January is not an easy month. This is the first full week of January and for many the first full week of being back at work. There is no sign of holidays, days remain short and often grey, funds are low and we are left with only a few stray pine needles to remind us of those lazy days of Christmas.
Those New Years Eve process fuelled talk of goals and resolutions may already be forgotten. Chances are that enthusiasm for dry January, more exercise, less sugar, or what ever else has waned.
This is the time of year you need books to encourage and inspire, but not, and I stress NOT make you feel guilty. There are plenty of self help books to make you feel like that. There need is for books which will make you ready to take face January and the year ahead with verve and vigour. You need to find a confidence to make you really believe you can do anything.
If you need a January boost, then ‘The Crimson Petal and the Tide’ by Michel Faber is the book for you.
Don’t be put off by its size. I know its huge and heavy – 833 pages. But I promise you this is what you need. This story of Sugar, a young girl forced into prostitution by her mother at just 13. Life looks improbably bleak, but Sugar has ambition, she sets goals and she works towards them. She knows what she wants in life and how to get it.
This is also a wonderful journey through Victorian London. It will lead you down streets and alleys you never knew existed where you will become utterly lost. This is a perfect January book to lose yourself in. Long winter nights, with time on your hands, in the company of Sugar will help you shake off the old, embrace the new, and take action this winter.
Also
- Winnie-The-Pooh by AA Milne
The optimism, kindness and all round sunny nature of this honey loving bear is balm for any jaded January soul.