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Books to Get You Through the January Slump
19
items if you want to become more of a reader this year or just need a cure to your post-holiday blues by cozying up with some of my favorite books that always kept me turning the page!
Sections
2
Literary Fiction
Memoirs
Literary Fiction
romance, character development, and edge of your seat plot points- these are the books that will pull at your heart, make you laugh and keep you locked in to forget the post-holiday blues
It’s a Friday night in a campus bar in Berkeley, fall of 2000, and Percy Marks is pontificating about music again. Hall and Oates is on the jukebox, and Percy—who has no talent for music, just lots of opinions about it—can’t stop herself from overana...
Deep Cuts: A Novel (B&N Exclusive Edition)|BN Exclusive
this is one of those books that just STAYS with you- this is probably the book that impacted me the most in 2025. Not only was I insanely engrossed in the characters and the story, but the main topics of the book prompted me to really deepen my own t...
The River Is Waiting (Oprah's Book Club)|Hardcover
perhaps not even just my favorite book of 2025 but favorite book of all time- there are not enough words in the english language to describe how much I loved the journey of reading this, but everything I took from it and how much it has stuck with me...
Heart the Lover|Hardcover
this book had me absolutely hooked from start to finish, and from the first page I thought I knew where this was going but I had no idea. If you are someone who is passionate about character development and the messiness of love and relationships you...
Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)|eBook
Charlie has long idolized the charming, illustrious writer, who also represents a link to her late mother who loved his work. But as they embark on an illicit and all-consuming affair, Charlie is forced to hide the relationship from everyone she care...
Bitter Sweet: A Novel|Hardcover
A plot twist I NEVER saw coming! brief synopsis: Lulu Mayfield keeps her husband and little boy happy, her home immaculate, and everything on schedule while striving to be the model of perfection as a 1950s housewife and mother. Her gelatin-molded salads are the talk of the neighborhood and the hig...
The Mad Wife
the tone of this author is so unique and kept me laughing the whole time even when it got quite dark, a balance I don't think I've ever found in literary fiction before. A quick read too! brief synopsis: a sophisticated French woman spends her life o...
My Husband: A Novel
Simone is the star of Edwards University’s creative writing renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist, and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. But when ...
Seduction Theory
when I rented this from the library- I thought I was reading the first in the housemaid series the whole time because the trailer for the new movie spiked my interest… turns out this is a completely different author lol, but still a gripping thriller...
The Housemaid
one of my favorite books ever ever EVER- the character development in this one takes you on an amazing journey, I devoured this in about 3 days. If you're looking for something that is thought provoking and will stick with you, this is the one.
An American Marriage (Oprah's Book Club)
The rotating perspectives give the story depth, revealing how differently the same events can be experienced—and how easily miscommunication can fracture relationships. I found myself shifting allegiances between characters as the story unfolded, whi...
So Good to See You: A Novel
after seeing Marty Supreme over the holidays (and becoming obsessed) I wanted to find a novel that provided me with the same main character on an insane mission for greatness to the point where the self sabotage became a new plot point, and this gave...
Rabbit, Run
A story of WW I translated from the French. Just before the war begins, a young woman who is confined to a wheelchair meets the love of her life. Of course he goes off to war and perishes in the trenches. Little by little, over ten years, she learns ...
A Very Long Engagement: A Novel|Paperback
I've read a few of Ferrante's other titles and they simply never disappoint. After her husband abruptly leaves, the narrator spirals, unraveling under the weight of betrayal, motherhood, and a life she shaped around someone else. The novel’s intensit...
The Days of Abandonment
I'll be spending this month re-reading one of my favorite classics in prep for the film adaptation in February!
Wuthering Heights
This is a gritty story of a raw desperate love, a clash of worlds colliding, of power, race, privilege, when the dirt poor, school dropout, mixed race and street smart Elise meets Jamey in New Haven, Connecticut where the two coincidentally happen to...
White Fur: A Novel by Jardine Libaire, Paperback
Memoirs
For the non-fiction lovers- music industry/figure memoirs that transported me to another time and place
never knew much about Mark Ronson other than the fact that he is a massive producer, his childhood and upbringing in NYC was utterly fascinating, as his days in the 90s era of grunge, underground music in NYC. If you are a music lover and someone for...
Night People: How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City
another underground NYC music industry memoir, if you love LCD Soundsystem, the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, The Strokes, etc. you will love this approach to this- I have always liked the music of this time, but was much too young when the scene was coming up (...
Meet Me in the Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011
one of my favorite books of ALL TIME! I have read just about every Beatles biography, seen every tv special, watched an insane amount of interviews, etc. and I promise you there is so much history here that you will only get from her story, especiall...
Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me