Winter Reads

Despite the weather reports predicting snow on Christmas night and all of the forecasters in “Storm Mode”, it remained cold in the St. Louis metro area, but with nary a snowflake in site. From my city to yours, I hope you had a fabulous holiday season – with or without snow.

During the cold winter months, there’s nothing I like better than to stay home, sip my favorite tea (or wine, who am I kidding?), and curl up with a good book. I’m always on the hunt for my next great literary escape and I definitely found it with these three Winter Reads:

Of all the books I’ve read in the past year, Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes has been one of my absolute favorites. Author Elizabeth Bard is an American girl living in London when she meets the beau of her dreams, gets married, moves to the City of Lights and begins a love story with her husband, Paris, and fabulous French food. Lunch in Paris is similar to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love but with less praying and a lot more eating. Need to escape the dreary winter days? Elizabeth Bard proves there’s no better place to do it than Paris.  

I bought The Weird Sisters while on a long layover at JFK. Pushing the People Magazine and US Weekly aside*, I bought this debut novel from author Eleanor Brown and headed for my gate. Based on three sisters who return to their childhood home all for different reasons, The Weird Sisters follows Cordelia, Rose, and Bianca Andreas as they follow life paths as different as their personalities.  What’s in a name? The title, The Weird Sisters, comes from a line in Macbeth and each of the sister’s names comes from a different Shakespearean character. From the plural narrative, to Shakespeare’s quotes woven throughout the storyline, The Weird Sisters shows that all roads, no matter how weird, lead home.

I found The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club last winter in the sale section of Barnes & Noble. The cover alone was enough to entice me in and I’ve enjoyed reading it this winter just as much as last. From British author Gil McNeil comes the story of Jo Mackenzie, a television producer who’s forced to move from London to the seaside town of Broadgate Bay. Going from high-powered television producer (or “telly”, if we’re being British) to the manager of a small-town yarn shop proves an interesting adjustment for Jo, her two young sons and the cast of characters who loop their way through the yarn shop door. ** Whether you’re an anglophile like I am or not, you’ll love hunkering down this winter with The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club.       

Any good Winter Reads on your bookshelves lately? If so, let me know!          

*Unrelated: I spotted both Montel Williams at the airport and three cast members from The Jersey Shore on a night out in Manhattan on this trip. D-List Celebrity sightings FTW!

         

**Loop. See what I did there? Any knitters in the audience? Anyone?