Ellen’s Book Nook — May 2020: Friends’ Favorites

By Guest Blogger Ellen Bryant Lloyd 

“So, what are you reading these days? I just finished a great book and need another suggestion. What do you recommend?” This is a common exchange between my friends and me, especially over the last few months.

We live in an age when we rely on recommendations from trusted friends. Whether we need a plumber, painter, hairdresser, doctor, attorney, accountant, upholsterer, housekeeper, piano teacher, repair person or someone else to help us in an area of our life, we usually ask friends for a referral. Among my book-loving friends, this same approach applies to books. I love to learn what my friends are reading and why they love certain titles. I also enjoy brushing the dust off of older titles that deserve to be read again.

This month I decided to poll my friends for titles of some of their favorite reads. Some are books they recently read, and some are long-time favorites. I have assembled a list of newly published and older titles, mainstream books and some that may not be familiar. The list covers a wide range of topics and genres that reflect the variety of reading tastes and preferences among my friends — which I love. The expansive variety of literary works in the world offers a fabulous feast for the mind!

Review the list and if a title strikes your fancy or piques your interest, check it out. If a book seems out of your comfort zone, why not give it a try and expand your reading horizons? If you have a favorite title, please share it in the comments so we can all add more to our “want to read” list. Happy reading!

• All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin
• God Shot by Chelsea Bieker
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey
• Little Fires Everywhere by Celest Ng
• Educated by Tara Westover
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
• The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
• Her Sister’s Shoes by Ashley Farley
• Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
• The Girls with No Names by Serena Burdick
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish by Pablo Cartaya
• Little Women by Louisa May Allcott
• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
• A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
• Miss Jane by Brad Watson
• Sweet Hush by Deborah Smith
• The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain
• Every Breath by Nicholas Sparks
• An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
• The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Every Time I Think of You by Tracey Garvis Graves
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
• Housekeeping: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
• Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
• Chesapeake by James A. Michener
• Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
• The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
• Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• To Get to You by Joanne Bischof
• A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• Mother of Pearl by Chambers Stevens
• The Bitter Side of Sweet by Tara Sullivan
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Ellen Bryant Lloyd is the author of FRECKLES and FRECKLES and The Great Beach Rescue. Please visit www.funwithfreckles.com and www.facebook.com/funwithfreckles to learn more about Freckles. Ellen writes a blog about her perspectives on life and parenting at www.mindfulmom.wordpress.com and tweets at @EllenBLloyd. She lives in Greensboro with her husband and two children.

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