Here in Norway we have officially been in quarantine for just over four weeks.  What that means for us is that we don’t congregate in groups of larger than five, most businesses are closed, we must stand 2 meters apart, a guard stands at the door of the wine shop to control how many people are inside, and we are encouraged to social distance indoors.

The Netflix binging has increased as well as delicious home cooked meals and wine consumption.

Much to my dismay, spending most of the day sometimes multiple days at a time indoors has not increased my reading consumption tenfold.  I’m averaging about one book per week because I need to know how Pretty Little Liars ends and I’m so close and everyone I live with has become addicted to the Monopoly Deal Card Game.  We play it every night after dinner! (It’s like Monopoly but you can play a game in 10-15 minutes) /  Learn more about it HERE

Since we have hit the four week mark, I thought it would be fun to start a reading list series showing you my reading material during quarantine.  Hopefully it will inspire you to start one of these books (and if you do, please talk to me so we can discuss!) or pick up one of the unread books on your shelf at home.

Below you’ll find a list including an inspirational memoir, a YA novel, a magical historical fiction, and a motivational self-help book. If any of these books interest you enough to buy, purchase through my links and I’ll receive a small commission from Amazon at no additional cost to you.  Happy social distancing!

My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem

Goodreads: Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and one of the most inspiring leaders in the world—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid account of how her early years led her to live an on-the-road kind of life, traveling, listening to people, learning, and creating change. She reveals the story of her own growth in tandem with the growth of an ongoing movement for equality.

Golden by Andrea Dickenherber

Goodreads: When she meets Rudy Golden, Jillian is a shy but sarcastic fourteen-year-old floundering in her wealthy St. Louis neighborhood. With parents more concerned about appearances than the emotional upbringing of their daughter, Jillian envelops herself in the warm and opulent life of the Golden family. Both girls enter high school with brave faces, but when they find themselves thrust into a pressurized world of fierce competition, high expectations and complicated relationships, Jillian uses their friendship to find her strength as an individual while Rudy begins to self-destruct. When their plans for college threaten to tear them apart, Jillian makes a decision that she’ll agonize over for the rest of her life.

Set within a world of privilege, Golden is a poignant story of friendship, regret and the lasting impact one person can have on another.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Goodreads: Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke’s magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England’s magical past and regained some of the powers of England’s magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington’s army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange’s heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

Goodreads: In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be “positive” all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. “F**k positivity,” Mark Manson says. “Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it.” In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected American society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—”not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault.” Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.