November Reading List
Happy November! I have to say, the time change is completely messing me up, but I do love curling up early with a good book. By the time it’s 6pm I’m ready for bed and the kids are asking for dinner. Not confusing at all.
Did you read any of the books on last month’s list? I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’m finishing up the Jodi Picoult, so I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done.
Here’s what is on my November Reading List:
The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard
This book is actually a few years old but I’d somehow never seen it! I came across it on Amazon and thought it sounded interesting — and I loved Labor Day by the same author.
According to Amazon:
Two families, the Planks and the Dickersons, are mysteriously entwined in this exquisite novel that centers on decades of life at a New Hampshire farm. Youngest daughters Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson, born on the same day in the same hospital, take turns narrating the struggles they face as children.
Ruth feels a coldness from her mother; Dana is unsettled by her kooky parents constantly uprooting her and her brother Ray. Regardless, the Planks pay a yearly visit to the Dickersons no matter where they’ve ended up living. As the girls come of age, Ruth takes an interest in art, sex, and Dana’s brother, Ray, with whom she later reunites, at Woodstock, in a swirl of drugs and mud.
Meanwhile, Dana realizes that her desires are directed toward women and sets off to pursue agricultural studies at a university, where she meets Clarice, an assistant professor. As time goes by, the floundering Plank Farm is in danger of being seized by Ruth’s former boyfriend, a man who has had his eye on the land for years. As Ruth and Dana pursue love, contemplate children, and search for home, the truth of what unites their families is finally–at long last–revealed, in this beautifully written book.
The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman
This book came out early this year and I’ve had it on my list but never got around to reading it! It sounds really interesting and I kind of love the setting.
According to Amazon:
Mesmerizing and illuminating, Alice Hoffman’s The Museum of Extraordinary Things is the story of an electric and impassioned love between two vastly different souls in New York during the volatile first decades of the twentieth century.
Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father’s “museum,” alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a one-hundred-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.
The dashing photographer is Eddie Cohen, a Russian immigrant who has run away from his father’s Lower East Side Orthodox community and his job as a tailor’s apprentice. When Eddie photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie.
With its colorful crowds of bootleggers, heiresses, thugs, and idealists, New York itself becomes a riveting character as Hoffman weaves her trademark magic, romance, and masterful storytelling to unite Coralie and Eddie in a sizzling, tender, and moving story of young love in tumultuous times. The Museum of Extraordinary Things is Alice Hoffman at her most spellbinding.
Sleep Tight by Rachel Abbott
This suspense story has amazing reviews — unfortunately it’s ONLY available on Kindle. But if you have any kind of tablet, you should be able to download the Kindle app so you can get this book! It’s only $4.99 which is a pretty great price! If you are an Amazon Prime member (I am), you can download this book for free as part of their Kindle Unlimited program, so that’s pretty cool.
According to Amazon:
How far would you go to hold on to the people you love?
When Olivia Brookes calls the police to report that her husband and children are missing, she believes she will never see them again. She has reason to fear the worst; this isn’t the first tragedy that Olivia has experienced. Now, two years later, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas is called in to investigate this family again, but this time it’s Olivia who has disappeared. All the evidence suggests that she was here, in the family home, that morning.
But her car is in the garage, and her purse is in her handbag – on the kitchen table. The police want to issue an appeal, but for some reason every single picture of this family has been removed from albums, from phones, from computers.
And then they find the blood…
Has the past caught up with Olivia?
Sleep Tight – if you can. You never know who’s watching.
Take Me With You by Catherine Ryan Hyde
This is another book that has really amazing reviews, but is only available on Kindle. Like the other book, it’s only $4.99 for purchase, or can be downloaded for free through Kindle Unlimited. There are so many great books through this program! I am not an affiliate for Amazon (Amazon affiliate links are actually not allowed in the state of Arkansas), but Amazon has added so many great features to their Prime program, from their Amazon Instant Video service to their Kindle Unlimited, it’s worth the subscription fee! I subscribe to a ton of household items that are shipped for free, on a schedule. We never run out of toilet paper or paper towels, so that’s awesome.
Back to the book– according to Amazon:
August Shroeder, a burned-out teacher, has been sober since his nineteen-year-old son died. Every year he’s spent the summer on the road, but making it to Yellowstone this year means everything. The plan had been to travel there with his son, but now August is making the trip with Philip’s ashes instead. An unexpected twist of fate lands August with two extra passengers for his journey, two half-orphans with nowhere else to go.
What none of them could have known was how transformative both the trip—and the bonds that develop between them—would prove, driving each to create a new destiny together.
That’s it for this month! I’d love to hear what you have on your list!!
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