Best Fiction Paperbacks to Gift Readers this Holiday Season

The Call of the Wrens is perfect for fans of historical fiction novels full of strong women and little-known historical stories. This book tells the story of Marion Hoxton, an orphan who discovered the chance to belong during WWI when she joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (the Wrens) to work as a motorcycle dispatch rider, training and delivering carrier pigeons to the front lines. When another war breaks out twenty years later, Marion is called to return to the fight, and at the same time, others are hearing the call to fight for the first time. Told through alternating points of view and narratives, the story will keep readers riveted as it all converges on one singular life-changing moment.  

Ray McMillan has a dream, one that goes hand in hand with his gift. He’s going to be a world-class professional violinist if it’s the last thing he does, even if that means going against the life that’s been mapped up for him having grown up Black in rural North Carolina. Nothing will stop him, a fact only proven by the discovery that the beat-up family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius. When Ray and his violin take the world by storm, only for it to be stolen the night before a cutthroat Tchaikovsky competition, Ray must find a way to reclaim his precious violin and to prove that within himself lies a brilliant musician both to himself and the world.  

From beloved, prize-winning author Anthony Doerr comes his first new novel in over six years: Cloud Cuckoo Land. A welcome read that is a celebration of both resilience and hope told from the perspective of children set worlds (and times) apart. An unforgettable epic from a master storyteller at the top of his craft. Our paperback exclusive edition has elegant French flaps and a special back cover design. Slightly larger than most paperbacks, this edition is certain stories stand out (in the best way) on your shelves.

The inimitable and award-winning voice of Louise Erdrich is back, and this time she is taking on a tumultuous year with the help of a lovable, quirky cast of characters. An unexpected ghost story that is both a timely novel with laugh-out-loud moments as well as a beautiful commentary on identity. Erdrich cements herself as one of America’s greatest living authors. 

Following up his back-to-back Pulitzer Prize winning novels, Colson Whitehead returns with a vivid, wildly entertaining heist novel that makes you feel as if you’re walking down a bustling 125th Street in 1960s Harlem. A veritable page-turner from start to finish. 

This remarkable, bold debut, which spans 250 years, is a heartbreaking and thought-provoking look at seven generations of descendants from the Fante and Asante tribes of Ghana. Kicking off the story are half-sisters Effia and Esi, whose disparate lives remain linked, despite the fact that they’ve never met. Their children and grandchildren live on different sides of the Atlantic, but whether they’re involved in the Gold Coast slave trade of Africa or suffering under its effects in America, it’s the personal, smaller stories within that framework—stories of hardship, transcendence, wealth lost, and love gained—that will deeply move you. 

When Evelyn has her manuscript stolen by her husband, she writes her way out, and as her great-great-granddaughter goes searching for answers about her family, she uncovers that Evelyn had more plot twists up her sleeves than just her disappearance. Atmospheric and emotional, The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey is full of literary secrets and women taking charge of their future. 

If you could read your obituary before your impending death, would you? In this humorous, heart-filled novel, matriarch Dava Shastri arranges for her news of her death to break early so she could read her obituary and gauge reaction. Plans go awry when what Dava reads isn’t what she expected, and suddenly the entire world (including her grown children) knows the secret she was planning to take to her grave. An instant favorite for readers who love complex family dramas, celebrity, and the perils and humor in the relationships we rely on. 

There have been many books written about the Witch Trials but, A.K. Blakemore’s debut novel takes it to the next level with her breadth and depth of research and care for the women she depicts. Blakemore’s vivid characters will enchant you and her sharp prose will immerse you in the time period. This one is perfect for readers of Wolf Hall and lovers of a fresh take of historical fiction.