Michelle Berry Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Michelle Berry
Author Michelle Berry opened a bookstore in the year 2016, The Hunter Street Bookstore, located in Peterborough, Ontario.

Her writing routine is different each day and with every bit of writing she does. Sometimes she will write frantically for months, and sometimes she won’t write for days. She will usually do some bit of ‘creative’ writing at least one time a day, though. Be it a book review, an interview, a personal letter, etc. Something that keeps the creative juices going.

When she is really into her writing (her stories and novels), she won’t have any music playing. She does have coffee, two cups a day, and has some water to drink. Michelle makes the effort of trying to clear off all the paper from her desk in order to keep it sparse, so she can keep focus. She tries letting her mind go and forget everything that she teaches her students and just write.

She is inspired by her walk to her office, the view out of her window, some book she is reading, seasons, clouds, a street sign, her kids and their stories, their friends, her own friends, and her cottage. Anything and everything will inspire her.

Michelle doesn’t research anything before she writes. For “What We All Want”, she wrote each of the embalming scenes from what she imagined embalming somebody would be like. Then, she had a funeral director read it, after she was done writing, for her in order to make sure it rang true.

Michelle’s debut novel, called “What We All Want”, was released in the year 2001. Her books have been published by Turnstone Press.

“What We All Want” is the first stand alone novel and was released in the year 2001. Three siblings come together in order to arrange the funeral of Becka, their mom, who died after struggling with liver cancer. But Thomas, Billy, and Hilary cannot agree on a plan. Grief, as well as having to deal with each other in the tough surroundings of their childhood home, has brought to the fore all of their insecurities and fears. Besides, they are one odd trio.

Hilary put her life on hold to care for their agoraphobic mom that never recovered from her husband walking out. Hilary, with just dolls for company, grows ever more eccentric, collecting jars of preserves and laying rocks all over the living room floor making it feel like a beach. She appears both wise and naive about the world. Life away from the house, however, is unimaginable to her.

Billy is unsure when life took a wrong turn. He does not remember having any childhood friends. He would hang out with Tess, then married her. But now all she cares about is food. At the same time, their anorexic daughter, age seventeen, is pregnant and refuses to say who the dad is. Billy uses the bottle in order to get him through each of life’s quiet disappointments. He is afraid to tell anybody that drinking cost him two jobs, and pins all of his hopes on his share of the money made from selling his mom’s house.

Thomas moved off to the other side of the country as soon as possible, and though he sent back money regularly, his fear of flying have been a good enough excuse not to visit for sixteen years. Handsome, successful, of sophisticated tastes, he hasn’t drummed up enough courage to tell his family that he is in a long-term relationship and gay. He is guilty that he hasn’t helped his family out much, but is anxious to put the past back in the box and go on with his perfect life.

While the three bicker over what to do about their mom and the house, Becka awaits burial silently at the Mortimer’s Funeral Home. Dick was Hilary’s childhood sweetheart. Now he is overweight and smells a bit like formaldehyde is a bit flustered to see her again in the Funeral Home where they used to fool around. She reveals an outrageous place that their mom should be buried, while they see a glimmer of a future with each other. They eventually agree to have the oddest backyard party the suburbs have seen yet.

“Blur” is the second stand alone novel and was released in the year 2002. Emma Fine, a Hollywood starlet, drops right out of sight after Ted Weaver, her lover, is found floating in her swimming pool, dead. Bridget, Ted’s wife, is also missing, and she has more than a passing resemblance to Emma. A decade later, Bruce Dermott, a tabloid reporter with Pulitzer pretensions, chances on Emma on some busy street. Bruce, who is determined to expose Emma to a celebrity-crazed public, sees in this enigmatic woman his ticket to journalistic big leagues.

In looking to disentangle the myth of the missing celebrity finds the trails of many lives, each attempting to impose their own meaning on Emma’s tale in a play of trickery, illusions, and body doubles. Bruce has to attempt to make sense out of the layers of depravity and deception that lurks behind a facade of glamour. He is also required to take a good long look at his own life by the arrival of his houseguests: his teenaged son and the former wife he still loves.

“This Book Will Not Save Your Life” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in the year 2010. Sylvia Swamp, too big for most regular medical equipment, is headed to a veterinary hospital for an emergency procedure. While the ambulance people are busy keeping her alive, Sylvia thinks back on her life and her own place in the dysfunctional family she detests and idolizes.

Ruth, Sylvia’s mom, is obsessed with the common sense advice in Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care, however common sense is exactly what escapes the woman. Sister Sadie would like to follow in her mom’s footsteps and become a magician’s assistant. Once Sadie dons the sequins, however, Ruth has to learn to share not just the applause but also Marvelous Marvin’s erotic attentions. At the same time, the somnolent Mr. Swamp turns to booze and television to escape. Who within this misfit family is going to crack first?