Holidays are for family...and escaping your family with a book. Here are our picks for the holiday reads of the season...
Get all the holiday feels in your reads too. "One Day in December" by Josie Silver is about a woman who locks eyes with 'the one' on a bus. After searching for him, she finds him...on the arm of her best friend. Happily ever complicated.
You’re not the only ones. In “Family Trust" by Kathy Wang, the passing of the Huang's patriarch does more than reveal a few problems — it throws an entire family into chaos. Think: "The Family Stone" meets "Crazy Rich Asians" meets your lap in front of the fireplace.
Lighten up with "Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You" by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonny Sun. In it, Miranda curates his most-loved tweets slash poems. It’s the perfect book to thumb through after a rough day, or the perfect gift to give your passive-aggressive family member (passive-aggressively).
Hang with the Vanderbilts. “A Well-Behaved Woman” by Therese Anne Fowler takes place during the Gilded Age of America (hint: the late-19th century). It follows Alva Smith, whose BFF sets her up to marry William Vanderbilt. Spoiler: the Vanderbilts don't treat her well. This one's like Gossip Girl minus more than a century.
Give them big shoes to fill. "Juno Valentine" by Eva Chen (Instagram queen and mom) does just that. When Juno Valentine’s shoes go missing, she finds herself (literally) stepping into the shoes of strong role models. Think: Cleopatra, Lady Gaga, Frida Kahlo, Serena Williams and more.
Wrap it up with something short. The Best American Short Stories 2018 collection was edited by Roxane Gay. ICYMI: she’s the author of “Bad Feminist” and “Hunger”...and is a big deal.
Head to the mountains. “Killing Commendatore” by Haruki Murakami follows a painter who hides away in the mountain home of a famous artist after being abandoned by his wife. There, he finds a mysterious painting. Color us intrigued.
Try and solve this mystery.“The Lies We Told” by Camilla Way has the makings of your perfect weekend read. Think: an obsession, a dysfunctional family, and a disappearance, with an unreliable narrator to top it all off. Page, turned.
Ahh to AHHH. “Nine Perfect Strangers” by Liane Moriarty (you know her because of “Big Little Lies”) surrounds a group of people gathered at a luxurious health resort. Each guest is there to get clean, but they’ve all got dirty little secrets. And the ‘health’ resort turns out to be, well, not so healthy.
Get your game from Michelle Obama. The former First Lady’s memoir, “Becoming," takes readers from her upbringing on the South Side of Chicago, to her time in the White House. Consider your inspirational Instagram captions written.
Don’t sleep too deep. In “Daughters of the Lake” by Wendy Webb, dreams have the power to open the door between the dead and the living. The story follows a woman who discovers the body of a murdered woman and her infant baby in the shallows of the lake. The even creepier thing? She recognizes her...from her dreams.
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