Quick Lit 2/16 Archives

Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

by Christie Purifoy

Several years ago, Purifoy and her family made an intentional move to a big Pennsylvania farmhouse (minus the farm) in search of a community and a home. In these pages Purifoy tells the story of their first year at Maplehurst in beautiful yet unfussy prose. A lovely memoir.

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

by Marie Kondo

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

by Shirley Jackson

I read this as my "book you can finish in a day" for the 2016 Reading Challenge. As expected, it's not exactly scary, but Jackson is sure good at infusing a story with a creepy atmosphere. In this work, her last completed novel before her death, she tells the story of the Blackwood family. Not so long ago there were seven Blackwoods, but four of them dropped dead from arsenic poisoning several years ago and how that happened remains a mystery. Read this during daylight hours: its themes of family secrets, hateful neighbors, and mysterious deaths aren't the stuff of bedtime reading.

Among the Ten Thousand Things

by Julia Pierpont

Fun fact: this has been a "love" AND a "hate" on What Should I Read Next. This wrenching debut novel tells the story of a family that falls apart after infidelity comes to light.

Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival

by Joe Simpson

I've been meaning to read this modern adventure classic for years, largely because I'm obsessed with Into Thin Air. I expected the two books to be similar but—aside from the fact that they both deal with life and death in the icy mountains—the books didn't feel at all the same. Krakauer's is reflective and journalistic; in Touching the Void, Simpson and his climbing partner alternately tell the tale of their disastrous ascent of a remote peak in the Peruvian Andes.

Quick Lit 2/16

Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Among the Ten Thousand Things

Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival

Find your next read with:

100 Book recommendations
for every mood

Quick Lit 2/16

Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Among the Ten Thousand Things

Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival

Find your next read with:

100 Book recommendations for every mood

100 Book recommendations
for every mood