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Nicholas Sparks

Author of The Notebook

155+ Works 115,313 Members 2,162 Reviews 343 Favorited

About the Author

Nicholas Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on New Year's Eve, 1965. As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California when he was eight. In 1984, he received a full scholarship to run track and field for the University of Notre show more Dame. Sparks wrote one of his best-known stories, The Notebook, over a period of six months at age 28. It was published in 1996 and spent 56 weeks on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list followed by another 54 weeks on the paperback list. Sparks has had a string of New York Times bestsellers including: A Walk to Remember, Message in a Bottle, The Rescue, A Bend in the Road, Nights in Rodanthe, The Guardian, The Wedding, True Believer and its sequel, At First Sight, Dear John, The Choice, The Last Song, Safe Haven, The Best of Me, See Me, The Longest Ride, and Two by Two. The Choice will become his eleventh film adaptation. Sparks is involved in many 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. Along with his wife, he founded The Epiphany School in New Bern, North Carolina and the Nicholas Sparks Foundation. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Series

Works by Nicholas Sparks

The Notebook (1996) 14,775 copies
A Walk to Remember (1999) 9,768 copies
Dear John (2006) 8,043 copies
The Last Song (2009) 6,396 copies
The Wedding (2003) 6,081 copies
The Lucky One (2008) 6,024 copies
Message in a Bottle (1998) 5,816 copies
A Bend in the Road (2001) 5,527 copies
Nights in Rodanthe (2002) 5,447 copies
The Rescue (2000) 5,409 copies
The Choice (2007) 5,324 copies
The Guardian (2003) 5,173 copies
At First Sight (2005) 4,901 copies
Safe Haven (2010) 4,844 copies
True Believer (2005) 4,550 copies
The Best of Me (2011) 3,617 copies
The Longest Ride (2013) 2,987 copies
Three Weeks with My Brother (2004) 2,164 copies
See Me (2015) 1,973 copies
Two by Two (2017) 1,784 copies
Every Breath (2018) 1,565 copies
The Return (2020) 1,151 copies
The Wish (2022) 842 copies
Dreamland (2022) 485 copies
The Lucky One [2012 film] (2012) — Author — 157 copies
The Notebook [and] The Wedding (1996) — Author — 38 copies
Querido John (2015) 10 copies
De terugkeer (2020) 6 copies
Retrouvailles (2021) 3 copies
O Sonho (2021) 3 copies
Saying Goodbye 3 copies
Au rythme de ton souffle (2018) 3 copies
De Keuze 3 copies
Summer Love Omnibus (2003) 3 copies
Le plus beau des chemins (2014) 3 copies
Noi due come in un sogno (2022) 2 copies
De wens (2022) 2 copies
Wenn du zurückkehrst (2020) 2 copies
Wish, The 2 copies
Alles wird gut (2003) 2 copies
Fais un voeu (2022) 1 copy
Útěk do samoty (2016) 1 copy
Bezpieczna przystan (2015) 1 copy
O Milagre 1 copy
Poslednja pesma (2011) 1 copy
Beležnica (2012) 1 copy
KTHIMI 1 copy
Querido John 1 copy
Cher John (2015) 1 copy
Zgjedhja 1 copy
The Shack 1 copy
No Seu Olhar 1 copy
Nur mit Dir (2003) 1 copy
Eltékozolt évek (2015) 1 copy
Nterna vid havet (2003) 1 copy
Undrens tid 1 copy
Missing You 1 copy
Fotografiet (2010) 1 copy
Vjenčanje (2007) 1 copy
Izbor (2009) 1 copy
Nicholas Sparks (2011) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Notebook [2004 film] (2004) — Author — 676 copies
Dear John [2010 film] (2010) — Author — 187 copies
Message in a Bottle [1999 film] (1999) — Author — 152 copies
The Longest Ride [2015 film] (2015) — Author — 143 copies
The Last Song [2010 film] (2010) — Author — 103 copies
The Best of Me [2014 film] (2014) — original book — 86 copies
The Choice [2016 film] (2016) — Author — 76 copies
4 Film Favorites: Nicholas Sparks (2009) — Author — 34 copies
Reader's Digest Select Editions 2001 v01 #253 (2001) — Author — 32 copies
RDSELP v110 A Walk to Remember | Boundary Waters (1999) — Author — 14 copies
Reader's Digest Select Editions 2009 v03 #303 (2009) — Contributor — 7 copies
RDSELP v161 The Choice | The Saddlemaker's Wife (2009) — Contributor — 7 copies
RDSELP v130 The Guardian | A Perfect Day (2004) — Author — 5 copies
RDSELP v136 The Wedding | Final Witness (2005) — Author — 4 copies

Tagged

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Common Knowledge

Legal name
Sparks, Nicholas Charles
Birthdate
1965-12-31
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Places of residence
Watertown, Minnesota, USA
Inglewood, California, USA
Playa Del Rey, California, USA
Grand Island, Nebraska, USA
Fair Oaks, California, USA
Sacramento, California, USA (show all 7)
New Bern, North Carolina, USA
Education
University of Notre Dame (Business Finance, 1988)
Bella Vista High School (valedictorian)
Occupations
novelist
screenwriter
producer
Relationships
Sparks, Micah (brother)
Organizations
The Nicholas Sparks Foundation
Agent
Theresa Park
Short biography
Nicholas Charles Sparks is an American novelist, screenwriter, and philanthropist. He has published twenty one novels and two non-fiction books, all of which have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 115 million copies sold worldwide in more than 50 languages.

Eleven of his novels have been adapted to film, including The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven (on all of which he served as a producer), The Lucky One, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John, The Last Song, and The Notebook, with a cumulative domestic box office totaling more than $574M.

Sparks lives in North Carolina, where he contributes to a variety of local and national charities. In 2011, he launched The Nicholas Sparks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to improving cultural and international understanding through global education experiences for students of all ages.

Members

Discussions

Reviews

It felt pretty predictable but the ending did make me do the ugly cry. Sweet story
 
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BethQuerrey | 20 other reviews | Dec 7, 2023 |
I've loved a lot of Nicholas Sparks' works (Of course, the Notebook will always be one of my favorites), but this one didn't quite do it for me. I liked the story, and the premise, but it didn't suck me in the way some of his other books have.

First, the description and scenery were absolutely beautiful and well-done, and made me feel like I was there, under the cloudy skies, tasting the salt breeze. I've been to North Carolina several times and have always enjoyed my times there, and I wouldn't ever hesitate to return. I'm from the big city and something about going down South just charms me. Secondly, it's still a beautiful tale of love found, lost, and then found again. It reminds us that anything can happen, and if it's meant to be, it will be. The big reveal at the end did pull at my heartstrings.

Unfortunately, Hope and Tru's love seemed...forced to me, and I didn't feel any chemistry between them. It seemed as if they were building a friendship, and then just suddenly fell in love (for me, their declarations seemed like it came out of the left field). And while I liked Tru (and reading about life in Africa), I wasn't as big of a fan of Hope, though I can understand why she made some of the decisions she did. She just came off as so selfish and inflexible, for a man who is supposedly the love of her life. And the big time jump in Part 2 kind of threw me off and I lost whatever connection I had built with our two MCs.

And while the writing style was fine, I thought there was too much telling and not enough showing, and there were big sections of infodumps, some of which I felt like I had to slog through.

I don't regret picking up this book, though, and I wouldn't hesitate to read Sparks' works, again.
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galian84 | 36 other reviews | Dec 1, 2023 |
I am a huge Nicholas Sparks fan, so I was so excited to receive an e-ARC of his latest book "Dreamland"! Unfortunately, this latest release fell flat for me. For 85% of the book it was two completely separate storylines - I knew they would come together eventually though (I couldn't IMAGINE how, so that was a happy surprise! One of those "How did I not SEE that?!?"). Also, I don't know why, but I just didn't feel the chemistry between Colby and Morgan. It felt rushed.

Sidenote: Maybe it's because I'm not a big musical person, or tik tok person, but I just can't see a massive crowd coming out to watch a bunch of girls dance and film a tik tok video. Bleh, it made the characters seem so shallow.

If I had only one sentence to review this book with, it would be, "The last 85% really redeemed the book."
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filemanager | 12 other reviews | Nov 29, 2023 |
I like romance when it adds to a story but I hate romance for its own sake so I kind of knew I wouldnt love it, but I thought I'd give it a chance- I liked the parts where they were old, hated the rest of it.
 
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jskeltz | 305 other reviews | Nov 23, 2023 |

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Statistics

Works
155
Also by
87
Members
115,313
Popularity
#72
Rating
3.8
Reviews
2,162
ISBNs
1,991
Languages
31
Favorited
343

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