Happy Holidays!!
If you are like me, you have completely left Christmas shopping to the last minute, and are scrounging around for ideas. Let's hope not many are like me or else a lot of people are getting high-fives and hugs for the holidays.
As a helpful guide, I thought I'd put together my top fave novels for 2013…
1. The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell: A debut about two young sisters who attempt to keep on living their lives without the outside world finding out about the mysterious death of their parents. I am a sucker for sister stories!
2. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker: Such a unique, engaging and well researched debut; a combination of vivid historical fiction and magical fable, about two supernatural creatures in turn-of-the-century immigrant New York. Have recommended to everyone I know.
3. The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer: From the author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli comes the romantic story of a woman who undergoes electroshock therapy and finds herself transported to the “other lives” she might have lived, where she must wrestle with the unpredictability of love and the consequences of even her most carefully considered choices.
4. Help for the Haunted by John Searles: Who doesn't love John Searles?! A fantastically creepy novel about a young girl's search for the person responsible for her parent's murders.
5. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight: The story of a mother's investigation into her daughter's apparent suicide. Full of mean girls, old rivalries and a really excellent use of social media.
6. Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson: The moving story of a single mom who falls in love with a damaged man, and discovers that her love story definitely is not what she intended it to be.
I hope you read, gift, enjoy all these books – they really are fantastic.
– Annie