My To Be Read Pile, Part 2 – Fiction
Do you have a “to be read” pile. Here, Steph Nickel looks at some of the fiction books that she aspires to have read before the end of the year.
What books have you read recently? Tell us about what you are enjoying. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
My Fiction To Be Read Pile
Last week we discussed 6+ nonfiction books I want to read before the end of the year. Today, we’re going to talk about the novels I’m reading and those I want to read before 2020 rolls around. (Can you believe how futuristic that sounds?)
Book of Yesterdays
I’m making my way through Amy Meyerson’s Bookshop of Yesterdays. I couldn’t leave it at the bookstore after I’d read the inside flap.
Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear about him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news. Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy, and one final scavenger hunt.
I’m sure you can see why a booklover like me would want to read this story.
The End Begins
I’m also reading Sara Davison’s The End Begins. As the first book in a trilogy, I’ve already committed to reading the other two books—not because I’m the type of reader who must complete a series even if they’re not enjoying it, but because I already care what happens to the characters in this world where Bibles have been confiscated and Christians considered a dangerous element in society.
Eyes Wide Open
It’s about time I got back to reading Ted Dekker’s Eyes Wide Open. He does such a good job placing readers in the midst of his stories that I find it difficult not to feel thoroughly immersed. This is the sign of a good storyteller but can be challenging if I have to set the book aside when the protagonists are in peril (pretty much at any point before the end of the book).
And speaking of Ted Dekker, I really would like to read A.D. 30 and A.D. 33. Maybe I’ll put them on my list for next year.
Maternity Leave
I think I’ll add Julie Halpern’s Maternity Leave to the list. As a labour doula a humorous novel about new motherhood grabbed my attention—as do many books on the sale table at Chapters, but that’s another story. (Story—see what I did there?)
Bad puns aside, Book #5 is Dee Henderson’s Guardian. It is Book #2 in the O’Malley Series. It was written several years ago, but I came to care about the family and would like to revisit them. Who knows? I may even splurge and buy the Kindle version of the first book, The Negotiator. But I really don’t need another book—like ever.
Too Many Author Friends!
It would help if I stopped making friends with authors, but that’s not going to happen. It’s one thing to discover a favourite author, but when you befriend them—and they pump out books like nobody’s business … Well, you get the idea.
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And speaking of authors I love … Catherine West, Emma St. Clair, Sullivan Gray, Emily James, and Marcy Kennedy are all releasing new books soon. They will definitely be going on the pile. (I really do wish I read faster.)
Between now and the end of the year, I will be listening to six fantasy books on Audible, but I’m not counting those as books read for the purposes of this review, although I am counting them toward my Reading Challenge goal on Goodreads.
The last book in one of these series is not on Audible. So, I will add it to my Fiction To Be Read list, making that six for the remainder of this year.
Good Stories are Compelling
Good stories are compelling—as are favourite authors and bright, shiny, new volumes. Sadly, there are only so many hours in the day, and I can’t spend all of them reading—and I really wouldn’t want to. There are to many other things I want to accomplish before the Lord calls me Home.
How about you? Do you enjoy a good novel? What draws you in? What grabs you by the throat and won’t let go? Do you have any Must-Reads I should add to my ridiculously tall pile of novels To Be Read?
I’d love to hear from you.
Feel free to contact me through my producer’s page on HopeStreamRadio.com
Steph Nickel
Stephanie is a freelance writer and a contributor to our Christian internet radio station, HopeStreamRadio.
Read and hear more from Steph Nickel on the contributor’s page or at Steph Nickel’s Eclectic Interests.
Stephanie’s show, “Family Life Lessons,” airs from Monday to Friday on HopeStreamRadio.
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All In – A Review by Steph Nickel
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Images courtesy of:
Reading – Perfecto_Capucine
Girl reading – Nik89
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