fourteen—and she has no intention of settling down, especially not in a tiny town like Walton. She’s here to hide out for a little while, not to form connections. Her survival depends on her ability to slip in and out of people’s lives, on never staying in one place for too long. But Walton is a town where everyone knows eve

Secret PastAmerican SouthSmall TownHeartwarming
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Eyes Turned Skyward

Rebecca Yarros · 353 pages

Chronic IllnessSecret PastEmotionalAmerican South
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What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day

Pearl Cleage · 244 pages

E-book extra: Reading group guide.That one unthinkable, unmistakable thing is happening to Ava Johnson in sleepy Idlewild after a decade of luxe living in Atlanta: she is falling in love. The classic bestseller and Oprah fave is now available in a delightful new e-book edition.After a decade of elegant pleasures and luxe living among the Atlanta brothers and sisters with the best clothes and the b

Chronic IllnessSmall TownHeartwarmingEmotional
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The Quiet Game

Greg Iles · 564 pages

Widower Penn Cage returns to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, where, finding that his father is being blackmailed, he reopens a notorious murder case that involves powerfully dangerous town forces, the FBI, and his own past.

Widowed ProtagonistAmerican SouthSecret PastSmall Town
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The Art of Keeping Secrets

Patti Callahan Henry · 349 pages

Annabelle has finally made peace with the loss of her beloved husband. Until she finds out he wasn't alone when he died. When she shows up on Sophie Parker's doorstep full of painful questions, both women must confront their intertwining pasts and find the courage to face the truth.

Widowed ProtagonistSecret PastAmerican SouthEmotional
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A Virtuous Woman

Kaye Gibbons · 176 pages

American SouthWidowed ProtagonistEmotionalChronic Illness
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The Good Dream

Donna VanLiere · 308 pages

Denounced by her 1950 Tennessee community as an old maid, 30-something Ivorie Walker hides her loneliness and grief over her mother's death behind good-humored independence before advocating on behalf of a feral boy who has been stealing vegetables from her garden.

American SouthSmall TownHeartwarmingEmotional
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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Helen Simonson · 394 pages

You are about to travel to Edgecombe St. Mary, a small village in the English countryside filled with rolling hills, thatched cottages, and a cast of characters both hilariously original and as familiar as the members of your own family. Among them is Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired), the unlikely hero of Helen Simonson's wondrous debut. Wry, courtly, opinionated, and completely endearing, Major P

Widowed ProtagonistHeartwarmingSmall TownContemporary Fiction
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Year of Wonders

Geraldine Brooks · 310 pages

This is the story of a young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the year of 1666, when plague suddenly visits her small Derbyshire village and the villagers, inspired by a charismatic preacher, elect to quarantine themselves.

Widowed ProtagonistMedicineSmall TownEmotional
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Porch Lights

Dorothea Benton Frank · 330 pages

When Jimmy McMullen, a fireman with the NYFD, is killed in the line of duty, his wife, Jackie, and ten-year-old son, Charlie, are devastated. Charlie idolized his dad, and now the outgoing, curious boy has become quiet and reserved. Trusting in the healing power of family, Jackie decides to return to her childhood home on Sullivans Island. Crossing the bridge from the mainland, Jackie and Charlie

American SouthWidowed ProtagonistEmotionalHeartwarming
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Garden Spells

Sarah Addison Allen · 290 pages

A successful caterer in Bascomb, North Carolina, Claire has always remained tied to the legacy of the Waverley family, until her peaceful life is transformed by Tyler Hughes, an art teacher and new next-door neighbor, and by the return of her prodigal sister, Sydney.

American SouthSmall TownSecret PastHeartwarming
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Because of Winn-Dixie

Kate DiCamillo · 182 pages

Ten-year-old India Opal Buloni describes her first summer in the town of Naomi, Florida, and all the good things that happen to her becauThe summer Opal and her father, the preacher, move to Naomi, Florida, Opal goes into the Winn-Dixie supermarket—and comes out with a dog. A big, ugly, suffering dog with a sterling sense of humor. A dog she dubs Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, the preacher tel

American SouthSmall TownHeartwarmingEmotional

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