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Have you hit a reading slump? Do you need to shake things up a bit? Check out the benefits of joining a book club!
Book Club. The excuse for women to get together, drink wine, and take a night off from life while discussing some great literature. I’ve participated in a number of book clubs over the years and they’ve forged some of my greatest connections and conversations. It’s amazing how fast you can forge a friendship over a shared love of reading! They’ve also been my way to break the ice and find my “peeps” in new chapters of my life- moving to a new place, starting my children at a new school etc. Joining a book club can have many benefits.
If you follow my blog or Goodreads profile you know I’m an avid reader. And I read a variety of genres and authors. But the thing I love about Book Club is it forces me out of my comfort zone.
One of my current book clubs has what we call the “magic bag”. On the first day we got together we all tossed suggestions into the bag. Each month we choose something from the bag and that’s the book we read. Since we all come from a variety of tastes and backgrounds, we’ve read quite the gamut of books. Things I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen myself and yet enjoyed immensely.
I think it’s important to spin the wheel sometimes in our reading choices. Whether it’s by joining a book club or entering a reading challenge that’s accompanied by new book/genre choices (like a reading bingo or master list of categories, I’ve added a few for inspiration below), it’s great to shake things up. How else can we avoid those-“nothing’s grabbing me” reading moments?
What are some of your favorite ways to shake things up when you fall into a reading slump? Leave a comment below to share!
Looking for some other inspiration? Check out some of my favorite booklists!
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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It’s a new year and time to either pre-order or put those books on hold at the library!
What Books Should Be on Your List This Year?
We’re almost done with January and new books are being released. Have you been keeping track and adding books to your list yet? Let me help. Join me for my Most Anticipated Books 2024 List!
As a special freebie to accompany this list, I’m also offering a FREE 2024 Reading Log Tracker. So, get inspired by these anticipated books and download the tracker below to keep track of your reads this year!
This one is already out. It released January 2nd and I can’t wait to get my hands on it! It’s already been picked up as a Good Morning America pick.
Set in Malay, now Malaysia during WWII, this novel follows a mother, Cecily Alcantara, as she grapples with the fact that her family is in terrible danger. Her fifteen-year-old son has disappeared, she’s hiding her youngest daughter in the basement each day to avoid having her forced into service, and her oldest daughter works at a tea house with drunken Japanese soldiers each day.
Cecily questions each day if she is responsible for their struggles, she did not take a typical path in life and she wonders if her past has shadowed their future.
The Storm We Made details life during war time, the ambiguity of right and wrong when faced with survival and what it is like to live under the confines of a colonial power.
Another of my favorite authors and an obvious add to my Most Anticipated Books 2024 List. What to say about Kristin Hannah? The Great Alone, The Four Winds, The Nightingale, need I say more? This woman wrecks me in the best possible way! And I love that each time she manages to find such entirely different time periods and topics to write about.
For instance, The Women now brings us to Vietnam. As usual, Hannah focuses on the strong empowered female protagonist in her story. So instead, of focusing on the drafted male soldiers sent to fight, she focuses on the sister of one who decides to join the Army Nurse Corps voluntarily.
I love the idea of seeing the turbulent chaos of the Vietnam War from a female perspective and the deft handling I’m sure Hannah will offer. February 6th cannot come fast enough. I’ll luckily be on vacation in the Dominican Republic that week. I know what I’ll be reading on the beach!
This was another exciting add to my Most Anticipated Books 2024 list. Heather Webb really manages to nail the more opulent times in history. And yet, she offers a strength and depth to her female protagonists from these times. I originally found her while reading Meet Me in Monaco which was about Grace Kelly’s wedding and then I also read her Christmas story, Last Christmas in Paris which was a WWI story. Interestingly enough, both of those books were co-authored with Webb’s writing partner Hazel Gaynor. Whereas, Queens of London is written by Webb on her own.
She has other individually authored titles out that I’ve been meaning to check out like last year’s Strangers in the Night about Frank Sinatra. Unfortunately, it never made it off my TBR pile though. So this year, I’ll definitely push this solo title to the top!
Queens of London also comes out on February 6th and takes on the criminal world of London post WWI. However, instead of your usual hardened male outlaws, Webb introduces us to a gang of female gangsters from Britain’s first female crime syndicate along with a determined female detective on their tail.
This is another one I’m super excited about. I love Kate Quinn and she is treating us well this year with TWO new books being released! She’s got this one debuting February 13th and then she has The Briar Club coming out in July.
In case you don’t obsessively follow her like I do, she is the author of the fantastic books The Alice Network, The Rose Code, ooh and The Huntress, ok, do you see why I’m an obsessive fan lol? Everything she writes is just amazing!
As in most of her books The Phoenix Crown is another mystery/thriller type historical fiction. This one is a dual narrative, I suspect each written by one of the authors, and follows two very different women, Gemma and Suling, who are thrown together in San Francisco in 1906. They are each under the patronage of Henry Thornton, a railroad magnate, who collects rare Chinese antiques. His most extraordinary treasure? The legendary Phoenix Crown from the fallen Beijing Summer Palace.
But everything falls apart when San Francisco is rocked by an earthquake. Thornton has disappeared along with the crown. Until the crown suddenly reappears mysteriously at a costume ball in Paris five years later. Can Gemma and Suling get there fast enough to recover this precious treasure?
I’ve only read Katherine Reay’s romance style books in the past. I love that they are modern day spins on past classic tales. Dear Mr. Knightly and The Austen Escape. I honestly didn’t even realize she wrote historical fiction and The Berlin Letters will be my first foray into her catalog. It’s getting great reviews by advanced readers though and looks really interesting.
In The Berlin Letters, Reay tells an exciting tale of a female CIA code breaker who risks everything to free her father from an East Germany prison during the Cold War. The Berlin Letters debuts on March 5th.
This one was an obvious add to my Most Anticipated Books 2024 list for me. One, it’s about Frances Perkins who was pivotal to labor reform for women after the Triangle Fire. And two, I love Stephanie Dray! The Women of Chateau Lafayette was one of my favorite historical fiction books ever!
Becoming Madam Secretary is getting released March 12th and looks potentially even more exciting. Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the turn of the century determined to make a difference. And she does just that, helping the children in crowded tenements and befriending politicians and activists in Greenwich Village.
However, when she meets young lawyer, Frankin Delano Roosevelt, she has no idea that life as she knows it has changed.They can’t stand each other at first, and yet their paths continue to cross. Little do they know they will go on to form a historic partnership that will carry them both to the White House and change the country forever.
Last, but not least is Akmaral by Judith Lindbergh. This one debuts on May 7th. Lindbergh is a newer author and I didn’t get to read her first book. But Akmaral really intrigues me.
It’s so far getting fantastic reviews by advanced readers.And I love that it’s a time period I know very little about and is so different from what you normally see on the shelves.
Before the Silk Road even had its name, nomads roamed the Asian steppes and women fought beside men. Like the other women from her clan, Akmaral is bound from birth to battle.
Talk about strong women! I can’t wait to find out more and learn about this ancient population history’s forgotten.
I hope you feel inspired and took down some books to preorder. What books are top of your list so far? Make sure you download your FREE Reading Log to keep track of your reads this year! Extra points if you send in a pic to share your progress! 😉
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.
Best Book Club Books 2022!
Are you looking for some great reads? What about some of the best book club books 2022? I’m aware, I’m a little off on my timing- forgive me, the year, as usual, is going faster than I plan. But, one of my resolutions this year was to give quarterly checkpoints of some of my favorite books of the year thus far. So, better late than never right? Here you go- my favorite books from 2022 thus far!
Calling all Gatsby fans! If you ever wondered more about the women in the famous tale- this is the book for you! Cantor does an amazing job telling The Great Gatsby from the POV of Daisy, Jordan and Catherine. She also adds in some mystery about who really killed Gatsby at the end of the story.
This historical fiction thriller follows an art thief and journalist in their cat and mouse game. “Woman on Fire” was the last famous painting created by Jewish artist, Ernst Engel, before he was taken by the Nazis. This books demonstrates how far people will go for art and questions the ambiguity that comes with determining ownership of paintings. Especially, those looted during the Holocaust. This is a sit on the edge of your seat Must Read!
Romania 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe, but for seventeen-year-old, Cristian, being a good citizen and obeying the regime is all he’s ever known.
This chilling tale puts you into the heart of the danger this family and teen experience every day. Who can you trust? And just how much are you willing to sacrifice before you stand up and say enough?
This was a thrilling read I could not put down. I was not familiar with Romanian history and although I’d read about Communist Russia- this close account truly made me feel the oppressive reality of the situation. I learned a lot while being entertained. Always a plus for me! 🙂
Not historical fiction, but just a REALLY good book!! I predict this will be one of the top talked about books of the year!
For starters, it’s meant to be dystopian, yet it hits WAY close to home!
What is considered an unforgivable offense in parenting? Looking at your phone when your child falls at the playground? Leaving your child in the car alone for five minutes to run into the store when it’s raining?
Where is the line and who should determine it? And even more importantly– what should the punishment be?
