Every year around the holidays, I love pulling together book recommendations—and this year, I thought: who better to ask than published authors? After all, writers tend to be voracious readers who know their stuff.
I asked some of our Summit Press authors to share their favorites across five categories, and what came back was good shizel. Some authors wrote passionate mini-essays about why these books matter. Others simply shared titles that spoke for themselves. Either way, you’re about to discover your next great read.
So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let’s explore what the people who make books love to read.
ALL-TIME FAVORITES (The Books We Return to Again and Again
From Carla Panciera: I’m terrible at picking favorites of anything—colors, ice cream flavors, songs, especially books—but I’ll say House of Mirth by Edith Wharton or The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Wharton understood the precarious choices that faced women and gave us a heroine who makes us feel her powerlessness intensely. Impossible to read this book without saying out loud: Oh, Lily!
O’Brien’s collection of connected stories is ostensibly about Alpha Company in Vietnam, but it’s really a treatise on storytelling, its value, its limitations, its power over us. It’s the book I reference more than any other.
From Michael Feeley: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. The writing is beautiful and shows that the choices we make have consequences. Should we reach for more or be happy with what we already have? Chasing the wrong ambitions may leave you feeling as though you’ve sold yourself out.
From Regina Graziani: That’s a hard one. It is either Machiavelli’s The Prince, or Dante’s Divine Comedy.
I read them both at a youngish age, and they taught me about people and power. There’s also something mysterious and intriguing about Dante’s writing that captivates me. I have a lithograph of Beatrice on the bridge that I love; my mother bought it for my father (he was a Dante and Machiavelli fan).
From Ann Sheybani: Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. This book made me want to become a better writer. It has such heart, humor, and depth.
Also recommended:
- Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (Aleksander Sinigoj)
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Jennifer Jordan)
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Melissa Kascak)
- Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (Jennifer Lytle)
BOOKS THAT MADE US LAUGH (Because Life’s Too Short for Serious All the Time)
From Michael Feeley: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. The writing makes you constantly laugh and think of your own life. Memories pop up while you’re laughing out loud with tears streaming down your face, and you want to share it with everyone around you
From Regina Graziani: A tie: Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham, and Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
I was dating a man 15 years older who raced cars. I always had my nose in a book while at the track or on the road going to a track. He thought I’d like Hunter, so I picked up Fear and Loathing. My boyfriend had been (many many years before I met him) part of a motorcycle gang (so very 1970s), and the book made me laugh because it (and my boyfriend) was the antithesis of me and my life (quiet Catholic girl who studied and did nothing wrong). It opened my eyes, and I had to laugh at the juxtaposition of all that stuff.
Dr. Seuss—who doesn’t laugh at his stories? I never read (or had read to me) any of his books. When I picked his first story up in my 20s I found so much silliness and giggles. I loved reading his stories to my daughter—the rhyming is fun to read.
From Ann Sheybani: Naked by David Sedaris. His earlier works make me laugh so hard. I still remember having to pull the car over while listening to it on tape with Michael Mueller, a German fellow I was working with. Even he couldn’t stop laughing.
Also recommended:
- The Prayer of the Frog, Vol. 2 by Anthony de Mello (Aleksander Sinigoj)
- This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper (Carla Panciera)
- A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby (Jennifer Jordan)
- Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (Melissa Kascak)
BOOKS THAT MADE US CRY (Bring Tissues—Seriously)
From Michael Feeley: The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. Gorgeous writing. Henry James, as a man, writes with profound depth about the mind and interior feelings of a woman. The novel explores freedom and independence, reminding us that we can deceive ourselves, even when we achieve what we think we want most
From Regina Graziani: Elie Wiesel’s Night, and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Need I expand on that? Both heart-wrenching and soul-crushing.
I had to read Of Mice and Men in 7th grade. I thought I was going to have to drop out of junior high if I was going to have to read that type of book all year. It crushed my soul; I had never read anything like that before.
Elie. I became acquainted with him and his writing in college. One of my mentors was a Holocaust survivor. He handed me a copy of Night and told me to read it because it would change my life. I sat in my dorm room, alone, on a Friday night, and read it. It did change my life.
From Carla Panciera: Toughest one for me to answer, but I’ll say Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill, a book I’ve re-read several times. Stunning, sparse, and wholly immersive.
From Ann Sheybani: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. This also made me laugh, by the way. This is a YA novel about two kids that meet in a cancer ward. Spoiler alert, one of them dies. Incredibly beautiful.
Also recommended:
- The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Aleksander Sinigoj)
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Jennifer Jordan)
- The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters (Melissa Kascak)
ON OUR NIGHTSTANDS RIGHT NOW (What We’re Reading Next)
From Regina Graziani: Ken Follett’s Circle of Days (I love everything he writes). His books are historically accurate. The way he develops his characters brings history to a very personal level. I’m a history geek, and his books tell history in a way that no one else does.
From Michael Feeley: Nobody Wants to Read Your SH*T by Steven Pressfield. I love all of his books. He changes you with every chapter. He makes me know myself more deeply and become a better writer.
From Carla Panciera: Anything by Paulette Jiles; I’ve read News of the World, The Color of Lightning, and Simon the Fiddler. Can’t get enough of her books.
From Jennifer Jordan: Oof, so many—too many! The most demanding is Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville. My basic education was woefully lacking and this classic, and so many others, went unread.
From Jennifer Lytle: Dumbing Down Our Kids by Charles Sykes
Also recommended:
- The Science of Scaling by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Blake Erickson (Aleksander Sinigoj)
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Melissa Kascak)
- Someday Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Ann Sheybani)
BOOKS THAT CHANGED HOW WE SEE THE WORLD (The Game-Changers)
From Regina Graziani: Gabor Maté’s When the Body Says No, and Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning.
My college mentor, who was a Holocaust survivor, also introduced me to Frankl and thrust a copy of Man’s Search for Meaning into my hand, again, to change my life. It dramatically changed how I see the world. Life in a concentration camp: why some survived, and others didn’t.
Maté’s book changed my view of the world in that it changed how I view people, illness, the body, and how people interact with the world. How emotion and stress play a role in the onset of disease: why some survive and why some don’t. Powerful.
From Carla Panciera: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. The first book I loved; the first book I re-read; the book that taught me what happens when a writer’s work really gets inside you. White taught me how transformative an experience reading can be, and I haven’t stopped reading since. Thus, I’ve discovered so many books that have changed the way I see the world.
From Michael Feeley: Linchpin by Seth Godin. I learned it’s okay to aim to be remarkable, indispensable, and stand out with honor, while caring for others and your work. You can make a difference in the world!
From Jennifer Jordan: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Although I have since realized the fatal flaw in Rand’s Objectivism and reject its basic tenets, as an impressionable 20-something when I read it, I finally understood how capitalism, socialism, and fascism work, and don’t!
From Jennifer Lytle: When I was about 13 years old, I meticulously devoured every word in The Diary of Anne Frank. This book has never left my heart.
From Ann Sheybani: The Revenge of Geography by Robert D. Kaplan. When you understand the map, you see why history has played out the way it has and why it will continue to repeat itself again and again.
Also recommended:
- The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale (Aleksander Sinigoj)
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Melissa Kascak)
PARTING THOUGHTS
There you have it—recommendations from people who live and breathe books. Whether you’re looking for something to make you laugh during a holiday gathering, cry into your cocoa on a quiet winter evening, or completely reconsider how you see the world, you’ll find it here.
And remember: the best book is the one you’ll actually read. So pick something that calls to you, curl up somewhere cozy, and get lost in a good story.
Happy reading, and happy holidays!
Want more book recommendations and writing insights? Connect with our authors and discover their books at www.summitpresspublishers.com
