Brittle Paperians, you didn’t think we’d leave you hanging this holiday season. Did you? We’ve rounded up a joyful, immersive, and unputdownable list of reads, from epic fantasy escapes and intergalactic adventures to festive romance, powerful poetry, and heartwarming stories of family and belonging. So grab a blanket, a warm drink, and let the reading marathon begin!

1. A Song of Legends Lost by M.H. Ayinde is an ideal holiday escape! It is a 592-page epic fantasy debut that blends pre-colonial African-inspired cultures with ancestral magic and ancient technology. With no romance to distract from the pure adventure, the book explores themes of identity, class struggle, rebellion, and hidden histories through interconnected storylines that gradually weave together. Its enthusiastic reviews calling it a favorite of the year suggest this is exactly the kind of immersive, unique world-building that makes for perfect cozy holiday reading when you want to completely lose yourself in another world.

2. Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy is a compact Africanfuturist space adventure perfect for holiday reading, following a young Himba mathematician who becomes humanity’s first interstellar student and must broker peace between warring alien species. It’s an emotionally resonant, hopeful story that proves “traveling the galaxy is relatively easy compared to understanding ourselves and each other.” If you want to forget your immediate environment for a while, we can’t recommend you going on this trip with Himba to the galaxy enough!

3. What is the festive season without a Christmas-themed rom-com? So instead of putting on a feel-good Christmas movie this year, curl up with Tomi Adeyemi’s A Very Gidi Christmas – the perfect holiday read that over 3,000 readers agree delivers steamy, fun adventure. Find your favorite cozy corner, crack open this novel, and let the festive romance sweep you away.

4. Co-Wives, Co-Widows by Adrienne Yabouza makes for great holiday reading because it combines heartwarming themes of family and sisterhood with an uplifting, hopeful tone despite its serious subject matter. At just 128 pages, it’s a quick read perfect for busy holiday schedules, yet it delivers a powerful story about two co-wives who become even closer after their husband’s death, standing together against injustice with resilience and humor. The book’s blend of dry wit, strong female characters, and life-affirming spirit captures the holiday essence of solidarity and togetherness, while also offering readers a vivid cultural journey into the Central African Republic, making it both cozy and meaningful.

5. Bad Diaspora Poems by Momtaza Mehri makes for powerful holiday reading because it offers profound reflection during a season when many think about home, family, and belonging, themes central to the diaspora experience. The collection’s innovative style—mixing lyric, prose, and even text messages—creates an accessible yet deeply moving experience that resonates during the holidays when people often gather with family or feel the weight of distance. Reviewers describe it as “life-altering,” “a masterclass in intertextuality,” and note how it captures the “second-hand nostalgia” of diaspora while offering moments of beauty and connection that make it both challenging and rewarding, perfect for quiet, contemplative holiday reading.

6. A Down Home Meal for these Difficult Times by Meron Hadero makes for perfect holiday reading because it centers on the universal search for home and belonging, themes that resonate deeply during a season when many gather with family or feel the ache of distance. This award-winning debut collection features Ethiopian immigrants and refugees navigating life across the U.S. and abroad, exploring how they create, lose, and redefine home through beautifully observed stories that are both heartbreaking and heartwarming. The titular story in particular uses food as a love language, showing how meals become a way to settle into a new place, making it especially fitting for holiday gatherings where food brings people together.