You’re Mainlining Hallmark Movies, Part 5

Reading Best of the Year Lists or Heading to "The Nutcracker"

Hi friends,

Thanks to everyone who joined last week’s discussion about the best books to give this holiday season. There are a lot of great ideas and a lot of (deserved) love for Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

Quick programming note: This is my last newsletter of the year. I’m taking some time off to spend time with my family (including my baby niece!), bake cookies and hang with my dog.

I hope no matter how you’re celebrating the end of the year, it’s filled with warmth, coziness and good books.

And, now, what to read if…

You’re Bingeing Made-for-Cable Holiday RomComs

The Christmas Clash by Suzanne Park

My love for holiday romances a bit of a running joke in my book club. I read them all year round and have launched a “Christmas in July” tradition for us. I’ve highlighted at least one a year for the past four years. I’m mixing it up a bit this year and going with a YA pick: Suzanne Park’s The Christmas Clash, which brings together star-crossed teens from rival mall food court restaurants.

Chloe Kwon and Peter Li cannot stand each other. It’s genetic. Their parents who own competing Korean and Chinese restaurants, respectively, have a long-running feud. The two do share a love for the Riverwood Mall, where they both work at holiday pop-up stores while helping out at their parents’ eateries. So, when they learn that the mall is set to be sold to a developer who plans to start sending out eviction notices right before Christmas, they begrudgingly team up to save the mall. While working together, they learn that they enjoy each other’s company — and that their parents’ dispute is far more complicated than it seems.

As I’ve written before, Suzanne Park’s books are joyful, sparkling gems. The Christmas Clash is no exception. She seamlessly blends a romance with family drama and brings that unique “mall at Christmas” feeling to life. Read it and be ready to crave spicy pork and sesame balls after.

You’re Reading a Lot of End-of-Year Lists

Twenty-One Truths about Love by Matthew Dicks

‘Tis the season for “Best Of” lists for TV, movies, music and, of course, books. (I’m eagerly awaiting Lit Hub’s “List of Lists,” which highlights the books recommended on multiple end-of-year roundups). If you appreciate the list as a literary form, grab a copy of Twenty-One Truths About Love, a novel written entirely in lists.

Daniel Mayrock is:

• An obsessive list maker.

• An expectant father.

• Hiding how poorly his bookstore is doing financially from his pregnant wife Jill.

• Terrified he will never measure up to Jill’s deceased husband, Peter.

Faced with these conundrums, Daniel decides his best option is to rob a local bingo night for seniors. While casing the bingo hall, he meets Dan, a 72-year-old widower who lost his son to cancer and wife to a carjacking. The two oddballs end up saving each other.

Twenty-One Truths About Love is one of my favorite subgenres, quirky people who build an unlikely community. It’s also an impressive feat of writing. Dicks shows how much can be conveyed in short bursts of language. As Kirkus notes, through the lists Dicks “sketches surprisingly complex … these lists—and the silences they outline—conjure a tense world in which, no matter how hard Dan tries to gain control of his finances, his life, or his emotions, he continually gets stuck in simply recording the absurdities of life and making futile plans to become a hero to Jill.”

“The Nutcracker” is Part of Your Christmas Routine

They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey

My best friend (hi Casey!) grew up dancing in a local production of “The Nutcracker,” so I have fond memories of watching the Christmas-themed production and get warm, fuzzy feelings when I hear the iconic opening of the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.” If you love “The Nutcracker” — or ballet more generally — put Meg Howrey’s They’re Going to Love You at the top of your TBR.

As a child, Carlisle Martin, the daughter of two accomplished ballet dancers, loved nothing more than the few weeks a year she spent with her father, Robert, and his partner, James, in their gorgeous Greenwich Village brownstone. She dreamed of following in her parents’ footsteps (dance steps?) and becoming a professional dancer, but more than anything, Carlisle wants to become a permanent resident of the brownstone and Robert and James’ lives. Carlisle only begins speaking to the two men again nearly two decades later when James calls to say Robert is dying.

They’re Going to Love You is a puzzle box of a novel, as Howrey slowly unveils the cause of the schism. Yet, the unhurried dance is never frustrating, but a languid journey. My book club had a particularly heated discussion on this one about what we owe our families, what is forgivable and our relationship to art.

Reminder rec: I’m listening to Canadian Boyfriend, a romance between a ballerina-turned-dance-instructor and single dad hockey player (narrated by Dr. Odyssey himself #iykyk) again. It remains as delightful — maybe more (?) — on the second listen.

---

As we close out 2024, and somehow enter the fifth (!) year of this newsletter, I want to thank you all for reading each week. Watching this community grow has been one of the surprise joys of my life. I hope it’s brought some happiness to you as well. See you on January 5^th!

---

What to Read If is a free weekly book recommendation newsletter. Need a rec? Want to gush about a book? Reply to this email, leave a comment or find me on Instagram or Threads.

If you’re reading this on Substack or were forwarded this email, and you’d like to subscribe, click the button below.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.