Deschutes Public Library

Resources for Book Lovers

Elizabeth Berg's novels offer an experience akin to sitting down with your dearest friend and talking about everything in your life over several cups of coffee.

If You Like... Elizabeth Berg


	Half a heart Brown, Rosellen. New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Miriam Vener Feels Trapped in the Comfortable white middle-class life she leads with her family in Houston during the 1980s. That life suddenly shatters with the appearance, after almost eighteen years, of Veronica (Ronnee), her biracial daughter born in Mississippi in the sixties when Miriam was a civil rights activist. Hot tempered, sensitive, manipulative and deeply hurt at her mother's disappearance from her life, Ronnee has been raised by her father, a formerly brilliant college professor who forbade her to see her white mother. Half a Heart charts the emotionally fraught terrain of the mother and daughter's reunion and Ronnee's divided sense of self and loyalty.

	The vine of desire : a novel Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee, 1956- New York : Doubleday, 2002. In a novel that reunites the beloved characters ofSister of My Heart, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores the emotional ties between two lifelong friends–and how they change when the husband of one is dangerously attracted to the other. Subjects East Indian American women -- Fiction. Female friendship -- Fiction. Women immigrants -- Fiction. Single mothers -- Fiction. Married women -- Fiction.

	Going to bend : a novel Hammond, Diane Coplin. New York : Doubleday, 2004. In the small coastal town of Hubbard, Oregon, Petie Coolbaugh and Rose Bundy, two women in their early thirties, make a living preparing soup for the town's new upscale café, all the while coping with the stresses of daily life. Subjects Fishing villages -- Fiction. Restaurants -- Fiction. Friendship -- Fiction. Oregon -- Fiction. Soups -- Fiction.

	The Book Club Monroe, Mary Alice. Don Mills, Ont. : MIRA, c1999. On the surface, it is a monthly book club. But for these five women, it is something more precious -- a chance to share their hopes and fears and triumphs. Subjects Women -- Fiction. Friendship -- Fiction. Book clubs (Discussion groups) -- Fiction. Female friendship -- Fiction.

	The river beyond the world Peery, Janet. New York : Picador, 1996. The winner of a Whiting Foundation Award, short-story writer Peery (Alligator Dance) sets her first novel in the border country between Texas and Mexico, from 1944 to the present, and recounts the intertwining tales of Luisa Cantú and Edwina "Eddie'' Hatch over a 50-year span. Subjects Women -- Texas -- Fiction. Texas -- Fiction.

	Rise and shine : a novel Quindlen, Anna. New York : Random House, c2006. A novel about two sisters, the true meaning of success, and the qualities in life that matter most. Subjects Sisters -- Fiction. Women journalists -- Fiction. Women social workers -- Fiction. New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.

	Julie and Romeo : a novel Ray, Jeanne. New York : Harmony Books, c2000. A deliciously funny and wickedly sexy novel of love found (finally!) and love threatened (inevitably) by the families who claim to love us best. Romeo Cacciamani and Julie Roseman are rival florists in Boston, whose families have hated each other for as long as anyone can remember (what they can't remember is why). When these two vital, lonely people see each other across a crowded lobby at a small business owners' seminar, an intense attraction blooms that neither tries to squelch. Subjects Florists -- Fiction. Boston (Mass.) -- Fiction.

	Blue moon Rice, Luanne. New York : Viking, 1993. Though its setting is quite different, this highly readable, richly detailed slice of life offers the same absorbing vision of a single family in a particular time and place as do Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles. Set in a Rhode Island fishing village-cum-resort town, the narrative focuses not on the upper-middle-class, white collar characters that Rice has heretofore brought to life in such well-reviewed novels as Crazy in Love and Secrets of Paris , but on a family of hardworking restaurateurs. Subjects Fishing accidents -- Fiction. Hearing impaired -- Fiction. Family-owned business enterprises -- Rhode Island -- Fiction. Sisters -- Fiction. New England -- Fiction. Rhode Island -- Fiction.

	Happiness sold separately Winston, Lolly. New York : Warner Books, c2006. "The marriage of a seemingly perfect couple dissolves into a complicated dance of affairs, lovers, and admirers"--Provided by the publisher. Subjects Married people -- Fiction. Adultery -- Fiction.

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Last modified on Thursday, July 26, 2012