Some of the books Written by Nicholas Sparks:
Author's Biography:
Nicholas
Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 31, 1965, the
second son of Patrick Michael (1942-1996) and Jill Emma Marie (Thoene)
Sparks (1942-1989). His siblings are Michael Earl Sparks (b. Dec.
1964), and Danielle Sparks (b. Dec. 1966, d. June, 2000). As a child,
he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally
settling in Fair Oaks, California at the age of eight. His father was a
professor, his mother a homemaker, then optometrist's assistant. He
lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in
1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre
Dame.
After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a
relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands), he was
injured and spent the summer recovering. During that summer, he wrote
his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business
Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988.
He and his wife
Catherine, who met on spring break in 1988, were married in July, 1989.
While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel that same year,
though again, it wasn't published. He worked a variety of jobs over the
next three years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables,
selling dental products by phone, and started his own small
manufacturing business which struggled from the beginning. In 1990, he
collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold Medalist and
it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by
Random House. (It was recently re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it
received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year
of release.
He began selling pharmaceuticals and moved from
Sacramento, California to North Carolina in 1992. In 1994, at the age
of 28, he wrote The Notebook over a period of six months. In October,
1995, rights to The Notebook were sold to Warner Books. It was
published in October, 1996, and he followed that with Message in a
Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in
the Road (2001), and Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003),
The Wedding (2003), Three Weeks with my Brother (2004), True Believer
(2005) and At First Sight (2005) all with Warner Books. All were
domestic and international best sellers and were translated into more
than 35 languages. The movie version of Message in a Bottle was
released in 1999, A Walk to Remember was released in 2002, and The
Notebook was released in 2004. The average domestic box office gross
per film was $56 million -- with another $100 million in DVD sales --
making the novels by Nicholas Sparks one of the most successful
franchises in Hollywood.
The film rights to Nights in Rodanthe,
True Believer and At First Sight have been sold, and Nicholas Sparks
has written the screenplay for The Guardian, though he has not offered
it for sale at this point.
He now has five children: Miles, Ryan, Landon, Lexie, and Savannah. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and children.
His
ancestry is German, Czech, English, and Irish, he's 5'10" and weighs
180 lbs. He is an avid athlete who runs daily, lifts weights regularly,
and competes in Tae Kwon Do. He attends church regularly and reads
approximately 125 books a year. He contributes to a variety of local
and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative
Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he
provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually.
1-Dear John:
An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army,
not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets the girl of
his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the
kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour
of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who captured
his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to
re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation finds Savannah falling in
love with someone else. "Dear John," the letter read...and with those
two words, a heart was broken and two lives were changed forever.
Returning home, John must come to grips with the fact that Savannah,
now married, is still his true love--and face the hardest decision of
his life.
2-The Last Song:
#1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.
Seventeen
year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when
her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to
Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and
alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother
decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer
in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and
teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating
a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.
The
tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many
levels--first love, love between parents and children -- that
demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that
love can break our hearts...and heal them.
3-The Lucky One:
In his 14th book, bestselling author Nicholas Sparks tells the unforgettable story of a man whose brushes with death lead him to the love of his life.
After U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman buried in the dirt during his tour of duty in Iraq, he experiences a sudden streak of luck -- winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph -- his lucky charm.
Back home in Colorado, Thibault can't seem to get the woman in the photograph out of his mind and he sets out on a journey across the country to find her. But Thibault is caught off guard by the strong attraction he feels for the woman he encounters in North Carolina - Elizabeth, a divorced mother -- and he keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate love affair, his secret soon threatens to tear them apart -- destroying not only their love, but also their lives.
Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, THE LUCKY ONE is an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.
4-The Notebook:
"Somewhere," muses Noah Calhoun, while sitting on his porch in the
moonight, "there were people making love." The Notebook, a
Southern-fried story of love-lost-and-found-again, revolves around a
single time-honored romantic dilemma: will beautiful Allison Nelson
stay with Mr. Respectability (to whom she happens to be engaged), or
will she choose Noah, the romantic rascal she left so many years ago?
5-The Choice :
#1 New York Times bestseller Nicholas Sparks turns his unrivaled
talents to a new tale about love found and lost, and the choices we
hope we'll never have to make.
Travis Parker has everything
a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in
small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life-- boating,
swimming, and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies--he holds
the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would
only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door.
Despite his attempts to be neighborly, the appealing redhead seems to
have a chip on her shoulder about him . . . and the presence of her
longtime boyfriend doesn't help. Despite himself, Travis can't stop
trying to ingratiate himself with his new neighbor, and his persistent
efforts lead them both to the doorstep of a journey that neither could
have foreseen. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and
family, THE CHOICE ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching
question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?
6-The Wedding:
With The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and his other beloved novels, #1
New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks has given voice to
our deepest beliefs about the power of love. Now he brings us the
long-awaited follow-up to The Notebook-a story of an ordinary man who
goes to extraordinary lengths to win back the love of his life... After
thirty years, Wilson Lewis is forced to face a painful truth: the
romance has gone out of his marriage. His wife, Jane, has fallen out of
love with him, and it is entirely his fault. Despite the shining
example of his in-laws, Noah and Allie Calhoun, and their fifty-year
love affair (originally recounted in The Notebook), Wilson himself is a
man unable to express his true feelings. He has spent too little time
at home and too much at the office, leaving the responsibility of
raising their children to Jane. Now his daughter is about to marry, and
his wife is thinking about leaving him. But if Wilson is sure of
anything, it is this: His love for Jane has only grown over the years,
and he will do everything he can to save their marriage. With the
memories of Noah and Allie's inspiring life together as his guide, he
vows to find a way to make his wife fall in love with him...all over
again. In this powerfully moving tale of love lost, rediscovered, and
renewed, Nicholas Sparks once again brings readers his unique insight
into the only emotion that ultimately really matters.
7-At First Sight:
There are a few things Jeremy Marsh was sure he'd never do: he'd never
leave New York City; never give his heart away again after barely
surviving one failed marriage; and, most of all, never become a parent.
Now, Jeremy is living in the tiny town of Boone Creek, North Carolina,
married to Lexie Darnell, the love of his life, and anticipating the
birth of their daughter. But just as his life seems to be settling into
a blissful pattern, an unsettling and mysterious message re-opens old
wounds and sets off a chain of events that will forever change the
course of this young couple's marriage.
Dramatic,
heartbreaking and surprising, this is a story about the love between a
man and a woman and between a parent and a child. More than that, it is
a story that beautifully portrays how the same emotion that can break
your heart is also the one that will ultimately heal it.
While the novel picks up the tale of Lexie Darnell and Jeremy Marsh that started in True Believer and will delight fans of that novel, it stands on its own as one of Nicholas Sparks's most deeply moving love stories.
