The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese - In a small town in India, one family has a curse where each generation will lose one person to a drowning death. Sometimes they drown in rivers, sometimes in small puddles of water. It is from this unlikely starting point that this epic novel takes flight over multiple generations that confront class struggles, medical mysteries and ailments, loss and love, all against the backdrop of the medical industry in India and eventually a salvation.
Read MoreI added twelve more books to my 2023 reading list in May and June: The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley, The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World by Patrik Svensson, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, and many more!.
Read MoreAfter a slow-down in March, I picked up the pace and read a total of 19 books over the course of March and April in total, getting me a couple of books ahead of schedule again.
Read MoreFebruary added 7 more books to the 8 completed in January, putting me on track!
Read MoreI’ve read 8 books, which means I’m on track. This does not give me great comfort - I like to start the year off further ahead!
Read MoreI have always been a voracious reader. That is, once I started reading.
In kindergarten, my teacher did not believe in forcing kids to start reading and operated under the perspective that they’d learn it when they were developmentally ready. The science supports this, but many parents and schools still feel the need to push kids along. For most of my youth, I was the youngest (or one of the youngest) kids in my grade so yeah, I was not ready to read in kindergarten.
Read MoreHow many among us add “Read more books” to our New Year’s Resolutions? Every year, I set a personal goal in my Goodreads app, not so much to ensure I read a certain number of books, though that is certainly the surface goal, but to keep focused on my goal of reading and exploring new authors and new ideas. Some years I hit my goal, some years I don’t. Some books are really heavy and long and others are quicker reads. Regardless, every year certain books stick with me for different reasons. Sometimes I am enraptured by beautiful, lyrical language, other times a new perspective or new window into history or a subject changes forever the way I think.
Read MoreFinding books about Bermuda to read before we went was more difficult than expected! After Google searches that didn’t provide any lists or suggestions, we even contacted the tourism board in Bermuda to inquire (no response received). The first book below was suggested to us by a reader on Twitter, and was one of the best pre-reads we could have come across!
Read MoreOne of the magical things about books is that we see ourselves in them in some form or fashion. Sometimes they are a mirror, reflecting parts of our life experiences back at us; other times, they can serve as a microscope, helping us come away with new insights about ourselves or others.
And while the words themselves don’t evolve over time, we do, and so reading a book at one point or another in our lives can lead to very different ways of experiencing them.
Read MoreLet’s face it: sometimes the best form of travel is an engaging, never-ending series of books that pick up your mind and plop it into another world. Particularly in these times where travel has been placed on indefinite stand-by, this is a great chance to explore some wonderful book series that just may inspire your next trip once travel again becomes possible.
Read MoreWhen we booked our week-long trip to Malta, we did so on a whim (cheap flight!) and knew nothing about the country beyond the results of an hour’s long Google search that sold us on booking the flights. In the months leading up to the trip, we read some books about Malta that not only got us excited about going to see many of the sites tied to the books but also helped us to enjoy the trip so much more, garnering a greater understanding of the country’s history as we toured. Since returning, we have read more books about the country and hope to make it back some day to visit the places we didn’t get to on the first trip.
Read MoreTraveling to Scotland or simply interested in learning more about the world beneath your feet? Check out our review of Set in Stone: The Geology and Landscapes of Scotland and other books by Alan McKirdy.
Read MoreScotland is a country with a long, sordid history. Perhaps its struggles match the dueling nature of its own environment: grandeur and beauty mixed with its hard-scrabble northern world. There were two non-fiction books I read before traveling to Scotland for our 10-day road trip that set the backdrop and provided context that made our trip more meaningful. Neither are quick reads, but both are truly worthwhile reads for those wanting to better understand this country that has long labored to define itself.
Read MoreFrance has long produced a steady stream of talented writers, thinkers, and philosophers and has served as a beacon luring expats to its literary center.
From the romance of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers to Victor Hugo’s woeful, colorful characters of Les Miserables to France-at-war tales like Sabastien Japrisot’s A Very Long Engagement or Romain Gary’s The Kites to more stylistically unique works like Albert Camus’ existentialist novels and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s noveau roman novels in the 1960s, Paris has played a substantial role in the literary world.
Read MoreIreland has a long-standing literary tradition and is a country that values its writers and poets. Over the years, I have read many inspiring novels by the likes of Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, and others. But recently, I have found myself on a kick of reading contemporary Irish novelists without even realizing it! These newer-on-the-scene Irish female writers are making their mark in the literary world.
Read MoreWant to better understand the Appalachian culture and history? Here are 3 books to read - both fiction and non-fiction - to bring the region to life through the eyes of historic figures, literary characters, and historical research.
Read MoreIceland and Scandinavian countries make up the most literate countries in the world, so it is a bit ironic that this is one trip that I probably least prepared for from a reading list perspective. Having visited, I have an interest in reading more books about or set in Iceland, so I will update my Iceland reading list here as I go.
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