Inspire Great Reading for Winter 2018
I wrote earlier this month that the winter season is here (and has been for a while). As I do with every season, I like to feature reading recommendations on this blog for you to consider adding to your list this winter season. There's nothing better than snuggling up with your favorite blanket, book and a warm cup of hot cocoa on a chilly winter evening.
Enjoy these five reading suggestions--because they're worth it.
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| Anna Todd's "The Spring Girls" (photo/simonandschuster.com). |
The full title of this book is "The Spring Girls: A Modern-Day Retelling of Little Women." You guessed it: if you love Little Women, chances are you will love this new imagining by Anna Todd. The book has four sisters, drama, adventure, and fear--everything you love about Louisa May Alcott's classic.
The Spring Girls--Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy--live on a New Orleans military base while their father (again, an absent father) is stationed in Iraq. Their mother is hiding a secret from the girls and they must uncover the truth. Struggling to build lives the girls can be proud of, The Spring Girls is one year in the lives of these "little women." You won't want to miss this book.
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| Jilliam Medoff's "This Could Hurt: A Novel" (photo/harpercollins.com). |
When I first saw the front cover of this book, I was immediately intrigued and wanted to know more about it. I figured it had something to do with a work place (possibly the relationships between bosses and their employees). I didn't expect for the book to actually be about a human resource team.
This Could Hurt: A Novel is about five HR colleagues. The team attempts to balance ambition, hope and fear as their small company faces economic dilemmas that could ultimately end their careers.
But, the book really isn't about the business; it's about the people. Each HR team member plays an important part in the storytelling. These men and women scheme, fall in and out of love, and help build each other's dreams. Everyone is connected together. This might just be the perfect book we need right now to show that colleagues still have empathy for each other and want the best for their coworkers. This Could Work: A Novel is all about work, love, and loyalty.
3. "The English Wife" - Lauren Willig
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| Lauren Willig's "The English Wife" (photo/goodreads.com). |
I hoped and prayed the description of The English Wife would live up to its name, and it did. Lauren Willig set this scandalous novel in the Gilded Age (so, it's already perfect). The book is full of family secrets, affairs and even a murder.
Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil seem to be living the charmed life until the night of their Twelfth Night-themed ball (Shakespeare fans will love that). Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest. Annabelle has gone missing. It's all up to Bayard's sister, Janie, to uncover the truth about what happened. This book is a classic murder mystery with Lauren Willig only adding a new twist to the genre.
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| Allison Winn Scotch's "Between Me and You" (photo/amazon.com). |
This book just screams "bestseller." Between Me and You is an honest, touching and funny book about falling in and out of love--told from two perspectives. One rewinds history and the other moves the timeline forward.
Ben Livingston is a screenwriter who might have just written his "big break." Tatum Connelly is a struggling actress. They fall in love, get married, become parents, and the rest is history. But, as the years go by, Tatum's stardom rises while Ben's fades. Their marriage begins to crumble and they both think back to where their love story began--one working from the present to the past, and the other working from the past to the present. Each perspective results in different takes on their marriage. At the end of the day, Ben and Tatum must determine how everything went wrong and how to make it all right.
5. "The Girls in the Picture" - Melanie Benjamin
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| Melanie Benjamin's "The Girls in the Picture" (photo/USA Today). |
friendship and creative partnership between two of Hollywood's earliest female legends--screenwriter Frances Marion and actress Mary Pickford.
The year is 1914 and Frances Marion decided to leave her second husband for Hollywood, where she is determined to make a living as a screenwriter in the growing film industry. She meets Mary Pickford, the "American Sweetheart." The two women immediately hit it off and develop a mutual kinship.
But, their dreams are challenged by both the men around them and the limitations imposed on their gender. Women writers in Hollywood? Women as leading performers? It's unheard of at the time, but Mary and Frances work together to break these boundaries--even if it costs them their friendship.
With notable cameos, including Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino and more, Melanie Benjamin offers a historical drama on the friendship and forgiveness of two women in Old Hollywood who wouldn't let men take away their power.
This is the most timely novel to be reading right now--as it looks like Hollywood is still facing these dilemmas today.
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These are only five reading recommendations to consider for the winter 2018 season. There are so many other phenomenal new books this season, but start with these five. These are important books--discussing topics relevant to today's culture (for example: The Girls in the Picture). Enjoy these books. They want to be read.
-KJL-
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