Adult fiction winter reading

Here are some ideas for your winter holiday reading.  And there is nothing better than some good fiction on a winter holiday.

The Proper Care and Maintenance of Friendship by Lisa Verge Higgins is an easy read.  It tells the story of three friends who are grieving the recent loss of a fourth friend to cancer.  Their girlfriend leaves each of them an instruction that she wants them to follow after she dies.  For each of the three women they are confronting and life changing instructions.  It's not rocket science this book, with the three main characters being fairly predictable types. Kate is a housewife with three kids and shaky marriage.  Jo is the hard nosed business woman.  And Sarah is the humanitarian who works  as a nurse in war zones while stuck in the memories of an old romance.  But I still enjoyed it.  Good holiday read - not too (at all?) deep.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson tells the story of retired Major Pettigrew as he lives life in a small English village.  It opens with the Major adjusting to the shock of the death of his younger brother Bernie and then follows the family wrangling over a set of guns (worth much money) that he and his brother were given by their father.  Major Pettigrew also develops a friendship with Mrs Ali, the local shopkeeper, which develops into a lovely romance.  I liked this book - again, another easy read, but pleasant.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is not a new book, but it has recently been made into a movie starring Edward sorry, Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon.  I didn't LOVE this book but it's an ok read.  The story keeps you going and I wanted to find out what happened to the characters at the end of the book.  It's basically a book about a vet who runs away to the circus with a complicated, angsty romance.  Can't say you weren't warned!

Mr Rosenblum's List by Natasha Solomons is in a similar ilk to Major Pettigrew.  Jack Rosenblum moves to England just before the start of WW2.  He becomes a successful businessman but the whole time wants to desperately fit in as a proper Englishman.  He drags his wife Sadie to an English village where he attempts to build a golf course.  The golf course is key to his perception of being a proper Englishman but he cannot gain membership into any golf clubs.  So he decides to build his own.  His wife Sadie is a deeply sad woman, struggling with her own losses and sadnesses throughout the story. I really enjoyed this book.  Not hard to read but just a lovely story - heartwarming is probably what you'd say!