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Book a Ticket to Reading and Relaxation

The holiday busyness is behind us, yet the sight of snow dancing about the yard does not bring the joy it did only a month ago. Rather than dig into the winter blues, make an escape with your favorite author. Choose a night and one of the mood-inspired suggestions below then pack your book bag and wait with anticipation for armchair travels.

Turn up the heat in the tropics. Literally. Bump up the thermostat or add another log to fire, then grab a fruity drink and settle in for steamy reading. Carl Hiaasen is known for his Florida settings and complex plotting and Native Tongues is sure to keep you turning pages while it pokes fun at the eccentric mix of people converging on south Florida. Joe Winder is a burned-out investigative journalist turned PR man for The Amazing Kingdom of Thrills theme park. After two blue-tongued mango voles (that look like rats) are stolen, Winder discovers they are not really endangered, as the sleazy park owner claimed. As he uncovers the truth, Winder finds himself siding with a group of senior-aged activist women and wrapped up in hilarious plots for revenge against the park owner and real estate developer.

While this title is fun, if the zany characters and roller-coaster pace are too taxing for your post-holiday nerves, try the slightly plotted satiric-thriller Hacks by Christopher Wren. This story is set in Equatoria, a struggling African nation. Foreign correspondent, T.K. Farrow is at first disgusted with the amateurish Cassandra Benoit, a stringer for National Public Radio. Cass stirs things up with her interviewing (why is the most important of the five journalistic W's as far as she's concerned), learning the native language, and helping the hungry and injured. Her energetic reporting soon has the other correspondents, called hacks, scrambling to keep up. When Cass's naive style places her in danger, Farrow rescues her and then teaches her the ropes. This thriller-turned-romance may be a bit predictable but it is an enjoyable mix of action and romance.

Snuggle up with a romance. If a traditional romance is more to your liking, light a few candles to set the mood then snuggle down for pleasure reading. In Moon Glow by Sharon Wagner, you'll take a Caribbean cruise with Astrid Collier. Astrid and her husband have created a lucrative business empire together, but alcohol and deep depression have landed her in lengthy rehab. Upon her release, she finds herself divorced and the company has folded. Still wealthy, but unsure she can handle alone the hard work of building a new business, her friend convinces her to take a cruise. Astrid and Sally book a week of fun in the sun where Astrid meets Blake, a widower. They find their business acumen the starting point for a ship-board romance. At the week's end, though, Astrid wonders whether the moon glow they've enjoyed during the cruise will be enough to work through the emotions from both their previous marriages. While heavy on romance and light on a plot, the description in Moon Glow is better than browsing through travel guides.

For a more in-depth plot, read Love by Toni Morrison which focuses on the nature of love–relationships and how love and hate tie people to each other. The central figure is Bill Cosey–long-deceased, but remembered as the owner of the Cosey Hotel and Resort, once "the best and best-known vacation spot for colored folk on the East Coast"–and the role he played in shaping the lives of five women: friend, benefactor, lover, husband, and employer. Told in flashback scenes woven together with the first-person accounts of L., the perceptive former hotel chef, this book is moving and powerful. You'll need the candles you've lit to help calm you as you become wrapped up in the stories of the women in Cosey's life.

Spice it up with suspense. The past also comes back to haunt the present in Tell No One by Harlan Coben. Prepare for this reading getaway with a hot beverage. Sprinkle cinnamon in the bottom of your cup before mixing cocoa or brewing tea and the scent will heighten you senses as you're caught up in the suspense of this story. Eight years ago, Dr. David Beck's young wife, Elizabeth, was kidnaped and murdered by a serial killer. His life finally together, Beck now receives a strange e-mail on their anniversary. The message contains a phrase he shared only with Elizabeth and directions to view a webcam image. He's surprised to find Elizabeth mouthing she's sorry and begging him to tell no one. His desperate search to discover whether she is alive is hampered by the FBI who now suspects him in her murder. What Beck uncovers will change his life as he knows it while keeping you turning pages.

Uncover clues on the coast. If mysteries are more your style, buy a bouquet of flowers and think spring as you read Garden View by Mary Freeman. Trouble stirs up once again in the town of Blossom, Oregon in this fourth Rachel O'Connor Garden Mystery. A vandal keeps the local police busy while residents of the retirement village are dying of unnatural causes. O'Connor finds herself in the midst of both conflicts since her fiancé is the sheriff and her Rain Country Landscaping is hired to restore the retirement village's gardens. When the garden restoration falls prey to the vandal, it complicates the details. Is this a warning and is Rachel in danger because the sheriff is getting too close in finding the vandal? Or, was it the director of the retirement village, whom Rachel suspects in the deaths, trying to get her out of the way in giving up on the restoration? The outcome is surprising.

Pamper both mind and spirit with a literary getaway. Unlike the chaos (and loads of laundry) after returning from real travels, when you close the book, you'll feel renewed and rejuvenated. Happy reading!

BIO:
Author and speaker, Lisa Wroble, is an avid reader. A reviewer of children's books, she currently writes the "Book Nook" column for Wonder Years. As a former library assistant, she helped with summer reading programming and filled in at the reference desk where most questions were readers' advisory related. Many of her 400 articles cover self-esteem and parenting issues.