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I am not sure if it is the author side of me or the reader side that is more drawn to word play, but I have found challenging my vocabulary capabilities a fun way to decompress. While some find “mindless” clicking as time to unwind, word games allow me to shut down from the responsibilities of the day while still engaging in an activity that somehow feels constructive, or at least that is how I justify it.
Do you remember a few years ago when Wordle took the world by storm? Wordle was created by a software engineer in Brooklyn for his partner during the pandemic. First, it was just a private word guessing game the two of them played, but then they added it to a family What’s App group and before long it was shared with friends and continued to grow. After seeing the widespread appeal, it was released to the world in October 2021.
Wordle is probably one of the simplest interface and concepts imaginable. It is literally just a five letter guessing game with six chances to guess the word of the day. Guess a letter correct and it changes color depending on placement and inclusion in the word. But Wordle went beyond a solitary word game, it created a community around….words. Beyond the friends you engage with, you can even stoke that competitive spirit by sharing your results on your social media feed with a widget blurring out the letters to prevent spoilers.
If you are looking for some fun word games to add to your day I thought I would share a few favorites!
SpellTower
Think Wordle meets Tetris. You have to find words in a tower of letters, as you clear them out you remove letters. You goal is to clear out all of the letters while maximizing your score. Be careful of those Q’s and that they aren’t falling away from the U’s!
Scrabble Go!
Who doesn’t love a classic. Whether you have space for a word or not is all on you and how you have built your space. This one is also fun to play with family or a friend. Send the board back and forth and see if your vocabulary is extensive enough to build words with the highest point value. Enjoy the pastime of a traditional favorite game without a bag full of tiles with you!
Words with Friends
Arguably words with friends is Scrabble. If you know and love the classic Scrabble, you will likely enjoy Words with Friends, which one you like better may come down to aesthetic. Words with Friends has a few more tiles, and the placement of bonus point and special spaces are laid out different between the game board. Again you pass the game back and forth between friends and increase your points based on the point value of the letters and spaces you are using.
TypeShift
Rubik’s cube and a crossword puzzle. This one is fun! You have clues to solve for a word but with an extra challenge, you need to move the letters up and down to align to spell the word you are looking for. This one is not a multiplayer game, so you are challenging yourself but there are also leaderboards if you are craving a higher level of competitiveness.
FreeRice
Practice your vocabulary, grammar and trivia skills, for a great cause. Get an answer right and you earn 10 grains of rice for the UN World Food Programme. Private sponsors match the rice grain donations generated within Freerice, triggering a financial payment to WFP. This money goes into the pot of “greatest needs” to support the organization’s ongoing emergencies. Play HERE.
Spelling Bee
This game challenges you to use specific letters in creating as many words as you can, you can rearrange the letters but the actual letters and the must use letters stay the same. You can track your weekly stats and attempt to reach genius level! Play HERE.
Where do you land with your screen time? Are there any word games that you enjoy challenging yourself with?
Find more ways to spoil your inner bookworm!
Check out the Amaryllis Co. Shop, fully stocked with custom designs perfect for every book loving Amaryllis Girl! From shirts, mugs, wine glasses, and more, I have curated a shop with all of my favorites! SHOP HERE! You can also find my collection of bookish merchandise on Etsy.
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Sunshine isn’t the only thing to look forward to this summer!
There is nothing quite like the sounds of water splashing, the warmth of the fun laying over you, and pulling a newly released summer read out of your bag. This summer’s historical fiction releases are going to keep my pool bag full and I can hardly wait! Here are the Upcoming Book Releases 2025 – Summer Edition that I can’t wait to get my hands on…
The Famine Orphans by Patricia Falvey (May 2025)
They survived Ireland’s Great Hunger to build a new society in untamed Australia . . .
1848: The girls, 4,000 in all, come from every part of Ireland—from the shores of Galway to the Glens of Ulster and Belfast’s teeming streets—to board ships bound for Australia. All were chosen from Ireland’s crowded workhouses. Most are orphans. The Earl Grey Scheme was presented as an opportunity for young women to gain employment as domestic servants in the Colony. But there is another, unstated purpose—the girls are to “civilize” the many men sent there as convicts, so that settlements can be built.
Kate Gilvarry has spent six months in a Newry workhouse, subsisting on a diet of watery porridge. She knows there’s no future for her either within its walls or outside, in a ravaged, starving land. But once Kate’s ship completes the harrowing voyage, she and her companions find their reception in Sydney dismayingly unwelcoming, as anti-Irish sentiment grows. Homesick, and disillusioned by love following a shipboard crush, Kate strives to fit in, first as the servant of a demanding English woman, then as a farmer’s bride in the Outback.
When heat and drought force her husband to leave for long periods to work on a sheep ranch, Kate is left alone to fend off wild animals, drifters, and her aching loneliness. She longs to return to Ireland. But first, this beautiful, unforgiving country will teach her about resilience and survival, and the limitless possibilities that come with courage and love.
Evocative and compelling, The Famine Orphans is a testament to the young women whose pioneering spirit left an enduring legacy in a land so far from home.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.
The English Masterpiece by Katherine Reay (June 2025)
Set in the art world of 1970s London, The English Masterpiece is a fast-paced read to the end, full of glamour and secrets, tensions and lies, as one young woman races against the clock to uncover the truth about a Picasso masterpiece. Perfect for fans of Kate Quinn and Ariel Lawhon.
As the recently promoted assistant to the Tate’s Modern Collections keeper Diana Gilden, Lily helps plan a world-class Picasso exhibit to honor the passing of the great artist–and she’s waited her whole life for this moment. The opening is beyond anyone’s expectations–the lighting, the champagne, the glittering crowd, and the international acclaim–until Lily does the unthinkable. She stops in front of a masterpiece and hears her own voice say, “It’s a forgery.” The gallery falls silent.
Lily’s boss, Diana, is polished perfection, schooled in art, and descends from European high society. She’s worked hard to become the trusted voice in London’s modern art scene and respected across the Continent. The Tate’s Picasso Commemorative is to be her crowning achievement, featuring not only the artist’s most iconic and intimate works, but a newly discovered painting–one she advised an investor to purchase. But when Lily makes her outrageous declaration, suspicion and scandal threaten everything Diana has achieved, as museums and collectors across Europe, already doubting most post-war acquisitions, fall into chaos and rumors of a world-wide forgery run wild.
All Lily has ever wanted is to follow in Diana’s footsteps and take the art world by storm in her own right. Yet one comment puts not only her own career at risk but also her mentor’s. Unless . . . Was she right? With the clock ticking and the clues starting to pile up against her, Lily must uncover the truth behind the Picasso before she loses not only the career she’s always wanted, but her freedom.
Block off your calendar and lose yourself in The English Masterpiece, a thrilling read that will keep you on the edge of your seat till the very end from the author who brought you The London House and The Berlin Letters.
Bury our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab (June 2025)
From V. E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue: a new genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger.
This is a story about hunger.
1532. Santo Domingo de la Calzada.
A young girl grows up wild and wily—her beauty is only outmatched by her dreams of escape. But María knows she can only ever be a prize, or a pawn, in the games played by men. When an alluring stranger offers an alternate path, María makes a desperate choice. She vows to have no regrets.
This is a story about love.
1827. London.
A young woman lives an idyllic but cloistered life on her family’s estate, until a moment of forbidden intimacy sees her shipped off to London. Charlotte’s tender heart and seemingly impossible wishes are swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow—but the price of freedom is higher than she could have imagined.
This is a story about rage.
2019. Boston.
College was supposed to be her chance to be someone new. That’s why Alice moved halfway across the world, leaving her old life behind. But after an out-of-character one-night stand leaves her questioning her past, her present, and her future, Alice throws herself into the hunt for answers . . . and revenge.
#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Maggie Stiefvater dazzles in this mesmerizing portrait of an irresistible heroine, an unlikely romance, and a hotel—and a world—in peril.
January 1942. The Avallon Hotel & Spa has always offered elegant luxury in the wilds of West Virginia, its mountain sweetwater washing away all of high society’s troubles.
Local girl-turned-general manager June Porter Hudson has guided the Avallon skillfully through the first pangs of war. The Gilfoyles, the hotel’s aristocratic owners, have trained her well. But when the family heir makes a secret deal with the State Department to fill the hotel with captured Axis diplomats, June must persuade her staff—many of whom have sons and husbands heading to the front lines—to offer luxury to Nazis. With a smile.
Meanwhile FBI Agent Tucker Minnick, whose coal tattoo hints at an Appalachian past, presses his ears to the hotel’s walls, listening for the diplomats’ secrets. He has one of his own, which is how he knows that June’s balancing act can have dangerous consequences: the sweetwater beneath the hotel can threaten as well as heal.
June has never met a guest she couldn’t delight, but the diplomats are different. Without firing a single shot, they have brought the war directly to her. As clashing loyalties crack the Avallon’s polished veneer, June must calculate the true cost of luxury.
The Bewitching by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia (July 2025)
Three women in three different eras encounter danger and witchcraft in this eerie multigenerational horror saga from the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic.
“Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her great-granddaughter Minerva—stories that have stayed with Minerva all her life. Perhaps that’s why Minerva has become a graduate student focused on the history of horror literature and is researching the life of Beatrice Tremblay, an obscure author of macabre tales.
In the course of assembling her thesis, Minerva uncovers information that reveals that Tremblay’s most famous novel, The Vanishing, was inspired by a true story: Decades earlier, during the Great Depression, Tremblay attended the same university where Minerva is now studying and became obsessed with her beautiful and otherworldly roommate, who then disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
As Minerva descends ever deeper into Tremblay’s manuscript, she begins to sense that the malign force that stalked Tremblay and the missing girl might still walk the halls of the campus. These disturbing events also echo the stories Nana Alba told about her girlhood in 1900s Mexico, where she had a terrifying encounter with a witch.
Minerva suspects that the same shadow that darkened the lives of her great-grandmother and Beatrice Tremblay is now threatening her own in 1990s Massachusetts. An academic career can be a punishing pursuit, but it might turn outright deadly when witchcraft is involved.
The Possession of Alba Diaz by Isabel Canas (August 2025)
When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust…from bestselling author Isabel Cañas.
In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong.
Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can’t help but notice the growing tension between them every time she enters the room…and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood gets stronger.
In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and each other… not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom.
Are any of these Upcoming Book Releases 2025 marked on your summer beach bucket list? Looking for more summer reads? Check these out:
Find more ways to spoil your inner bookworm!
Check out the Amaryllis Co. Shop, fully stocked with custom designs perfect for every book loving Amaryllis Girl! From shirts, mugs, wine glasses, and more, I have curated a shop with all of my favorites! SHOP HERE! You can also find my collection of bookish merchandise on Etsy.
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Have a story to tell? Get inspired by these women stories about their journey.
Pen to Paper
This is a booklist that is near and dear to my heart as it combines so many things I am passionate about: empowered women, writers, and historical fiction. This women stories historical fiction booklist includes the obstacles, mysteries, and emotions that encumbered women who were determined to tell a story.
My Name Is Emilia del Valle: A Novel by Isabel Allende
In San Francisco in 1866, an Irish nun, abandoned following a torrid relationship with a Chilean aristocrat, gives birth to a daughter named Emilia del Valle. Raised by a loving stepfather, Emilia grows into an independent thinker and a self-sufficient young woman.
To pursue her passion for writing, she is willing to defy societal norms. At the age of seventeen, she begins to publish pulp fiction using a man’s pen name. When these fictional worlds can no longer satisfy her sense of adventure, she turns to journalism, convincing an editor at The Daily Examiner to hire her. There she is paired with another talented reporter, Eric Whelan.
New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, Helen Gurley Brown.
For Alice, who wants to be a photographer, it seems like the perfect foot in the door, but nothing could have prepared her for the world she enters. Editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, and confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands. When someone tries to pull Alice into a scheme to sabotage her boss, she is more determined than ever to help Helen succeed.
While pressure mounts at the magazine, Alice struggles not to lose sight of her own dreams as she’s swept up into a glamorous world of five-star dinners, lavish parties, and men who are certainly no good. Because if Helen Gurley Brown has taught her anything, it’s that a woman can demand to have it all.
The Martha’s Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly
The Smith girls—nineteen-year-old aspiring writer Cadence and sixteen-year-old war-obsessed Briar—are faced with the impossible task of holding their failing family farm together during World War II as the U.S. Army arrives on Martha’s Vineyard. When Briar spots German U-boats lurking off the island’s shores, and Cadence falls into an unlikely romance with a sworn enemy, their quiet lives are officially upended. In an attempt at normalcy, Cadence and her best friend, Bess, start a book club, which grows both in members and influence as they connect with a fabulous New York publisher who could make all of Cadence’s dreams come true. But all that is put at risk by a mysterious man who washes ashore—and whispers of a spy in their midst. Who in their tight-knit island community can they trust? Could this little book club change the course of the war . . . before it’s too late?
Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.
As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women’s and common folks’ experiences often go unrecorded. And so she begins in earnest to search out words for her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words. To do so she must leave the sheltered world of the university and venture out to meet the people whose words will fill those pages.
Set during the height of the women’s suffrage movement and with the Great War looming, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. Inspired by actual events, author Pip Williams has delved into the archives of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell this highly original story. The Dictionary of Lost Words is a delightful, lyrical, and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words and the power of language to shape the world.
I would love to hear who your favorite female author is! Share in the comments. If you enjoyed these here are a few more you may enjoy:
Find more ways to spoil your inner bookworm!
Check out the Amaryllis Co. Shop, fully stocked with custom designs perfect for every book loving Amaryllis Girl! From shirts, mugs, wine glasses, and more, I have curated a shop with all of my favorites! SHOP HERE! You can also find my collection of bookish merchandise on Etsy.
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Looking for a last minute Mother’s Day gift? A good book is always a hit! Check out this round up of great fiction about motherhood for Mother’s Day Reading!
Mother’s Day Reading Picks
Mother’s Day is here! And I know there are probably some out there who are still scrambling to find gifts to honor Mom. But if she’s like me, all she wants is a good book and a glass of wine to enjoy. So for the HF Bookworm Moms out there- here is a round up of the best fiction about motherhood for Mother’s Day reading! Enjoy!
Caroline Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller
In this novel authorized by the Little House Heritage Trust, Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship, and joys of the frontier in a dazzling work of historical fiction. It’s a captivating story that illuminates one courageous, resilient, and loving pioneer woman as never before–Caroline Ingalls, “Ma” in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s beloved Little House books.
In the frigid days of February, 1870, Caroline Ingalls and her family leave the familiar comforts of the Big Woods of Wisconsin and the warm bosom of her family, for a new life in Kansas Indian Territory.
Packing what they can carry in their wagon, Caroline, her husband Charles, and their little girls, Mary and Laura, head west to settle in a beautiful, unpredictable land full of promise and peril.
The pioneer life is a hard one, especially for a pregnant woman with no friends or kin to turn to for comfort or help. The burden of work must be shouldered alone, sickness tended without the aid of doctors, and babies birthed without the accustomed hands of mothers or sisters. But Caroline’s new world is also full of tender joys. In adapting to this strange new place and transforming a rough log house built by Charles’ hands into a home, Caroline must draw on untapped wells of strength she does not know she possesses.
For more than eighty years, generations of readers have been enchanted by the adventures of the American frontier’s most famous child, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the Little House books. Now, that familiar story is retold in this captivating tale of family, fidelity, hardship, love, and survival that vividly reimagines our past in this fiction about motherhood.
A profoundly moving and unconventional mother-daughter saga, The Last Story of Mina Lee illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America.
Margot Lee’s mother, Mina, isn’t returning her calls. It’s a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died. The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother’s life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.
Interwoven with Margot’s present-day search is Mina’s story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she’s barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love. But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.
Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, The Last Story of Mina Lee is a powerful and exquisitely woven debut novel that explores identity, family, secrets, and what it truly means to belong.
Two estranged siblings delve into their mother’s hidden past—and how it all connects to her traditional Caribbean black cake—in this immersive family saga, “a character-driven, multi-generational story that’s meant to be savored” (Time).
“Wilkerson transports you across the decades and around the globe accompanied by complex, wonderfully drawn characters.”—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones & The Six, and Malibu Rising
In development as a Hulu original series produced by Marissa Jo Cerar, Oprah Winfrey (Harpo Films), and Kapital Entertainment
We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?
In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.
Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?
Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.
“A triumph of historical fiction” (The Washington Post) set in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, DC, that explores what it means to be a woman and a mother, and how much one is willing to sacrifice to achieve her greatest goal.
1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college, in spite of having a mother more interested in keeping a man than raising a daughter. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright.
Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby—and fitting in—is easier said than done.
With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will both make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.
“Clever and satisfying…has the potential to remain pertinent for generations.” —Associated Press
This “powerful debut” (Hello! Canada) for fans of Kristin Hannah and Jennifer Chiaverini about three women whose lives are bound together by a long-lost letter, a mother’s love, and a secret network of women fighting for the right to choose—inspired by true stories.
2017: When Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession, she is determined to find the intended recipient. Her search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto known only by its whispered code name: Jane.
1971: As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was sent to a home for “fallen” women where she was forced to give up her baby for adoption—a trauma she has never recovered from. Despite harrowing police raids and the constant threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to give other women the choice she never had.
1980: After discovering a shocking secret about her family, twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell begins to question everything she has ever known. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she feels like she has no one to turn to for help. Grappling with her decision, she locates “Jane” and finds a place of her own alongside Dr. Taylor within the network’s ranks, but she can never escape the lies that haunt her.
Looking for Jane is “a searing, important, beautifully written novel about the choices we all make and where they lead us—as well as a wise and timely reminder of the difficult road women had to walk not so long ago” (Kristin Harmel, New York Times . author).
The acclaimed author of the “sweeping and beautifully written novel” (Woman’s World) The Light Over London weaves an epic saga of love, motherhood, and betrayal set against World War II.
Liverpool, 1935: Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne knows what’s expected of her: marry a Catholic man from her working-class neighborhood and have his children. However, when she finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man with dreams of becoming a famous Jazz musician, Viv knows that a swift wedding is the only answer. Her only solace is that marrying Joshua will mean escaping her strict mother’s scrutiny. But when Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced once again into the arms of her disapproving family.
Five years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter, Maggie, to the countryside estate of the affluent Thompson family. In New York City, Joshua gives up his failing musical career to serve in the Royal Air Force, fight for his country, and try to piece together his feelings about the family, wife, and daughter he left behind at nineteen. However, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that the countryside safe haven she sent her daughter to wasn’t immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua’s help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again.
Telling the harrowing story of England’s many evacuated children, bestselling author Julia Kelly’s The Lost English Girl explores how one simple choice can change the course of a life, and what we are willing to forgive to find a way back to the ones we love and thought lost.
Four generations of women experience love, loss, war, and hope from the rise of Nazism to the Cuban Revolution and finally, the fall of the Berlin Wall in this sweeping novel from the bestselling author of the “timely must-read” (People) The German Girl.
Berlin, 1931: Ally Keller, a talented young poet, is alone and scared when she gives birth to a mixed-race daughter she names Lilith. As the Nazis rise to power, Ally knows she must keep her baby in the shadows to protect her against Hitler’s deadly ideology of Aryan purity. But as she grows, it becomes more and more difficult to keep Lilith hidden so Ally sets in motion a dangerous and desperate plan to send her daughter across the ocean to safety.
Havana, 1958: Now an adult, Lilith has few memories of her mother or her childhood in Germany. Besides, she’s too excited for her future with her beloved Martin, a Cuban pilot with strong ties to the Batista government. But as the flames of revolution ignite, Lilith and her newborn daughter, Nadine, find themselves at a terrifying crossroads.
Berlin, 1988: As a scientist in Berlin, Nadine is dedicated to ensuring the dignity of the remains of all those who were murdered by the Nazis. Yet she has spent her entire lifetime avoiding the truth about her own family’s history. It takes her daughter, Luna, to encourage Nadine to uncover the truth about the choices her mother and grandmother made to ensure the survival of their children. And it will fall to Luna to come to terms with a shocking betrayal that changes everything she thought she knew about her family’s past.
Separated by time but united by sacrifice, four women embark on journeys of self-discovery and find themselves to be living testaments to the power of motherly love.
Do you have any favorite fiction about motherhood to share? Leave your suggestions below in the comments! Did you enjoy this Book Round-up? Check out more here!
Find more ways to spoil your inner bookworm!
Check out the Amaryllis Co. Shop, fully stocked with custom designs perfect for every book loving Amaryllis Girl! From shirts, mugs, wine glasses, and more, I have curated a shop with all of my favorites! SHOP HERE! You can also find my collection of bookish merchandise on Etsy.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Why was this day created and how has it evolved over time?
Take Your Daughter to Work day began in 1992 by Gloria Steinem as a project of the Ms. Foundation. It was created to show girls that being smart was something to be proud of and not something to hide. By providing girls with real-life models in the workplace, the hope was to offer something for girls to strive to achieve themselves. Gender did not have to hold them back from a desired profession.
Parade Magazine wrote about the program and by 1993 the Take Your Daughter to Work Day Foundation was formed to help expand the program nationally and internationally.
From Female Empowerment to Breaking Gender Stereotypes
In 2003, the Take Your Daughter to Work Day program expanded to include boys. Many criticized this, wasn’t the point to increase female empowerment? But the Foundation argued the expansion would only make the program stronger. It would allow for the dissolution of gender stereotypes completely. For instance, shouldn’t a boy be told he’s allowed to be a nurse?
Since then the program has continued to evolve. It’s now an April tradition, with worldwide participation. It purposefully takes place during the school year so educators can incorporate it into their lessons, drawing from real world experiences. There have even been purposeful strides in reaching out to low-income communities to find ways for children there to participate as well.
But are we really empowering our daughters?
All of this is fantastic. And I am grateful for these opportunities and lessons for our next generation of workers. However, I feel it’s important to examine the original intent behind the day and how it has changed over time. I love the idea of breaking gender stereotypes and teaching children they can follow any career path that interests them.
But, I feel the focus needs to change on where we empower our children. If I’m honest, I’m less concerned about my daughter, or my son, for that matter, excelling in the workplace. I know plenty of strong, empowered “girl-boss” friends. They speak up for themselves and are rocking the workplace. However, where I do still see an imbalance is on the home front where they’re desperate to find that elusive work-life balance.
If we examine current society and are honest with ourselves, it’s women who still shoulder the bulk of the burden when it comes to childcare and home management in addition to their jobs. Women are still the default parent who gets the phone call from school. They are usually the one who needs to stay home with a sick child. They carry the bulk of the emotional labor, scheduling dentist appointments, filling out school forms, replacing outgrown clothing, chauffeuring, etc.
Men have stepped up on the home front since women started working. I want to be clear, I see that. My husband does A LOT as do many of my friends’ husbands. However, it’s still a far cry from equal. And much of that is because of societal expectations. Schools still call the mother first when a child is sick. I have friends who have listed their husbands as first to call because their jobs are more flexible, and yet the school still calls them first.
Workplaces are also generally more accommodating for a mother to take off when a child is sick rather than a father. Some men I know even mention unspoken “stigmas” that stop them from asking for time off for parenting responsibilities. This goes back to the continuing need to fight for “paternity leave” when having a new baby. How can men ever equally carry the burden of parenting if their workplaces will not even allow them time at home when their baby is born?
And then there are the traditional gender stereotypes and expectations we allow ourselves to fall into. I teach college and my class recently had an interesting discussion about this topic. We read the article The Men We Carry in our Minds by Scott Russell Sanders. The basic gist of the article is a young male student gets into a debate with a college classmate about who has it harder- Men or Women. Our class discussion about the piece led us in many different directions, but at one point I asked them to raise their hands if a statement was true. Out of a class of 27 Gen Z students, only one had ever had a father take him on a field trip. And none thought their father would have known the name of their pediatrician.
Take Your Daughter to Work Starts at Home
We can most definitely tell our girls they can aim for any career path they want. But they are still seeing their mothers carry an unsustainable workload each day and battling burnout. What is the answer to that? It’s complicated, I know. But until that balance is shifted, our girls will unfortunately always hit a ceiling.
We have come a long way from the imbalance of parenthood from the past. Again, I applaud that men have made major strides in the division of responsibilities at home and child rearing. But we, as a society, can still do better.So, parents, instead of just taking your child to work. Consider what you model for them each day. Are you demonstrating an imbalanced division of labor in the home? Are you making sure one parent isn’t burning out from an overloaded plate? The daily application they witness are the lessons your children will carry. Empower your daughters to speak up, negotiate in all areas of their lives and thrive.
Find more ways to spoil your inner bookworm!
Check out the Amaryllis Co. Shop, fully stocked with custom designs perfect for every book loving Amaryllis Girl! From shirts, mugs, wine glasses, and more, I have curated a shop with all of my favorites! SHOP HERE! You can also find my collection of bookish merchandise on Etsy.
As authors we constantly hear about marketing. But what about self promotion? What’s the difference?
What Exactly is Self Promotion?
We constantly hear about marketing and how important it is. But what about self promotion? What exactly is self promotion and why is it important? Join me below to discuss the differences and how authors can incorporate some simple self promotion examples into their tool belts.
Differences between Self Promotion and Marketing
Let’s start by defining marketing. Marketing’s defined as the activity of promoting and selling products or services. Simple enough, right? You want to sell your book- you need to market it. But, one of the biggest mistakes I see authors making is thinking their marketing should focus solely on their book. That’s where self promotion comes in.
Technically, self promotion is presenting yourself as an accomplished, skilled, capable person. But honestly it’s more about building a connection with your readers and building yourself as a brand that supersedes one individual book.
Why You Need an Author Brand
I recently had an intake coaching session with an author. While doing a website audit for her I discovered that her website name was not her own name, but her book’s name. When I asked her what she’d do when she wrote a new book, she was stumped by the question. “I hadn’t thought about that,” she admitted.
This is not uncommon for many authors. They’re understandably excited about launching their first book and all their efforts are on selling and marketing that book for success. However, you need to think about the long game. Hopefully, you WILL write more than one book and you’ll want readers to buy that book too. That’s where brand identity comes in.
Brand Identity
Brand identity is necessary for a business, it helps build loyalty and a trust in the style and quality of a book with your name on it. If you want to make being an author your JOB and your BUSINESS, you have to promote your brand – you have to commit to self promoting.
You can do this by first determining what is the common theme you want to write about or do you see in your current stories? For instance, I write historical fiction and I can see myself writing about different time periods and different kinds of people. But one thing I know my books will all have in common is they’ll all be about women. They will also all be about women fighting for change. So, my brand identity? “I write about women in history overcoming obstacles to fight for change.” This is what I tell people when they ask about my books and this is what I’ve built my website and social media platform messaging around. Therefore, when readers find and follow me, they know exactly what to expect when they pick up my books.
More Self Promotion Examples
The other important part of self promoting is selling yourself. We have to build relationships with our readers and allow them to see us as people. I know I probably have some of you authors shaking in your boots right now. The last thing most of us want to do is spotlight ourselves. That’s why we hide behind our books, right? But if we’re unwilling to open up and share, our books will languish and never get read. So, let’s see if we can find a comfortable way to work some of these self promotion examples into our regular routines.
Working Our Livelihood into Conversations
I tell people I’m an author. I’m not saying I walk around introducing myself that way. But I do seize on natural opportunities to bring it into the conversation. And luckily with Amazon there’s the immediate opportunity to make a sale once I do. I’ve sold books in the pediatrician’s office, in the dentist chair, on an airplane, on the sidelines at a soccer game etc. When there’s an opportunity to bring up what I do, I take it. But to make sure this feels natural and easy, I’ve made sure to perfect my elevator pitch synopsis of what my book is about.
Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch
Have you ever been asked what your book is about and find yourself freezing or launching into a long winded explanation where you can see the person’s eyes glazing over? We’ve all been there at some point. That’s why it is crucial to master your elevator pitch synopsis. This is simply a two-three sentence max description of your book. For me I say- “I created a fictional character who escapes from Russia at the beginning of the revolution. She settles on the Lower East Side of New York and is involved in the 1909 Garment Worker’s Uprising. She’s then involved in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the aftermath.“
My elevator pitch immediately identifies my book’s genre- historical fiction. The time period I’m writing about- early 1900s. It also gives an overview of the main historical events and obstacles my character is facing.
Using this elevator pitch and being nervy enough to bring my book up in conversation is how I’ve not only gotten sales, it’s how I’ve landed speaking engagements, bookstore signings and other festivals and events. I’m constantly on the prowl. Both for selling opportunities, but also for chances to network and add to my Rolodex of contacts. You never know when they’ll come in handy.
Promoting Ourselves on Social Media
Ah, the dreaded word. But one of the reasons I find people have such apprehension about using social media to market is they don’t know what to post. For starters, you need to know going into it that it’s not where you’ll sell books. Social media will not translate to sales. It just doesn’t. So, then what’s the purpose and why waste your time?
To network and build a community of followers. If nurtured with a targeted purpose that follows your brand identity, social media will hopefully translate to an engaged audience who WILL sign up for your newsletter, like your posts, be your beta readers and early reviewers etc. And yes, some will also hopefully buy your books at some point. But more importantly, they’ll be loyal and feel like they know and care about YOU which will go way further than the person who buys one of your books from Amazon or off a shelf from the bookstore.
To sum up, think of it this way- you can market to sell one book once. This can be done with targeted ads, book promo newsletter features, virtual book tours etc. And this should and could be done as well. But if you self promote yourself- you’ll be nurturing a loyal base of readers who will buy every book you ever write. You do the math.
Find more ways to spoil your inner bookworm!
Check out the Amaryllis Co. Shop, fully stocked with custom designs perfect for every book loving Amaryllis Girl! From shirts, mugs, wine glasses, and more, I have curated a shop with all of my favorites! SHOP HERE! You can also find my collection of bookish merchandise on Etsy.
