The books to read instead of talking to your family this Christmas

Is family time getting a bit too much? Do you need a break from talking Brexit/your love life/your vegetarianism/the same family feud you always circle back to? Well we’ve got you covered with the best books to bury your head in when the festive period threatens to go sour. What day even is it anymore? That weird little interim between Boxing Day and New Year could be filled with some of this month’s best new reads – think Zadie Smith introducing a wisdom-filled look at Toni Morrison’s captivating body of work, a contemporary retelling of Little Women before you scope out Greta Gerwig’s big-screen reboot, and some gripping, dystopian climate change-fiction.

THE MEASURE OF OUR LIVES: A GATHERING OF WISDOM – TONI MORRISON 

With a forward by Zadie Smith, The Measure of our Lives is a stunning snapshot of the infinite terrains the late Toni Morrison created in her sprawling works. It’s one for serious fans to hold close, and for new readers to fruitfully explore. The elegant, wisdom-filled book collects quotes from across her oeuvre of essays, fiction, and non-fiction (from The Bluest Eye to Playing in the Dark) to provide an expansive view of Morrison’s world. Expect staggering ruminations on racial oppression and the broken and reformed American dream; insights into womanhood and or most visceral loves and losses; and beautifully crafted vignettes that expose emotions most cannot begin to articulate, much less like the mighty, mighty Morrison. (AC)

Out now, Penguin Randomhouse

THE DEAD GIRLS CLUB – DAMIEN ANGELICA WALTERS

Childhood friendship, trauma, and a disturbing incident that has to be kept a secret – Damien Angelica Walters’ unsettling supernatural thriller, The Dead Girls Club, has it all, and will definitely keep you up at night. The book follows the story of Heather Cole, 30 years after her friend Becca was murdered. Both girls were members of the Dead Girls Club, a secret society they formed with friends. Fascinated with gruesome and chilling stories, they met up to exchange terrifying tales, including about the infamous witch – the Red Lady. Three decades since Becca insisted she could prove that the Red Lady was real – the same night she died – Heather’s life is turned upside down, as the arrival of a necklace in the post confirms someone else knows her secret of what happened that night. (JC)

Out now, Crooked Lane Books

TO WHATEVER END – LINDSEY FRYDMAN

What would you do if you could see how every one of your relationships will end? (And no, that doesn’t just mean predicting that a fuckboy will ghost you). Quinn Easterly, who has to live with this curse, has a solution – she doesn’t date. This method proved effective, until she met Griffin – the boy she knows will die in her arms. Capturing the complexity of love, Lindsey Frydman’s novel, To Whatever End, will take you on a journey to a world where happiness is terminal but romance takes over all other priorities. (JC)

Out January 2, Entangled Publishing

AND THEN WE GREW UP: ON CREATIVITY, POTENTIAL, AND THE IMPERFECT ART OF ADULTHOOD – RACHEL FRIEDMAN

What makes a creative life? Rachel Friedman, who as a child was on track to be a pro violist, seeks to answer this. After quitting music in college, she kept dreaming about what that life path could have looked liked. Exploring creativity in a constricted economic and social climate that doesn’t always lend itself to facilitating our dreams, Friedman asks what makes an artist and what an artist makes. The New York writer tracks down friends from prestigious arts camp Interlochen to find out what the then-wannabe actors, musicians, artists, and dancers live like today, and how those creative dreams align with their adult identities. A nuanced, insightful gem of a book, it’s for anyone who has ever wondered ‘what if I stuck at my musical theatre group?’ or ‘where would I be if I sacked off that boyfriend for classical piano, instead of the other way round?’ It’s for anyone hovering in the in-between or unknown, and those who are still looking for what creatively fulfils them. (AC)

Out December 30, Penguin Randomhouse

SUPREME AMBITION: BRETT KAVANAUGH AND THE CONSERVATIVE TAKEOVER – RUTH MARCUS

Last October, the whole world was watching as Christine Blasey Ford gave a striking and courageous testimony accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. Now sworn in as a judge on the highest court in the US’ federal judiciary, it begs the question: how the fuck did we get here? In Supreme Ambitions: Brett Kavanaugh and the Conservtive Takeover, Washington Post journalist and legal expert Ruth Marcus answers this question, taking readers back 30 years to the beginning of the Republicans’ plot to takeover the Supreme Court. Long before Blasey Ford came forward with her allegation, Kavanaugh was maneuvering to become the nominee, convincing the Republican Party that he was too big to fail – even when he became the subject of an FBI investigation. Marcus’ compelling book gives readers an in depth insight into the inner workings of Washington. (JC)

Out now, Simon & Schuster

MCSWEENEY’S ISSUE 58: 2040 A.D.

The year is 2040 and the predictions from the IPCC’s report on global warming of 1.5 degrees celsius turn out to be true. The whole world is falling apart – how did we let this happen? The 58th edition of McSweeney’s Quarterly focuses on stories that develop in a world destroyed by climate change – so basically, our imminent reality. Each of the anthology’s ten stories take place in dystopian environmental conditions, and take you on an eye-opening tour around the earth to make you face the alarming truth. A perfect gift for any Tories in your family. (JC)

Out now, McSweeney’s

MEG AND JO – VIRGINIA KANTRA

Before you make it to see Greta Gerwig’s Saoirse Ronan-starring adaptation of the much-loved Little Women, get a read of Virginia Kantra’s own sweet, modern retelling of the Louisa May Alcott classic. Like several before it (2017’s Spring Girls is one), Meg and Jo brings the civil war set original forward in time, and we meet Jo – a struggling but sprightly young journalist in New York failing to get a novel off the ground, while moonlighting as a chef and dabbling in food blogging – and Meg – a homemaker in white picket fence suburbia with a seemingly neat life. Amy is interning for Louis Vuitton in Europe, while a not-dead Beth is studying music and battling stage fright, with the hopes of making it as a musician. The March clan is brought together again in their North Carolina hometown when their mother is hospitalised. It’s charming and infused with the evocative personal narrative arcs of the original, while offering cute new insights into a March cohort that’s amiable but more human and flawed. (AC)

Out now, Berkley

CHILDREN OF VIRTUE AND VENGEANCE – TOMI ADEYEMI

Tomi Adeyemi’s 2018 novel Children of Blood and Bone transcended the Young Adult fiction label, affecting people of all ages, earning awards recognition and the sale of the rights for a Hollywood adaptation in the process. With the second instalment of her Legacy of Orïsha trilogy, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, Adeyemi continues the story of Zélie and Amari, who discover that their action to return magic to their homeland has wider repercussions than they ever anticipated. Adeyemi once again draws on her favourite fantasy influences, as well as her Nigerian heritage, to unfurl this epic coming-of-age tale full of political and emotional struggle. (RH)

Out now, Pan Macmillan

A BOOKSHOP IN BERLIN – FRANÇOISE FRENKEL

Originally published in 1945, but rediscovered and subsequently republished in 2010, Françoise Frenkel’s memoir gives a stark account of a life spent in fear of the Nazis. It starts as the inspirational tale of Frenkel’s La Maison du Livre, Berlin’s first French bookshop, which opened in 1921 and attracted a plethora of interesting people including artists, diplomats, celebrities and poets. However, after the horrific events of Kristallnacht in 1938, where Nazis destroyed Jewish shops around the city, Frenkel fears for her life and goes on the run alone to Paris. Then, after the French capital is bombed, she spends her next years in the countryside, witnessing a series of horrors committed by the Nazis towards innocent French people - and it’s all recorded in this heartbreaking memoir. (RH)

Out now, Simon & Schuster

QUEER COSMOS: THE ASTOLOGY OF QUEER IDENTITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS – COLIN BEDELL

Are you an astrology freak, and are you tired of the pervasive heteronormative narrative ruining your horoscopes? Do you feel like your spiritual guidance is heavily impaired due to the gendered approach of many astrologists? Queer Cosmos is a must-have handbook for everything and anything future-facingly queer, wherever you fall on the spectrum. With insightful tips on relationships and a more conscious analysis of the notion of identity, Cosmopolitan’s astrologer Colin Bedell creates a book that provides efficient tools for a better understanding of oneself. (JC)

Out now, Cleis Press