Book Hangovers...like the ones from your 21st birthday.

Oh, man. Let's keep it real for just a second here. Most people I talk to have no idea how I can mope around like a hangdog after reading a book. I get this reaction from my family and friends, colleagues even, "you know it's not real, right? It's fiction." Of course I know it is just fiction, but my goodness, when it is done well, you feel like you lived in that moment. In that time. You were completely immersed, and now you cannot seem to get out of that fictional world, and live in reality. Sometimes I don't even want to emerge from the fiction, and back into reality. It was THAT good. Recently I asked some friends which book gave them the biggest book hangover. In other words, I wanted to know the book that they read that long after you closed the last page you could not forget about it. I'm in one right now, I can feel it, but more on this book later. (Tease)

So...drumroll....here are the top runners for book hangovers:

This book steamrolled the competition, and was a resounding winner for the biggest book hangover. It is the equivalent to your 21st birthday party or Bachelor Party hangover.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

"Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles--and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined."

A close runner-up for biggest book hangover goes to...

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

This is a book I have recommended more than any other book I have ever read. It's still in circulation somewhere out there!

"Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?"

The best thing about reading this now is that the sequel will be released September 29th! I cannot wait to hear the rest of the story. 

This post could potentially be a million miles long, but I kept it to two. For now.

Happy reading!