10 Books To Read Between Christmas and New Year

The days between Christmas and New Year are kind of a temporal no-man’s-land – time that ebbs and flows, time that seems to stretch on interminably and yet ends all too soon. Personally, I like to use those idle days to catch up on reading, and I know plenty of other booklovers like to do the same. If you don’t have a handy stack of books you missed during the year ready to go, here are my recommendations for books to read between Christmas and New Year.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The hazy days between Christmas and New Year are the perfect time to re-visit a cozy classic like Little Women. Meg the beauty, Jo the career woman, Beth the dutiful wallflower, and Amy the romantic are four sisters living in genteel poverty during the American Civil War, and faced with the prospect of a Christmas without any presents (as Jo famously grumbles while lying on the rug) they must find other ways to entertain themselves – and us. Plus, if your blood is still boiling from an argument over the table at Christmas lunch, it’s the perfect time to re-read this one as a proto-feminist text. Read my full review of Little Women here.

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood

For a more contemporary read to fill the days between Christmas and New Year: The Weekend is set on one hot Australian Christmas weekend, but it’s far from a cozy holiday read. Four women—Wendy (the academic), Jude (the perfectionist), Adele (the bohemian), and Sylvie (the peacekeeper)—have been friends for decades. But now, Sylvie is dead, and the remaining three are responsible for cleaning out her holiday house and readying it for sale. Through their grief and the practicalities of cleaning up a life, new feelings and buried secrets will be brought to the surface. Read my full review of The Weekend here.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

If you’re looking to be swept away in a Gothic story of envy and haunting, pick up Rebecca to read between Christmas and New Year. An unnamed narrator is drawn into the lavish world of the Manderley mansion, by an enigmatic older man who claims to love her. And yet, neither of the newlyweds – nor their household staff – can let go of the specter of his first wife, a worldly and beautiful woman who died in mysterious circumstances. It’s a deeply multi-layered literary novel, disguised as romantic fiction. You come for the spooky Gothic love story, but you stay for the evergreen interrogation of women’s subservience to (and subversion of) the rule of men. Read my full review of Rebecca here.

The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald

The premise of The Cry evokes the real-life case of Madeline McCann, for the tender age of the child who goes missing and the worldwide scrutiny of the parents in the case, but also Azaria Chamberlain for its Australian setting. It’s a modern take on the missing child, told in the style of Liane Moriarty or Gillian Flynn. It’s a rich and complex psychological mystery-thriller that will have you gripped for hours, the perfect way to kill some quiet time between Christmas and New Year. Read my full review of The Cry here.

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

If you’re looking for a thorny ethical dilemma to sink your teeth into in the days between Christmas and New Year, pick up My Sister’s Keeper. The main character, Anna, was conceived as a matched donor for her older sister, Kate, who is barely clinging to life after a young diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia. Anna, at the ripe old age of 13 years, has decided she’s had enough of being an organ farm for her sister, and consults a lawyer in the hopes of securing a medical emancipation from her parents so she can make her own decisions about what happens to her body – even if it means her sister will die. Read my full review of My Sister’s Keeper here.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Sometimes, the days between Christmas and New Year call for an episodic novel, a book you can pick up and put down to read in short bursts between other commitments (like cooking and caring for family members and figuring out the wi-fi password). That’s when you need Here One Moment, a book about a plane passenger who predicts the date and cause of death of every other passenger on board. That would be weird but not all that remarkable… except that her predictions start coming true. Read my full review of Here One Moment here.

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

If you’re feeling a little lonely, and you want a book with characters you could have a cup of tea and a good yarn with, you want to read The Thursday Murder Club. The murder mystery novel is set in Coopers Chase retirement village, where ageing amateur sleuths investigate unsolved crimes. That on its own would make for a fascinating read, but Osman throws an inciting incident into the mix: a shady property developer shows up dead, practically on their doorstep, and it’s up to this unlikely group of octogenarians to figure out whodunnit. Read my full review of The Thursday Murder Club here.

One Of Those Mothers by Megan Nicol Reed

Hopefully, your neighbourhood’s holiday drama is limited to disputes over Christmas light displays or competing end-of-year parties – and the conceit of One Of Those Mothers can help you keep it all in perspective. In this dark and compelling domestic mystery-thriller, the tight-knit middle class community of Point Heed, Aotearoa, unravels when a local father (name suppressed) is convicted of possessing child exploitation materials. Dual mysteries play out and entwine around each other: who’s the perv? What happened between Bridget and Lucy to destroy their lifelong friendship? It’s all unveiled tantalisingly slowly. Read my full review of One Of Those Mothers here.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Piranesi lives in the House almost entirely alone, besides a man he calls the Other, whom he meets with twice a week. The obvious question is: how did he get there? But before long, other questions emerge: who is the Other? Is there someone else in the House? Is Piranesi’s simple life of solitude in danger? Piraensi is a peculiar and enigmatic book, one that raises philosophical and psychological questions you would never expect, and it will whisk you away on the strange filler days between Christmas and New Year. Read my full review of Piranesi here.

Weather Girl by Rachel Lynn Solomon

Not everyone wants to read dark and mysterious books between Christmas and New Year: some of us want some good spicy fun to keep things interesting. The plot of Weather Girl is just the right level of ridiculous for a rom-com, the characters are well-developed and well-intentioned, and it has plenty of snort-laughs to offer. Best of all, though, are the steamy and – this is key – realistic sex scenes! Read my full review of Weather Girl here.