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Viola Shipman

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Website

http://www.violashipman.com

Twitter

viola_shipman

Genre

Fiction, Chick Lit, Romance

Member Since

December 2015

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Dear Reader:
My latest novel, The Page Turner, is a story about why we too often judge one another – and the books we read – by a glance at the collective cover without knowing what is inside. It is also a story about how reading and books not only change us but also save our lives. They did mine.

Growing up “different” in rural America in the 1970s – with no one like me and no one to talk to about what I was going through – I felt alone in this world. Books allowed me to escape, understand, heal, hope and realize there was a place for me in the world just as I was. My grandma – my pen name, Viola Shipman – sensed I was “different,” and she loved me unconditionally and made sure I cherished my uniqueness. Even though my grandma never finishe Dear Reader:
My latest novel, The Page Turner, is a story about why we too often judge one another – and the books we read – by a glance at the collective cover without knowing what is inside. It is also a story about how reading and books not only change us but also save our lives. They did mine.

Growing up “different” in rural America in the 1970s – with no one like me and no one to talk to about what I was going through – I felt alone in this world. Books allowed me to escape, understand, heal, hope and realize there was a place for me in the world just as I was. My grandma – my pen name, Viola Shipman – sensed I was “different,” and she loved me unconditionally and made sure I cherished my uniqueness. Even though my grandma never finished high school, she was a voracious reader who pushed books into my hands from the earliest of ages and made it clear that reading and education would not only change my life but quite possibly save it.

Books allowed me to see a vast world beyond the small town in which I lived. They allowed me to not only escape from the cruelty I often experienced but also understand the reasons behind the hatred. They allowed me to see – as my grandma instilled in me – that being unique was a gift. Books aren’t just books. Books are family. Authors are friends. The stories we read are timestamps in our memories. They bookmark important chapters in our lives and growth. Books are a chance to right the wrong in the world, an opportunity to rewrite ourselves. We can reimagine and reinvent, see the world in an entirely new way simply by turning a page. Or, sometimes, we can just escape from our own lives.

As Carl Sagan wrote: “What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."

That’s exactly how I feel when I read and write: Magical. Like a literary unicorn.

Authors tend to write about the same topics – love, death, hope, loss – and we use the same words, the same linguistic tool belt, but it’s how we bring those stories to life that sets us apart.

That is why The Page Turner is also about voice. Not only the voice Emma Page uses to bring her novel to life, but the voice she owns that makes her special and that she is unwilling to silence. We all have a voice. In fact, I bet yours is talking to you in your head right now. However, there’s a good chance that you’ve forgotten the power of your own voice, the beauty of your own uniqueness. As I address in this book, we tend to bury that out of fear: Fear of being different, as I was; fear of being unpopular; fear that our family or friends will disapprove; fear of, well, everything. And slowly that voice becomes so quiet, so distant, we don’t even hear it anymore, and we are no longer the unique souls we once were. We are far from being the people we once dreamed. This novel is about overcoming fear and rediscovering your voice. As I write: Every voice is important. Every story needs to be heard.

I was once consumed by fear. And then I found my voice again. In fact, when I first started writing and dreaming of being an author, I truly believed that there was a golden key that was passed around New York City. It was handed out — late at night, in a fancy restaurant under gilded lights and over expensive drinks — to “certain” authors. And I would never be one of them. I now know — and you certainly already do — that such a key does not exist. The only key you need you already own: The one that unlocks the door to o ...more

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Viola Shipman’s books

Average rating: 3.9 · 87,739 ratings · 12,826 reviews · 21 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Secret of Snow 3.85 avg rating — 11,084 ratings — published 2021 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Charm Bracelet 3.85 avg rating — 9,868 ratings — published 2016 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Clover Girls 3.79 avg rating — 9,828 ratings — published 2021 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Summer Cottage 4.02 avg rating — 9,212 ratings — published 2019 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Recipe Box 3.85 avg rating — 7,860 ratings — published 2018 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Heirloom Garden 4.17 avg rating — 6,339 ratings — published 2020 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Famous in a Small Town 3.88 avg rating — 5,838 ratings — published 2023 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Edge of Summer 3.99 avg rating — 5,579 ratings — published 2022 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Wish for Winter 3.74 avg rating — 5,090 ratings — published 2022 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Page Turner 3.64 avg rating — 5,176 ratings — published 2025 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Viola Shipman…

2 posts
Viola Shipman's Blog

Mother's Day

If you are like me and have lost your mother – I lost my mom in 2009 – Mother’s Day is a bittersweet holiday. I was very close to my mom, a nurse and hospice nurse, whose life was spent nurturing others. She was smart and headstrong but also incredibly funny and sweet. My brother died at the age of 17, when I was just 13, and somehow my mom – despite her overwhelming sorrow – never wavered in her Read more of this blog post »

11 likes · Like • 5 comments • flag

Published on May 09, 2018 09:07 • Tags: bestseller, books, cardinals, children, ermabombeck, faith, flowers, gardens, grandma, grandmothers, hummingbird, love, mom, mother-sday, novel, read, recipe

View all 2 posts »

Series by Viola Shipman

Heirloom (3 books)
by

Viola Shipman (Goodreads Author)

3.89 avg rating — 21,897 ratings

Quotes by Viola Shipman (?)

“Do what makes you happy. It sounds so simple and yet it's so hard, because few of us do. We live out of fear. We live for others, their hopes and expectations. We do what makes everyone else happy.”
― Viola Shipman, The Charm Bracelet

20 likes

“The Snowflake Charm

Be As Unique As A Snowflake: Embrace All Your Dimensions”
― Viola Shipman, The Charm Bracelet

tags: charm, charms, embrace-life, embrace-who-you-are, faith-quotes, love-quotes, snowflake, snowflakes, thecharmbracelet, unique, uniquely-you, uniqueness, uniqueness-of-individual

14 likes

“A Mother & Daughter's Love Is Never Separated”
― Viola Shipman, The Charm Bracelet

tags: book-clubs, book-quote, charms, daughter, faith-quotes, family, inspirational, love, love-quotes, mother, mothers-and-daughters

12 likes

See all Viola Shipman's quotes »

Polls

Time to vote on our March 2022 Members Choice book. The poll will remain open thru Saturday Feb 12th. Thanks and good luck nominators...

Eternal

by Lisa Scottoline

11 votes, 27.5%

Touch Not the Cat

by Mary Stewart

7 votes, 17.5%

Someone Knows My Name

by Lawrence Hill

6 votes, 15.0%

The Boy at the Top of the Mountain

by John Boyne

5 votes, 12.5%

Lamentations: A Novel of Women Walking West

by Carol Kammen

4 votes, 10.0%

A Conspiracy of Mothers

by Colleen van Niekerk

3 votes, 7.5%

The Color of Air

by Gail Tsukiyama

2 votes, 5.0%

The Secret of Snow

by Viola Shipman

2 votes, 5.0%

40 total votes

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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The History Book ...: READATHON - BREAK ONE - 6PM - April 23, 2016	23	18	Apr 23, 2016 06:36PM
The History Book ...: TWO - 2016 - Readathon Seven Date: April 23rd, 2016 - Noon to 4PM - Check-In - CHECKPOINT TWO - SECOND CHECK IN	41	33	Apr 24, 2016 06:41AM
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Game Night: Seconds To Win Casual Scrabble	330	44	Dec 12, 2016 02:11PM

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Viola’s Quotes

“A Mother & Daughter's Love Is Never Separated”
― Viola Shipman, The Charm Bracelet

tags: book-clubs, book-quote, charms, daughter, faith-quotes, family, inspirational, love, love-quotes, mother, mothers-and-daughters

12 likes

“The Hot Air Balloon Charm

Life Can Be Filled with Adventure If You Let Yourself Soar”
― Viola Shipman, The Charm Bracelet

tags: adventure, charm-bracelet, charms, faith-quotes, family, inspirational-quotes, life-and-living, life-lessons, life-quotes, love, positive-quotes, positive-thinking, risk, risk-it

5 likes

“The Dragonfly Charm

Embrace The Magic of Nature & Life Will Be Filled with Good Fortune”
― Viola Shipman, The Charm Bracelet

tags: daily-inspiration, daily-life, daily-motivation, daily-quotes, dragonflies, good-fortune, inspirational-quotes, life-philosophy, life-quotes, majic, nature

4 likes

“The Sewing Machine Charm

To A Life Bound by Family, The Thread That Ties Us All Together”
― Viola Shipman, The Charm Bracelet

tags: daily-inspiration, daily-quotes, faith-quotes, family, inspirational-quotes, life-quotes, love-quotes, sew, sewing, sewing-machine, sewing-souls

8 likes

“The Kite Charm

For A Life Filled with High-Flying Fun, Play with the Wonder of A Child”
― Viola Shipman, The Charm Bracelet

tags: childern, children, family, grandchildren, grandma, joyful-living, joyful-living-quotes, kite, life-and-living-life-and-love, love-quotes, wonder

7 likes

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Viola’s Friend Comments

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message 1: by Stephanie

Feb 19, 2019 01:24PM

Thanks, Viola!😃

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Viola Shipman

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