Carol Shields Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Dropped Threads Books

Publication Order of Penguin Lives Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Carol Shields is a Pulitzer Prize-winning literary fiction author from Canada who made a name for illuminating and capturing the ordinariness of life.

The author was born in Oak Park Illinois in 1935 and was the third child of schoolteacher Inez Warner and candy factory manager Robert Elmer.

In her teenage years, Shields went to Indiana-based Hanover College, which is where she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 1957.

Soon after her graduation from college, she got married to Canadian civil engineer Donald Hugh Shields. She had met her man while she was in Britain on a study abroad program.

Donald and Carol Shields would then make their home in Winnipeg, which is where they brought up Sara, Meg, Catherine, Anne, and John their five children.

Despite the many demands of domestic life, Carol Shields continued writing stories and poems in the little time she could find throughout her day. At some point, she said that she was a mother who wrote.

When her children were older, she decided to go back to back college and in 1975 went to the University of Ottawa, where she graduated with a master’s degree in literature. Her thesis was on Susanna Moodie, the Canadian bestselling literary fiction author.
Since she did a lot of research, she had a lot of material on her computer by the time she was done. She decided to take that material and then reworked it into “Small Ceremonies, the novel that she published in 1976.

It would not be the last time she played such literary games. Throughout her career, she borrowed from other authors such as John Updike and Margaret Laurence as she made this a playful theme of her fiction writing career.
It was the publication of “Small Ceremonies” in 1976 that kickstarted her career just as she turned 40.

As soon as her novel was published, Carol Shields began to teach literature at the University of British Columbia, the University of Manitoba, and the University of Ottawa.
She would rise up the ranks to become the University of Winnipeg chancellor in 1996 before retiring in 2000.

Just before Christmas in 1998, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which began a period of chemotherapy and trying to come to terms with her illness.

During this time, she continued writing and published a collection of short stories and a Jane Austen biography. In an unexpected burst of energy, she published “Unless” while very ill to favorable reviews.
In her 3 volumes of poetry, 3 collections of short stories, and 10 novels she made a name writing about how profound the mundane can be.

She had a knack for turning the ordinary into the extraordinary as evidenced by the many awards she won for her works over the years.

In addition to the Pulitzer, she was also the winner of the Governor General’s Award for fiction and made the shortlist for the Booker Prize.

Shields died of breast cancer complications in 2003 at her home in Victoria, British Columbia aged 68.

Carol Shields’ novel “The Stone Diaries,” tells the extraordinary journey of one woman through life. Daisy Stone Goodwill was born in 1905 and drifted through childhood, wifehood, motherhood, and widowhood, and finally became an old woman.
While she has a lot of experience, she does not understand her place in life which leaves her bewildered. He had lived a vivid life full of incidents, but often feels a sense of powerlessness.

She observes, she listens and through a very vivid sense of imagination, she tells of the events in her life. Daisy Stone chronicles her birth, death, and many connections she missed over the years.

The lead protagonist’s struggle to find her identity and place in the world showcases the eerie reality of the modern era. It is a compassionate and witty exploration of the human heart.

Carol Shields pens a very distinctive story where the elemental collides with the domestic. With humor and irony, she wears some beautiful strands that make for one of her most poignant and richest novels to date.

“Unless” by Carol Shields tells the story of a perfectly congenial, healthy, and normal nineteen-year-old young woman.

She was brought up in a nurturing and closely knit family but suddenly quits college. Together with her boyfriend, they have decided to become panhandlers in downtown Toronto.

This work is the account of her mother who recounts the pain of losing her eldest daughter who had never once been problematic.

She comes up with all manner of reasons why her daughter would take such drastic action when everything seemed to be going so right.

Since she was once upon a time a translator of memoirs by a French feminist author, he has developed a different view of the world.

She believes her daughter’s actions indicate powerlessness given the many prejudices women have to face in the modern world. When she interviews her daughter’s college professor and her boyfriend, she does not get any rational clues.
She becomes desolate and this results in her writing imaginary letters bashing authors she believes are sexist bigots.

Carol Shield’s novel “Larry’s Party,” tells the story of Larry Weller, an ordinary guy that was born in 1950. Carol pens what may be considered a CAT scan of the man’s life with tenderness, irony, and excellent perception.
Between 1977 and 1977, Larry goes on a journey toward the new millennium as he adapts to the always-changing expectations of men.
Shields writes some gorgeous prose as he dives into both the momentous and the trivial. Among all the accidents and paradoxes of his existence, he moves to the lean nineties from the blind charm of the eighties and the spontaneity of the seventies.
It is a journey of self-discovery that perfectly encapsulates the male condition as the 20th century was coming to an end with faultless wisdom and unerring poignancy.

It is a great story with some very interesting reflections on modern-day masculinity. Shields tries to subvert the traditional conception of masculinity, even as she posits multiple masculinities that are more ambivalent and fluid.