I love that I was asked to submit 5 recs to my local library. I probably give it way too much thought, last April I did an Anzac theme, this year April is all about the camping!!! You don’t live with Dave for 10 years without learning that April is the start of camping season. This month I thought it would be fun if I leant into this phenomena! Dave will be over the moon I’m taking it seriously!!! I hope you have some camping trips lined up this season, but actually these might be nicer read vicariously from the comfort of your own home with your library novel in hand!
How to Be Second Best by Jessica Dettmann is the perfect camping novel. I love her novels, they constantly have me laughing out loud! This one would be a great one to read while sitting on your camp chair by your tent.. although it will have you checking your food is secure…fast, fun and so plotty!
I’m not sure if anyone in The Search Party will be wanting to replicate this glamping trip. I love Hannah Richell novels, they are so character driven, when I saw she was doing a thriller I was worried it wouldn’t be but all that people watching and knowing is completely here. She is such a master. This is a ‘locked room’ mystery set in Cornwall, when a group of such long time friends that ‘they aren’t even sure if they like each other’ go away for the weekend..omg you would not be wanting to read this one while a storm is approaching flaming or not; it’s SO atmospheric!!! It had me jumping all over the place.. you’ll love it!
I would doubt anyone but six year old Sasha thinks they are having a grand adventure in Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief by Katrina Nannestand. It’s a middlegrade novel set in 1942 Russia about a little orphan adopted by the army. I found it completely heartbreaking and heartwarming when I read it and can’t recommend it more highly enough. It didn’t win all the awards for nothing! It’s an incredibly moving read
Although I’m not sure Dave would be pleased to camp like the characters did in Four Winds; my favourite Kristin Hannah novel; this is all about the Dust Bowl era in America which happened during the Great Depression. Elsa is an incredibly brave, inspiring character and this novel is so moving; I won’t ever forget that description of drowning in dust..but it is also so beautiful and really really well done
Wild by Cheryl Strayed is really a proper camping book, goodness, what a way to camp! Do you know this one? Such a young, inexperienced, lost, grieving woman just casually hiking a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s a comping of age/ really introspective book but also full of incredible beauty, dehydrated food and camp fires..I loved it!
