Thanksgiving and Christmas Lights are Here. You May Want to Read These Books to Open Your Perspective.

Thanksgiving Can Be Tough! Just Remember Your P's and Q's and Read a Little to Get Away From the Drama.

Thanksgiving and Christmas lights are here. You may want to read these books to open your perspective to all of the craziness that novels set during the holidays can provide you as both a writer and a reader.

Thanksgiving has arrived. Everyone is out smiling and then frowning and then cursing in airport lines that reach Tibet, stuck in traffic that goes on and on into the horizon, trapped in homes with relatives of opposite sides of the political spectrum, knives at the ready for even the slightest mention of anything pro- or anti-Trump to spill from Uncle Jimbo’s lips, Grandma Missi’s mouth, or, worse, everyone’s drunken traps all at once two minutes before the Dolphins take on the Packers, the Cowboys line up against the Giants, the Bears take on the 10-1 Lions (I won’t lie, I’m happy for the Lions). I’ll be watching the games alone, or with my dog, anyway, a carton of pork fried rice and a nonalcoholic beer at my side. This will be a solo Thanksgiving. And I don’t mind—I need to get some writing done and some reading done and what better time than when everyone else is busy?

I’ve started reading Hanya Yanagahira’s To Paradise. It’s not bad so far, but it’s not A Little Life, which I thought was genius and disturbing and painful—all things that I gravitate towards in fiction. It’s not a Thanksgiving or Holiday novel (at least not yet or that I’ve heard), but we’ll see how it turns out. But since the holidays are here, I thought I would recommend some books I enjoyed reading (and some I haven’t had a chance to read) during the holidays that had something to do with Thanksgiving or Christmas or Kwanzaa, or other religious holidays that get overlooked like, well, every other holiday, at least here in America. I think reading literature that deals with or around holidays has something special to it, in that it often depicts the drama around family gatherings, which is what, in literature, many of us gravitate towards. Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, as Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina, and what better time to zoom in on that unhappiness than at family gatherings when all the little bombs we carry with us throughout the year threaten to blow up all at once?

*Some books you can read to the kids (some of which promote lessons without overdoing it:

1. I know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, by Alison Jackson

2. ‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, by Dav Pilkey

3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss

4. The Little Boy Who Craved Thanksgiving Leftovers: And the Lessons He Learned (Courageous Kids: Tales of Learning and Growth Book) by Shani T Night

5. How to Catch an Elf, by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton

6. Just a Special Thanksgiving, by Mercer Mayer

7. Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving (my kids LOVED Pet the Cat)

8. It's Laugh O'Clock: Would You Rather? Thanksgiving Edition, by Riddleland

9. Thanksgiving Sabotage, by Elaine Heney

10. Thanksgiving Word Search Puzzle Book, by Emma K. Kraemion Press (it’ll keep you busy and away from Uncle Jimbo, who’s probably looking for a fight).

11. Together for Kwanzaa, By Juwanda G. Ford

12. Eight Nights of Flirting, by Hannah Reynolds

13. Too Many Tamales, by Gary Soto, Illustrated by Ed Martinez

Charles Dickens' Classic A Christmas Carol is Always a Great Holiday Read, Even Before Christmas

*Some adult books you can read for your own enjoyment:

1. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain

2. The Nest, by Cynthia D’Aprix

3. Still Life, by Louise Penny

4. Thanksgiving Night, by Richard Bausch

5. Thanksgiving Treachery, by Tonya Kappes

6. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

7. Tinkers, by Paul Harding

8. Strangers at the Feast, by Jennifer Vanderbes

9. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

10. The Ice Storm, by Rick Moody

11. The Five Wounds, by Kirstin Valdez Quade

12. A Holly Jolly Diwali, by Sonya Lalli

There’s just something about holiday novels that allows writers to up the drama, to teach lessons (or not), to bring together a cast of characters who are bound to crash into each other like cars sliding along the BQE in January at rates of speed far above the speed limit. I know—I wrote a novel called The Losses that takes place, primarily, around a Thanksgiving family reunion. Holidays provide authors with settings that no other setting can come close to—the emotional rollercoaster of being in the presence of the people closest to you, people who, inevitably (and naturally), are the core inputs into the pain and suffering and joy and happiness that build the psychological and moral and ethical people we become, as we move from childhood into adulthood.

Don't Forget the Kiddos. They Need an Escape From the Crazy as Well!

If you’ve never tried to write a novel that takes place during a holiday, give it a go. Trust me, you won’t have trouble starting it; the only issue you may encounter is what to tell, how much to tell about it, and whether or not your family is ready to appreciate that your characters may be a little closer to reality than they might like.

*No, I do not receive any payment whatsoever for any of the above recommendations.

Cully Perlman is an author, blogger, and Substantive Editor. He can be reached at Cully@novelmasterclass.com