Books for Winter Bed Rotting

The Kamogawa Food Detectives series by Hisashi Kashiwai

The Kamogawa Food Detectives

What's the one dish you'd do anything to taste just one more time? Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by . . . The father-daughter duo are 'food detectives'. Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person's treasured memories - dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness.

The Restaurant of Lost Recipes
Moving and uplifting, The Restaurant of Lost Recipes features more heartwarming tales from Kyoto's Kamogawa Food Detectives as they recreate favourite dishes from their customers' pasts.

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

The remarkable next novel from Matt Haig, the author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Midnight Library, with more than nine million copies sold worldwide "What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don't understand yet..." When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend's life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.

The Maid series by Nita Prose

The Maid
Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and often misreads people’s intentions. But no matter—she still she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid at the five-star Regency Grand Hotel. But Molly’s orderly life is upended when she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find Mr. Black dead—very dead—in his bed. Perplexed by Molly’s unusual behavior, the police immediately suspect her of murder. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had join her in a search for clues about what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

The Mystery Guest
The esteemed Head Maid of the 5-star Regency Grand Hotel, Molly Gray matches wits with her old foe, Detective Stark, when a world-renowned mystery author drops dead at the hotel. To solve this case, which not only threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation but may be linked to her own past, Molly will need the help of all of her friends. 

The Mistletoe Mystery: A Maid Novella
Molly Gray has always loved the holidays. The first few Christmases without Gran were hard on Molly, but this year, her beloved boyfriend and fellow festive spirit, Juan Manuel, is intent on making the season Molly's most joyful yet. But when a Secret Santa gift exchange at the Regency Grand Hotel raises questions about who Molly can and cannot trust, she dives headfirst into solving her most consequential--and personal--mystery yet. A heartwarming, magical story about the true spirit of the season, The Mistletoe Mystery reminds us that love is the greatest mystery of all.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

In Japan, in an enchanting coffee shop run by talking cats, every person who visits there, including a down-on-her-luck screenwriter and a technologically challenged website designer, feels lost and these feline guides set them back on their fated paths, for there is a very special reason the shop appeared to each of them.

Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame by Olivia Ford

Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard's health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren--which Jenny never had--Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes. Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. With her baking star rising, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret--a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage. It's the only time in six decades that she's kept something from Bernard. By putting herself in the limelight, has Jenny created a recipe for disaster?

The Backyard Bird Chronicles: A Nature Journal by Amy Tan

Tracking the natural beauty that surrounds us, The Backyard Bird Chronicles maps the passage of time through daily entries, thoughtful questions, and beautiful original sketches. With boundless charm and wit, author Amy Tan charts her foray into birding and the natural wonders of the world.

In 2016, Amy Tan grew overwhelmed by the state of the world: Hatred and misinformation became a daily presence on social media, and the country felt more divisive than ever. In search of peace, Tan turned toward the natural world just beyond her window and, specifically, the birds visiting her yard. But what began as an attempt to find solace turned into something far greater--an opportunity to savor quiet moments during a volatile time, connect to nature in a meaningful way, and imagine the intricate lives of the birds she admired.

How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell

A galvanizing critique of the forces vying for our attention--and our personal information--that redefines what we think of as productivity, reconnects us with the environment, and reveals all that we've been too distracted to see about ourselves and our world Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious--and overdrawn--resource we have. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind's role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress. Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. 

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May

An intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down. Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered. A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May's story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing Arctic seas.

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García

According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai-a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the world's longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong sense of ikigai-the place where passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersect-means that each day is infused with meaning. It's the reason we get up in the morning. It's also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact there's no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at what they enjoy, because they've found a real purpose in life-the happiness of always being busy. In researching this book, the authors interviewed the residents of the Japanese village with the highest percentage of 100-year-olds-one of the world's Blue Zones. Ikigai reveals the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, and-their best-kept secret-how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesn't want to find happiness in every day?

Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson

Let's face it: Life is something we all make up as we go along. No matter how carefully we formulate a "script," it is bound to change when we interact with people with scripts of their own. Improv Wisdom shows how to apply the maxims of improvisational theater to real-life challenges--whether it's dealing with a demanding boss, a tired child, or one of life's never-ending surprises. Patricia Madson distills thirty years of experience into thirteen simple strategies, including "Say Yes," "Start Anywhere," "Face the Facts," and "Make Mistakes, Please," helping readers to loosen up, think on their feet, and take on everything life has to offer with skill, chutzpah, and a sense of humor.