As the holiday season ushers in a welcome pause from packed schedules and daily demands, it also creates the perfect opportunity to slow down with a good book. Whether you’re traveling, staying close to home, or simply enjoying a quiet moment between celebrations, holiday break is prime time for reading. From gripping mysteries and thoughtful novels to inspiring nonfiction and comforting cookbooks, these picks are ideal companions for winter downtime. Consider this curated list your go-to guide for page-turners that entertain, inform, and help you fully settle into the spirit of the season.
Big Tech, Black Love, and AI Ambition Collide in C. J. Farley’s ‘Who Knows You by Heart’
C.J. Farley’s Who Knows You by Heart is a sharp, genre-blending novel that mixes social thriller, modern love story, and cultural critique. Set in Manhattan’s tech ecosystem, the story follows Octavia Crenshaw, a Jamaican-American coder drawn from nonprofit work into the seductive world of Big Tech. At Eustachian Inc., Octavia confronts wealth, power, and isolation as one of the company’s few Black employees. When she joins a secret AI project designed to eliminate bias, romance and danger collide. Farley delivers a timely, provocative exploration of race, technology, and what it truly means to be seen.
Keith McNally Serves Up Candor in I Regret Almost Everything
Keith McNally, the legendary restaurateur behind New York City institutions like Balthazar, Pastis, and Minetta Tavern, delivers a candid and witty memoir with I Regret Almost Everything. From his gritty London childhood to his arrival in New York, McNally recounts the highs and lows of building iconic eateries that shaped the city’s dining scene. The book explores his early life as a child actor, turbulent relationships, a life-changing stroke, and unexpected social media fame. Part entertaining, part reflective, the memoir captures McNally’s irreverent voice and offers a behind-the-scenes look at a life devoted to food, culture, and personal survival.
‘Daring to Be Free’ Reclaims the History of Enslaved Resistance Across the Atlantic World
In Daring to Be Free, historian Sudhir Hazareesingh delivers a powerful reexamination of slavery’s end by centering the resistance and self-emancipation of the enslaved themselves. Spanning the Atlantic world, the book traces revolts, conspiracies, maroon communities, and spiritual movements from West Africa and the Caribbean to the American South. Through figures like Tomba, Solitude, and Frederick Douglass, Hazareesingh shows freedom was seized through collective action, courage, and cultural strength. Drawing on archives and oral history, the book challenges traditional narratives and restores abolition to those who fought for it.
‘Mid-Air’ Soars With Heart: A Verse Novel About Grief, Guilt, and Growing Up
Mid-Air by Alicia D. Williams, illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff, is a powerful middle grade novel in verse that captures the fragile space between childhood and adolescence. Longlisted for the National Book Award, the book follows Isaiah, an eighth grader grappling with the sudden death of his best friend after a hit-and-run accident. As friendships fracture and guilt weighs heavily, Isaiah struggles to survive in a world that demands toughness over tenderness. Through lyrical verse and striking illustrations, Mid-Air explores masculinity, vulnerability, and healing, offering young readers an honest, deeply emotional story about loss, identity, and finding the courage to remain yourself.
‘Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker’ Shines in Harlem Renaissance Biography
Joy Goddess: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance by A’Lelia Bundles (June 10, 2025) offers a vivid, deeply researched portrait of A’Lelia Walker, daughter of Madam C.J. Walker and a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Dubbed the “joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s” by Langston Hughes, A’Lelia was a dazzling cultural icon whose legendary parties and Dark Tower salon shaped the era’s artistic scene. Bundles, her great-granddaughter, draws on personal correspondence to explore A’Lelia’s life as a businesswoman, mother, and patron of the arts, hosting luminaries like Zora Neale Hurston and W.E.B. Du Bois. This biography illuminates her radiant personality, influence, and legacy.
‘Girls Play Dead’: Jen Percy Unpacks Women’s Survival and Trauma in Groundbreaking New Memoir
In Girls Play Dead: Acts of Self-Preservation, award-winning journalist Jen Percy explores the misunderstood ways women respond to sexual violence. Drawing from personal experience, original reporting, and multi-generational stories, Percy examines behaviors often misread as passivity or deviance, framing them as acts of survival. The memoir tackles taboo subjects with empathy and nuance, from female rage to bodily responses to assault. Starred by Publishers Weekly and praised by New York Times author Rachel Aviv, Percy delivers a fearless, lyrical account that challenges societal narratives around trauma, credibility, and empowerment, creating a vital record of resilience.
‘Happiness and Love’ Skewers New York’s Cultural Elite in Zoe Dubno’s Acid-Sharp Debut
Zoe Dubno’s Happiness and Love follows a disillusioned young woman through one excruciating downtown Manhattan dinner party that exposes the rot beneath creative prestige. Returning to New York after years away, the narrator finds herself trapped in the loft of former friends—an artist-curator couple who embody everything she despises. As guests sip natural wine and await a newly famous actress, the evening devolves into a ruthless social autopsy of materialism, ambition, and moral emptiness. Named one of Vogue’s Best Books of 2025, the novel delivers a biting portrait of hollow success and self-deception.
‘The Book of Lost Hours’ Weaves Time, Memory, and Resistance Into a Spellbinding Novel
Hayley Gelfuso’s The Book of Lost Hours is a sweeping, imaginative novel that blends history, espionage, and speculative fiction. A Good Morning America Book Club pick, the story follows two young women across postwar and Cold War America, connected by a mysterious time space library that stores human memory. From Lisavet Levy, trapped in the library in 1938, to Amelia Duquesne’s search for truth decades later, the novel explores who controls history and why it matters. Lyrical and emotionally rich, the book examines love, sacrifice, and the power of remembering in a world determined to erase the past.
The Killer Question: A Novel
Janice Hallett returns with The Killer Question, an inventive crime novel set around a seemingly harmless weekly trivia night at a struggling rural pub. Run by Sue and Mal Eastwood, The Case Is Altered becomes the center of suspicion after a body is found in a nearby river and an unbeatable new trivia team arrives, raising eyebrows among regulars. Told through quiz questions, emails, and messages, the mystery slowly unravels hidden motives and long-buried secrets. Five years later, a derelict pub and a nephew’s documentary frame the aftermath, asking whether one question truly changed everything.
Lidia’s The Art of Pasta: An Italian Cookbook
Lidia Matticchio Bastianich brings her decades of culinary expertise together in Lidia’s The Art of Pasta, a definitive guide to Italy’s most iconic dish, arriving October 14, 2025. Co-authored with Tanya Bastianich-Manuali, the cookbook features more than 100 authentic recipes spanning regional Italian classics and Italian American favorites. From ricotta gnocchi and bucatini all’amatriciana to spaghetti and meatballs and fettuccine Alfredo, the book blends tradition with accessibility. With clear techniques and flavor-forward dishes, it’s designed to be an essential resource for home cooks of all levels.