This or That Giveaway № 119 ~ The Girls by Elaine Kagan OR The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce #TheGirls #TheUnlikelyPilgrimageOfHaroldFry

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Girls

by Elaine Kagan

Mass market paperback ~ January 1994

Pete Chickery is dead. It was sudden, it was violent, and it was by his own wife's hand. Why would Jessie Chickery, the prettiest, most enviable "girl" in her fortysomething set, take the life of the charming, sexy husband she obsessively loved?

Everyone loved Pete. All the guys he grew up with--and their wives.

Especially their wives, his wife's best friends. They are home-loving Ellen, tough-talking Tee, New York actress Frances, Jessie's sister Anne, and Pete's sister Anita--and now each tells the untold story of how Pete meant the world to her, how he made her feel adored, special, and satisfied. He was everything to everyone, but he wasn't enough--or he was just too much of a good thing.

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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

(Harold Fry #1)

by Rachel Joyce

Paperback ~ Published March 2012

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Fiction (2012)

Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn't seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.

Harold pens a quick reply and, leaving Maureen to her chores, heads to the corner mailbox. But then, as happens in the very best works of fiction, Harold has a chance encounter, one that convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. And thus begins the unlikely pilgrimage. Harold Fry is determined to walk six hundred miles from Kingsbridge to the hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed because, he believes, as long as he walks, Queenie Hennessey will live.

Still in his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold embarks on his urgent quest across the countryside. Along the way he meets one character after another, each of whom unlocks his long-dormant spirit and sense of promise. Memories of his first dance with Maureen, his wedding day, his joy in fatherhood, come rushing back to him - allowing him to also reconcile the losses and the regrets. As for Maureen, she finds herself missing Harold for the first time in years.

And then there is the unfinished business with Queenie Hennessy.

Read my thoughts about Maureen, book #3 in this series

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Drop your answer in the comments and enter the giveaway!

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This OR That Giveaway № 108 ~ The Beautiful Misfits by Susan Reinhardt OR The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce #TheBeautifulMisfits #TheUnlikelyPilgrimageOfHaroldFry

 

I have sooooo many books!

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to cull my collection and to share some of the many books I have. I get to clear off some of my shelves to make room for more books and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Beautiful Misfits

by Susan Reinhardt

ARC ~ Published March 2023

Eighty-four seconds can change your life. Or destroy it. Josie Nickels is an Emmy-winning news anchor, poised to rise through the ranks of television journalism. On a bitter March evening on live TV, the pressures and secrets burbling behind the closed doors of her ridiculous Victorian mansion explode and the overwhelmed journalist spills family secrets like a Baptist at altar call. The aftermath costs her much more than a career. It robs her of a beloved son—a preppy, educated millennial trapped in the deadly world of addiction. 

Desperate for a new start and a way to save her son, Josie packs up her pride, her young daughter, and accepts a new job slinging cosmetics at a department store make-up counter with other disgraced celebs. In the gorgeous mountains of Asheville N.C., known for hippies, healings, and Subarus, Josie is faced with a choice for her son: Take a chance on a bold, out-of-the-ordinary treatment plan for her son or lose him forever. This heart-wrenching and, at times, hilarious novel, will delight fans of book-club women’s fiction and inspire and give hope to those with addicted sons and daughters. 

Read my thoughts here

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The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

(Harold Fry #1)

by Rachel Joyce

Paperback ~ Published March 2012

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Fiction (2012)

Meet Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn't seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.

Harold pens a quick reply and, leaving Maureen to her chores, heads to the corner mailbox. But then, as happens in the very best works of fiction, Harold has a chance encounter, one that convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. And thus begins the unlikely pilgrimage. Harold Fry is determined to walk six hundred miles from Kingsbridge to the hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed because, he believes, as long as he walks, Queenie Hennessey will live.

Still in his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold embarks on his urgent quest across the countryside. Along the way he meets one character after another, each of whom unlocks his long-dormant spirit and sense of promise. Memories of his first dance with Maureen, his wedding day, his joy in fatherhood, come rushing back to him - allowing him to also reconcile the losses and the regrets. As for Maureen, she finds herself missing Harold for the first time in years.

And then there is the unfinished business with Queenie Hennessy.

Read my thoughts about Maureen, book #3 in this series

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways! 

Release Day! Maureen by Rachel Joyce ~ My Thoughts #Maureen #NetGalley

Happy Release Day!

Congrats Rachel

on the release today of

Maureen!

Maureen by Rachel Joyce

(Harold Fry #3)

Fiction, British Literature, 192 pages

Published February 7, 2023 by The Dial Press 

From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry comes a moving novel told from the point of view of Harold’s wife Maureen. Now undertaking her own journey, Maureen will discover a way to reconnect with the world she’s closed a door on.

Maureen Fry has settled into the quiet life she shares with her husband after his iconic walk across England ten years ago. When an unexpected message from the North disturbs her equilibrium again, it is now her turn to make a journey. But Maureen is not like Harold. By turns outspoken, then vulnerable, she struggles to form bonds with the people she meets, and the landscape she crosses has radically changed. And Maureen has no sense of what she will find at the end of the road. All she knows is that she has to get there.

Maureen is a deeply felt, lyrical, and powerful novel, full of warmth and kindness, about love, loss, and how we come to terms with the past in order to understand ourselves and our lives a little better. While it stands alone, it is also the extraordinarily moving finale to a trilogy that began with the phenomenal bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and continued in The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. What was started by Harold, only Maureen can complete.

My thoughts about Maureen ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"We have a closet door that is always sticking. It's the kind of closet where we shove in things that we don't want to deal with. but can't yet throw out."

Maureen is a caring women—very set in her ways, getting by in life—but maybe not really happy with the hand that has been dealt her. She takes off on her own on a quest that is calling to her, something that she is compelled to see though to the end. Along the way and by the end of her journey, she discovers a lot about herself, her husband, and the world she finds herself drowning in. This was definitely a journey of a lifetime. 

I enjoyed following along with Maureen through her travels and as she grows and finds happiness. This is book three in the Harold Fry trilogy and it's said the books can be read a standalone. While that may be true, I read book one, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, before reading Maureen and I'm so glad I did. I had a better understanding of Maureen and what she was going through and the reason for her quest. I think I'd now like to read book two, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, to find out more about Queenie and why she was such a strong influence on this couple. 

Overall this is a wonderful series full of discovery, growth, and reconciliation. 

I received an ARC of Maureen from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

The Harold Fry Series on Goodreads

About the author

Rachel Joyce is the award-winning author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop, and Miss Benson’s Beetle, as well as a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and long listed for the Man Booker Prize. Rachel has been awarded the Specsavers New Writer of the Year National Book Award and shortlisted for the UK author of the year. Miss Benson’s Beetle was the winner of the 2021 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. Her novels have sold over 5 million copies worldwide in thirty six languages.

Rachel’s writing career began in radio drama and she has written many afternoon plays for BBC Radio 4, as well as major adaptations of all the Bronte novels, and Henry James. In 2007 she jointly won the Tinniswood Award for best original audio drama.

Next year The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will be a major film starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton, for which Rachel also wrote the screenplay.

Her next novel, Maureen Fry & the Angel of the North, will be published in the UK on October 22 and signed copies are available now to preorder. ~ Author website

Connect with Rachel

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Instagram

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