Books like The painting by Sally Laity

The Goldfinch chronicles the life of thirteen‑year‑old Theo Decker, who survives a museum attack that kills his mother and carries an art piece that becomes a lifelong obsession, exploring loss, identity, and art in contemporary America.

In 17th‑century Delft, Griet, a quiet servant, enters the Vermeer household and finds herself entwined in its domestic intrigues, gradually becoming the painter’s assistant and a painted model.

In the quiet town of Mitford, North Carolina, the everyday life of its clergy—and the miracles that quietly unfold—reveal the vibrant heart of small‑town America.

Annie McMorrow, a 31‑year‑old assistant, stumbles upon a haunted painting that reveals secrets of past owners and thrusts her into a world of art dealers, auctioneers, and unexpected romance.

The Wapshot Chronicle follows the lives of a New England fishing family—captain, sons, and their loves, betrayals, and humor—in a richly detailed, character‑driven portrait of 20th‑century America.

The South - within its diversity of voices and experiences lies "a shared legacy: the act of speech - of stories handed down in which a distinctive language is honored, a language rich in Biblical and regional contexts; the love of place where individuals, relationships, and family histories not only matter but buttress everyday life. Both are part of that rarest and most indispensable groundspring of literature, memory. The memory of being 'Downhome.'". Susie Mee has gathered a wealth of short fiction by southern women who - from their various backgrounds, from their different eras - draw on that shared legacy she describes in her introduction. That memory of "downhome," whether it is used lovingly or ironically, echoes throughout the seven sections here, which range from Growing Up to Kinfolk and Courtship to Passing On, and in the words of these special authors.