60+ Books To Read While In Quarantine

Hello world! How are you all surviving the Great COVID Quarantine of 2020? Or should I ask, are you surviving??

I’ve gotta admit, this first week has been a real rollercoaster for me. At first, we were told “no school” and to keep our social distance for 3 weeks, which I was confident we could handle. Life has been so hectic and busy that I almost welcomed a little relief. No big deal.

But as you all know, everything is changing daily. We went from 3 weeks to 6 and now we aren’t even sure if the kids will be going back to school. Here in California we have “stay at home” orders, so we can basically only leave the house for groceries and other essentials. I almost feel like I’m living in a post-apocalyptic world; except we have TV and computers and social media, so it’s not that bad.

Except that I thrive on structure and routine. I tried to implement structure our first day home (I’ll share that story in another post, lol). Let’s just say it didn’t go over very well and by Wednesday I was feeling completely overwhelmed and spent the day on the couch reading and watching TV…and maybe crying a little. I know our ancestors have been through much harder things and I shouldn’t be such a cry baby about it. I’ve always been a worrier and I worry about what happens with the kid’s education (particularly my high-schooler). I worry about events that I have planned (my dad’s 60th birthday, my non-profit’s yearly gala, our family vacation). The worry turns into depression which turns into a lack of motivation which affects all of the goals I’m trying to accomplish with sewing endeavors.

In the end, I have no control over any of it, so there’s no point in worrying myself into depression. It will all work itself out. And in the meantime, I’m just going to take it a day at a time and focus on the things that matter the most, starting with  my family. The good news is, I’m feeling better today. I still expect that the weeks to come will be a continual rollercoaster, but hey- we are all on this wild ride together!! Now that I’ve taken a week to process, I’m hoping to gain some momentum back and find joy in the journey.

On the bright side, being home leaves more time for things that we love but rarely have time to do. For me, that is reading! Luckily, I’m a big of a book hoarder. When I was picking my daughter up from school downtown, I would often arrive early and go to the library. They have a used book section and I was frequently picking up books for a dollar, sometimes even 10 or 50 cents a piece! I was buying books faster than I was able to read them so consequently, I have a library of books waiting for me to read. This is the perfect opportunity to sit back and snuggle up with a good book…especially with all of this rainy weather we’ve been having! I thought I would share some of my favorite books with you today, in case you are looking for ways to fill your time and need some recommendations! I have linked my favorites below.

And also, I want to know how you are spending your time during this “lockdown”. Do you have projects you are catching up on? Good shows that you are binge watching? Good books to add to my list? Let me know in the comments!

Here are some of my faves. I sorted them into categories for you. Some have audible options as well as hard/paperback copies. Click on the link for descriptions!

Historical Fiction Faves:

• The Alice Network
• The Nightingale
• The Four Winds
• Orphan Train
• The Invention of Wings
• These is My Words (the first in a series of 3 books)
• The Lake House
• The Forgotten Garden
• The Secret Keeper
• Hotel on The Corner of Bitter and Sweet
• The Distant Hours
• Water For Elephants
• The Help
• America’s First Daughter

Memoirs/Non-Fiction

• Where The Light Gets In
• Heaven Is Here
• Unbroken
• An Unseen Angel

Suspense/Thriller

• All The Missing Girls
• Woman In Cabin 10
• In a Dark, Dark Wood
• Then She Was Gone
• The Pilot’s Wife
• The Pact
• My Sister’s Keeper
• Nineteen Minutes
• Intensity
• Taken
• I Found You

Fiction

• Still Alice
• Every Summer After
• Here’s To Us
• The Weekenders
• The Last Summer Of You And Me
• The Wednesday Letters

Young Adult Fiction

• Autumn In The City Of Angels (perfect read for right now!)
• Pirates
• Witch Child
• Sisterhood of Traveling Pants series
• Fever 1793

My teenage daughter is a bookworm; she has read dozens and dozens of books over the past year, but these are her favorites: 

• The Rest Of The Story
• The Year They Fell
• Words On Bathroom Walls
• Girl In Pieces
• To All The Boys I Loved Before (series)
• Just Listen
• The Beginning Of Everything
• The Sun Is Also A Star
• Along For The Ride
• One Of Us Is Lying
• One For Sorrow
• Dear Evan Hansen
• Beautiful Creatures

Books My Boys Have Enjoyed (Elementary and Middle-School Aged):

• Divergent (series)
• The Maze Runner (series; these are my 6th grader’s favorite books!!)
• Diary Of A Wimpy Kid  (series)
• There’s A Boy In The Girl’s Bathroom
• Holes
• My Big, Fat Zombie Goldfish
• Wayside School Collection
• Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
• Middle School, The Worst Years Of My Life
• Wonder
• Number The Stars
• In A Dark, Dark Room
• Goosebumps Slappy World Book Set

And a couple of my favorite books as a kid. They still hold up today; I’ve read them out loud with my kids 🙂

• Wait ‘Til Helen Comes
• The Doll In The Garden
• The Dollhouse Murders
• To Kill A Mockingbird
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond

*Sassy Cassy’s is part of the Amazon Affiliate Program, which means that if you purchase Amazon items from this website, a small commission will be earned, at no extra cost to you.