5 Books to Keep You Inside on Black Friday

The Lake House, by Kate Morton
The newest novel by the author of The Secret Keeper is a spellbinder of a book. Sadie is a young whip-smart detective who stumbles upon an intriguing old manse in the English countryside while visiting family. Captivated by the abandoned estate’s air of mystery, Sadie reaches out to its elderly owner, Alice. Sadie is soon astonished by the many layers of secrecy and deception that permeate the house’s history, beginning with a little boy’s disappearance in 1933. As the tale unfolds, the reader is never quite sure whom to trust—this book keeps you guessing right up until the sucker punch of an ending. You might want to make sure to have snacks on hand before you start this one, because you’ll be glued to your favorite chair until the very last page.

The Martian, by Andy Weir
Chances are, you’ve heard of the recent movie adaptation of The Martian starring Matt Damon. Well, as is always the case if you’re a book lover, the book is even better! Imagine, for a moment, the kind of guts it takes to not only be an astronaut, but to be among the first astronauts to go to Mars. Got it? Great. Now, imagine the guts it takes not to immediately lose it if, after an unforeseen crisis, the rest of your crew takes off and leaves you alone on Mars because they think you’re dead. You have no way of communicating with Earth, and even if you did, your supplies will never last long enough for help to arrive. This is exactly the pickle that Mark Watney finds himself in, but luckily, he is pretty dang gutsy. Mark is determined not to give up, and readers will want to hang in there with him for the long haul.

A Little Life, by Hanya Yanigahara
This story begins when four college friends make their way from a Massachusetts campus to the Big Apple to begin their respective careers. At first, it seems like the quintessential New York coming-of-age tale—a lawyer, an actor, an architect, and an artist adrift in the big city and trying to make their respective ways in the world. However, it soon becomes clear that this book is all that and so much more. Yanagihara’s finely wrought characters capture the reader’s imagination for the three-decade span of the book, careening back and forth between life’s most joyous highs and desperate lows. This is a book that tackles the complex manna of the human experience: friendship, love, trauma, disappointment, and the darkest of our secrets. A light read? Not so much. But this critically acclaimed book promises to make you see your own life and loved ones with a renewed sense of gratitude and inspiration.

The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah
It’s 1939, and Europe is ablaze with the effort to repel the Nazis. Vianne sees her husband, Antoine, off to the frontlines and tells herself that the Germans will never set foot on French soil. So, she is beyond terrified when Nazi boots land not only in her town, but on her foyer when troops commandeer her home. She and her daughter are forced to live among the enemy, and to resist in whatever hidden ways they can without being discovered. At the same time, Vianne’s sister Isabelle is falling hard for a handsome rebel who may not be who he seems. In the pages that follow, Vianne and Isabelle fight to stay true to themselves and preserve their way of life. This historic novel is an ode to sisterhood, the French character, and the ways in which women also fought the Second World War.

Looking for Alaska, by John Green
The Fault In Our Stars author John Green has knocked another one out of the park with Looking for Alaska. This book is a heady brew, indeed—one part weirdness, one part infatuation, one part crisis, and several parts heartbreak. At first glance, it might appear to be a book about being a teenager, and in some ways, it is. In reality, though, just like The Fault in Our Stars, it’s a book about being human that happens to feature teens. When you think about it, there must be a reason we continue to find teenaged characters so compelling long after we leave our own teen years behind. John Green makes you wonder whether the reason is that the teenage years represent our best and worst selves—the time when we are full of hope and also full of anger, brimming with love and concurrently as selfish as they come. Like teenhood, the beauty of Green’s work is in its potential to be many things all at once.
What book will you be diving into on Black Friday?