The Books I’m Loving Lately
April 24, 2017
You know what pregnancy is good for?
Forcing you to sit. Like, for extended periods of time. When you otherwise wouldn’t dream of doing so, you find yourself crashing on the couch, or crawling into bed at 8:15 (and not moving again until the next morning—multiple pee breaks not included).
At least for me, in the time that I have been parked on some sort of flat surface, I always have my iPad nearby, with my Kindle app fired up. And especially at night, when the kids are down and we are tucked in and the TV is off, I always, always dig into my books.
Beyond the delicious escape of a good read, it’s also my foolproof way of relaxing and guaranteeing good sleep. And I’ve gotten through some seriously good books lately that I wanted to share with you. I’ll do my best to give a brief and completely unprofessional-sounding synopsis and review. Hope you find them as good as I did!
And please! Let me know in Comments which books you’re loving lately! I’ve got a few weeks til this baby gets here and a whole lot of relaxing to do until then. (Because after she gets here, NO WAY.)
Okay, here goes!
Stones from the River (Burgdorf Cycle Book 1), by Ursula Hegi
Follow the journey of a young German girl who lives in a small town, witnessing the horror of the war and the Holocaust erode her town. Her own unique physical challenges make her experience of an objectively horrifying situation even more of a test. Hegi’s way with words is poetic.
Floating in my Mother’s Palm (Burgdorf Cycle Book 2)
The Vision of Emma Blau (Burgdorf Cycle Book 3)
Children and Fire (Burgdorf Cycle Book 4)
The rest of these books follow the journeys of other people who are supporting characters in the first book, with the final book taking readers from Europe and into America.
The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
A young, fiery French woman becomes an unlikely force in the fight against Nazis in World War II. Set at the start of the war and then spanning into modern times, she and her sister’s journeys illustrate that there is more than one way to fight in a war. A great mix of adventure, deep emotion and family ties.
A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman
Who says old dogs can’t learn new tricks? An old man who, for all intents and purposes, is an incorrigible grump, learns the biggest lessons of his life after the most important person in his life is gone. A Swedish book translated to English, the form can seem choppy, but the basic message is a good one.
The Nest, by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
You know the saying, “Money is the root of all evil?” Apparently it’s the root of all deception, too. A tale of four siblings illustrates how greed and the promise of some serious cash can damage even the most precious of relationships. But it’s how the book ends that will give you promise that even dysfunction can be defeated by common decency.
How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir, by Cat Marnell
Over the years, I followed the writing and columns by a certain Cat Marnell—first when she was a Lucky magazine beauty writer, then beauty editor at xojane.com, then resident druggie-slash-beauty-expert at Vice, where she somehow managed to marry the topics of eyeliner and Adderall in her trippy and transfixing column, “Amphetamine Logic.”
This is her memoir, all about the “addiction versus ambition” war that raged in her for years. An admitted Adderall, cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, amphetamine and barbiturate user/abuser, you get all the gritty tales in here for free without having to witness in person the gnarly damage it can cause. (Gnarly story case in point? A friend of hers once sucks the blood out of her bleeding nose on a drug binge. Yeah. That’s what you get here.)
Her writing is light and funny, for covering such serious issues, and you get to follow along her journey to see if she “gets better.” The ending may challenge your view of what recovery really means.
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
I’m currently in the middle of reading this, and it is soooo good. Cheers to another creepy dystopian take on our society.
Also, this one has been made into a TV show, so I will definitely be watching after I finish!
All right, friends. That’s all she wrote!
HA! Hahaha!
Anyhow, hope you check out of some of these gems and let me know what books you’re loving lately!
‘Til next time!…
