PRSSA WooPee! Reading List discussion

December is here, and it's the perfect time to curl up with a great book! 📚❄️ Whether it's a cozy holiday story, an inspiring novel, or a page-turning mystery, let’s inspire each other to read more this winter!

Comment a review of your FAVORITE thing you read this month to share your love of reading and inspire others pick up YOUR book from a local library! 🧠⭐️

Reviews with the highest engagement have the chance for their book to become one of the Winona community’s “Top 3 – 5 Reads of the Month” for January! 🎊 📚

Don't forget to check out December's Top 3 Reads of the month! You even have the chance to check them out from the Winona Public Library and the WSU Darrell Krueger Library to get in on the reading action!

If you’re unsure what to include in your submission, please see the “Guidelines for Sharing Reads” post under the “General Information” discussions folder.

The Great Gatsby

With my time off with the holidays (woohoo!!), I finally got the chance to sit down with this classic called The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I give it a 4/5 stars!

If you're unfamiliar it follows a group of rich friends and partners living in their lavish houses in a 1920s New York. With this setting, the book is able to explore interesting themes about the American Dream paired with characters still feeling unsatisfied with their lives despite having the ability to buy anything they want. This is shown the most with Gatsby, who is the newest rich guy on the block (or island actually) who throws incredibility extravagant parties in his luxurious mansion yet he truly only yearns to be with his lost love Daisy.

These themes are explored with beautiful metaphors used by the author to show us character's underlying feelings because the narration by outsider Nick Carraway can only give us so much to work with. All in all, this was a VERY solid read that I'm glad I finally had the chance to go through. If you're looking for a book that mixes glamour and darker themes, I recommend it, it's obviously an American classic for a reason!

The Secret History

Alright everyone if I had to recommend only ONE book for everyone to read in 2025, it would have to be The Secret History by Donna Tartt!!! It is totally 5/5 five stars for sure!! This book is hilariously witty, charming, and even morally gray which keeps us all on our toes!! Even though all of the characters are basically morally reprehensible and incredibly pretentious, I still found myself fascinated by their antics and downright arrogance toward one another based on their overwhelmingly intellectual personalities.

I don't really wanna give away any spoilers or anything, but I love how this book explores different personalities and how various characters deal with consequences for their actions while trying to cover up secrets. Donna Tart is seriously just a genius author with such a way with words that I had to recommend that everyone read this book. I haven't read anything like it, and I'd even go so far as to say that it is a downright modern classic. Thanks for reading everyone! Happy New Year 🎉

H.L.A wrote: "The Great Gatsby

With my time off with the holidays (woohoo!!), I finally got the chance to sit down with this classic called The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I give it ..."

Hey! I've read Gatsby before and totally agree with you about the captivating themes and metaphors that F. Scott Fitzgerald uses to delve into the American Dream during the 20's. If you're looking for something that's more of a modern classic, I left my review for The Secret History by Donna Tartt down below!! Definitely worth looking into! Thanks, awesome review! 👋

The Sun and Her Flowers

Hope everyone had a great December and end of 2024!!! One book I read this month and recommend is A Sun and Her Flowers by rupi kaur and I'd give it a 4/5 stars. This book is actually a poetry book that I think takes a really approachable move toward poetry which can usually seem pretty daunting to get into for someone not very well versed in it. Some of the subjects I really loved that this book went into were about love and womanhood and I like rupi kaur wrote beautifully about this subjects yet in a very simple way. I also really enjoyed the simple yet powerful illustrations that rupi kaur included alongside her poems.