Christmas means many things to different people. For some, it’s as every bit as postcard perfect as Hallmark romcoms: merry and bright, days full of lunches and dinners with our nearest and dearest. For others, it’s a little bit more lonely, with the absence of a family member due to this darn flu everyone seems to be getting, or geographic distance.

But there’s one thing all booklovers can agree on: the holidays mean a bit more time for reading, with that pesky work alarm clock on snooze (at least, until the next working day).

We asked some members of our book club what they would be reading over the holidays, and this is what they answered:

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This holiday break, I’ll be diving into Wes Anderson: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work by Ian Nathan. I’ve always enjoyed Wes Anderson’s idiosyncratic brand of warm and fuzzy, whether it’s in the form of gentlemanly hotel concierges or thieving foxes, so I’m hoping that reading about his backstory as well as filmography would make for a few cozy nights in. Besides, what is a yuletide season without a couple of charming and lovable misfits?

~ Jen

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Because ’tis the season… to be eating! Edible Economics seems to be a suitable appetizer for readers who do not want to bite off more than they can chew on a seemingly daunting topic. And because ’tis also the season when most of us have so much on our plates — figuratively and literally — these bite-size treats from author Ha-Joon Chang whet the appetite but keep it from being too overwhelmed. The book’s intent is simple: to make economics more palatable so the reader may “eat” economics better in the future. While we feed our souls with the company of those we love, and feed our bellies with the season’s treats, it’s never a bad idea to feed the mind with books. Bon appetit!

~ Miracle

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Book of the Christmas Past: Christmas 2002
I do not remember a lot of the details of the book, but I remember the excitement and joy reading Sophie’s World as a 16-year-old on her Christmas break. I remember staying up so late, around 2-3 AM, so enthralled of the parallel worlds of Sophie and Hilde. It’s the perfect book to introduce young ones to Philosophy. Whenever I read a new book, I still hope I would get that same fuzzy, enchanted feeling that I had from reading Sophie’s World for the first time, at 16. I had the same feeling while reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, A Tale For the Time Being and Small Things Like These.

Christmas 2022: Alone with You in the Ether was a unique romance book that I enjoyed reading very much in the middle of the holiday madness of 2022. Another author, Elif Shafak, has become my go-to author for beautifully weaving complexities of humanity, history and heart. I remember reading The Island of Missing Trees and feeling a certain heartache — for the love, for resilience, for the pains of civil wars, and for the things that are essential and what endures in all the wars waged. What a holiday read.

Christmas 2024: I will try to finally read the books on my book pile. I promise I will not get new books until I finish some of them: There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak, and Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

~ Paula

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I chose The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello (translated from the Italian by William Weaver) because it’s one of the few books by an Italian author that’s translated in English that I could find while vacationing here in Rome. The premise is also quite interesting: the eponymous character discovers that he was mistakenly declared dead, so he decided to start over with a new identity to escape his unfulfilled life. But then he discovers he pretty much has the same issues even in his new life. Maybe I find some parallelism between his situation and my desire for traveling. Sometimes we need to leave our everyday life to appreciate what we truly have.

~ Christian

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Making time this Christmas break to read Danzy Senna’s Colored Television. Looking forward to the dark humor in this story of a creative who found herself in the midst of Hollywood where commodifying racial stories is a norm. Plus the reading community is praising Percival Everett’s James as one of the best books of the year, why not read this book written by his spouse? What a literary power couple! I could only imagine the conversations in their house.

~ Judie

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May your holiday be as bookish and blessed as ours, as we turn the last few pages of 2024 to usher in the New Year!