One way to “escape” your four walls during lockdown or whenever you are feeling stressed is by reading. There is something comforting about turning the pages of a good book or scrolling through a digital edition. You may be starting a new novel or re-reading a much-loved classic or even taking a virtual journey following in the footsteps of a travel writer. Here are some of the books we are reading right now if you are looking for a good book.
Redhead by the Side of the Road
Anne Tyler
Micah Mortimer is a 40-something building superintendent and IT technician who is a creature of habit and finds connecting difficult. He lives by his daily routines until his world is turned upside down by the visit of a teenager who mistakenly believes that he may have found his father.
Anne Tyler is a brilliant observer of human nature and this is a warm, funny and touching story of family, relationships and discovery as Micah realizes that he is not as self-reliant as he thinks he is and that he loves and needs the one person in his life he had been taking for granted.
The Mirror and the Light
Hilary Mantel
Published in March, The Mirror and the Light is the final part of Hilary Mantel’s trilogy on the life of Thomas Cromwell, a man from humble origins who became Henry VIII’s most faithful advisor and the most powerful man in England. It takes up the story on the day of Anne Boleyn’s execution and follows Cromwell as he contends with an increasingly unpredictable monarch and the many foes plotting against him.
Mantel was the first woman to win the Man Booker prize twice for her earlier books: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies and she may well win another one. She brings history to life with her portrayal of the cast of characters that accompany Cromwell on his rise to power, and the enemies that he makes at court and who ultimately bring about his downfall.
A Thousand Ships
Natalie Haynes
A retelling of the ancient Greek epics about the battle for Troy and the fall of the city, but this time from the perspective of goddesses and nymphs, women and girls caught up in the strife. It includes the dispute between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite that started everything, the stories of Helen, Andromache, Cassandra, Briseis and Penelope, wife of Odysseus.
What are you reading right now? We’d love to know your favorites too, why not drop us a line and tell us.
