On The Books-Pass The Tissues!

While I may sob uncontrollably at mushy commercials, I don’t emote much when it comes to my books.  But I know that readers are always searching for a good tearjerker, one that can leave them with an appropriately weighty book hangover.

While these books didn’t move me to a full-on snotty cry, I definitely felt them deeply.  Somewhere in the vicinity of my heart.

LAST DAYS OF CAFE LEILA – DONIA BIJAN

Visiting the restaurant her family owns, where the regulars come for refuge as much as food, Noor revisits her Persian childhood.  She must rethink who she is as a mother, a daughter, and a woman estranged from her marriage and her life in California. And together, she and her daughter get swept up in the beauty and brutality of Tehran. A story that weaves together food, family and culture that completely transports the reader.

If You Liked…A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, Thirty Names Of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

ARISTOTLE & DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE – BENJAMIN ALIRE SAENZ

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the neighourhood swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship, the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

If you liked…They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera, Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

A MAN CALLED OVE – FREDRIK BACHMAN

At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots; neighbours who can't reverse a car properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. None of which will stop him from his daily walkabouts to see that everything in his community is as it should be.  In the end I dare you not to find Ove irresistible.

If you liked…The One In A Million Boy by Monica Wood, The Curious Charms Of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

HOLD STILL – NINA LACOUR

One night Ingrid told Caitlin, I’ll go wherever you go. But by dawn Ingrid was gone, her promise broken.  Ingrid’s suicide immobilizes Caitlin, leaving her unsure of her place in a new life she hardly recognizes. A life without the art, the laughter, the music, and the joy that she shared with her best friend.  But Ingrid left something behind. In words and drawings, she documented a painful farewell in her journal. As she reads it Caitlin finds a renewed sense of hope.

If you liked…A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness , More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera, Easy Departures by Justin Reynolds