We are now almost a month into the new year and a month into our New Year's Resolution. Hopefully you are staying strong and have learned how to work that new goal comfortably into your daily life. It is now time for you to add an additional challenge, something you may not have made time for in a while: reading. Everyone deserves some time out of their day to curl up with a good book, whether it be buckling in for an outrageous adventure through the halls of Hogwarts or by following the love story between Noah and Allie in Charleston. Grab any book of your shelf, download a book to your kindle or even read the opinion column of the newspaper; dive into another place and pull yourself away from current reality, everyone deserves a little break.
Listed below are a few of the books I most recently read and recommend. Some new and some old, some you heard of and some you have not. What books have you read lately? Email mkotelchuck@whatsupmag.com with your most recent read and a quick review about it to be featured!
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling: Of course Harry Potter is first on my list because it is what I am currently diving into! I have seen bits and pieces of the movies in the past, so earlier this quarantine I took a couple weeks to watch them straight through and thoroughly enjoyed them. To keep up the new excitement (new to me at least, everyone else has already been captivated by the story), I picked up the books and I am slowly getting through book 5. This is series for you to start because there are 7 books, plenty of action and time for you to get to know and love the characters before the book is finished.
Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts: Considering I am THE largest Wizard of Oz fan to walk the planet, I was not expecting to enjoy this historical fiction story about Maud Baum, the wife of Oz's author L. Frank Baum and her relationship with the great Judy Garland. I admit that I know almost every behind the scenes fact about the movie and I didn't want to waste my time reading a fiction book about these real events that I am so familiar with. I am beyond glad that I gave it a shot anyway because this quickly became my new favorite book and, with no exaggeration, the second I finished the last page I was ready to open the front cover again and start new. Not only does it explain how Maud helped protect Judy during filming and voiced any opinion she needed for her late husband's vision to come true on the screen, but how she grew up, met the author (who at the time was a theatre producer) and how the idea of a young girl and a magical land was pieced together. At the end of the book, Letts explains that this book must be labeled 'fiction' because there is no way for the dialogue to be exact but the events in the book are true. I learned many new things from this new perspective and I can't say enough positive things about it!
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Now, I read this book in college for an English class. I did not pick it up on my own and, to be honest, I am not sure if I would have read it if I wasn't tested on it because it is so far from my comfort zone. Needless to say, I could not put it down. This book is about a Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates to the United States to attend university. Meanwhile, her love from home Obinze is denied a visa after 9/11 preventing him to meet her so he moves to London. Can their relationship be revived after many years apart, after both struggled through different experiences and have now established themselves in their new country?
