Paula McLain

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Paula McLain

Goodreads Author


Born
in Fresno, California, The United States
Website

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Member Since
March 2011


Paula McLain is the author of the New York Times and internationally bestselling novels, The Paris Wife, Circling the Sun and Love and Ruin. Her latest instant bestseller is, When the Stars Go Dark. Her forthcoming novel is Skylark, on shelves 1/6/26. She received an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996, and is also the author of two collections of poetry, the memoir Like Family: Growing Up in Other People's Houses, and the debut novel, A Ticket to Ride. Her work has has appeared in The New York Times, Real Simple, Town & Country, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Good Housekeeping, and elsewhere. She lives with her family in Cleveland, Ohio. ...more

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Paula McLain Thrilled to hear you connected with Circling the Sun, Jenny! I DO have a new idea for a character and have begun writing. This is my absolute favorite…moreThrilled to hear you connected with Circling the Sun, Jenny! I DO have a new idea for a character and have begun writing. This is my absolute favorite part of the process: new obsession! Hopefully the work will go well and I'll have a new manuscript sometime in the new year. Wish me luck... ; )(less)
Paula McLain Hello, Cherie, and thanks for your question. Although other writers in this genre have their own rules, no doubt, I don't make up events for my histor…moreHello, Cherie, and thanks for your question. Although other writers in this genre have their own rules, no doubt, I don't make up events for my historical characters, or imagine fictional characters for them to interact with--so you can be sure the love story between Beryl and Denys did indeed happen. What I do make up and then dramatize is the inner lives of my characters, their thoughts and feelings, and all the dialogue. I also feel very free to embellish setting and details of place, etc. I hope this answer helps!(less)
Average rating: 3.83 · 497,617 ratings · 44,524 reviews · 24 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Paris Wife

3.82 avg rating — 305,472 ratings — published 2011 — 123 editions
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Circling the Sun

3.94 avg rating — 81,884 ratings — published 2015 — 75 editions
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When the Stars Go Dark

3.84 avg rating — 62,054 ratings — published 2021 — 39 editions
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Love and Ruin

3.86 avg rating — 26,755 ratings — published 2018 — 47 editions
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A Mind of Her Own

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3.18 avg rating — 10,754 ratings — published 2019 — 7 editions
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Skylark

4.02 avg rating — 3,020 ratings — published 2026 — 9 editions
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Ash Wednesday (A Point in T...

4.02 avg rating — 2,189 ratings — published 2022 — 2 editions
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Like Family: Growing Up in ...

3.71 avg rating — 1,887 ratings — published 2004 — 22 editions
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A Ticket to Ride

3.35 avg rating — 1,482 ratings — published 2008 — 22 editions
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Something That Cannot Die

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3.89 avg rating — 664 ratings — published 2020 — 3 editions
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My Brilliant Friend
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Paula’s Recent Updates

Paula McLain answered Judy's question: Paula McLain
Hi Judy! I just checked with my publisher, and they said the book was delivered on Dec. 16th. Message me on Instagram (@paulamclain) or reach out to my assistant at pmclainassistant@gmail.com and I can send you the photo of the tracking info?
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Skylark by Paula McLain
Skylark
by Paula McLain (Goodreads Author)
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Quotes by Paula McLain  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“To hell with them. Nothing hurts if you don't let it.”
Paula McLain, The Paris Wife

“Books could be an incredible adventure. I stayed under my blanket and barely moved, and no one would have guessed how my mind raced and my heart soared with stories.”
Paula McLain, The Paris Wife

“It gave me a sharp kind of sadness to think that no matter how much I loved him and tried to put him back together again, he might stay broken forever.”
Paula McLain, The Paris Wife

Polls

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Vote for one book for September 2015

The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob by Mira JacobSpanning India in the 70s to New Mexico in the 80s to Seattle in the 90s, The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing is a winning, irreverent debut novel about a family wrestling with its future and its past.
 
  3 votes 20.0%

The Underground Girls of Kabul: In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan The Underground Girls of Kabul In Search of a Hidden Resistance in Afghanistan by Jenny Nordberg Jenny NordbergAn investigative journalist uncovers a hidden custom that will transform your understanding of what it means to grow up as a girl
in Afghanistan
 
  3 votes 20.0%

American Wife American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld by Curtis SittenfeldIn Alice Blackwell, New York Times bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry–a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare.
 
  2 votes 13.3%

Circling the Sun Circling the Sun by Paula McLain by Paula McLainPaula McLain, author of the phenomenal bestseller The Paris Wife, now returns with her keenly anticipated new novel, transporting readers to colonial Kenya in the 1920s. Circling the Sun brings to life a fearless and captivating woman—Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator caught up in a passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, who as Isak Dinesen wrote the classic memoir Out of Africa.
 
  1 vote 6.7%

Eight Hundred Grapes Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave by Laura DaveGrowing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.
 
  1 vote 6.7%

Lila Lila (Gilead, #3) by Marilynne Robinson by Marilynne RobinsonLila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church—the only available shelter from the rain—and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the days of suffering that preceded her newfound security.
 
  1 vote 6.7%

The Book of Speculation The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler by Erika SwylerA sweeping and captivating debut novel about a young librarian who is sent a mysterious old book, inscribed with his grandmother's name. What is the book's connection to his family?
 
  1 vote 6.7%

The Marriage of Opposites The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman by Alice HoffmanFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Dovekeepers and The Museum of Extraordinary Things: a forbidden love story set on the tropical island of St. Thomas about the extraordinary woman who gave birth to painter Camille Pissarro; the Father of Impressionism.
 
  1 vote 6.7%

The Year of Necessary Lies The Year of Necessary Lies by Kris Radish by Kris RadishOne amazing year in a remarkable woman¹s life journey becomes the inspiration for generations when she takes a huge risk, follows her heart, embraces forbidden love, and unwittingly becomes the champion of a winged world that is on the brink of extinction.
 
  1 vote 6.7%

Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life Tibetan Peach Pie A True Account of an Imaginative Life by Tom Robbins by Tom RobbinsIn Tibetan Peach Pie, Robbins turns that unparalleled literary sensibility inward, weaving together stories of his unconventional life–from his Appalachian childhood to his globe-trotting adventures–told in his unique voice, which combines the sweet and sly, the spiritual and earthy. The grandchild of Baptist preachers, Robbins would become, over the course of half a century, a poet interruptus, a soldier, a meteorologist, a radio DJ, an art-critic-turned-psychedelic-journeyman, a world-famous novelist, and a counterculture hero, leading a life as unlikely, magical, and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters
 
  1 vote 6.7%

Any Human Heart Any Human Heart by William Boyd by William BoydLogan Gonzago Mountstuart, writer, was born in 1906, and died of a heart attack on October 5, 1991, aged 85. William Boyd's novel Any Human Heart is his disjointed autobiography, a massive tome chronicling "my personal rollercoaster"--or rather, "not so much a rollercoaster", but a yo-yo, "a jerking spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child." From his early childhood in Montevideo, son of an English corned beef executive and his Uraguayan secretary, through his years at a Norfolk public school and Oxford, Mountstuart traces his haphazard development as a writer. Early and easy success is succeeded by a long half-century of mediocrity, disappointments and setbacks, both personal and professional, leading him to multiple failed marriages, internment, alcoholism and abject poverty.
 
  0 votes 0.0%

Kitchens of the Great Midwest Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal by J. Ryan StradalKitchens of the Great Midwest, about a young woman with a once-in-a-generation palate who becomes the iconic chef behind the country’s most coveted dinner reservation, is the summer’s most hotly-anticipated debut.
 
  0 votes 0.0%

The Ambassador's Wife The Ambassador's Wife by Jennifer Steil by Jennifer SteilFrom a real-life ambassador's wife comes a harrowing novel about the kidnapping of an American woman in the Middle East and the heartbreaking choices she and her husband each must make in the hope of being reunited.
 
  0 votes 0.0%

15 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

46194 The Sassy Classy Book Club — 19 members — last activity May 21, 2011 03:30PM
An online book club for those who love to read
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message 1: by Allie

Allie Smith I adore The Paris Wife...it was wondeful! I went out and bought a Moveable Feast, which I am excited to read. Hope I got the right version, that is good to Hadley!


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