Gripping reads for the holidays

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The downtime in December lends itself to bingeing on delicious food, series, films — and books. But what makes a good holiday read?

The choice of a festive season read is important not least because it will bring back memories of that holiday and vice versa. A holiday read can’t be too glossy and expensive to be taken to a sandy beach nor should it be too heavy and unwieldy to travel with. The book must be a page-turner but it doesn’t have to be new. 

Different December destinations lend themselves to different reading spots — trips to the beach, an adventure in the bush, the drive to the destination, on a long-haul flight and staycations are opportunities to finally read that book that has been sitting on the table for months.

For the beach: Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

The beach is arguably one of the easiest places to find a comfortable reading position, as long as you have the required accoutrements of towel, hat, sunglasses, water, sunblock and, of course, a good read. 

A book fit for the beach is often a romance — light, maybe kind of cheesy, and optimistic enough for a feel-good moment on the shore.

Funny You Should Ask follows Chani Horowitz, a 26-year-old journalist who is given the opportunity to write a profile on her favourite celebrity crush, 30-year-old Gabe Parker. It is an easy, light-hearted story which touches on themes such as Hollywood, life as a writer, addiction, family and second chances.

Chani and Gabe spend the weekend together, meant as a professional time for a public relations interview, but it turns into something more. 

Funny You Should Ask is told from Chani’s perspective and alternates between the initial weekend spent together and 10 years later when Chani is faced with interviewing Gabe again, and is forced to relive old memories.

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman is available for R345. 

For the bush: The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb

A trip to the bush is a safe adventure. You are typically in a thatch-roofed house with just the basics. The terrain is rough and you are ready for some animal to pop out at any moment. A mystery-thriller is the genre of choice for the bush, especially for reading at night while the campfire is roaring.

The Violin Conspiracy is a musical mystery-thriller with some unexpected notes. The story follows Ray McMillian, a black prodigy who is bequeathed a family heirloom in the form of a fiddle that once belonged to his enslaved great-grandfather, nicknamed PopPop.

The violin becomes Ray’s companion while navigating the racism inherent in the world of classical music. When he decides to get an upgrade on the shabby heirloom, Ray learns that PopPop’s fiddle is in fact an 18th-century Stradivarius worth $10 million, and becomes a sensation in the musical world.

But two weeks before a major musical competition, the violin is stolen from its case, in which a ransom note and a pair of Chuck Taylor sneakers are left.

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb:R839.

For the flight: An Invisible Man by Edward Enninful

This is the newly-released autobiography of the Ghanaian-born editor-in-chief of British Vogue. It is essential reading for those wanting to break into the fashion world when all the cards are stacked against them.

Enninful takes readers through his childhood in Ghana as the son of a tyrannical military man and his move to London with his brothers and sister. 

He soon starts making a name for himself on London’s creative scene, where he calls the avant-garde fashion publication i-D home for a while, before becoming British Vogue editor in 2017.

Like a long flight, A Visible Man takes readers to new heights with a spirit of optimism and adventure that says “Anything is possible!” 

The book is light enough for hand luggage and it does not feel like Enninful left anything out. 

Once finishing A Visible Man, you itch to pick up the latest issue of Vogue to see his work.

A Visible Man by Edward Enninful is available for R355.

For the staycation: The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander

For those who opt to stay at home during December, time taken to read can be an act of resetting, relearning and unlearning. The decision to stay at home may be a conscious need to centre, an economic decision or a time of rest for those whose home is their sanctuary.

A holiday at home acts as a moment to pause and move away from a busy period toward gentle calmness with a new perspective and lens on the world (in a 

non-corny New Year’s resolution kind of way). 

Reading on a staycation is an opportunity to learn something new, brush up on something old — and apply it to the current day.

The Trayvon Generation expands on the writer’s viral New Yorker essay of the same name which resonated powerfully due to the persistence of race-based violence at the centre of the American (and global) experience.

Alexander’s essays speak on how black Americans who are doing non-violent, gentle and mundane acts of the everyday are targets of brutality at the hands of white American police and officials and the so-called justice system. These young black Americans are the Trayvon Generation, coined by Alexander from the perspective of a mother whose son’s generation are targets.

Although the initial essay came at a formative time of American civil unrest in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbury, The Trayvon Generation looks back at society’s past and future with profound insight and a mighty heart.

The book is interwoven with works by some of the world’s most powerful artists. A lyrical collection of words, it educates readers via an intimate grasp of the power of word and art.

The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander is available for R143.

For the road: How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue

The Cameroonian-American author’s second novel tells the story of residents of a fictional African village called Kosawa, who live in fear of environmental destruction at the hands of American oil companies.

How Beautiful We Were is a great read while sitting in the passenger seat during a road trip — you can look out of the window every now and again and imagine the very landscape the book describes.

It is told through a generation of children, including a girl named Thula who grows up to be revolutionary in the fight for the environment. American oil pipelines near Kosawa leak, while the village’s children are dying from drinking the toxic water. 

The people of Kosawa fight back against the American imperialists on their land but their struggles are decades-long and come at a steep price.

Reading How Beautiful We Were is like holding a mirror to the world in which we live: Even those who live in areas where there’s less harmful environmental impact are suffering at the hands of America’s industrial complex. 

Books like this one are technically fiction but nonetheless eye-opening reads because living during industrial disasters is no longer just the stuff of dystopian, apocalyptic tales  but the reality that our lives are transitioning into.

A road-trip read like How Beautiful We Were is sure to make us see the fragile beauty that is our natural world and, hopefully, make us appreciate it that much more.

How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue is available for R219.