People often comment they read so much for work they don’t have time to read for pleasure. Then I watch them scroll through dozens of social media sites while channel surfing with the remote. An estimated 27% of U.S. adults did not read a book in 2018. Reading can help reduce mental decline in old age by up to 32%. Reading fiction can make you a better decision-maker, increases emotional intelligence, and your career outlooks. With statistics like these it pays to carve out at least 20 minutes a day to read a book. Once you make reading a habit again, you’ll wonder what you were waiting for! We have some suggestions to get you started.
Billy Summers by Stephen King – Billy, a decorated Iraqi War vet, is a skilled hitman who has made a name for himself by only accepting hits to eliminate dangerously evil people. Tired of the game, Billy wants out, but he must perform one last hit before he can disappear and reinvent himself. Billy is a trained sniper and well experienced at locating his target, taking the shot, and silently slipping away, so what could possibly go wrong?
All Adults Here: A Novel by Emma Straub – After witnessing a school bus accident, Astrid starts having flashbacks of a memory from her days as a young parent and realizes she may not have been quite the mother she thinks she was for her kids. Her youngest son is drifting and making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is pregnant, but still struggling to let go off her carefree adolescence and her eldest son seems to measure his successes and failures by a standard no one else seems to follow. Did Astrid fail her kids or mistakes an inevitable part of being a parent? Astrid works toward the answers to her questions with unexpected help from her 13year-old granddaughter and her new friend. They seem to be the only people with the courage to tell the truth to people who might not want to hear it.
The Summer of Lost and Found by Mary Alice Munroe – Linnea is facing another layoff and worried about her family during the pandemic. The new man in her life, Gordon is struggling to return from England in the face of travel bans and John, the man quarantining next door, is an old boyfriend from California. Linnea tries to ignore him, but John sends her notes via paper airplane that start rekindling old feelings. What will she do when Gordon returns? Is love possible in a pandemic when so many things are at risk?
The Stranger in the Mirror by Liv Constantine – Two years ago, Addison was found injured on the side of the road on a New Jersey highway with no memory of her identity. When no one reported a missing person matching her description, she started building a new life with a new name. Now that she’s about to be married, Addison is wondering about her previous life and why she feels like she might have done something terrible. Meanwhile in Boston, Julian wonders about his wife Cassandra. How could she walk away from their marriage and their daughter without a word these past two years?
The Summer Seekers by Sarah Morgan – After 80-year-old Kathleen has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter Liza tries to persuade her to move into a retirement community. Liza’s hectic family situation makes it impossible for Kathleen to move in – even if she would. Kathleen wants one more adventure in her life before giving up her independence, so she posts an ad for a driver/companion for an epic road trip across America. Martha, an unemployed 25-year-old, is feeling unappreciated, unloved, and desperate to escape the disappointed looks from her parents as she tries to figure out what to do with her life. When she sees Kathleen’s ad, she thinks it might be the perfect solution. Even if she’s not the best driver, how demanding can an 80-year-old be?
The Price of Time by Tim Tigner – What would you do if you had unlimited cash and all the time in the world? Would you strive to make the world a better place or try to dominate everything and everyone? In Silicon Valley there are rumors of an invention that can give you both these things.
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves – Cleeves is the author of the two bestselling-series, Vera, and Shetland. Her latest crimefighter, Detective Matthew Venn, is a complex character. While Venn is back in North Devon to attend his estranged father’s funeral, the body of a man with an albatross tattoo and a fatal stab wound washes up on the beach and he is tasked with solving the murder. It’s Venn first trip home since he rejected his strict evangelical religious upbringing and was disowned by his family. He was determined to pay his last respects to his father and close that chapter of his life, but duty calls.
Special Circumstances by Sheldon Siegel – Mike Daley is an ex-priest, ex-public defender and most recently he is an ex-partner in one of San Francisco’s most prominent law firms. While Daley is setting up his own practice in one of the Bay area’s low-income communities, his best friend is charged with the murder of two prominent lawyers. He is thrust into an investigation of the firm that fired him and the dirty little secrets he uncovers may topple a legal empire.
Authentic by Paul Van Doren – This is a memoir by the founder of Vans – a shoe company beloved by skateboarders and creatives. Van Dorn started went from a high school drop-out to the business mogul of a multi-billion-dollar company. After dropping out of high school he went to work at a rubber factory and later started a family shoe company designing canvas tennis shoe. He opened the first retail shoe store that only sold tennis shoes and it became an immediate success. Van Doren shares the challenges and missteps he made along the way in this unique memoir which focuses more on how to succeed in business than chronicling his life.
Redhead by the Side of the Road by Ann Tyler – Micah Mortimer believes he has his life figured out. He’s a self-employed tech expert and the superintendent of his apartment building. He’s a careful driver, meticulously organized and a slave to routine until events spiral out of his control in an instant. The woman he’s seeing tells him she’s facing eviction and a teenaged boy shows up on his doorstep claiming to be his son. Will Micah be able to reclaim his orderly life or has fate gifted him with a chance at something more?
Sources for this article:
https://comfyliving.net/reading-statistics/