November Line Up

While I am usually happy with my home on the east coast, if there is one month I feel a little less than grateful, it’s November. It’s dark, cold, wet, dreary, gray – I could play this game for a long time, folks. So for this month, the theme is “Get Me Out of Here!” If I can’t escape the magical weather combination of drizzle and sleet that November brings in real life, at least I can travel via book. All of this month’s selections are set in other places so maybe you’ll find one in here too to help you beat the November blahs.

November 3: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. I first picked this book up because I loved the cover (I know what you’re thinking but let’s all admit, sometimes beautiful books actually do have beautiful covers). The concept behind the story is really interesting: one hot summer day in 1969, four siblings in New York City visit a psychic who tell each one the exact day they will die. The rest of the novel is divided into four parts, one devoted to each sibling as Benjamin reveals how the prophecy influences each of their lives. The story zigzags across the US as the siblings move away from their childhood home in NYC in pursuit of their dreams.

November 10: The Little French Bistro by Nina George. I really enjoyed George’s other novel, The Little Paris Bookshop, which hooked me with the idea of a bookshop in a canal boat that goes floating around the rivers of France. It was totally charming and sweet, oh, and there were recipes in the back of the book for all the French food George writes about in the novel. What’s not to love? In her new novel, George’s main character, Marianne, packs it in after she can stand her unhappy marriage no longer and leaves Paris for the Brittany coast. And there are recipes again, so I will let you know if I try any…

November 17: Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. This is a recent Reese’s Book Club pick. I will admit, I really do love Reese Witherspoon. She is amazing in HBO’s Big Little Lies (if you haven’t watched it, read the book first, it is so good) and she does a lot to promote all things bookish. I also really love Cuba. The country, the people and the culture are beautiful and the island’s history is fascinating so I was sold on this book. The story is set between 1958, in the years before the revolution and in Miami in 2017 and follows two women, Elisa, a member of a wealthy Cuban family who is forced to flee during the revolution and Marisol, her granddaughter, who eventually returns to Cuba to scatter Elisa’s ashes in the country of her birth.

November 24: Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce. This novel is set in London during World War II. The main character, Emmeline, dreams of becoming a war correspondent. Instead, she ends up answering letters for Mrs. Bird, a renowned advice columnist. Mrs. Bird tells Emmy to throw any letters that involve Unpleasantness straight into the garbage but Emmy ends up reading them and answering them in secret. This book is supposed to be both funny and moving, so I am really looking forward to it.

So there we are, the continental US, France, Cuba and England. You can take your pick but while the November rain pours down, I am going to be somewhere cozy with a good book and I hope you will be too. Let me know if you plan on picking up any of November’s books!