Tell Me What to Read: Winter 2016 Edition
I’m just about done with my last book from the Fall 2015 Tell Me What to Read (just waiting for it to come back from the library so I can finish it up) and I’m ready for a new round of suggestions!
I’ve had such good reading success this year so far, and want to keep the streak of fabulous books.
So! You know the drill – suggest something fun (although that doesn’t need to mean chick-lit – I’m up for non-fiction, memoirs, young adult, middle grade, AND chick-lit), and I’ll pick three to read in February, March, and April.
Your job: Comment with the title of a book you think I should read.
My job: Choose three from the suggestions and announce them next week. I’ll read one a month (ish) between now and the end of April. Feel free to read along and check back every month for my reviews.
And, as always, even if I hate the book, I will not hate you.
Hit me with your best recommendations! My many library cards are ready for you.
The Forgotton Garden by Kate Morton. Amazing.
That is a great one. Have you read The Secret Keeper yet? I think it's her best one!
I've read the Secret Keeper (and loved it!) and am currently reading The Lake House, but haven't done the Forgotten Garden yet.
I've read The Secret Keeper, Distant Hours and the Forgotten Garden. The Forgotten Garden is my favorite of hers and just one of my favorite historic novels, in general.
My best reads lately have been What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (so interesting and you may have already read it!), Secret Sisters by Jayne Ann Krentz & a YA recommendation is the Every Breath/Every Word series by Ellie Marney – I really enjoyed them 🙂
And also Winter & the whole Lunar Chronicles series if you haven't read them yet – Winter is the last one but seasonally appropriate! 😉
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; The Red Tent
Have you read The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis? Our book club read it and loved it. It's a little hefty, so it might take you a little over a day 😉 (it took me 3 weeks of vigorous reading.) I love when you do these posts, I always find tons of great suggestions!
I've read To Say Nothing of the Dog by her, which I loved! But not Doomsday, which I've heard raves about.
Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis are really good too. In those books the time traveling historians go to the London Blitz. I learned so much.
I thought I had heard about it from your blog but when I searched just now I didn't find a review… Have you read French Women Don't Get Fat? Also I recommend Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and anything by Rebecca Stead. I just discovered her YA books and they're really good.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society!
I feel like you'd enjoy One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson. It's hard to describe it without making it sound like a snooze – which it definitely is NOT – but essentially it's about a bunch of incredible things that happened in the US in the summer of 1927 and how they are all interconnected & how they changed the 20th century (Charles Lindbergh's flight, Al Capone, the first talkie moving pictures, Babe Ruth, etc.) He is such an entertaining writer, and it's done in that "narrative non-fiction" style that makes you feel like you're reading a novel. I found myself thinking, how did I not know this already??! and who knew how interesting baseball home run records are??? so many times over. I'm not doing it justice here…
this one is really good!
I recommend Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon or The War That Saved My Life. Actually, you should read both!
I've read both of them! (In fact, I just read Everything, Everything a few weeks ago).
The best fiction I've read recently is "The Lost Sisterhood," by Anne Fortier. The premise sounds sketchy (Amazons? real ones? hmmm), but it was really good.
The best non-fiction was "Consider the Fork," by Bee Wilson. Again, the subject seems like it would be lame (a whole book about utensils and kitchen implements? hmmm), but it was great.
Both examples of the rule that in the hands of a good writer, anything can be made interesting.
Read: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katerina Bivald – it's a charming book about the power of books. For non fiction – The Curious Mind: the secret to a bigger life by Brian Grazer. And one more fiction – Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart – good historical fiction/mystery based on real life people.
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche- one of my recent favorites
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein! A really cute and fun middle grade that takes place in a library- what more could you want? It's easily the most fun middle grade book I've read in a while- especially is you love board games and libraries. I think a sequel was just released too… need to get on that.
Circling the Sun by Paula McClain – This is the first book that I have read in a while where I found myself addicted to the story. I think I said the phrase "just one more chapter" about twenty times in one day.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Would love to read a discussion on this.
Whoa, this looks amazing!
I'm reading Where'd You Go Bernadette this week and it's excellent. We also just read a little YA book called Hope Was Here for my book club, and it was absolutely delightful.
I second Where'd You Go Bernadette. It's a fun and quirky read!
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. So very powerful and important.
We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Neilsen was an amazing YA read. I am recommending it to everyone!
Have you read Gone with the Wind? It's long…1500 pages…but I ate it up in two weeks and I'm sure you'd do it even faster!
One of my all-time favorites. I love this book so much.
Apologies if I read about either of these from you, but I loved both A Murder of Magpies, by Judith Flanders, which is sort of light mystery (not cozy) with a very entertaining main character, and Friends for Life, by Andrew Norriss, which is YA and was fantastic.
Nurture Shock.
Impersonator by Mary Miley. Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald. The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Preston. Iron Trial by Holly Black.
It's a little old, but The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton, remains one of the best works of nonfiction I have ever read.
Buzzkill by Beth Fantaskey–a YA modern Nancy Drew that is just so fun
The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne–kind of like The Royal We but so much better and so much more British
The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and Fish in A Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt–all three of these are excellent on Audio. Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan
I heartily second A Man Called Ove!
I'm going to suggest Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr for nonfiction and Station Eleven for fiction.
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. Then go watch the incredible movie. So amazing!
I just finished The Fall of Marigolds and I really enjoyed it. I think you might too!
Kitchens of the Great Midwest! SO unique and engrossing.
Breaking Busy by Alli Worthington.
Have you read Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing? If not, then I highly highly recommend it. It's riveting nonfiction, and it totally made me think my winter wasn't all that bad.
my favorite book club book of 2015 – Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. Whoa. Great read.
I wrote this last time, but These Is My Words–amazing! And then a couple people commented with Literary Potato Peel Society (or something like that, I always forget the name) and I second them! I LOVED it! Also I just read Outliers (nonfiction) just recently, and I am not a nonfiction fan, but it was so fascinating!
I second the Lunar Chronicles series (Cinder is the first and so good, I also LOVED Scarlet). Also, I know fantasy isn't your favorite style, but Girl of Fire and Thorns was so good. And not crazy fantasy-like, honestly. All The Light We Cannot See was excellent as well.
"All The Truth That's In Me" by Julie Berry. This book intrigues you, confuses you, breaks your heart just a little bit, and then closes with revelations that inspire you. It was one of those books I read into the wee hours of the morning simply because I couldn't put it down without knowing what happened. I wouldn't say it is my favorite book, but it is a book I think about regularly. Her style of writing is so unique and refreshing and I loved the fact that I didn't completely understand it until I finished it.
Symphony for the City of the Dead (YA nonfiction), All the Bright Places (YA), My Brilliant Friend (Book 1 of the Neapolitan Novels), The Doldrums (JF).
Girl Waits with Gun, really enjoyed this one!
Before Green Gables
Of of my most favorite memoirs EVER is Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil In Saudi Arabia. It's the story of a opulently wealthy woman who was born in the royal Saudi Arabian family. Women there have next to no rights. It's illegal for a woman to drive a car, but legal for a boy 9 years old to drive. Women are property. She is rich and has a lot of influence, but not enough to free herself from her veil. She is lucky to be married to a man to whom she is in love, but most women are not so lucky. She fights very hard for women's rights and makes friends with powerful people who help her in her quest. She is bright, smart, strong, generous, and stubborn. It will really open up your eyes to how other people in the world live. This is her first book, but she went on to write three more and there is a fifth being released late this year. I swear you will finish it in less than two days, it's so hard to put it down you won't want to stop! You won't regret this read! 🙂
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/613283.Princess?from_search=true&search_version=service
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!!! I'm not a zombie fan, and this was the first book I've ever read from this genre, but I LOVED it!!! it was hilarious–the same Pride and Prejudice story with such a funny twist. I couldn't put it down!
I feel so smart that I actually have titles to really contribute to this for once! I finished The Dorito Effect last month which I thought was SO interesting! I just heard of Room today about a woman who has been in this room for 10 year and has a son who is 7 and knows nothing about life outside of said room. I'm reading The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry right now, and on my overdrive account I also have Divergent, Unbroken (Still haven't finished it from last year!), and A lucky Life Interrupted which is Tom Brokaw's memoir and battle with cancer… really excited to read that one.
The most impactful book I have read, maybe ever, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. I will be reading it again soon!
I recently enjoyed Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. Also, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby.
The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah. I just finished it and it was amazing!! Made me feel every emotion. It is about two sisters in France in World War II and how each of them handles the war. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I finished.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik was one of my favorite books last year – you like Laini Taylor's books so I think you'd like this one too!
Anything by P.W. Catanese. He's a YA fantasy writer and simply fabulous! I read the trilogy of "The Books of Umber" to my 3 boys (9, 11, 13) and we all loved them. Great writing and fun characters! We laughed out loud at some parts. P.W.'s imagination is just fantastic!
I think you should read Red: A History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey. I haven't read it myself, but I have a good friend who is reading it, and the whole time she was telling me about it I was thinking about you. It sounds really interesting. I have no redheads in my family, but I really want to read it.
Um, yeah, and Bone Gap, obviously. 🙂
Spare Parts by Joshua Davis
Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas
I LOVED Delicious!, first novel by Ruth Reichl, former editor of Gourmet magazine. It has intrigue, GREAT writing, humor, local NY City color, a little romance, great characters and a mystery. I hope Ms. Reichl writes a LOT more. Please read it!! (Others mentioned The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society…..it's WONDERFUL and one of my favorites.)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
I have no idea who you are except for this blog obviously, but when I finished this book I immediately thought of you which is odd.
You've got to read Ok for Now if you've never read it… my favorite YA book of all time (and heart breaking/warming to anyone with a background in education and literacy). The Thing About Jellyfish is the best YA book I read last year, Kitchens of the Great Midwest was my favorite novel (I'm a huge sucker for books told through multiple characters) and Just Mercy was an excellent non fiction read that leaves you really thinking about our justice system.
I would just really love to see you review a middle-grade novel. I don't think I have seen that yet. Maybe there's a reason (like, you secretly despise them or I'm just not very observant), but if someone suggests a middle-grade novel, that's my vote!!! 😀
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan
The Sound of Gravel
I know you already chose but here are books that I have never forgotten after reading them years ago. Sometimes just because I learned so much about a culture I was unfamiliar with and it would make me study up after solidifying the book with non-fiction details. You have probably read some of them. "Golden Urchin" Madeleine Brent, "Green City in the Sun" Barbara Wood, "Listening for Lions" Gloria Whelan, "The Wheel on the School" (1965 Newberry Medal), "How to Listen So Kids Will Talk and Talk so Kids Will Listen"*nonfiction, "Snowflower and the Paper Fan", "The Help", "The Secret Life of Bees". And here are 2 that I read last year that were my favorite "All the light we Cannot See", "Wish You Well" David Baldacci *I am not a Baldacci fan at all, but my dad kept insisting I read this because it is a memoir of his grandmother.
On a side note thanks for the awesome book recs last year of Jim Gaffigan "Food a Love Story" audiobook – I will never look at some foods the same. And "Okay for Now". I can't wait to read Wednesday Wars. And hordes of childrens books.