Happy December 1st! The holiday season is officially in full swing, and that brings cold weather and the need to wrap up with a good book. And there are some great selections when it comes to this month’s picks from each of the monthly book clubs, so let’s check them out!
Book of the Month December 2023 Picks
1. A Winter in New York by Josie Silver (Romance)
This delicious rom-com has all the right ingredients: secret family recipes, holiday vibes, and a big pinch of love.
2. The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen (Fantasy)
Buckle up for a dark and strange ride! This wicked rewrite of The Nutcracker has a couple of surprises up its sleeves.
3. No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall (Thriller)
Small-town secrets and family tensions are unleashed when a married couple moves into an old home with a bloody past.
4. The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan (Historical Fiction)
Part family drama, part war epic — this harrowing, emotionally riveting debut depicts the havoc wreaked in WWII Malaya.
5. Tomb Sweeping by Alexandra Chang (Short Stories)
Brimming with warmth and vibrancy, this beautiful debut collection of stories asks sharp questions about modern life.
Aardvark Book Club December 2023 Picks
1. The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor (Gothic Fiction)
From the USA Today bestselling author of “Beautiful Little Fools”, Jillian Cantor’s “The Fiction Writer” follows a writer hired by a handsome billionaire to write about his family history with Daphne du Maurier and finds herself drawn into a tangled web of obsession, material secrets, and stolen manuscripts.
2. Yours For the Taking by Gabrielle Korn (Science Fiction)
The year is 2050. Ava and her girlfriend live in what’s left of Brooklyn, and though they love each other, it’s hard to find happiness while the effects of climate change rapidly eclipse their world. Soon, it won’t be safe outside at all. The only people guaranteed survival are the ones whose applications are accepted to The Inside Project, a series of weather-safe, city-sized structures around the world.
3. The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell (Mystery)
Rupert’s 30th birthday party is a black-tie dinner at the Kentish Town McDonald’s — catered with cocaine and expensive champagne. The morning after, his girlfriend Clemmie is found murdered on Hampstead Heath, a single stiletto heel jutting from under a bush. You know how they live. This is how they die…
4. What Waits in the Woods by Terri Parlato (Thriller)
Her ballet career derailed by injury, a once-promising young dancer returns to her hometown only to face a grisly discovery — and the increasingly alarming realization that nothing from her past is quite what she believed — in this electrifying twisty suburban thriller for fans of Stacy Willingham, Greer Hendricks and Megan Miranda.
5. Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord by Celeste Connally (Historical Romance)
“Bridgerton” meets Agatha Christie in “Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord”, a dazzling first entry in a captivating new Regency-era mystery series with a feminist spin from Celeste Connally.
Amazon First Reads December 2023 Picks
1. The Amish Wife by Gregg Olsen (True Crime)
In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner’s natural causes. Ida’s husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed.
2. Split by Alida Bremer (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1936. The seaside-resort village of Split on the Adriatic coast bustles. The tourist spots are booming, passenger steamers dot the harbor, and Jewish emigres have found tenuous refuge from persecution. But as war in Europe looms, Split is also a nest of spies, fascists, and smugglers — and now, a locale suspiciously scouted by a German Reich film crew. Then one summer morning it becomes the scene of a murder investigation when a corpse is found entangled in fishing nets in the port.
3. The Lies You Wrote by Brianna Labuskes (Police Procedural)
The double murder of a married couple in a small Washington town draws FBI forensic linguist Raisa Susanto into an investigation that mirrors a decades-old crime. Twenty-five years ago — to the day — Alex Parker murdered his parents, then took his own life, leaving behind a note admitting everything.
4. Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time by Angela Brown (Women’s Fiction)
A woman has no choice left but to enjoy the adventure of life — and its surprises — in a funny and emotionally moving comedy of errors about the gifts of growing older.
5. Scorpio by Marko Kloos (Military Science Fiction)
On a distant Earth colony, an orphaned survivor of an alien invasion discovers that the greatest world-ending dangers aren’t behind her.
6. Sleeping with Friends by Emily Schultz (Psychological Thriller)
When Mia Sinclair-Kroner wakes from a coma, all she can remember are the movies she’s known and loved. Her college friends quickly assemble for a weekend party, in an effort to help her remember. But with old friends comes old wounds, and it soon becomes clear that Mia’s accident might not have been an accident at all.
7. The Last Phone Booth in Manhattan by Beth Merlin and Danielle Modafferi (Romance)
When a young woman hits rock bottom, she embarks on a positively Dickensian adventure in a witty and warmhearted novel about past regrets, old loves, new beginnings, and making up for lost time.
8. The Seventh Girl by Andy Maslen (Crime Thriller)
Fifteen years ago a serial killer was on a rampage murdering young women in Middlehampton. Then the killings stopped, and the murderer evaded the police. So when the body of another young woman is found bearing the twisted killer’s unique hallmark — the overpowering stench of lavender and an origami heart — DS Kat Ballantyne knows this can only mean one thing: the killer is back.
9. Two Women Walk into a Bar by Cheryl Strayed (Memoir)
Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of “Wild” and “Tiny Beautiful Things”, finds humor and connection in a poignant short memoir about love, family secrets, and reconciliation.
