Lisa's Picks

Lisa Christie is a busy mom of two active boys, Hank and Mateo, so much of her reading has to do with trucks and adventure! She and her husband Chris recently built a new home in Norwich. Lisa is active in the realm of children's literature, being the founder of Everybody Wins! Vermont, a program that bring reading mentors into local schools.

Wolf Hall
by Hillary Mantel
While I hestitate to recommend a book on so many best of 2009 lists, I recommend this as the book to read on January days too cold to ski/skate or when too tired from skiing skating to do anything but read. You need a bit of time, but once you get started you are engrossed in the court of King Henry the VIII. Told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, a commoner who became one of Henry's closest advisers, the novel underscores how so many lives were affected by the needs and whims of a king. Mixing fact and fiction, the author brings to life the important participants - the King, his wife, Katherine of Aragon; the Boleyn family; and Thomas More to name a few.

The Happiness Project
by Gretchen Rubin
I am not much of one for self help books or New Year's resolutions or even memoirs (they make me feel too guilty about all I am not doing). However, I have been searching for something of late. This book is helping me think a bit better about what is important to me and how to act on that insight. Will I be a better person as a result - who knows? But, as for the book, it is not at all preachy. She just shares her year of looking hard at what one can do to be happy. If you too are searching a bit, or need some new year's inspiration, enjoy traveling with her.

Tender is the Night

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I read this as part of my effort to read the classics I missed up until now. I loved this book. The prose is gorgeous. The story line is like watching a train wreck - you know horrible things are about to happen, but you can't look away. And with the European setting, you get a bit of armchair travel as well.

Big George

by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Matt Phelan

This book gives hope to the socially awkward among us. Ms. Rockwell simple telling of the complexity of George Washington's childhood and character will connect with readers. Matt Phelan's extraordinary illustrations are lush and worth looking at all on their own. If you wish, you can forget all about the prose.

A Rule Against Murder

by Louise Penny

This fourth installment in the mystery series featuring Armand Gamache, chief police inspector from Quebec, is great fun. Gamache is intelligent, observant, and loving. This book has him embroiled with a severely dysfunctional family while trying to enjoy a vacation with his wife. The setting, plot, and writing are greatly enjoyable.