Love Water Memory by Jennie Shortridge

Inspired by a true story, this bittersweet novel about a woman with a rare form of amnesia explores the raw, tender complexities of relationships and personal identity. Library Journal calls it “an emotional heart-tugger that doesn’t go where readers might expect; a fascinating turnabout...” 

 

If you could do it all over again, would you still choose him?

 

At age thirty-nine, Lucie Walker has no choice but to start her life over when she comes to, up to her knees in the chilly San Francisco Bay, with no idea how she got there or who she is. Her memory loss is caused by an emotional trauma she knows nothing about, and only when handsome, quiet Grady Goodall arrives at the hospital does she learn she has a home, a career, and a wedding just two months away.

What went wrong?

Grady seems to care for her, but Lucie is no more sure of him than she is of anything. As she collects the clues of her past self, she unlocks the mystery of what happened to her. The painful secrets she uncovers could hold the key to her future—if she trusts her heart enough to guide her

328 pages (April 2013)

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Reading Guide from BookMovement.

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13 Book Club Questions to Energize Any Meetup from Bustle

40 Great Book Club Discussion Questions for Any Book from Book Riot

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

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Title Read-alikes: You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley; Family Tree by Susan Wiggs; The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood; The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman; Lost and Found by Danielle Steel; Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister; Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins; What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty; I Almost Forgot About You by Terry Mcmillan; Heart Like Mine by Amy Hatvany; Where You Can Find Me by Sheri Joseph; The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow by Rita Leganski; and The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. by Nichole Bernier.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by acclaimed artist Ellen Forney, that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

 

The story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

229 pages (September 2007)

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To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian at goodreads

 

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This title is available for download as an eAudioBook as well as an eAudioBook and here. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric L Gansworth; The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong by L. Tam Holland; Character Driven by David Lubar; Winger by Andrew Smith; Matthew Meets the Man by Travis Nichols; What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen; Dumplin' by Julie Murphy; The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe; Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram; A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi; The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis; American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang; and The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton.

Healer by Carol Cassella

From national bestselling author Carol Cassella comes the story of one doctor's struggle to hold her family together through a storm of broken trust and questioned ethics.

Claire is at the start of her medical career when she falls in love with Addison Boehning, a biochemist with blazing genius and big dreams. A complicated pregnancy deflects Claire's professional path, and she is forced to drop out of her residency. Soon thereafter Addison invents a simple blood test for ovarian cancer, and his biotech start-up lands a fortune.

Overnight the Boehnings are catapulted into a financial and social tier they had never anticipated or sought: they move into a gracious Seattle home and buy an old ranch in the high desert mountains of eastern Washington, and Claire drifts away from medicine to become a full-time wife and mother. Then Addison gambles everything on a cutting-edge cancer drug, and when the studies go awry, their comfortable life is swept away. Claire and her daughter, Jory, move to a dilapidated ranch house in rural Hallum, where Claire has to find a job until Addison can salvage his discredited lab. Her only offer for employment comes from a struggling public health clinic, but Claire gets more than a second chance at medicine when she meets Miguela, a bright Nicaraguan immigrant and orphan of the contra war who has come to the United States on a secret quest to find the family she has lost. As their friendship develops, a new mystery unfolds that threatens to destroy Claire’s family and forces her to question what it truly means to heal.

Healer exposes the vulnerabilities of the American family, provoking questions of choice versus fate, desire versus need, and the duplicitous power of money.

291 pages (July 2010)

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Reading Guide from BookMovement.

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To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

Healer at goodreads

 

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This title is available for download as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.

Title Read-alikes: All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner; The Things We Do for Love by Kristin Hannah; Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins; Me Before You by Jojo Moyes; This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper; One Summer by David Baldacci; Summer Secrets by Jane Green; The Lemon Orchard by Luanne Rice; The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley; Dead of Night by Jonathan Maberry; The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures by Jennifer Hofmann; When These Mountains Burn by David Joy; and Memorial by Bryan Washington.