Great Reads for the Holidays

Let’s face it it’s a busy time of year, but between working, grocery shopping, cooking, dusting, ironing, gardening, refereeing the children, and being an awesome mum, wife, partner, sister, daughter, niece, aunt, friend, cousin and whatever other hat you wear around this time of year, we need to have some down time for ourselves! For me some great down time always involves a really great read, so I thought I would share with you a few of my favourite reads and other’s favourites for the holiday season. Whether you a curled up in a winter wonderland, or stretched out on a towel by the ocean, or just by the pool in your backyard (lucky you,) then here are a few books that you might like to check out! PS do not feel guilty, we need some ME time in order to function with any sense or sanity, and what better way to recharge than to escape into a world of fantasy now and then.

There are so many amazing books that when asked to pick favourites the list can be endless, and often for many different reasons. There are books that I admire for their depth of research, books I love because they shock me, and books I love because they make me laugh out loud! I love books that teach me things about myself, or about our history, some books forever live in our memories, and some books forever change who we are.

For my personal pick I am going to go with a feel good book, a light carefree read, because there are days when the children are so noisy that I can barely think, let alone concentrate on a deep read. So this book is an easy read, and what I would call a cheeky, funny, girly read.

“I have chosen Sophie Kinsella’s Twenties Girl. For me it is because it’s light and funny, it made me laugh, and well let’s face it we all need a laugh from time to time, (it’s the best medicine after all!) If you are a fan of Kinsella you will know her books are always full of witty charm bound to make you giggle, and this book doesn’t disappoint.  Main character Lara is a professional woman in her twenties whose world is thrown into hilarious chaos by her visiting Aunt who happens to be a ghost, what follows is a lot of laughs, some adventure and love. The perfect happy holiday read.”

I have asked some other passionate book fans, bloggers and writers to add their favourite holiday reads. With such amazing people taking the time to offer you some great reading suggestions you are bound to find a book you’ll love these holidays!

First up is Ice, she is a mum and the main manager of the Bit’N blog, and Facebook Page, she co-created and co-managers the Bit”N Book Tours and their Pinterest page. She writes and designs blogs, websites, covers for others’ books as well as her own and various graphics, and loves chatting to total strangers. Ice suggestions are,

‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ by Louis de Bernieres, set on a Greek Island during the Second World War, “It’s got romance, war, love, tears. I love it.” Ice also loves ‘Jane Eyre’ by author Charlotte Bronte who many say is a “masterpiece”, Ice says “It is a lovely romance. I like romance during Christmas. Especially historical romance”.

Freelance Writer, blogger, Social Media Manager and published author of ‘The Path To Wellness‘, Janine Ripper sent me the following suggestion to share with all my lovely readers

So I’m gonna go out there a bit and recommend The King by J.R. Ward. This
is the latest novel in The Blackdagger Brotherhood series.

I think it��s a great holiday read – for women – as it��s full of lust,
love, angst, adventure, and vampires��I love seeing the characters develop
throughout the series.

If you haven��t read the rest of the series I would definitely recommend
getting stuck into the series from book 1 – Dark Lover, and working your
way through the rest of the books.

Here is a link to the series: http://www.jrward.com/bdb/

Kerry Gibb is a mum of four boys and a successful UK blogger with a great Website called My Boys and Me, she has also written a book about potty training. When I asked Kerry for her favourite holiday read she didn’t hesitate,

“Right, I think my all time favourite has to be Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding.  I first read this book many years ago when I was a twenty something singleton!  I loved this book from the outset with it’s charming, witty way of writing.  The reader immediately identified with the main character and by the end of the book you feel like she is an old friend.  I could easily get through this book in one day on holiday!  A definite must have holiday read!”

Wine expert, book obsessed mum of 3 girls, Adeline can always be found with a fine wine and a good book in hand, (when she is not slaving away at work, leading the Parents School association, or acting as a chauffeur to her girls that is.) She has been kind enough to offer a few fabulous suggestions, firstly

‘Us’ written by David Nicholls. If you can’t afford a vacation these holidays, but wish you could take one then this is the book for you, take a tour across Europe with this family in crisis and you won’t regret it! This isn’t just a chick book, my hubby loved it too. A great book by the author who also wrote the popular novel ‘One Day’. Her next suggestion is ”Courting Trouble‘ by author Kathy Lette, it’s like juicy girl talk, it will make you laugh, yet is full of crime, moral dilemmas and Lette really knows how to champion women in this novel. Finally Adeline recommends a novel by Abby Clements, titled ‘Vivien’s Heavenly Ice-Cream Shop‘, when asked why she recommends this book she says it’s because it makes you want to eat! “It even has recipes at the back, which I love!” A gorgeous read!

Suzie Jay is a blogger, a mum, and writer on a mission to get published, feeling in the holiday spirit recommends “The Nutcracker because as a kid it was magical and opened my mind to the possibilities of my imagination with a little edge of fear over the Rat King, haha.” Suzie Jay also loves ‘The night before Christmas’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’.

Craft extraordinair, passionate reader, mum to an adorable girl and a new pup, who also happens to be the most organised person I know, Olivia has also added some great book suggestions particularly for those of you that love thriller, murder mystery novels, she writes

“For fans of James Patterson the new Alex Cross novel is good, it’s called ‘Hope to Die’. And the latest Mary Higgins Clark novel ‘The Cinderella Murder’ is good.” She also is enjoying Sophie Kinsella’s ‘Shopaholic to the Stars’ a fun light, easy holiday read from the Shopaholic Series.

Olivia also added a suggestion for the tweens, she likes the follow-up to “If I Stay”.called “Where she went“. Author is Gayle Forman.

As you might have noticed from previous blogs my hubby likes to remain behind the scenes, or behind the camera, but he is also a huge reader, he recently finished a book he calls his “second favourite book of all time,” (his first like mine is Makus Zusak’s ‘The book Thief’, see my Book Review Page for the review.) So he has nominated as his holiday read,

‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’, author Richard Flanagan this book is beautifully written and explores the power of the human spirit, from the ability to terrorize, to the ability to love, and the contrast between the two. Reviews say it can leave the reader breathless with it’s exquisite beauty.The main character is an Australian Doctor who is in a prisoner-of-war camp in Burma, treating those who were forced to work on the Burma death railway. So when asked why he loves this book my hubby says he loved the vividness of the descriptive text, he felt like he was transported by Flannagan’s words, he could imagine the horrific conditions they were forced to work under, but admired how well Flanagan showed the courage and unbreakable beauty of the ‘never give up Australian spirit’ “I loved that even in the worst conditions imaginable, conditions that would break anyone, these soldiers still stood as mates.” The start of the novel jumped around a little, but if you get through this it leads on to a magnificent read with the Australian spirit shining through.

Finally I will add an awesome epic read,‘The Tea Rose’ by Jennifer Donnelly, it’s tragic, but beautiful and is a powerful read. I also loved reading ‘In falling snow’ by Mary-Rose MacColl, it is a truly beautiful book! On my to do list these holidays is Liane Moriarty’s novel ‘Big Little Lies’, I always love Moriarty’s style. Oh and please don’t forget to keep reading reflectionsfromme.com, and sign up for my emails so you don’t miss any blogs these holidays.

I hope this blog has inspired you to relax with a great book these holidays and make a little “ME” time for yourself! Please see my book reviews page for more ideas. A huge thank you to all those who contributed their ideas to this blog! To all my readers may you all have a safe, relaxed, laughter filled Holiday Season and as always,

Thanks for joining me, love Mackenzie xx

 photography by Mackenzie Glanville

For more great blog entries try Everything is awesome, or Sticky tape Monster.

Acknowledgements: Thank you for of all to my gorgeous husband for his support this year with my blog (and everything else), and for his book suggestion. Thank you to Ice, Janine, Suzie Jay, Kerry, Olivia and Adeline for your support with my blog, and your suggestions for this blog, love to you all xx