As we continue to make 2021 our year of self-care, one of the habits we’ve been building and fostering is taking time to explore some of the many amazing reads that are out there. Books can open doors to new worlds, build imagination and empathy, and influence the way we think. Whether you’re looking for an escape into the world of fiction or want to find motivation and purpose in the pages of a non-fiction book, there are so many great reads available that can provide you with the exact experience you’re seeking.
Below, we’ve compiled some of our favorite fiction and non-fiction titles perfect for spring reading, as well as a list of suggestions of where you can support local, indie bookshops. We hope you enjoy exploring these books just as much as we have! Drop some of your favorites in the comments below!
Fiction Picks
Photo Credit: Five Little Doves
One Day in December by Josie Silver
Genre: Romance
Goodreads Synopsis: Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn’t exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there’s a moment of pure magic… and then her bus drives away.
Certain they’re fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn’t find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they “reunite” at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It’s Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.
What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.
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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
Genre: Fantasy
Goodreads Synopsis: France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
Photo Credit: Jess Just Reads
The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah
Genre: Historical Fiction
Goodreads Synopsis: Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.
In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.
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One by One by Ruth Ware
Genre: Thriller
Goodreads Synopsis: Getting snowed in at a beautiful, rustic mountain chalet doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world, especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a cozy fire, and company to keep you warm. But what happens when that company is eight of your coworkers…and you can’t trust any of them?
When an off-site company retreat meant to promote mindfulness and collaboration goes utterly wrong when an avalanche hits, the corporate food chain becomes irrelevant and survival trumps togetherness. Come Monday morning, how many members short will the team be?
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Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Genre: Young Adult
Goodreads Synopsis: In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.
Photo Credit: A Beautiful Mess
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Genre: Coming-of-Age/Reads Set in Michigan
Goodreads Sypnosis: Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.
Photo Credit: The Cozie
Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand
Genre: Mystery
Goodreads Synopsis: Irene Steele’s idyllic life-house, husband, family-is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead, but before Irene can process this tragic news, she must confront the perplexing details of her husband’s death. He was found on St. John island, a tropical paradise far removed from their suburban life. Leaving the cold winter behind, Irene flies down to the beautiful Caribbean beaches of St. John only to make another shocking discovery: her husband had a secret second family. As Irene investigates the mysterious circumstances of her husband’s death, she is plunged into a web of intrigue and deceit belied by the pristine white sand beaches of St. John’s.
Photo Credit: Goop
The Orchard by David Hopen
Genre: Coming-of-Age
Goodreads Synopsis: Ari Eden’s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals, and adolescence feels profoundly lonely. So when his family announces that they are moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, Ari seizes his unexpected chance for reinvention.
Enrolling in an opulent Jewish academy, Ari is stunned by his peers’ dizzying wealth, ambition, and shameless pursuit of life’s pleasures. When the academy’s golden boy, Noah, takes Ari under his wing, Ari finds himself entangled in the school’s most exclusive and wayward group. These friends are magnetic and defiant—especially Evan, the brooding genius of the bunch, still living in the shadow of his mother’s death.
Influenced by their charismatic rabbi, the group begins testing their religion in unconventional ways. Soon Ari and his friends are pushing moral boundaries and careening toward a perilous future—one in which the traditions of their faith are repurposed to mysterious, tragic ends.
Non-Fiction Picks
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Quantum Wealth + Quantum Wealth Journal by Adrea L. Peters and Amber Lilyestrom
Genre: Motivational Self-Help
Goodreads Synopsis: Authors Adrea Peters and Amber Lilyestrom invite readers to embrace, explore and explode their abundance in their new book, Quantum Wealth Factoring in Abundance. This generous duo has created a book that is alive and pulsing with energy devoted to expanding the wealth of its readers. Get ready to move closer to your money dreams by taking stock of your daily life in ways you may never have considered.
Photo Credit: Healers
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Genre: Self-Help/Memoir
Goodreads Synopsis: Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is.
Photo Credit: Medium
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
Genre: Memoir
Goodreads Synopsis: …From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.
Photo Credit: Fully Booked
Personality Isn’t Permanent by Benjamin P. Hardy
Genre: Psychology
Goodreads Synopsis: In Personality Isn’t Permanent, Dr. Benjamin Hardy draws on psychological research to demolish the popular misconception that personality–a person’s consistent attitudes and behaviors–is innate and unchanging. Hardy liberates us from the limiting belief that our “true selves” are to be discovered, and shows how we can intentionally create our desired selves and achieve amazing goals instead.
Photo Credit: Apple Books
A Happy Pocket Full of Money by David Cameron Gikandi
Genre: Money Management/Spirituality
Goodreads Synopsis: In “A Happy Pocket Full of Money,” Gikandi explains that true wealth is not about having buckets of cash, but rather understanding the value within. True wealth flows out of developing “wealth consciousness,” that incorporates gratitude, a belief in abundance, and an ability to experience joy in life. He explores how recent discoveries in theoretical physics are relevant for the creation of personal wealth and shows readers how to create abundance by saving, giving, offering charity, and building happy relationships.
Photo Credit: Tea End
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
Genre: Memoir
Goodreads Sypnosis: …Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
Local New & Used Bookshops
Pages Bookshop I 19560 Grand River Avenue, Detroit, MI 48223 I 313-473-7342
John. K. King Books North I 22524 Woodward Ave. Ferndale, MI 48220 I 248-548-9050
Toadvine Books I 2873 Coolidge Hwy. Berkley, MI 48072 I 248-439-0409
The Book Beat I 26010 Greenfield Rd. Oak Park, MI 48237 I 248-968-1190
Paper Trail Books I 414 S Washington St. Royal Oak, MI 48067 I 248-677-4628
Detroit Book City I 24361 Greenfield, Ste 300, Southfield, MI 48075 I 248-993-3844