You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.~C.S. Lewis

If there was ever a time to catch up on some reading, that time would be now. Books can provide solace and help fill anxious hours when there seems to be nothing to do. But your reading habit hasdeclined,and you dont know where to start? Let me help with some recommendations!

The library may be closed but you do have the ability to borroweBooksfor free! You will already need to have a library card to access and there is a limit to the number of books you can borrow. Just get onto your library account online (www.collierlibrary.org) and search the book you want to read.You will be asked what format you want to useI downloaded it to Amazon Kindleandjust like that, I was able to check-out WhereTheCrawdads Sing, by Delia Owens for 14-days.

Of course,you can go directly toAmazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nookfor otherfreedownloadable books,and if you are an Amazon Prime Member, the selection is evenbetter.If you are okay with shelling out some dough your options expand greatly with new releases being higher pricedthan older onesor as I did above, check out from the library. On Amazon, you can sign up for a trial membership for Audiobooks and enjoy a new release for free.Just remember to cancel your subscription before the trial period ends. Or maybe youll love it so much you keep it!

Somewebsites offerfree content. Librivox.org provides free Audiobooks read by volunteersyou can even become one yourself!Project Gutenberg at Gutenberg.org, Manybooks.net and Authorama.com are three other sites. I found that most of the free books fall into the Classics and Romance but with some digging, you can find great reads.

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.~Mortimer J. Adler

So,now that you have some resources to find books, which books to read? Let me help with some books that still resonate with me today.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and AllTheLight We Cannot See by AnthonyDoerrare two of the besthistorical fictionbooks I have read about WWII. Zusaks novel is rooted in Germany and narrated by Death,whileDoerrsPulitzer Prize Winner follows a blind Frenchgirl and German boy. I read themback to back and was surprised at the emotions they elicited.

Thinking of delving into someone elses life with a biography? If you are looking forlaughsthen try Bossypants by Tina Fey or Yes Please by Amy Poehler.These women are as funny as they are relatable.Angelica Huston lets us into the charmingearly years of her life surrounded by Hollywood and Artistic Elites inA Story Lately Told: Coming of Age in Ireland, London and New York.OrDear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker,anedgy and fascinatingread;Ms. Parker is a wonderful writer.Takea step back in time to the early days of Hollywood and Broadway with This Time Together: Laughter and ReflectionbyCarol Burnett.And for something really different and amazing,look up Down the Nile: Alone in a Fishermans Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney.She does exactly as the title describes and its unbelievable.

Classics I cant get enough of are The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath,The Good Earthby Pearl S. Buck,A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway,andMemoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.To me, they have stood the test of time. Recent books I consider classicsbesides the aforementioned WWII bookwould be The Things They Carried by Tim OBrien and Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. These two are emotionally wrenching in a very good way.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.~Groucho Marx

Now to my favorite genrefantasy and science fiction! NeilGaimansThe Ocean at the End of the Lane is a great standalone,and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern took my breath away.A readable trilogy would be Erika Johansens The Queen of theTearling series,but my all-time favorite fantasy trilogy would have to be TheFionavarTapestry by GuyGavrielKay.Theres a lot of And so it happened startstosentencesthat sound a bit dated,but the emotional punches are well worth it. Seriously, I cried more than once and that was during my THIRD reading.In Science Fiction, the Red Rising Saga trilogy by Pierce Brown may be slightly predictive but it is wholly imaginative.

I could go on andonbutlet me end with some random titles that deserve a look: The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsukais the riveting storyof Japanese women brought to San Francisco as picture brides.Read a fictional account of an American woman combat photographer during the Vietnam War in The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli.Also, tryThe Gunslinger by Stephen Kingbecause Stephen King! Learn about the ups, downs andall-aroundoddities of space travel in the nonfiction Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach. Last, but not least, introduce or re-introduce yourself to the beauty and balm of poetry with The Poets Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family by John Lithgow. No word-salad poems herejust a fantastic selection of poems for, well, the whole family.

Stay well, stay safe and find solace in your reading!

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Read to Soothe Your Soul - coastalbreezenews.com