BEA'S BOOK NOOK "I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once." C. S. Lewis “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” ― Oscar Wilde

Showing posts with label Elderkin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elderkin. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Bea Reviews The Novel Cure: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin

Publisher: Penguin Books 
Format Read: paperback
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 30, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe*/OmniLit | Barnes & Noble |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Publisher's Weekly
"Delightful... elegant prose and discussions that span the history of 2,000 years of literature."


A novel is a story transmitted from the novelist to the reader. It offers distraction, entertainment, and an opportunity to unwind or focus. But it can also be something more powerful—a way to learn about how to live. Read at the right moment in your life, a novel can—quite literally—change it.

The Novel Cure is a reminder of that power. To create this apothecary, the authors have trawled two thousand years of literature for novels that effectively promote happiness, health, and sanity, written by brilliant minds who knew what it meant to be human and wrote their life lessons into their fiction. Structured like a reference book, readers simply look up their ailment, be it agoraphobia, boredom, or a midlife crisis, and are given a novel to read as the antidote. Bibliotherapy does not discriminate between pains of the body and pains of the head (or heart). Aware that you’ve been cowardly? Pick up To Kill a Mockingbird for an injection of courage. Experiencing a sudden, acute fear of death? Read One Hundred Years of Solitude for some perspective on the larger cycle of life. Nervous about throwing a dinner party? Ali Smith’s There but for The will convince you that yours could never go that wrong. Whatever your condition, the prescription is simple: a novel (or two), to be read at regular intervals and in nice long chunks until you finish. Some treatments will lead to a complete cure. Others will offer solace, showing that you’re not the first to experience these emotions. The Novel Cure is also peppered with useful lists and sidebars recommending the best novels to read when you’re stuck in traffic or can’t fall asleep, the most important novels to read during every decade of life, and many more.

Brilliant in concept and deeply satisfying in execution, The Novel Cure belongs on everyone’s bookshelf and in every medicine cabinet. It will make even the most well-read fiction aficionado pick up a novel he’s never heard of, and see familiar ones with new eyes. Mostly, it will reaffirm literature’s ability to distract and transport, to resonate and reassure, to change the way we see the world and our place in it.

Library Journal
"This appealing and helpful read is guaranteed to double the length of a to-read list and become a go-to reference for those unsure of their reading identities or who are overwhelmed by the sheer number of books in the world.
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Monday, December 15, 2014

GIVEAWAY! The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin

Thanks to Penguin Press, I have a copy of a fun new non-fiction book, "The Novel Cure" to give away.  In THE NOVEL CURE: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You (available in paperback December 30, 2014) authors and bibliotherapists Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin present a  witty and irresistible A-Z of literary remedies that recommend works of classic and contemporary fiction as  cures for ailments of the mind and body.

To create this apothecary, Berthoud and Elderkin have searched through 2,000 years of literature for the most brilliant and engrossing reads. Structured like a reference book, readers simply look up their ailment and are given the recommended novels to read as the antidote. Suffering from anxiety? Pick up The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa. A broken leg? Get Johanna Spyri’s Heidi. Had a falling out with your best friend? Try William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow.