FROM SARAH:

One of the most inspiring books I've read about mothering. Reading it reminds me to save the small things and enjoy the beauty and light that children bring wherever they go. Read this when you want to fall back in love with motherhood.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Mothers are pulled in a million different directions while trying to give their kids fulfilling, productive, joyful childhoods. They mistake activity for happiness, and fill their kids' heads with information when they ought to be feeding their souls instead. This is a book for mothers who yearn to find a balance in their own and their children's lives.

**Description from Amazon: Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards.Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet ...

FROM SARAH:

Easily one of my favorite books of all time. Don't give up until you've read to at least through James's departure to the war. Even if greek gods and goddesses aren't your thing... keep reading! Especially wonderful on audio (Audible | LibroFM).

Recommended for mamas, and for teens 16+.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

A sweeping, multi-layered romance set in the perilous days of World Wars I and II, where gods hold the fates--and the hearts--of four mortals in their hands.

They are Hazel, James, Aubrey, and Colette. Their story, as told by the goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though War is a formidable force, it's no match for the transcendent power of Love

FROM SARAH:

My favorite from Ann Patchett. Everyone I know who has read this book absolutely loved it, which makes it very easy to recommend! Wonderful on audio (Audible | LibroFM).

Recommended for ages 16+, I think, though I'm not sure a teen will enjoy it as much as you will, and it wasn't written for young adults. Strong language warning, discretion advised. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

FROM SARAH:

Anne Bogel recommended this book, and suggested you read it without reading any descriptions or blurbs first. And I agree! Especially wonderful on audio. (Audible).

Please note: strong language throughout novel, discretion advised.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 

"The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you anything at school?"

So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who's been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. And that's all you get to know before you read it. 😇 Recommended for ages 16+, but I'm not sure your teens will like it as much as you will.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Katherine Rundell - Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and prize-winning author of five novels for children - explores how children's books ignite, and can re-ignite, the imagination; how children's fiction, with its unabashed emotion and playfulness, can awaken old hungers and create new perspectives on the world.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 
When America entered World War II in 1941, we faced an enemy that had banned and burned over 100 million books and caused fearful citizens to hide or destroy many more. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops and gathered 20 million hardcover donations.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 
When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America’s oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone’s boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no?

FROM SARAH:

I read this on a whim, and was surprised by how much I loved it! I found myself marking up passages that could apply to other creative work, and also to my homeschool. Learning how the creatives at Pixar drum up ideas, nurture them into projects, and then iterate and iterate and iterate some more was really inspiring to me.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Creativity, Inc. is a manual for anyone who strives for originality and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about creativity—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.”

FROM SARAH:

This is one of my absolute favorite nonfiction books—it may win the prize as "Sarah's most re-read book!" Implementing the ideas in Essentialism have had a tremendous impact on my homeschool, my work at Read-Aloud Revival, and my parenting. If you feel pulled in too many directions, try some of the ideas in this book and see if it helps. (This book also makes a great gift for that handsome guy in your life, if you're looking for a book for him! 😘)

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter.

FROM SARAH:

I've read this food critic's memoir twice. I'm not a foodie, but no matter! This book is such fun, and Ruch Reichl could probably write about paint drying and manage to make it interesting. Highly recommended if you need something enjoyable and easy to read.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine anonymously. There is her stint as Molly Hollis, a frumpy blond with manicured nails and an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque. The result: her famous double review of the restaurant: first she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic.

FROM SARAH:

This book blew me away, and I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks afterward. Inspiring and encouraging. A secular book with the fingerprints of Jesus all over it. I probably wouldn't hand this one to under-18's.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

Shakespeare professor and prison volunteer Laura Bates thought she had seen it all. That is, until she decided to teach Shakespeare in a place the bard had never been before — supermax solitary confinement. In this unwelcoming place is Larry, a convicted murderer with several escape attempts under his belt and a brilliantly agile mind on his shoulders.

FROM SARAH:

A light and funny Victorian murder mystery. I'm a huge fan of Julie Berry's work. I listened to this one, as it's read by one of my very favorite narrators: Audible or LibroFM.

FROM THE PUBLISHER:

There's a murderer on the loose--but that doesn't stop the girls of St. Etheldreda's from attempting to hide the death of their headmistress in this rollicking farce.
The students of St. Etheldreda's School for Girls face a bothersome dilemma. Their irascible headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, have been most inconveniently poisoned at Sunday dinner. Now the school will almost certainly be closed and the girls sent home--unless these seven very proper young ladies can hide the murders and convince their neighbors that nothing is wrong.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: 

On a clear December morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite and an aspiring artist whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don’t seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York. Captivated by Nora from her first electric touch, Joe despairs when he tries to walk her home and she disappears. Finding her again - and again - will become the focus of his love and his life.