Favorite Fall Reads

I love to read and I love books. Maybe you’re like me and find that fall is the perfect time to settle down with a hot beverage and a good book. When it comes to books, I love non-fiction, preferably personal historical accounts, and cozy mysteries. Below are some of my favorite reads.

1.Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie is one of my favorite cozy mystery writers. She does suspense, mystery, and crime so exciting to read. I chose Hallowe’en Party, a novel in her Hercule Poirot series, for its excitement and seasonal appeal. With the death of a child at a Hallowe’en Party, Hercule Poirot is invited to come and solve the case, unearthing scandals, lies, and cover ups with more twists and turns than a corn maze.

2.The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up the Warsaw Ghetto, by Mary Berg. At age 15, Mary Berg- An American-Jew- living in Warsaw, Poland, describes in great detail life for Jews under Nazi oppression in the Warsaw Ghetto. Written between 1939-1944, Mary Berg eventually escaped to the United States and published her Diary in order to bring awareness to the World of the evils the Jewish People suffered under the Nazis.

3.Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, by Joanne Fluke. A light hearted cozy mystery with all the red herrings of an Agatha Christie Novel. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder is the first novel in the Hannah Swensen Series, featuring a crime solving bakery shop owner in small town Minnesota. After her milk delivery man turns up dead behind her bakery, with a box of her famous chocolate chip cookies, Hannah Swensen is on the case to find out who wanted him dead.

4.I Want to Live: The Diary of Nina Lugovskaya, by Nina Lugovskaya. Nina’s diary, started a few months before her 14th Birthday, gives a first person account of life in Stalin’s Russia. Nina’s diary chronicles her life under the Bolsheviks, as well has her hatred for them. In 1937, the discovery of Nina’s diary by the Bolsheviks sends her and her sisters and mother to a prison camp and exile in Siberia for the next 12 years. A must read.

5.Banana Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke. Another Hannah Swensen mystery. This time, Hannah, just returned from her honeymoon, is informed of the murder of a former Hollywood star in the condo below Hannah’s mother just days before Thanksgiving. As Hannah investigates, she discovers that the former movie star had more than her fair share of enemies, but only one had the gusto to close the curtains on the actress.