This Awful-Awesome Life

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Reading Recommendations for Adults this Holiday Season

Our December reading recommendations can also be used for inspiration for what to buy with those gift cards you receive during the holidays. We have a few holiday-themed suggestions and some fun reads to get you through the New Year and keep you occupied until this pandemic is over.

Everyone Can Bake by Dominique Ansel - Acclaimed pastry chef Dominique Ansel shares his simple, foolproof recipes for tarts, cakes, jams, buttercreams, and more “building blocks” of desserts.

Holiday Recipe Plan: Best Dishes for Different Holidays (Easter, St. Patrick's Day, Thanksgiving, New Year, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and others) by Olivia Dawson – With over 130 recipes for 25 celebrations you holiday menus are covered for the year.

My New Roots: Inspired Plant-Based Recipes for Every Season: A Cookbook by Sarah Britton – Sarah Britton shares 100 all-new plant-based recipes in her debut cookbook, inspired by her popular blog.

Best Holiday Dishes for the Vegans in Your Life: Amazing Recipes to Try for the Most Popular Holidays Cookbook (Trying Out Vegan) by Amanda Leeber - 25 fun, delicious, vegan friendly, and easy to make recipes for holidays and celebrations.

Stuff You Should Know: An Incomplete Compendium of Mostly Interesting Things (November 2020) by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant – Interesting facts from their famous podcast.

The Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin – learn the basics for organizing your home with helpful tips to create zones for like items and activities.

Starry Night by Debbie Macomber – try a cozy winter romance – Best-selling author, Finn Dalton has locked himself away in a remote cabin in Alaska. Columnist Carrie Slayton is on a mission to get an interview. After allowing herself to be dropped off in sub-zero temperatures in the Alaskan wilderness, will Carrie figure out how to get Finn to talk to her and share his winter cabin, or will she be left out in the cold?

A Madness of Sunshine by Nalini Singh – if you need a break from the winter storms and holiday cheer, look no further. Enjoy Singh’s story about a missing girl set in New Zealand where the lines of good and evil are obscured, and villains are often disguised as heroes.   It’s an exciting story with enough romance to satisfy a die-hard love story addict.

The Lying Life of Adults: A Novel by Elena Ferrante – (Soon to be a Netflix original series) Giovanna is growing up and her parents aren’t pleased. To them, her pretty face has become an ugly reminder of her Aunt Vittoria. “Pretty is as pretty does” – Giovanna struggles to see herself as others see her in the two disparate worlds of Naples - Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. Giovanna doesn’t seem to fit in either world. Will she find her place and reclaim the beauty she seeks?

A Fountain Filled With Blood: A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery (Fergusson/Van Alstyne Mysteries Book 2) by Julia Spencer-Fleming – Reverend Clare Ferguson and Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne have been avoiding each other for months attempting to ignore their mutual attraction. A series of hate crimes against gays in Millers Kill and a shady real estate development deal throws the town into high alert and Clare and Russ must work together to stop a possible serial killer and save the town. Full of action and suspense