Books of the Week: Gift Ideas for the Readers on your Shopping List

Books are my favorite gifts!!!   I discovered the top Goodreads fiction books of 2018 and thought I’d provide you with links to the top five.  Believe it or not, I’ve only read one…..and it was AWESOME.  Click here for my review of The Great Alone. I’m about to add the other four to my Christmas list!  I’m particularly interested in The Woman in the Window because you can click here and see that there’s a movie coming in 2019 full of a star studded cast including Amy Adams and Julianne Moore.

Here are the Goodreads Top 5 Fiction books of 2018 for your shopping and reading pleasure:

  1. The Woman in the Window
    • Anna Fox lives alone-a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.  Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble-and its shocking secrets are laid bare. 
  2. The Great Alone
    • Alaska, 1974.  Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed.
      For a family in crisis, the ultimate test of survival. 
  3. Educated, A Memoir
    • An unforgettable memoir in the tradition of The Glass Castle about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University 
  4. Beneath a Scarlet Sky (read this one for free if you have Amazon Prime and a Kindle)
    • Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.
  5. An American Marriage
    • Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. In this deft exploration of love, loyalty, race, justice, and both Black masculinity and Black womanhood in 21st century America, Jones achieves that most-illusive of all literary goals: the Great American Novel. Named an Oprah’s Book Club Selection.