4 Books I Always Recommend

Good morning bookworms! It’s my birthday! Yes I have received a stack of books! No I don’t have fancy plans today just hanging with hubs and we will probably get take out, plus I will make myself a chocolate birthday cake! Everyone knows me as a reader of many books. I like shocking my friends and family by telling them just how many books I read each month. So I often get asked for book recommendations. If you ask me for a recommendation, I usually ask you what books you’ve read before and loved but if we are being more general, there are 4 books I will always suggest.

1. The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey
2. Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
3. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
4. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

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Honourable mentions are Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan, anything by Sarah J Maas, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells.

The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey

This is a historical fiction set in the 1920’s. It follows Selena Lennox a beautiful young woman in high society that falls for a lowly painter Lawrence Weston. The novel spans 2 decades and is heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. I received it by surprise as an advanced reader copy in November 2019. I had no idea it was going to become one of my favourite books of all time. Just talking about it makes me want to reread it. I fell in love with Selena and Lawrence so quickly, and the book jumps forward and back in time slowly revealing their story in its entirety. The end of every chapter had me quickly flipping the page and I cried many times while reading. If you like historical fiction, especially not set during a war, you should check this one out.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

As someone who has endometriosis, and struggles with near daily pain and very painful ovulation and periods, I know the woes of chronic pain. It is so rare to read a romance book where one of the characters can’t just have sex whenever they feel like it, a character who has pain flare ups and needs to rest. Chloe Brown is living with fibromyalgia and the feeling of being seen while reading this book was lovely. Chloe was funny too, she deals constantly with the struggles of chronic pain and people not knowing how to act around her. Then she meets Red Morgan, who immediately jumps to the conclusion that she’s a sexy snob. But as they get to know each other, he realizes who she is. This book also introduces you to Chloe’s two sisters Dani and Eve, who each get their own book as well. I have read Dani and Eve’s stories too and they are just as good.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This book fell into my lap purely by chance. My husband and I were camping one weekend with another couple, Jessica and Phil. Jessica is an avid reader too. And while I don’t remember what book I was reading that weekend, Jessica was reading All the Light We Cannot See. She finished it Sunday morning and gave it to me, saying I would like it. So I took it home and when I finally did read it, I loved it! It’s a beautiful historical fiction about a blind girl. During the war she must stay inside because it’s so dangerous but her uncle builds a scaled model of the city and she learns the streets with her hands. Eventually she is forced to venture out and she navigates the city so well. She also meets a soldier! There is a mystery gem element too that I found so intriguing. This book won a Pulitzer prize too so you know it’s good.

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Read this book. Like seriously. My amazing husband gave me this book when I was going through a career change. He heard about it on a podcast and thought my anxious worry wart of a wife needs to read this. I have always had anxiety, though I didn’t really figure that out until university. I literally didn’t figure it out until I took an intro to psychology class in first year. I was reading the text book and having epiphanies. I’ve learned to cope with my anxiety now, and I have read a lot of self help style books that taught me how to stop worrying about what hasn’t happened and focus on what is actually happening. The Power of Now was exactly what I needed the first time I read it. I highlighted so many chapters and passages that I refer back to all the time. But if you are someone that constantly worries about the future or stresses about things you did in the past, then I highly recommend this book.

Thanks for taking the time to read about 4 of my favourite books! And if you’ve sent me a birthday wish, know that it genuinely makes me smile so big! I have had so much love already this morning. So thank you 🙂

Happy reading!

Angie