Which book do you recommend to friends and family most?
I am part of a Facebook group for book blogger support. Each day in October, a blogger will host a question and the other book bloggers give their answers.
I have recommended one particular book this year to people in my circle and I’ve had great feedback from them all. It is a great book for people who enjoyed The Rosie Project.
Finishing the last page of the delight that is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, I had a tear in my eye and a warmth in my heart. This is a book about loneliness and social disconnect. In a world of perfect lives and social media, there is a lot of pressure to fit in, to have the perfect holiday, family or marriage. But, what about the people on the edges? Those who don’t like small talk in the office, reading the gossip mags or watching the latest reality shows. What about the ones who just don’t feel like they belong?
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
Let’s see what the other bloggers recommend to their friends and family.
Leslie Conzatti www.upstreamwriter.blogspot.com
Generally, my habit is to find out what kind of books another person likes, and if I’ve read or heard of books that are in a similar vein, I will jump in and recommend them!
For example, just a few weeks ago I chatted with a friend who started raving about Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, so I jumped in and instantly recommended E. A. Copen’s Judah Black series, since that author was one I have known to enjoy Mercy Thompson, and her books are definitely within the same genre, and very high caliber!
A past coworker was talking about how much she enjoyed the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, so I gave a shout-out for R. R. Virdi’s Grave Reports series.
Somebody who likes Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series might also enjoy The Fair Folk Chronicles by powerhouse duo Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins.
I’ve also recommended Brandon Sanderson’s Reckoner series, and The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer to people who have ended up loving them!
Jo Linsdell www.JoLinsdell.com
The book I’ve recommend most this year is probably The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. It’s different from other murder mystery books I’ve read and written incredibly well. It’s a bit like the game Cluedo but you switch between the different characters whilst trying to work out who the killer is and all the other details. This book is Agatha Christie meets Quantum Leap.
I’ve also been recommending the Percy Jackson series to anyone and everyone this year. I got the Percy Jackson And The Olympians box set and have been reading my way through it this year. With each book it gets getting better and better. I’ll definitely be reading more Rick Riordan in the future.
Which book do you recommend most often?