Winter break serves as the perfect time to enjoy some leisurely reading that you may not have had time for during the semester. With fewer tasks to complete over break, it is easier to give your mind a break and dive into an entertaining novel. Whether you enjoy suspenseful mysteries, insightful literature, or a relaxing Christmas story, this list has got you covered. The following books are my personal favorites, and I recommend them to anyone who is looking for a meaningful winter read.

• If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

This suspenseful novel centers on the lives of seven Shakespearean acting students at Cellecher Classical Conservatory. Depicted as possessing the characteristics offstage as their roles onstage—villain, hero, tyrant, temptress—, these college students get caught up in their own tragedy that lands one of them in jail. After ten years, Oliver Marks is released from jail and is ready to tell the true story. I highly recommend reading this novel over winter break because of its layered story and shocking ending. 

• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

You may have seen or heard of the show “We Were Liars” that came out over the summer, but did you know it was originally a novel? E. Lockhart’s novel We Were Liars is about a wealthy family, the Sinclairs, who visit their private island near Massachusetts every summer. While this family seems perfect, there are deep secrets hidden beneath the surface. Every summer, the young cousins play with each other on the island, but in “summer fifteen,” the family’s fifteenth summer on the island, teenage Cadence gets into a horrible accident that she cannot remember. Throughout the novel, Cadence returns to the island and attempts to piece together the incident that nobody will tell her about. Riddled with suspense, shock, and a forbidden love story, We Were Liars is a must-read over this winter break. As one of my favorite books for a long time, I recommend that you give this suspenseful novel a read because it is even better than the show. It even has a prequel, Family of Liars, that dives even further into the secrets of the Sinclair’s.

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  Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng’s novel Little Fires Everywhere focuses on the lives of two extremely different families who live in the suburban community of Shaker Heights. The Warrens and the Richardsons both face their own challenges and have their own secrets. Little Fires Everywhere combines its focus on motherhood, race, secrets, and acceptance with its gripping plot to make it the perfect book for a winter break read.

• The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories edited by Jessica Harrison

This collection of short stories features many different authors, each painting their own Christmas world. Some stories featured include “A Christmas Memory,” “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” “A Visit to the Bank,” and “Reginald’s Christmas Revel.” Each story focuses on different festivities, making it the perfect book to read with your family during the holidays. I have personally enjoyed reading some of these short stories with my little cousins during Christmas to put everyone in the holiday spirit.

• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

  

Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar follows a college student, Esther Greenwood, in the 1950s as she balances academic success with relationships and maintaining her scholarship at university. Esther faces the pressure of societal expectations while pursuing her own ambitions of becoming a writer, eventually sending her into a spiral of psychotic depression. The raw emotion and brutal honesty illustrated in The Bell Jar adds to its intensity and compelling plot. I recommend that everyone read this book at least once because of its unique perspective and the questions it will make you ask yourself.