By African American Books Author Denise Turney

Good books make home the sweetest place. Let’s paint the scene. You’ve just knocked out a 10-hour workday, talk about feeling happy to be home. The first thing you do is kick your shoes off and head for the refrigerator, where you pour yourself a cold, inviting glass of apple juice.

When the Mood Shifts

But that’s not enough. Ten minutes don’t pass before you pull a new mystery thriller out of your den’s bookcase, and sit down with that delicious apple juice, cross your legs and start to read. Oh, the joys of a peaceful home.

Home really is where the heart is. It’s comforting, the spot where you lay your burdens down.

Convincing?

Here’s another way to look at it. Even considering how good it feels to be home after a trying day, let a rush freelance project, unexpected school exam, illness or home repair require you to stay home for two weeks, and the feel of home could change.

Likeable-Loveable Book Characters

Your once peaceful abode can suddenly feel like an island you can’t get off of. Know what time it is? It’s time for a good book.

Yes. To get a welcoming fresh start, explore the inner workings of good books. A taut, suspense novel like Spiral, The Firm, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo or Devil In A Blue Dress, can keep you so caught up wondering what’s coming next that hours may pass before you realize that you’re still sitting on the living room sofa. This is just one reason why books make the best gifts.

If yours is a particularly warm, passionate heart, try curling up in your cozy bed, soft pastel pillows pushed gently against your elbows and ribs. Let the hours pass gently as you get so acquainted with two main characters in a moving romance novel like The Wedding Date, Forget Me Not, The Notebook or Love Pour Over Me, that the characters feel like friends you never want to part with.

Good Books That Entertain – Change Your Life

Options are open. When it comes to good books, there’s a story in every genre, from the classics to new releases, some set in the yet-to-be-discovered future, to noble traditional fiction books. With good fiction, it’s easy to let the author steer you along a pathway that you’d never expected to be on. Read books written by a rare talent, and you might feel like your life has been changed for the better even before you turn the last page.

Thing is, it was a poetry book written by Chicago’s great Gwendolyn Brooks, that changed my life. I am fortunate to have been introduced to this thin book of poetry when I was 10 years old. It was a time of great change in my life. My sister found the book in our elementary school library. It’s still odd to me how my sister dropped the book on the bed that we shared then turned, raced back down the stairs and headed outside to play. She never read the book. Me. The book changed my life.

Time to Read a Good Book

It was the end of a routine, uneventful school day. At first, I didn’t want to read the book. Being in a funk, it took me a few minutes to give into my love of reading, a habit that brings endless reward. You got it. Soon, I had the book in my hands. It was then that I was pulled under Gwendolyn Brooks’ spell.

That book of poems changed my life. It really did. For the first time, book characters seemed alive. And the scenes that the characters were placed in felt real, reminding me of real-life settings my family, friends and I had found ourselves in.

While I read the book, everything seemed to have shifted. Really. If you’ve read a good book, you know the effect that a great story has on you. Admittedly, it’s hard to trade something else in for this rare experience.

Read good books and you could tap into inspiration to live your best life. Your confidence could lift, vision to solve a problem might surface and the gift of connecting with amazing, complicated characters could be yours.

So, if you’re stuck in the house, mentally nibbling on the edges of cabin fever, consider reaching for a good book. All you’ll have to do is turn the pages. A talented writer makes everything else so easy. At the end of the journey, you may be more than entertained. You may tap into courage, motivation, creativity and pleasure. In the most amazing, unexpected ways, you might be changed.