How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Dr. Seuss): This one is for old time’s sake. We all know that sometimes we feel like children, or want to feel like children, and the best time to do this is when you are curled up in a blanket, drinking hot chocolate, next to a fireplace. This has the double effect of making us happy and giddy and begins preparing us for the winter holidays to come. Curl up with this book with your younger family members, and even the older ones. There is no better way to remember what was so great about being young and being with family than this book.
True Colors (Kristin Hannah): This is a book about family, although a slightly dysfunctional one. These three sisters go through ups and downs and sometimes they are there for each other, and sometimes they are not. But one thing is for certain, they always come back to each other. It will remind you how great family is and how even though we can’t pick our family, we would be nothing without them.
The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (Kim Edwards): This is my sad pick of the list, yet at the same time, it is my hopeful pick. A baby girl who gets abandoned for being born with Down Syndrome, she ends up being adopted by a woman who is actually willing to provide her with the love her real parents were unwilling to. It is a more serious book than the rest, but it is a great way to remember that there are good people in the world and that we all deserve the same opportunities regardless of where and how we were born.
The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger): We should all agree that the movie sucked. Sure Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams are great together, but the feeling that the book gives you was definitely not present in the movie. That is why this book is on the list, because it is a book about love and magic. It combines two of the greatest things in the world; it is a modern, adult, fairy tale. The girl who meets her prince charming long before he knows he will be her prince charming ends up being happy and heartbroken all at once. But as Alfred Lord Tennyson once said, “‘Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.”
Water For Elephants (Sara Gruen): This is my all time favorite book. I think it is a book that can be read during any holiday or season. It will take your mind away from all that is worrying you because it’s not a deep book, but at the same time you will enter this great world that was once reality. There is violence, love, booze and animals. Just as its setting, the circus, it too entertains and awes. I would recommend reading the book before watching the movie, but in case you have already done the latter, the book is much better, as is always the case when books get turned into movies.