BookLife Reviews: Fiction Books to Gift this Holiday Season
Fiction book selections to consider as gifts for the booklovers in your life this holiday season.
BookLife Recommendations by Carol O’Day: Fiction Books to Gift for the Holidays
As you approach the holidays, BookLife offers recommendations for holiday gifting for a wide range of readers on your gift list. Whether you are looking for a classic, a can’t-put-it-down thriller, a chunky vacation read, or a critically acclaimed book, there are options for you here. Each selection was previously reviewd on BookLife: Reviews for Readers. The full review for each can be found by searching the BookLife Archive where you will find a link to the BookLife Bookshop. The next installment of BookLife: Reviews for Readers will feature non-fiction selections.
Historical Fiction/Literary Fiction
2024 Booker Prize Winner, a lush twenty-four hour, sixteen orbits around the sun on an international space station for six astronauts from five countries who witness the splendor of earth and space and reflect on climate destruction and world peace.
2024 Booker Prize shortlist, a genius reimagining of the story of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of Big Jim, here known as James and understood to be an educated, literate, proud and kind man of deep integrity.
Latest work by renowned Irish author Sally Rooney, is a tale of two brothers grieving the loss of their father and navigating their unusual love lives. Ivan is a chess genius and falls in love with an older woman. Peter cannot chose between his past love who suffered a life-altering injury and a new love who defies norms and customs.
Pulitzer prize-winning author Jayne Anne Phillips tells the tale of a mother and daughter who take up residence in what was a real-life institution, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, in the grim and difficult period at the close of the Civil War. There they stumble upon a night watchman who suffered a war brain injury and memory loss. The man is their lost husband-father.
An epic historical novel set in Florence, Italy and London, England in the aftermath of World War II and spanning the flooding of the River Arno. Stuffed with memorable characters that form a found family, a doomed love, and residue of the war.
For the lover of mythology and classics, Circe is an inventive telling of the tale of the half-human, half-goddess Circe of legend. She comes alive in a vibrant tale of love, heartache, rejection, family and adventure.
A historical novel of the abiding friendship between two women over decades including the turbulent years of revolution in Iran. It is a story of privilege and poverty, the power of education and the circle of women.
Perkins Valdez pulls back the veil on a dark period in U.S. medical history. In the aftermath of the horrors of the Tuskegee Experiment a young, well-educated African-American nurse works with young, black, rural teens to provide birth control. She uncovers a stealth plan by the federal government to sterilize these young women, largely without informed consent. Based on a true life story.
Other Literary Fiction/Classics
Published in 1986, this throwback novel is a treasure. Set in the low-country of South Carolina, the novel traces the story of the three Wingo siblings. The novel opens as Tom travels to New York City where his twin sister has (again) attempted suicide. Her healing depends on Tom’s ability to share her story, and his, with her therapist. The telling slowly reveals the splendors and the intense formative traumas that wrapped their childhood in South Carolina. Beautifully written, the scents, sounds and images of the low-country burst onto its pages for the reader to savor.
An epic tale of friendship and trauma, set in New York City. While the subject matter is challenging (emotional and sexual abuse of minor, cutting) this book is atop countless best-books-of-all-time lists. It is the always sought-after “cannot put it down” read. A Little Life follows the coming into adulthood of four male friends after graduating from college and moving to New York City to establish lives, loves and careers.
Steinbeck’s semi-autobiographical tale of two families settling in California is written with biblical themes and a large cast of characters. It is a Cain and Abel tale of two brothers in successive generations. It involves schemers and dreamers and the land of opportunity, country life and city life, birth and death, good and evil. It is epic and classic and a must for anyone seeking to complete a bucket list of classic literature.
The West at its best and worst is on display in McMurtry’s epic cowboy extravaganza. In the years following the Civil War, the West, from Texas to Montana was a land of outlaws, thieves and scoundrels, and fortunes to be made and lives lost. The cattle drive at the heart of this novel is brutal, gritty, deadly and a thrill-ride. Two former soldiers lead the drive, one a talker, lover and storyteller, and one a strong silent leader.
A lesser-known author with a talent for depicting place, Crow Lake is the story of three siblings and the challenges they face when their parents die when the eldest is only 17. It is a big story on a small scale, of two brothers and a sister and the sacrifices they make for one another to forge a life.
Crime/Mystery/Thriller
A rich, dense and satisfying missing person mystery with an assault, a kidnapping and serial murders included. All the Colors of the Dark is told through the eyes of Saint, a girl of 11, and her best friend, Patch. The two young misfits who both hail from poor single parent households. Theirs is an uneven, decades long love story; it is also a story of devotion and perseverance that few could rival. The twists and turns and the set up and dismissal of decoys rivets the reader and makes its meaty 608 pages fly.
Did she or didn’t she. You won’t know for sure in this breathtaking psychological thriller under the last page. You will flip and flop on this tale of mother-child connection and disconnection. It is the story of reluctant motherhood, and the pain of divorce. It tests the boundaries of mental wellness and sanity. Hold on for a wild ride.
Trey is an angry young teenage girl, chafing for revenge on townspeople whom she blames for her brother’s disappearance and presumed death. Her father is an absent criminal father returns to their small Irish town, up to no good, and upsetting the life Trey has forged for herself with a retired cop mentor who is teaching her wood-working skills as an excuse to look after her. Dearest daddy’s criminal enterprise begins to devolve and Trey gets caught in the investigation that follows. The novel gallops to a breathtaking, unexpected and satisfying finale.
A timely thriller chock full of crazy, Lisa Jewell’s novel follows the parry and counter thrust moves of a podcaster and her stalker. The podcaster accepts the offer of a woman who shares her birthday to tell her story on her podcast, until the story and the podcast become a crime expose and everyone is at risk.
Magical Realism/Fantasy
A love story that jumps over the reality bridge in a way that poses the very real question of what unconditional love truly means. Wren and Lewis are newlyweds when Lewis receives the diagnosis that he carries a gene mutation that will cause him to morph into a shark in short period of months. In the universe of this book, cross-species mutations are not uncommon. Wren’s own mother morphed into a Komodo dragon. Wren’s response to Lewis’s diagnosis and Lewis’ own adjustment beg the question of what each of us might do when faced with a less magical but equally “terminal” or life-altering diagnosis.
Erlick imagines a world in which every living human over 22 years of age receives, on a single day in history, a box with a string in it that foretells the length of their respective lives. Would you open the box? What would you do if you had a short string? A long one? One of radically different length than that of your spouse, partner or child? Would you tell your family? Your parents? Would you change the way you currently live your daily life? The answers to these questions are as varied as there are people and combinations. Erlick creates characters for whom the answers differ, and the ending contains a twist you might not see coming.
For the fantasty purists who are not looking for a dose of magic or futurism in their story, but a tale spun of whole cloth immersed in an alternate universe, this Rebecca Yarros Series is a welcome surprise. Not for the young teen, this series is R-rated, full of passion and steamy sexy scenes. But it also is founded on principles of merit and justice. Perhaps the most whimsically enjoyable part of of the universe is the ability of dragon riders to communicate with the dragons with whom they bond for life. Gift this series to a young twenty or thirty something and watch their eyes glow as they disappear for a ride on a dragon.
If you somehow managed to miss the entire Harry Potter phenomenon-say you lived abroad, were deployed in the military or perhaps lived off grid for a decade or two, give one or all of this magical fantasy series to a young person in your life. Better yet, if you have a beloved grandchild, niece or nephew who is just entering the world of chapter books, buy the series and read it to or with them. It’s a bond you will share forever.
Watch for the next issue of BookLife: Reviews for Readers to see non-fiction holiday gift book suggestions.
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For more book reviews and writing by Carol O’Day visit BookLife: Reviews for Readers on Substack.