The holiday season is coming up and whether you need ideas for gift-giving or for your wishlist these books have you covered. No matter what genre you like there is a recommendation for everyone here, chosen from my favorites.
Realistic fiction
I read the novel We Run The Tides by Vendela Vida over the summer and absolutely loved it. Realistic fiction is by far my favorite genre an I have many recommendations but this story was one I don’t hear many people talk about. This novel takes place in San Francisco in the 1980s and follows eighth grader Eulabee as she navigates friendships and a local scandal that turns into a larger mystery. This book transports you to the coast of California and I could not put it down once I started it.
Romance
Funny You Should Ask was written by Elissa Sussman and published earlier this year. This novel follows a struggling journalist, Chani Horowitz, who has been asked to interview a famous actor for the second time in her career. This story is told from two different timelines yet, I found it incredibly easy to follow and it made me love the dynamic between the two main characters even more.
Fantasy
The Night Circus was written by Erin Morgenstern and I read it for the first time over the summer. I picked it up from the library after not having anything else to read but ended up really liking this story. This is a descriptive and immersive story that follows a magical circus that travels across the world. This novel is told from a couple of different points of view and different time periods but all of these different parts come together at the end.
memoir
While I am not always the biggest fan of memoirs, Educated is one of the best I’ve read. It was released in 2018 and tells the story of the author’s life, Tara Westover. In her memoir, Westover enlightens the reader on what it was like being raised in an extremist Mormon family and how education helped her to escape. As someone who was unable to get an education outside her own home for 17 years, Westover shows the struggles she faced having to become her own person, separate from her family.
Historical Fiction
A genre I found myself liking a lot, surprisingly, was historical fiction. Most of my favorites from this genre are written by Kristen Hannah, but my favorite of hers is The Four Winds. Publishing in 2021 this book follows the life of a mother and her three children as they struggle to make ends meet during the Great Depression. While reading this I found myself learning a lot about the realities of what families were facing during this time period without it feeling like a textbook, which I loved.
Classic
My favorite classic by far is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. I know classics aren’t always a fan favorite necessarily, but I loved this book. After watching the movie more times than I could count I decided to read the book for the first time a year ago and loved it. If you haven’t heard of this story, it follows four sisters as they grow up in Massachusetts during the 1860s. This is a heartwarming story that I loved reading during the holiday season.
Whether you decide to branch out to other genres this season or stick with what you know and love I hope you learned about some new stories to add to your wishlist or gift to others. Happy holidays and happy reading!
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