The Best Books to Read in the Next 30 Days

As the weather warms up and the sun stays out a little longer at night, there’s nothing more tempting than to curl up with a good book. The social distancing requirements of the current pandemic make it the perfect time to catch up on all the recommendations you’ve been making note of over the past year or for diving into the next bestseller. If you’re looking for a page turner to get you through quarantine, check out these titles and authors.

Books to Read While You’re Social Distancing

1. The Alice Network By Kate Quinn

With spies, scandal, and secrets, The Alice Network is a story that will keep you up at night as the plot twists and turns between the story of a young English woman spying on German Nazis in World War I and a soon-to-be unwed mother who needs her help after the second war. Based on the historic Alice network that sent spies throughout Nazi-controlled zones, this captivating story touches on the importance of female friendships, the ability to overcome fear, and the peace that comes from understanding your past. With plot twists and cliff hangers, time slips by while reading The Alice Network.

2. Bel Canto By Ann Patchett

If you’re feeling trapped at home, Bel Canto will give you a little perspective. In an unspecified South American country, dignitaries, government officials, diplomats, businessmen, and an opera singer have gathered for a birthday party that will hopefully promote trade. However, when guerrilla warriors take them hostage, they’ll have to build new relationships. As the lines between captor and captive blur, the end of the hostage situation seems nowhere in sight. With the beauty of opera and humanity woven throughout, Bel Canto showcases Patchett’s captivating characters and storytelling.

3. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone By Lori Gottlieb

As you read through this memoir, you’ll probably laugh, cry, and even see a character or two you can relate to. Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist in Los Angeles who one day finds herself needing to talk to someone. As she probes her own challenges and questions, she sees that the answers she needs to face aren’t so different from the advice she gives clients every day. This book has quickly become a favorite by critics and readers, and before it’s produced into a television series, make sure to read Maybe You Should Talk to Someone.

4. Conversations with Friends By Sally Rooney

While Sally Rooney’s more recent novel, Normal People, has been one a lot of recommended reading lists this year, her previous novel Conversations with Friends is part of her body of work that deals with how we relate to each other and to ourselves. As Frances ends her college career and embarks into new relationships, she’ll be forced to reconcile her beliefs with the starkly contrasting people she encounters. As these characters try and fail to have conversations that really get to the heart of the matter, will they be able to grow or will they just leave a mess of broken relationships in their wake?

5. A Gentleman in Moscow By Amor Towles

If you have to be under house arrest, it might as well be in Moscow’s finest hotel. When Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced by the Bolsheviks to live out the rest of his life in the Metropol Hotel, he finds himself silently observing the revolution. Across the street from the Kremlin, he watches the changing faces of those in power, and when a young revolutionary woman crosses his path in the lobby one day, his life of luxurious dinners and fine bottles of wine will change forever. Read A Gentleman in Moscow.

Whether you’re feeling trapped inside or longing for deeper connections with others, these books will keep you at the edge of your seat. As you flip through the pages, you may even see a glimpse of yourself reflected in one of the characters.