Heller McAlpin Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Heller McAlpin

Fast-paced and tightly structured… Take What You Need is a heart-rending book, but it’s also a beautiful celebration of ‘the glorious pleasure of erecting something new,’ be it a work of art or a human connection.

Heller McAlpin

Leave it to Elizabeth McCracken to refresh the genre of the parental tribute ... a hall of mirrors, a lightly fictionalized memoir that interrogates genre and the act of writing... packed with consequence, with love, with funny observations, with reflections on writing ...

Heller McAlpin

This deliciously immersive novel is about the lifelong friendship between two women who share a love for the coastal peninsula in Maine... Dark’s beautifully written novel is rich with reflections on aging, writing and responsibility for the people and places we love.

Heller McAlpin

Ms. Patchett is a writer of enormous warmth who has written frequently about children struggling to find their place in blended families. In “Tom Lake”…she demonstrates that happy, cohesive families can be just as interesting as unhappy, fractured ones.

Heller McAlpin

An eloquent indictment of the devastating long-term effects of the massacre, dislocation and forced assimilation of Native Americans, it is also a heartfelt paean to the importance of family and of ancestors' stories in recovering a sense of belonging and identity.

Heller McAlpin

A wonderfully immersive... intricate multigenerational saga about the vicissitudes of a passionate but not perfect marriage over a 40-year span... The Most Fun We Ever Had is a deliciously absorbing novel with — brace yourself — a tender and satisfyingly positive take on family.

Heller McAlpin

An entertaining, light murder mystery set in Monterey, California, in 1851 during the Gold Rush... Two young prostitutes become uneasy when several women in their dangerous line of business disappear... Risking further peril, they decide it's up to them to solve the mystery.

Heller McAlpin

Robinson explores the moral ramifications of jumping at the chance of long-deferred happiness — even if it's at the expense of others... What starts as a story about rekindled, mature love becomes an operatic tragedy about passion and honor.

Heller McAlpin

Elizabeth Finch is a dual-pronged exploration of both personal and ancient history which asks, "Why should we expect our collective memory — which we call history — to be any less fallible than our personal memory?"

Heller McAlpin

Patchett, beloved bookseller and chronicler of people thrown together in patched families and hostage situations, turns her attention to love — youthful, marital, fleeting, enduring.