The 2024 elections are over and reading is a fine way to detach from politics. (Photo: Getty Images)
The 2024 election is over but, if you are like me, sometimes you just need a break. People voted how they wanted to and this grandmother can be angry about it or I can sing to myself, “Let There be Peace on Earth, Y’all.”
The holiday season will soon be here which means most of us will spend time with our extended family and — news flash — not every family votes the same way I do, so I need to get my head and emotions in a place where I anticipate family and friend gatherings with feelings of love, not tension.
We all need to exercise and eat right to take care of our body, but what about our brain? Where does our mind need to go to tune out the news and the talking heads? I go to bookstores just to wander around other readers and pick up something engrossing. I want to read something that makes me laugh, be inspired or terrified and below are a few recommendations of what to read right now.
“What in the World?” by Leanne Morgan made me laugh a lot. A Knoxville-based stand-up comic and graduate of the University of Tennessee, Morgan is famous for her explanations of female hormones and the challenges of motherhood.
There are many great audiobooks to lift your spirits, including “Holidays on Ice” by David Sedaris and “How Y’all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived” by the late, great Leslie Jordan, a Chattanooga native.
Anything by Carl Hiassen is funny and my favorite is “Tourist Season,” because who doesn’t enjoy reading about dismemberment of body parts near a convention of Shriners in Florida? “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach, “Sandwich” by Catherine Newman, “Colored Television” by Danzy Senna or “Erasure” by Percival Everett — adapted into the 2023 film “American Fiction” — will keep a grin on your face most of the time.
History lovers should read the newest by Doris Kearns Goodwin, “An Unfinished Love Story,” “The Demon of Unrest,” by Eric Larson or, “John Lewis: A Life” by David Greenberg.
If you want to be a troublemaker, then read the classic, “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. Zinn’s book gives what he considered a nontraditional history of the country.
How do you pick a really scary novel that will definitely take your mind off politics, at least for a few hours? “Salem’s Lot,” by Stephen King, is so scary that my husband, Larry, read it only during daylight hours. I kid you not, and he has read every book by King.
If you want books that are too scary for me but just right for Larry then try “The Hellbound Heart” by Clive Barker, “I am Legend” by Richard Matheson, “Kindred” by Octavia Butler, “The Wolf’s Hour” by Robert McCammon, and “It” by Stephen King.
We both loved the original “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, but I prefer books that are gothic and humorous including “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix, or “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. However, The Exorcist,” by William Peter Blatty stayed with me, because I believe there has always been a battle between good and evil in our world.
Want to be encouraged by selfless acts? “The Kingdom of the Poor” by the late Father Charles Strobel — a revered figure in Nashville — his niece, Katie Seigenthaler, and former Metro Nashville Schools board member Amy Frogge, is the true story of how Strobel started the Room at the Inn program for people who are unhoused.
“My Black Country, A Journey through Country Music’s Past, Present and Future” by best-selling Nashville author and songwriter Alice Randall blends the history of Black music along with the story of Randall’s life.
“Ghosted, An American Story” is unforgettable as Franklin, Tenn.’s Nancy French courageously shares the horror of being sexually assaulted by the male youth director of her church. She met her husband, New York Times columnist David French, while in college, and after they married, she became a successful ghostwriter for famous Republicans. Her work suddenly stopped when she and her husband would not endorse Donald Trump for president in 2016. Her story is inspirational and leaves the reader feeling hopeful.
Learn from nature with “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” of Amy Tan. Tan began watching birds and drawing them when she needed some quiet time alone. Those daily sketches and her thoughts put on paper will bring you some much needed peace.
Another Nashvillian, Margaret Renkl, is my favorite essay writer and her latest book is “Leaf, Cloud, Crow: A Weekly Backyard Journal,” which is a companion to her previous bestseller, “A Comfort of Crows.” Nashville native Reese Witherspoon, who was a student of Renkl’s, just selected “A Comfort of Crows,” as her 100th pick for Reese’s Book Club.
Some of us need sweet and endearing books (think Hallmark or Great American Family movies for television). “Counting Miracles” by Nicholas Sparks, “The Cat who Saved Books” by Sosuke Natsukawa and “Remarkably Bright Creatures” by Shelby Van Pelt are all charming. (Shh: don’t tell Larry!)
And, “Sipsworth” by Simon Van Booy is in my top 10 books of 2024. This is a dear story about a woman of a certain age and her relationship with a mouse. I will never feel the same about mousetraps.
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