Recommendations based on "A Very Distant Shore Quick Reads"

*THE TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*'One of this summer's most buzzed about books (and one that might just change your life)' Sunday TimesAfter years of feeling that love was always out of reach, journalist Natasha Lunn set out to understand how relationships work and evolve over a lifetime. She turned to authors and experts to learn about their experiences, as well as drawing on her own, asking: How do we find love? How do we sustain it? And how do we survive when we lose it?In Conversations on Love she began to find the answers:Philippa Perry on falling in love slowlyDolly Alderton on vulnerabilityStephen Grosz on accepting changeCandice Carty-Williams on friendshipLisa Taddeo on the loneliness of lossDiana Evans on parenthoodEmily Nagoski on the science of sexAlain de Botton on the psychology of being aloneEsther Perel on unrealistic expectationsRoxane Gay on redefining romanceand many more...'A gorgeous, richly layered book about all forms of love. You can pick it up and turn to any page - literally any - and find a gem to soothe and fortify your soul' Pandora Sykes, Sunday Times bestselling author of 'How Do We Know We're Doing It Right?''Hopeful and uplifting... this deep dive into the human heart will expand and enrich your perspective on love' Evening Standard'This eclectic and heartwarming collection explores love in all its forms, from romantic and parental love to friendship and loss'Observer'Conversations on Love is a glorious celebration of human vulnerability and connection. It has made me laugh, shed tears, think deeply. I want every person I love to read this book' Dr Kathryn Mannix, Sunday Times bestselling author of WITH THE END IN MIND

If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate? Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed. Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all. How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.” Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable. A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party. If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny? Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.

Anne of Windy PoplarsAnne Shirley has left Redmond College behind to begin a new job and a new chapter of her life away from Green Gables. Now she faces a new challenge: the Pringles. They’re known as the royal family of Summerside—and they quickly let Anne know she is not the person they had wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty—and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside’s strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles becomes only the first of her triumphs.Anne’s House of DreamsAnne’s own true love, Gilbert Blythe, is finally a doctor, and in the sunshine of the old orchard, among their dearest friends, they are about to speak their vows. Soon the happy couple will be bound for a new life together and their own dream house, on the misty purple shores of Four Winds Harbor. A new life means fresh problems to solve, fresh surprises. Anne and Gilbert will make new friends and meet their neighbors: Captain Jim, the lighthouse attendant, with his sad stories of the sea; Miss Cornelia Bryant, the lady who speaks from the heart—and speaks her mind; and the tragically beautiful Leslie Moore, into whose dark life Anne shines a brilliant light.Anne of InglesideAnne is the mother of five, with never a dull moment in her lively home. And now with a new baby on the way and insufferable Aunt Mary Maria visiting—and wearing out her welcome—Anne’s life is full to bursting. Still, Mrs. Doctor can’t think of any place she’d rather be than her own beloved Ingleside. Until the day she begins to worry that her adored Gilbert doesn’t love her anymore. How could that be? She may be a little older, but she’s still the same irrepressible, irreplaceable redhead—the wonderful Anne of Green Gables, all grown up . . . she’s ready to make her cherished husband fall in love with her all over again!

'Fans of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit Of Love will adore this brilliant contemporary take ... The writing is as sharp, the details as perfect, the jokes as funny as [the] original' Daily Mail'Beautifully and meticulously done' The Sunday Times---Marooned in a sprawling farmhouse in Norfolk, teenage Linda Radlett feels herself destined for greater things. She longs for love, but how will she ever find it? She can't even get a signal on her mobile phone. Linda's strict, former rock star father terrifies any potential suitors away, while her bohemian mother, wafting around in silver jewellery, answers Linda's urgent questions about love with upsettingly vivid allusions to animal husbandry.Eventually Linda does find her way out from the bosom of her deeply eccentric extended family, and she escapes to London. She knows she doesn't want to marry 'a man who looks like a pudding', as her good and dull sister Louisa has done, and marries the flashy, handsome son of a UKIP peer instead.But this is only the beginning of Linda's pursuit of love, a journey that will be wilder, more surprising and more complicated than she could ever have imagined.---'A savagely funny, bracingly sad, dazzlingly clever reimagining of The Pursuit of Love. I loved it' Meg Mason, author of Sorrow and Bliss'A triumph! Brilliantly done, faithful but imaginative, tremendously romantic and very funny' Nina Stibbe, author of Reasons to be Cheerful

This Is A Story For Anyone Who Has Ever Felt Like They Don't Belong. 'i Really Enjoyed This Book ... Great Observational Comic Gems Within A Fast Moving Story Full Of The Reality Of Despair And Hope In Everyone's Lives' Miranda Hart 'keep The Tissues Close' Good Housekeeping 'a Beautifully Written Debut Novel With Unforgettable Characters And An Irresistible Message Of Redemption And Belonging' Red Magazine 'this Gem Of A Novel Entertains And Moves In Equal Measure' Daily Mail 'heartening And Hopeful' Jess Kidd, Author Of Things In Jars 'mesmerizingly Beautiful' Sarah Haywood, Author Of The Cactus 'an Extraordinary Masterpiece' Anstey Harris, Author Of The Truths And Triumphs Of Grace Atherton 'gutsy, Endearing And Entertaining' Deborah Orr 'absolutely Brilliant' Gavin Extence, Author Of The Universe Versus Alex Woods _____________________________________________________________ Augusta Hope Has Never Felt Like She Fits In. At Six, She's Memorising The Dictionary. At Seven, She's Correcting Her Teachers. At Eight, She Spins The Globe And Picks Her Favourite Country On The Sound Of Its Name: Burundi. And Now That She's An Adult, Augusta Has No Interest In The Goings-on Of The Small Town Where She Lives With Her Parents And Her Beloved Twin Sister, Julia. When An Unspeakable Tragedy Upends Everything In Augusta's Life, She's Propelled Headfirst Into The Unknown. She's Determined To Find Where She Belongs - But What If Her True Home, And Heart, Are Half A World Away? _____________________________________________________________ Augusta May Not Feel Like She Fits In, But Readers Have Fallen In Love With Her... 'what A Brilliant, Brave, Clever Book' Maddy P 'a Beautiful Tale Of Family, Of Loss, Of The Awkward Relationships We Build With Those We Love The Most...a Must Read!' Amelia D 'a Powerful Novel About Fitting In, Loss, & The People You Really Have Connections With' Siobhan D 'the Story Made Me Laugh & Cry In Equal Measure, And Now It's Finished I'm At A Slight Loss As What To Read Next' Laura W

Includes an exclusive extract from the brand new sequel, PostscriptSome people wait their whole lives to find their soul mates. But not Holly and Gerry. Childhood sweethearts, they could finish each other s sentences. No one could ever imagine them without each other.When Gerry dies, Holly is devastated. But Gerry has left her a bundle of notes, one for each month of her year, each signed 'PS, I Love You'.As the notes are opened, the man who knows Holly better than anyone teaches her that life goes on. With some help from friends and family, Holly laughs, cries and finds that life is for living but it helps if there's someone watching over you.

From the author of the phenomenal bestseller The Keeper of Stories, comes the next uplifting story of how the most unexpected friendships are forged in the most unlikely of places . . .Jo Sorsby knows she is hiding from her past when she steps in to look after her uncle’s stationery shop. Glimpsing the lives of her customers between the warm wooden shelves, as they scribble notes with fountain pens and browse colourful notebooks, distracts her from the life she has left behind.Yet far from home, Jo feels adrift . . .When she meets Ruth, a vicar running from a secret, and Malcolm, a septuagenarian struggling to write his first book, she realises that she isn’t alone.It’s the beginning of a friendship that can transform Jo’s life . . . if only she can let them in.

Gripping, emotional and uplifting – a novel about the true power of friendship.’a tender, emotional and uplifting read … I loved it’ Lucy Diamond’A superb writer – the Irish Jojo Moyes’ Irish Examiner The simple fact of the matter is that Iris loves life. Maybe she’s forgotten that. Sometimes that happens, doesn’t it? To the best of us? All I have to do is remind her of that one simple fact.Monday morning starts like any other – until Terry discovers her best friend Iris has gone missing. Finding her takes Terry, Iris and Terry’s confused father Eugene, into an extraordinary journey – one that will change all of their lives. And, along the way, what should be the worst six days of Terry’s life turn into the best.Because friendship teaches us all to be brave. And, sometimes, the rules are made to be broken.

New York Times BestsellerThe beloved actress and star of One Tree Hill, White Collar, and Lethal Weapon, Hilarie Burton Morgan, tells the story of leaving Hollywood for a radically different kind of life in upstate New York with her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan—a celebration of community, family, and the value of hard work in small town America.While Hilarie Burton Morgan's hectic lifestyle as an actress in New York and Los Angeles gave her a comfortable life, it did not fulfill her spiritually or emotionally. After the birth of their first son, she and her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the star of The Walking Dead, decided to make a major change: they bought a working farm in Rhinebeck, New York, and began a new chapter in their lives.The Rural Diaries chronicles her inspiring story of farm life: chopping wood, making dandelion wine, building chicken coops. Burton looks back at her transition from urban to country living—discovering how to manage a farm while raising her son and making friends with her new neighbors. She mixes charming stories of learning to raise alpacas and buying and revitalizing the town’s beloved candy store, Samuel’s Sweet Shop, with raw observations on the ups and downs of marriage and her struggles with secondary infertility. Burton also includes delicious recipes that can be made with fresh ingredients at home, as well as home renovation and gardening tips.Burton’s charisma, wide eyed attitude, and fortitude—both internal and physical—propels this moving story of transformation and self-discovery. The Rural Diaries honors the values and lifestyle of small-town America and offers inspiration for anyone longing to embark on their own unconventional journey.

Beth has never stuck at anything.She's quit more jobs and relationships than she can remember and she still sleeps in her childhood bedroom. It's not that she hasn't tried to grow up, it's just that so far, the only commitment she's held down is Friday drinks at the village pub.Then, in the space of a morning, her world changes.Beth is now guardian to her teenage niece and toddler nephew, catapulted into an unfamiliar world of bedtime stories, parents' evenings and cuddly elephants. Having never been responsible for anyone - or anything - it's not long before she feels seriously out of her depth.What if she's simply not up to the job?With a little help from her best friend Jory (purely platonic, of course ...) and her lovely, lonely next-door neighbour, Albert, Beth is determined that this time she's not giving up. It's time to step up.This is a story about digging deep for strength you never knew you had and finding magic in things that were there all along.