I find that the Christmas holiday period is one of the best times to get lots of reading in. Sometimes I can get through up to 3 or 4 standard-length novels! I think it’s because everyone I know is sort of busy catching up with their families, and stepping outside feels like it should remain uncharted due to the bitter weather, so my house appears as a snug, welcoming alternative. Reading, during this time, feels like a way to take care of myself amidst the chaos of buying presents, planning activities and helping out with Christmas dinner. So, reading presents itself as respite, entertainment, as retrospection over the year I’ve had, and the year I’m about to begin. This reading recommendation list features a wide range of genres dealing with all kinds of feelings, because I like to feel a wide range of emotions from the books I read.
A lot of these books can also be found for free, with easy access on the University of Liverpool’s Libby App.
10) Before the Coffee gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
A café in Tokyo allows its customers to travel back in time. A novel concept, this book follows 4 wholly human, heartwarming experiences. Extremely comforting and digestible.
9) The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A legendary film actress finally reflects on her notoriety. It’s amazing how entrancing this book is. If you have any interest in the dramatics of old Hollywood, tragic love and monumental friendship, then this is a must-read. You won’t even believe it’s fiction.
Available on Libby.
8) The Inseparables by Simone de Beauvoir
Andree and Sylvie are young girls and best friends. When Andree’s religious mother wants to send her off to England to cut her off from a lover, Andree has to choose between her freedom or resignation. Beauvoir’s novel explores the central existential tension that is existing for yourself rather than others.
Available on Libby.
7) Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh
A young, graceless woman finds herself working at a prison and going home to an alcoholic father. She is desperate to escape her lonely life when the opportunity arises. Set in a harsh 60s New England winter, the noir novel showcases an entirely disaffected atmosphere. Eileen appears as a character study of a gross, grimy and repressive womanhood. It’s shamelessly relatable and wonderfully straight to the point, as much of Moshfegh’s work is.
6) Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Two often estranged brothers navigate the loss of their father whilst engaging in parallel age-gap romantic relationships. Though this is perhaps the most ‘plot’ Sally Rooney has ever built a book around, what I love about her is her ability to do the most with what looks like relatively little. Her depiction of interpersonal relationships is always rich and entertaining, it’s not perfect or neat, and it always culminates in a mess. Intermezzo is both sad and hopeful.
Available on Libby.
5) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
For his recklessness of creation, a scientist is haunted by his monster. One of the first works of science fiction, Frankenstein, is interesting because the mythology of Frankenstein has become its own beast of a phenomenon that bears little resemblance to Mary Shelley’s text. So, despite being fully aware of the cultural reputation of Frankenstein, you may find yourself knowing nothing about the actual story. Do yourself a favour and fall in love with the grandiose, haunting tale of a man with a self-important ego undertaking a dangerous technological advancement.
Available on Libby.
4) Passing by Nella Larsen
Two African American women, once childhood friends, discover what it means to appear racially ambiguous in 1920s New York society. With an unprecedented dialogue on a distinctive black identity, desirability and motherhood, Passing offers an engrossing, tense narrative that only culminates fully in its very last pages. The novel has a somewhat difficult beginning of establishing these two women, but once it hits its stride, you’ll be gripped to the very end.
Available on Libby.
3) Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz
A TV actress details how she was indoctrinated into and subsequently escaped a Christian cult. When it comes to celebrity memoirs, it can be difficult to decipher if a celebrity’s story is genuinely interesting enough to warrant a book. That is undeniably not true in this case. Lenz intimately details the enthralling chapters of her life surrounding the cult. She is introspective, vulnerable and extremely emotionally intelligent. Like a character on TV, you root for her. She welcomes interesting, empathetic musings on religion, whether it can be quantified as an ultimate good or bad in society, and how easily one can use it to manipulate and abuse.
Available on Libby.
2) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The classic gothic thriller sees a young woman marry a wealthy, mysteriously widowed gentleman and immediately obsess over his first wife - Rebecca. Perhaps the wintriest novel to exist in my mind, thanks to centring a couple and taking place in the grand, excluded estate of Manderley. Rebecca is a testament to its genre. Both familiar and fresh, the story is suspenseful in an incredibly understated way. It’s so grounded in reality when it could easily pivot and go off the rails. No one is trying to kill each other. The tension comes in the secrets, in the disguised psychologies of the characters, in the unravelling of who Rebecca was.
Available on Libby.
1) Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Ephron’s semi-autobiographical novel of a writer discovering her husband’s affair. The success of Heartburn reveals the beauty of the mundane - a good writer is capable of transforming such. It’s both horrifying and cosy. As well as being a great read, when one reads this, one can contextualise Nora Ephron’s entire career in the film industry as both a screenwriter and director. She could make anything interesting; she could make anything funny, and she could make anything introspective. She was perfectly snarky in a way women aren’t really allowed to be. There was only narrative within her. Ephron exudes winter to me because she makes you warm inside. After you read Nora Ephron, the only subsequent step should be to watch one of her films. Go forth into Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, or When Harry Met Sally (her perfect collaboration with the great and very sadly recently deceased Rob Reiner).
Available on Libby.
I have managed to go through all of these pretty quickly, so for my holiday reading, I am planning to devour some Emily Henry romance books and some Nora Ephron non-fiction essays. Thanks for reading!