Sometimes we put the mystery, sci-fi and thrillers aside and just want a happy ending. As your local library or bookstore may temporarily close, it’s time to stock up on a few great reads that are guaranteed to brighten your day.
Beartown
by Fredrik Backman
Beartown is a remote, small community hidden away in the deep dark Swedish forest where temperatures plummet and everyone lives for hockey. The Beartown Bears Junior Team has been working for 10 years toward this very moment, the national semifinals. To Coach David, these boys have given this team every ounce of blood, sweat and tears they possibly could. As the big game approaches, an unexpected tragedy occurs, leaving a young girl traumatized and the season hanging in the wind. The entire town, which has placed all its hopes and dreams on this team, are dramatically torn between good and evil, loyalty and denial, crime and punishment. With each chapter Beartown becomes absolutely unputdownable. The incredible characters come alive as you feel the bone-chilling cold, hear the scrape of the ice and the whummmp of bodies thrown against the boards. Brrrrrrr.
Bringing Down the Duke
by Evie Dunmore
Miss Annabelle Archer, country girl, daughter of a vicar, is an orphan. Her welfare currently depends on her miserable cousin Gilbert as she cares for his five unruly children. Although she is brilliant and fiercely independent, women are not permitted to live alone nor determine their own destiny in 1879 England. Desperate for escape and over-educated by her father, Annabelle finds a place at Oxford, one of the very first group of women admitted. She manipulates a scholarship in return for volunteering with the women’s suffrage group, protesting the women’s marital possession act and right to vote. Annabelle infiltrates the highest political influencers by coercing an invitation to the Duke of Montgomery’s ball. A beautiful bluestocking, Annabelle raises quite a few eyebrows and is shocked to find herself completely enthralled with the duke himself. Historical romance novel, filled to the brim with passion, perseverance and the very beginning of the women’s campaign for equal rights.
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
by Kelly Harms
What mom wouldn’t love a “Momspringa?!” When cardigan-toting librarian Amy Byler is offered a ticket to attend a reading conference in New York City, she jumps at the chance to have a desperately needed break. Three years ago her husband went on a business trip to Hong Kong and never returned. Busy raising her children and working full-time, Amy becomes an expert at denying herself any private life at all. When the “hot librarian” at the conference not only loves her ideas but invites her to coffee, Amy quickly reinvents herself via her bf Talia who runs a popular woman’s magazine. Enter #Momspringa and you’ve got the full makeover including highlights, spin classes and twitter dates. Her three-day adventure turns into weeks and this librarian is ready to start a brand new chapter of her life. Laugh-out-loud read for any mom, book lover and believer in second chances.
