Missoni’s Reading List
Posted 11.05.2020
Spending a lot of time at home this year? You’re not alone. Make the most of it by getting lost in a great book, whether it’s a recent best-seller or that novel you’ve been meaning to start. Residents of the Edgewater condos at Missoni Baia can take their reading poolside to soak up the glorious Miami sunshine, or simply curl up in their living room with Biscayne Bay as the backdrop. If you want some recommendations for your next great read, here are some of our favorites.
Tara Westover’s gripping memoir, “Educated,” has been gracing best-seller lists for quite a while, not to mention the reading lists of Barack Obama and Bill Gates — and for good reason. A National Book Critics Circle Award winner, “Educated” follows Westover from her isolated upbringing in rural Idaho to the upper echelons of academia at Cambridge and Harvard Universities. As she grapples with her abusive family and her father, who denies her access to formal education and health care, Westover maps the future she envisions for herself and comes to accept the distance it creates from the Buck’s Peak mountain of her childhood.
Another of our favorites is Jeannette Walls’ 2005 memoir, “The Glass Castle” — a longtime New York Times best-seller and the subject of a 2017 feature film. In the book, Walls masterfully traces her dysfunctional and peripatetic childhood in Nevada, Arizona, and West Virginia. Walls’ childhood is pierced by turbulent interactions with relatives, episodes of sexual abuse, and the dominating presence of her father, Rex, who pursues his quixotic dream of building a glass castle at the expense of his family’s basic needs. Despite the tragedies woven throughout her childhood and early adulthood, Walls’ memoir isn’t overly sentimental, but, instead, is filled with vignettes of subtle joy and a sense of adventure.
Georgia Hunter’s debut novel, “We Were the Lucky Ones,” fictionalizes the stories of various members of her family during the Holocaust — and offers a redemptive message of the Kurc family’s superhuman will to survive. The tale revolves around three generations of the family, and begins with the shadow of impending disaster creeping over this middle-class Jewish family’s day-to-day life in Radom, Poland. Hunter skillfully weaves well-researched historical details of the horrors that faced her family into the heart-pounding plotting of a Hollywood thriller. The result is an utterly engrossing read, with unbelievable feats of will made believable by Hunter’s fidelity to history.
Each of these books will likely linger in your thoughts well after you turn the final page. But you can keep the discussion going by coming together with friends and neighbors at Missoni Baia, or by engaging virtually with bibliophiles from around the world. Virtual book clubs have become a welcome trend in 2020, which has made finding new title recommendations, tackling a daunting epic like Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” or simply connecting with other avid readers all the more convenient. The popular Quarantine Book Club hosts meetings via Zoom, while other clubs have tackled single texts like Albert Camus’ “The Plague.” Literary Hub offers virtual programming of its usual roster of events, from readings to Q&A sessions with authors. You can find an extensive list of clubs here for added inspiration.
Whichever absorbing tale you decide to pick up next, we recommend you settle in with your book in the comfort of home. Missoni Baia is currently offering in-person and virtual presentations, reach out to our sales team today to schedule an appointment and start your life on the shores of Edgewater today!
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