Is your “Books To Read” list growing? Mine is! Here are more.
Michelle Weyenberg
“I couldn’t pick just one…. First and foremost, I look back on 2013 as the year I found a new author – Gillian Flynn. I, like many other people, read Gone Girl (Crown) after hearing all the hoopla surrounding the title. I liked the story and Flynn’s writing so much that I was intrigued to read her two previous titles – Sharp Objects and Dark Places. I have to say I’m now hooked. I’ll be one of the first to purchase her next new release.
Moving on to my favorite genre – biography/memoirs. These three new releases were my favorite this past year: Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953 by Elizabeth Winder (Harper); Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco); and Jackie After O by Tina Cassidy (It Books). Coincidentally, all happen to be set in New York City at some point in time. And all are an interesting look behind the scenes of these three very interesting women.
And lastly, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (Dutton Books). I cried like a baby – so good!”
Fran Cohen
Title: Instructions for a Heatwave
Author: Maggie O’Farrell
Publisher: Headline Book Publishing
“Engaging family dynamic, secrets revealed, structurally interesting.”
Title: The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year -Old Boy with Autism
Author: Naoki Higashida, KA Yoshida and David Mitchell
Publisher: Random House
“Whatever you think you know about Autism will be utterly transformed by reading Naoki’s book.”
Pamela Milam
“My favorite book that I read in 2013 was Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (Reagan Arthur Books). It was complex, mind-blowing, and thought provoking. I loved everything about it.
Runner up, for novels: I also liked How It All Began by Penelope Lively (Penguin Books). Good stuff. :)”
Marlene Veloso
Title: Shanghai Girls
Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Random House
“I enjoyed how the author seamlessly weaved Chinese-American history into the plot. It didn’t feel like a history lesson and yet I learned so much. The book has a great plot with several unexpected twists.”
Linda Epstein
“Like many people, I really loved Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (St. Martin’s Griffin) because it was beautifully written, captured a moment in time that I remember well (if not necessarily fondly), and spoke to my heart, while breaking it more than just a little bit.”
Thank you to all the members who sent in their favorite books read in 2013. Come back next Wednesday for more favorite books.
February is just around the corner and that means love will be in the air. The is: What is your favorite “love” book?
It can be a romance or a self-help book about learning to love yourself or it can be a Thelma and Louise type love. Tell us what your favorite “love” book is and why at blog@wnba-nyc.com and we will put it in a WNBA Wednesday blog post.
