Winter Reading Recommendation

Over my Christmas break I had the opportunity to do some reading, here are my recommendations.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield                                             This book is brilliant and one of the best books I've read in the last few years.  It was my favorite of all my recent reads.  It is a bit of a dark story of life reminicent of Wuthering Heights with inspiration from Jane Eyre.  I was absolutely wrapt while reading.  If you enjoyed the previously mentioned books or stories of ghosts, skeletons in closets, and dark family secrets, you will love this book.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This was my second favorite book of all my Christmas reads.  It is a story about bravery and courage  as a group of maids in Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement join forces with a rebellious southern belle to write a book about their stories.  It is very interesting, the biggest downfall is that the chapters written from the maids perspectives are a little bit difficult to read at first (kind of Huckleberry Finn ish), the first chapter is written in this perspective, so hang in there it will be worth it in the end.







If You Could See Me Now by Cecelia Ahern

Cecelia Ahern is a wonderfully creative author and one of my favorite, you may have read P.S. I love you, which is one of our more popular reads.  I have read several of her other books and they have all been very light and entertaining.  This book in particular is about a young women with lots of family drama that has pratically paralyzed her life.  She has put everything on hold, and made some big sacrifices for her family, this is the story of her finding her way back to life with the assistance of a friend named Ivan.  I would highly reccomend this book for a light "fluffy" read with a bit of a lesson behind it, definately a good before bed book. 

Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is in my top five favorite books of all time, so I was excited to try this book out.  Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed.  This book is about 375 pages long and about 325 of them are depressing.  It's the story of a woman's life completely falling apart and her return from the brink, but mostly the falling apart.  I would not recommend this book, especially because it has a sequel that now I feel like I have to read because I started it, but really have no desire to read!