Since moving to a fully-remote workforce, the Call Experts Spirit Committee has been doing an outstanding job programming fun and engaging virtual events for our entire team. We are offering the opportunity for every team member to share their experiences working from home. We encourage team spirit with days dedicated to Team Colors, Holidays, Sports, Theme Days, and more!

Even though we are all remote at this time, it gives our team a chance to bond and continues camaraderie. In this blog post, we’re going to review our Expert’s summer reading list 2020.  

To learn more about our team events and participate remotely, visit the Call Experts Facebook page.

Here are a few of the book recommendations curated by our Experts.

  1. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
    summer reading list 2020

    A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves next door. Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

    Behind the cranky exterior, there is a story and a sadness. One November morning, a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door. As they’re moving in, they accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox! This accident is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of this will change one cranky old man and a resident’s association to their very foundations.

  2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
    summer reading list 2020

    A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

    In the year 2045, the reality is an ugly place. Wade Watts feels alive when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

    When the OASIS’s eccentric creator dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself.

    Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win.

  3. Becoming by Michelle Obama
    summer reading list 2020

    In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history. She also established herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world.

    Michelle Obama dramatically changed the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives. Standing with her husband, he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare.

    In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world. She chronicles the experiences that have shaped her. From her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood. And, to her work and time spent at the world’s most famous address.

    With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments. Both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory. Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations. And, whose story inspires us to do the same.

  4. All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
    summer reading list 2020

    As the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her parents. It’s safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy, is the only responsible adult around.

    Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house. Until, one night, her stargazing causes an accident.

    After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father’s thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold. By the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery.

    When tragedy rips Wavy’s family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in. And, what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world. Kellen may not be innocent, but he is the fixed point in Wavy and Donal’s chaotic universe.

    Instead of playing it safe, Wavy has to learn to fight for Kellen, her brother, and herself.

  5. The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
    summer reading list 2020

    Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers are a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms.

    “This is the recipe of life said my mother as she held me in her arms as I wept think of those flowers you plant in the garden each year they will teach you that people too must wilt fall root rise in order to bloom.”

  6. The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
    summer reading list 2020

    Rock star, crowdfunding pioneer, and TED speaker Amanda Palmer knows all about asking. Performing as a living statue in a wedding dress, she wordlessly asked thousands of passersby for their dollars. When she became a singer, songwriter, and musician, she was not afraid to ask her audience to support her as she surfed the crowd (and slept on their couches while touring). And when she left her record label to strike out on her own, she asked her fans to support her in making an album, leading to the world’s most successful music Kickstarter.

    Even while Amanda is both celebrated and attacked for her fearlessness in asking for help, she finds that there are important things she cannot ask for-as a musician, as a friend, and as a wife.

    She learns that she isn’t alone in this, that so many people are afraid to ask for help, and it paralyzes their lives and relationships. In this groundbreaking book, she explores these barriers in her own life and the lives of those around her. She discovers the emotional, philosophical, and practical aspects of The Art of Asking.

    Part manifesto, part revelation, this is the story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the twenty-first century, both on and off the Internet. The Art of Asking will inspire readers to rethink their ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.

summary

We hope that you enjoy and find a good book from our 2020 summer reading list!

 

Are you working from home with kids? Here are some fun, creative activities to help engage the little ones.