Wednesday, September 6, 2017 is National Read a Book Day.
It's the day all Americans are asked to grab a book and spend the WHOLE day reading it. Read aloud to your kids. Read in public. Read in your favorite chair.
Weeping Willow Books grants you a special dispensation: if you can't arrange your day to spend the entire day reading a book, we encourage you to at least spend some of it reading.
And since nothing is real unless it's on social media nowadays, use the hashtag #ReadABookDay to tell the world about it.
If you need suggestions on what book to pick up Wednesday, here are our top three staff picks:
Marcia Meier, Publisher:
1. "All the Light We Cannot See" - Anthony Doerr, 2014. It won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. A beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. "Everyone should read this book!" says Marcia.
2. "The Liars Club" - The childhood memoir of American author Mary Karr. Published in 1995 and a New York Times bestseller for over a year, it tells the story of Karr's childhood in the 1960s in a small industrial town in Southeast Texas
3. " The Underground Railroad" - Colson Whitehead, 2016. The "alternate history" novel tells the story of Cora and Caesar, two slaves in the 1800s who make a bid for freedom from their Georgia plantations by following the Underground Railroad, which in the novel is an actual subway as opposed to a series of safe houses and secret routes.
From staffer Mandi DeVos:
1. "The River Why" - David James Duncan. A 1983 novel that initially starts off as a fishing story, but expands into the tale of a young man struggling to come to grips with the modern world and finding love in an unexpected place.
2. "East of Eden "- John Steinbeck, 1952. Often described as Nobel Prize winner Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, East of Eden brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories. Read the book before you see the classic James Dean movie.
3. "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" - Anne Lammott, 1994. The author's offbeat wisdom about how to write. She recounts her personal experiences to reveal her writing techniques and how she overcomes obstacles that interfere with the writing flow.
From staffer Teresa Hendrix
1. "The Light Between Oceans" - M.L. Steadman, 2012. This tale of love, intrigue and consequences is all the more amazing because it's a debut novel from Steadman, an Australian. It won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction and had a years-long stay on the New York Times Bestseller list. And it's better than the (really good) movie.
2. "Girl Waits with Gun" - Amy Stewart, 2015. From the New York Times best-selling author of "The Drunken Botanist" comes an enthralling novel based on the forgotten true story of one of the nation's first female deputy sheriffs. Constance Kopp's family comprises three women living on a farm alone in rural America when gangsters in town threaten their safety. Constance defies the gangsters, and convention, to keep the family in their home.
3. "Born a Crime, Stories from a South African Childhood" - Trevor Noah. The 2016 memoir from "The Daily Show" host and comedian Noah will make you marvel at the near-impossibility of his journey from his conception in apartheid South Africa through childhood and young adulthood in its slums and schools and on to fame as a comedian in his own land and then in the United States. A very funny book about some very un-funny things, and a moving portrait of both Noah and his mother.
Now, go pick up a book and don't forget to hashtag #ReadABookDay!