Our first recommendation this week comes from Union Grove Branch Manager Lisa Brooks:

The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
One of my favorite books is one I read a long time ago. For quite a while, I didn’t read a lot of books, and then one day I decided I needed more literary stimulation. So I looked for a good book and saw some great reviews online for a random title I had never heard of. It is called The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank. I read it and fell in love with it. The title is not literal. This book deals with familiar issues about coming of age as a woman in an increasingly complicated world. It is simultaneously thought-provoking and highly readable, with a lot of wit and sarcasm from the main character. I still pick it up every few years and reread it.

Senior Commercial Loan Specialist Priscilla Hartling offers another:

A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman by Joan Anderson
About 12 years ago, Oprah had the author on her show and talked about this book, which has become one of my favorites. I found it at the library and read it from cover to cover in a day! The author tells her own story, about how, now that her children are grown and her marriage “just there,” she no longer feels needed and realizes that all these years she has never put herself first. She decides to live by the sea, alone, for a year, at a beach house in Cape Cod. She discovers strengths she never knew she had (like fishing in the ocean with a net) and realizes that she still has value, especially to herself. I just liked the book because you felt like you were right in Cape Cod with her and it made me think about how I felt and where I wanted to be.

Amazon has reviews of both The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing and A Year by the Sea. And remember to share your favorite book by Feb. 28 for a chance to win $25 in gas!