It’s cold outside! Take a break from watching tv and use your brain to read. Reading a book by the fire is a relaxing activity that keeps you warm during this cold season. Your first step, though, is to choose a book!
1.) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Author: Roald Dahl
Whether or not your kids climb onto the couch with you, make sure you add Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to your reading list this winter! Revisit a timeless children’s classic that has inspired several film adaptations (some great, some not-so great), and let your mind wander off to a fantastical factory filled with flowing chocolate rivers and oompa-loompas.
2.) Leaving Time
Author: Jodi Picoult
Leaving Time catalogues the journey of a young woman, Jenna, searching for her missing mother, an avid elephant enthusiast. Throughout the story, Jenna enlists a psychic and private investigator to help with the search, making for some unconventional interactions between characters that are sure to entertain all types of readers. Reviewers call the book “surprising,” “exciting,” and “brilliant.”
3.) Lila: A Novel
Author: Marilynne Robinson
Lila focuses on the town of Gilead in a National Book Award finalist story. The protagonist, Lila, is homeless when she arrives in the small Iowa town, and the story takes the reader through her upbringing by a drifter to her eventual marriage to a priest in a more secure environment. Marilynne Robinson has written “a new American classic,” and you should take note of her Pulitzer Prize status when picking your winter read.
Author: B.J. Novak
The Office’s B.J. Novak (Ryan), writes an engaging, hilarious, and kid-friendly book that the whole family can enjoy. Although the title and cover may seem boring, this book is anything but: reviewers say that their young children (ages 6-8), laughed while the book was read. Novak’s rationale for not including pictures is that “everything written on the page has to be said by the person reading it aloud,” a mantra which lends itself to several silly words that will keep kids excited page after page.
5.) Bird by Bird: some Instructions on Writing and Life
Author: Anne Lamott
Author Anne Lamott shares her life experiences with the reader and describes how they have helped shape her writing style. Even if you haven’t considered writing a story before, Lamott provides simple instructions that can help you find your voice. Creative writing is an excellent hobby during the colder months, and while Bird by Bird is filled with its own engaging stories, Lamott inspires readers to pursue their own creations throughout!