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Arts + Lifestyle

The Best Books To Read This December

Whether you’re snuggling up at home as it gets darker quickly, or planning to pack up and escape to the sands for sun and mojitos, here are Citizen Femme’s must-have literary travel companions this December.

Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney’s Conversation with Friends is an addictive tale about contemporary friendship and the messy edges of adulthood in the digital age. The story follows Frances, a young poet and her ex-girlfriend-turned-best-friend Bobbi, who are plunged into a bourgeois world of decadent dinner parties and spontaneous trips to France upon befriending an older couple. This blooming ménage-à-quatre introduces the complications of adulthood, causing a web of romance, lust and infidelity. Rooney proves herself to be a gripping new talent, perfectly capturing ordinary social scenarios over a glass of wine. So read this with a glass of red (or white) post-flight!

Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang

Poet and essayist Jenny Zhang is a new voice on the scene, and her stories in Sour Heart are a refreshingly frank portrayal of girlhood, growth and familial relationships. Set in New York, Zhang portrays the experience of adolescence in passages that burst into bold depictions of poverty. The stories are told from the perspective of first-generation Chinese-American girls, daughters of Chinese immigrants who fled the perilous streets of Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution. We witness these young women find their homes and join new schools and then leave them all over again. Authentic and darkly funny, Zhang’s is a voice to watch out for.

Debriefing: Collected Stories by Susan Sontag (edited by Benjamin Taylor)

Released this fall, Debriefing is a posthumous collection of Susan Sontag’s shorter fiction. These fragments demonstrate Sontag’s remarkable versatility and charm, praised for her nuanced portrayal of literature, art, loss, activism and illness. Blurring experience with fantasy, the stories capture true emotions with adult issues not easily depicted in the essay. The autobiographical “Pilgrimage” feels familiar to Sontag’s previous writing, recalling an account with her literary hero Thomas Mann. Although at times acrid, these eight stories stitch together key moments in Sontag’s life and career and demonstrate a whole other side to her genius.

Girl Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur by Cara Alwill Leyba

Ladies, it’s safe to say that we’re having a moment. 2017 has been something of a benchmark year for women empowering other women. Now we have Cara Alwill Leyba’s Girl Code, a handy book that highlights the power of collaboration between women in their careers, and how we can work together to ensure mutual success. The book is a roadmap for female entrepreneurs and those “side hustlers” out there taking their respective industries by storm. Think of this piece as a handy guide to your ideal career path, filled with mantras and personal stories to get you out and about making those connections. Girl Code is a must-read for every woman ready to transform her life and follow her passion.

Winter by Ali Smith

The multi-award winning author Ali Smith has brought us the perfect remedy for the bitter weather this festive season. In the follow-up to the sensational Autumn published just last year, Winter tells a story about the bleakest season: melancholic days, blustering winds and long nights. Without giving too much away, hints of Dickens’ Ghost of Christmas Past haunt the novel, so you might suspect some supernatural aberrations. After all, what would a classic Christmas tale be without the occasional ghoul? It’s the season that teaches us survival. Here comes Winter.

The Signs by Carolyne Faulkner

It feels as if we’ve had a slight pause in the realm of star sign publications recently, but astrology is back and better than ever before. Carolyne Faulkner has made sure to steer clear from cliché newspaper horoscopes, instead focusing on the ancient wisdom of astrology to help us better understand the decisions we make. Think of The Stars as a personal navigation guide, teaching you how to increase well-being and happiness and forge stronger relationships in all areas of your life. Here you will also learn how to interpret your natal chart. Isn’t this what we’ve all been waiting for?

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