You're Prepping for a Giant Family Meal

"Wicked" has you hunting for another retelling or are book shopping on Small Business Saturday

Hi friends,

Happy almost Thanksgiving! For the first time, I’m spending the holiday in D.C. with my parents. We’re going see SIX, the musical about the six women married to Henry VIII, and a high school football game, in between gorging ourselves on leftovers.

Any big Thanksgiving plans (or books)? Let me know.

And, now, what to read if…

Your Thanksgiving Dinner Doubles as a Family Reunion

The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln

My Thanksgiving dinner will be for three (plus a dog who likes turkey), but if yours will be a chaotic affair — or you wish it was — you’ll want to check out Beth Lincoln’s The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels. It’s a charming middle-grade mystery about finding your place in your family.

When a new Swift family baby is born, their name is chosen at random from the family dictionary. The name, its definition and the adult the baby grows into are all thought to match.

As the book opens, Shenanigan Swift — thought to be the family troublemaker because of her name — is preparing for hundreds of relatives to descend on the family mansion to hunt for her Grand-Uncle Vile's long-lost treasure (yes, he was evil). But after her Aunt Schadenfreude is shoved down the stairs, she adds solving a murder to the to-do list. It’s a chance for her to prove that she’s more than the rascal her name implies.

Language lovers of all ages will adore The Swifts, which is filled with puns and other word play. (The Swifts even have a tennis-court-sized Scrabble board in their yard. I’m jealous.) Complete with illustrations, this is a perfect cozy long weekend read.

Reminder recs: Other big family book options include The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova and Elizabeth Acevedo’s Family Lore.

“Wicked” Has You Craving Another Retelling

Much Ado About Nada by Uzma Jalaluddin

I have not seen “Wicked” yet, but did attend a fabulous theme party for it (thanks to Becky, queen of the theme, for the invite!). If you’ve been humming “Defying Gravity” to yourself — and thinking about the brilliant way Gregory Maguire subverted The Wizard of Oz in the book the blockbuster musical and movie are based on — consider reading Much Ado About Nada, Uzma Jalaluddin’s retelling of Persuasion.

Nada Syed feels like a failure. About to turn thirty, she’s living at home with her parents and brothers, ignoring her mother’s increasingly unsubtle pleas to get married. The app she launched, Ask Apa, failed to take off after her business partner betrayed her. Nada needs to break out of her rut, and her best friend Haleema is convinced she has the solution. They’ll attend Toronto’s huge annual Muslim conference where Nada can finally meet Haleema's fiancé Zayn and his brother Baz. The catch? Nada and Baz have a secret history, and their reunion forces it all to the surface.

Second-chance romances are hard to pull off because they need to convince the reader the couple should have broken up at some point — and that they can now be together. It’s a tough needle to thread and Jalaluddin pulls it off here.

As the reigning queen of romance, Emily Henry, said, "Much Ado About Nada is the contemporary take on Persuasion that I've been waiting for. I've been a huge fan of Uzma Jalaluddin's since her debut novel, but this one has become my favorites. … As ever, Jalaluddin expertly balances explorations of family, faith, and love in a smart and authentic way. I am such a fan."

Reminder rec: I have a whole edition devoted to retellings.

You’re Hitting Up a Bookstore on Small Business Saturday

The Bookshop by Evan Friss

One of the benefits of spending Thanksgiving in D.C. is that I’ll be able to go to my neighborhood bookstore, East City Bookshop, on Small Business Saturday. It’ll be the perfect way to kick off the holiday shopping season. If you’re looking forward to Saturday, or any day, at a bookstore, you’ll want to read The Bookshop, Evan Friss’s warm history of American bookstores.

Friss uses bookshops as a jumping-off point to document the history of American literature and commerce more broadly. Each chapter introduces readers to a new store, from Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and the giant book section in Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company to The Strand and Ann Patchett’s Parnassus. Along the way, readers meet the outsized personalities who own and manage bookstores (as well as a 3000-pound elephant who “signed” books in 1944).

Reading The Bookshop feels like stepping into a good bookstore. It’s warm, inviting and filled with surprising nuggets. A great book for you or the perfect gift for the bookworm in your life.

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