Following the popularity of our list of suggested summer reads, we asked a few bookish Kennett Squareans to share some of their favorite winter reading suggestions.
Find the first few suggestions below. Each title links to The Kennett Bookhouse website. You can order online and have the book sent to you directly. Or, if you prefer in-store or curbside pickup, you can call (610-444-1063) or email the shop to place an order. They also offer free delivery to local addresses for orders placed by phone or email. You can also find many of these titles at our amazing Kennett Library!
Keep checking back as we add to this list—and please share your own suggestions too!
Kristin Proto, Executive Director, The Garage Community & Youth Center:
As a person who has personally experienced trauma, who also works with a population of youth and families with high levels of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma, this deep dive into how the body responds AND can begin to heal from trauma was extremely enlightening. The body and mind are truly created with an astonishing design, and learning about our design, I believe, will help us to learn and empathize more with others.
Luke Zubrod, Square Roots Collective and Historic Kennett Square Board member:
I read this year The Only Plane in the Sky. It’s an oral history of 9/11—the day before, the day of, and the immediate aftermath. The audiobook is especially good as there is a cast of 45 or so people reading, including many who are the actual people involved. Especially as we come up upon the 20th anniversary of this event, this is a timely and compelling way to be revisit those harrowing moments.
Beverly Bach:
Megan Walters, Director, Kennett Library:
This go round, I am going to recommend Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Set in Mexico in the 1950s, Mexican Gothic is about wealthy socialite Noemi Taboada who receives a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom. Noemi heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. Once there, she realizes that there is a dark history associated with High Place and every day spent there will make it much harder to leave. This is a book sure to keep everyone on their toes and I loved the style that the author evokes in 1950s Mexico. A must read for anyone who loves mystery (and a little bit of suspence/horror)!
RuthAnn Deveney, Kennett Library trustee and volunteer
Stefanie & John Lynn, owners of The Kennett Bookhouse:
Stefanie’s selection:
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Travel to the warm and sunny Marsyas Island and meet a cast of adorable, unforgettable characters. It is impossible not to smile while reading this story!
John’s selection:
A Crooked Tree by Una Mannion
First sentence: “The night we left Ellen on the road, we were driving north up 252 near where it meets 202 and then crosses the Pennsylvania Turnpike.” Fifteen-year-old Libby Gallagher is growing up during the early 1980s in suburban Philadelphia when her mother abandons twelve-year-old Ellen on the highway. This event triggers unforeseen consequences; Libby and others are forced to address the perilous situations which result.
Andrew Smith, Pastor, Presbyterian Church of Kennett Square:
Albert Camus’ The Plague tells the story of the citizens of the Algerian port town of Oran and how they respond when their town is overrun by an outbreak of the plague. This is a fascinating read in the context of our own pandemic. Near the beginning of the novel, Camus writes, “Perhaps the easiest way of making a town’s acquaintance is to ascertain how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die.” The novel also serves as a window into the devastating effect of other ‘plagues’ (Camus described the novel also as an allegory of the Nazi occupation of France beginning in the spring of 1940).
Do you have a favorite winter reading suggestion you’d like to share? Please let us know!
