Review and Giveaway: The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin

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What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "The Novel Cure is a reminder of that power. To create this apothecary, the authors have trawled two thousand years of literature for novels that effectively promote happiness, health, and sanity, written by brilliant minds who knew what it meant to be human and wrote their life lessons into their fiction. Structured like a reference book, readers simply look up their ailment, be it agoraphobia, boredom, or a midlife crisis, and are given a novel to read as the antidote. Bibliotherapy does not discriminate between pains of the body and pains of the head (or heart). Aware that you’ve been cowardly? Pick up To Kill a Mockingbird for an injection of courage. Experiencing a sudden, acute fear of death? Read One Hundred Years of Solitude for some perspective on the larger cycle of life. Nervous about throwing a dinner party? Ali Smith’s There but for The will convince you that yours could never go that wrong. Whatever your condition, the prescription is simple: a novel (or two), to be read at regular intervals and in nice long chunks until you finish. Some treatments will lead to a complete cure. Others will offer solace, showing that you’re not the first to experience these emotions. The Novel Cure is also peppered with useful lists and sidebars recommending the best novels to read when you’re stuck in traffic or can’t fall asleep, the most important novels to read during every decade of life, and many more."

My Two Cents:

Book lovers know that reading can cure all sorts of ills so the message of "The Novel Cure" will come as no surprise. I love the idea of books as medicine. I know that nothing makes me feel better than when I find the perfect book for whatever I am going through. This book is based on the theory of bibliotherapy, something that I did not know much about before reading this book!

This book gives reading advice for all sorts of ailments, both physical and non-physical. There are suggestions for just about everything. Feeling blue? This book has plenty of suggestions. Feeling broken? This book has suggestions for that too. I think it would be a lot of fun to read a lot of the books listed throughout this book. I could see it being a really fun reading project! Hrm, I have all sorts of ideas now!

I could see this being a really good gift book for the reader in your life. I know that this book is one that I will be going back to over and over again. I loved the suggestions that this book had as well as the reasoning that was included for each reading selection!

 Giveaway:

One lucky winner will win a copy of The Novel Cure (U.S. only). We're going to do something a little different for this giveaway.

1. Choose an ailment.
2. Choose a book that you believe would help with said ailment.
3. Put it in the comments

 Example: For the lovelorn, I choose Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife.

On January 14th, I will choose a winner using Random.org. You can enter as many times as you want (Just put each entry in a separate comment so it can be counted).