Top 10 Books for Moms: Summer 2018

By Guest Blogger Ellen Bryant Lloyd

Welcome to Ellen’s Book Nook for the month of May. This month we are focusing on books especially for moms. (To view past Book Nook blogs with selections for all ages, click here.)

Summertime is the perfect time to indulge in fun books that allow you to escape or to think about things that matter in life. From family secrets to war-time struggles to finding passions, the selections this month cover a wide range of time periods, topics and settings. So select a few that pique your interest, head to the pool, beach or even your back yard, and enjoy!

Click on the title of any selection to read more!

1. The Nightingale: A Novel
by Kristin Hannah
This novel is about love, finding purpose, and two sisters who have to make difficult choices to stay alive in the face of war.

2. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness 
by Arundhati Roy
From www.bn.com: “An aching love story and a decisive remonstration, a story told in a whisper, in a shout, through unsentimental tears and sometimes with a bitter laugh.”

3. The Silent Sister: A Novel 
by Diane Chamberlain
The strength of sibling bonds is the foundation of this story that focuses on love, loss, family secrets and the quest for truth.

4. Same Beach, Next Year 
by Dorothea Benton Franks 
The author, originally from South Carolina, has written a story about two couples and their transformative 20+ year friendship. The book has been touted by www.bn.com as a “dazzling celebration of the infrangible power of friendship, the enduring promise of summer and the indelible bonds of love.”

5. Gift from the Sea 
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
This classic book, written more than 50 years ago, is a story of a woman who uses a solo vacation of solitude by the sea to reflect on her life, love, marriage, family, and what peace and contentment mean to her.

6. The Nights the Lights Went Out 
by Karen White (SC author)
The Wilmington Star News says this novel “Combines elements of Steel Magnolias with Gone Girl…touches all of the bases of a chick-lit thriller.”

7. The One and Only
by Emily Giffin
From www.bn.com: “Thoughtful, funny, and brilliantly observed, The One & Only is a luminous novel about finding your passion, following your heart, and, most of all, believing in something bigger than yourself . . . the one and only thing that truly makes life worth living.”

8. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel 
by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Book lovers will be drawn to this story of a writer who discovers the subject of her next book in a letter from a man she has never met. She is pulled into the eccentric world of this man and his friends where she finds connection in the most unpredictable ways.

9. One Hundred Years of Solitude 
by Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa
A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick and critically acclaimed novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude creatively tells the story of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family.

10. The Opposite of Me
by Sarah Pekkanen
When a NYC advertising executive leaves an 80+ hour work week and a lonely life to return to her childhood home, she confronts a long-held family secret and reconsiders her relationship with her beautiful twin sister.

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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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