All The Recs! What to Read This Spring

Happy Spring, my friends!

Since we've had some heavier topics on this blog recently, I thought I would take a step back and give you all a list of my favorite reads this year and my recommendations for this spring. All of the books on this list I have personally read and can vouch for. I've also included any content warnings there might be, and what format I read it in, in case you, like me, happen to be an audiobook enthusiast.

Happy reading!

1.) 'Gone With the Wind' by Margaret Mitchell

I was, (understandably so, in my opinion) a lil' bit daunted when I opened up a box on Christmas morning to find a beautiful copy of this classic. I'd seen the movie and really loved it, but the thought of diving into an eight-hundred-page classic was a tiny bit intimidating.

BUT OH YOU GUYS. This is literally one of my all time favorite books now. It's heavy. It's depressing in places. The main character, Scarlett, is basically unlikable for the entire book.

But the deep themes and plotlines woven within this are literally unmatched. Think sacrificial love, rising above prejudice, redemption from a broken past, and a man giving himself up for his wife even though she's been nothing but rude and hateful, all stirred in with the theme of sin and what consequences sin will bring. It's a must-read classic, and since the prose is so modern-like, it's easy to read! I finished it in a week and a half. ;)

Favorite quote: "Perhaps- I want the old days back again and they'll never come back, and I am haunted by them and the memory of the world falling about my ears."

Format: Hardback (769 pages)

Content warnings: several instances of language, implications of heavy romantic content (furthers a plotline in context), accurate depictions of racism in the 1860's south.

2.) 'Surprised by Oxford' by Carolyn Weber

Have you ever gotten upset with yourself for not reading more non-fiction? Just me...?

When I saw this book on a book list, I wasn't expecting much, because for starters, it's a memoir. Enter a slow day at work with no customers, lots of organizing to do in the back, and the idea to start an audiobook while I spent a slow afternoon until it came time to clock out.

And I was hooked.

Written in a lyrical, beautiful way, Surprised by Oxford tells the true story of Carolyn Drake, who arrived at Oxford college a pessimistic agnostic feminist, and left a bible-believing Christian.

This book challenged, encouraged and convicted me in so many ways. Have a non-christian friend? Carolyn's witty wrestling with the idea of God was written for them. A new Christian? Carolyn's baptism and hope speaks right to their need. A Christian who's been on the straight and narrow for a long way? Carolyn's retelling of the people she meets and their wisdom will spur them on, encouraging them to keep running the race.

Quite honestly, I was as enthralled with this book as I ever have been with any fantasy novel. On the day I finished it last week, I was alone at work, staring out the window as I waited desperately to see what would happen next.

Favorite quote: "What would you want God to say that He hasn't said already?"

Format: Audiobook (I found mine on Hoopla, an app that uses your local library card to get you access to hundreds of digital titles!)

Content Warnings: None

3.) 'Anna Karenina' by Leo Tolstoy

Another classic that I consider such a must read! I actually read this one for school, and was blown away by how much I loved it. It's a deep, incredibly challenging story set against the backdrop of 1870s Russia, with the lives of hundreds of characters seamlessly woven together.

Meet Konstantin Levin, a hard-working man who does his best to be moral, but ultimately falls into the hands of a loving God, and realizes what true conversion is.

Anna Karenina, a beautiful and vivacious married woman who falls deeply in love with Count Vronsky and begins an affair with him that will destroy her life, illustrating how sin ruins the lives of men.

And Kitty Shcherbatskaya, a sweet, pure girl who makes many mistakes, but remains undaunted in the face of life.

Tolstoy modeled many aspects of this book after his own life. Kitty, for example, is based off of Tolstoy's own wife, and Levin's search for God and conversion to Christianity is eerily similar to Tolstoy's own.

It's a striking, well written story that deals with the search for truth, the realities of the fallen world we live in, and the truth that unrepentant sin will destroy a person from the inside out.

Favorite quote: "But that had been grief--this was joy. Yet that grief and this joy were alike outside all the ordinary conditions of life; they were loopholes, as it were, in that ordinary life through which there came glimpses of something sublime. And in the contemplation of this sublime something the soul was exalted to inconceivable heights of which it had before had no conception, while reason lagged behind, unable to keep up with it.”

Format: Paperback (923 pages)

Content Warnings: Realistic depiction of adultery, graphic depictions of illness, several instances of language

4.) 'The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion' by Beth Brower

Tossing this one on here because they are legitimately my favorite books ever.

It's not exactly fair, I suppose, because The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion consists of eight total volumes. But they're short, and I binged through these audiobooks in three weeks.

Why should you read these?

I'm insulted you asked.

Juuuuust kidding, I've been dying for someone to ask me this ever since I fell into the lifestyle of Emma M. Lion on the recommendation of my very lovely mother.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion is written like someone's journal. This means that there are entries on what Emma had for dinner, or what Emma thought about so-and-so. But the more you read, the more a story begins to emerge, until suddenly you're caught in the trance of this bold young woman, who is desperate to keep ahold of her house in 1880s London, England.

As Emma struggles to finance her beloved Lapis Lazuli house, she falls in with multiple delightful (and some not so-delightful) characters. There's Niall Pierce, a possible American who makes his living photographing elements of war. The Duke of Islington who hides a family secret behind his ducal gaze and biting sarcasm. The Mighty Nigel Hawkes, a vicar with a love for poetry and a habit of vanishing randomly.

Together, these three and Emma are drawn into the wonderful mix of what they call Alchemy: a friendship bound together by strange circumstances and a lovely twist of fate.

Emma's personal reflections are witty and self-deprecating, keeping me laughing the entire time I listened through these. Whether she's recording the adventures of Agnes the maid, Cousin Archibald, sun-god Roland, or maybe just a dash of romance with one stormy photographer, her courage and pluck are filled with heart, soul, empathy, and everything that I want to model one day.

Favorite quote: "I have learned that my happiness cannot be tied to things outside my control."

Format: Audiobooks (I listened on Hoopla again, but they are also available on Spotify Premium)

Content Warnings: Mild language throughout the books, realistic depiction of alcoholism, brief discussion of the horrors of war and flashes of violence in said discussion. Emma believes in a neighborhood ghost.

And that's what I have for your shelves today, friends! Other honorable mentions would be 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee (another one of my favorite classics!), 'Forward Me Back to You' by Mitali Perkins (one of the best contemporary books I've ever read), 'Joni' by Joni Erickson Tada and 'Wormwood Abbey' by Christina Baehr.

Enjoy the rest of your lovely March, and you'll see you soon for another post!

-Mira