Sink Your Teeth Into These Amazing Books…or Maybe Just Read Them

I could recommend books ALL DAY LONG, but I’ll spare you the drooling and droning and recommend a few I’ve enjoyed recently.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this wonderful craft workbook. There’s a hard cover to go with it, but I find the workbook to be the best of the two. Donald Maass is an incredible speaker. Actually, I would call his workshops guided meditation for writers that are literally mind-bending, and this workbook is a wonderful sampling of the prompts he uses to help writers do deeper. In fact, all of his books are good.

 

And some latest reads I gobbled up and wished would never end:

 

Longbourn by Jo Baker: I LOVED this book. Loved. I am a Jane Austen fan girl so this was right up my alley, but I must insert a caveat here. I rarely like Austen knock-offs. They tend to have heavy narratives with clumsy plot lines and are generally not interesting or too far from the basis of Austen’s world. Not so with this book. It’s all about the servants at the Longbourn estate and only dips its toe into the story of Pride and Prejudice. I literally reread portions of the book to experience the beauty of the narrative all over again.

 

 

 

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wrecker: It’s a historical fantasy set in in 1899 New York City that is based on a melange of Arab and Jewish mythology. By the way, that’s the old spelling of genie, and yes, a genie is one of the protagonists. There’s plenty of fast-paced, yet emotionally charged scenes and gorgeous prose. Simply gorgeous.  My husband read this in four days as well so that usually tells me something…

 

 

 

The Night Circus: I read this a couple of years ago when it was first released, but reread it recently and loved it even more the second time around. Though the book doesn’t have a “hard climax” so to speak, it’s all about the atmosphere, the magical story, and again, lovely prose. Can you tell I’m a sucker for it? There are eleven points of view in this novel and somehow, the author masterfully pulls it off. I never wanted the book to end.