Anywhere from one to three weeks from now, depending on when your finals end, you’ll get to go home for winter break. You’ll have finished the fall semester, which means you’ll have a month off from classes, healthier sleep habits and an abundance of free time. What can you do with this newfound freedom? Read!

If you’re like me, you rarely have time to read books you actually enjoy during the semester because you’re too busy reading 400 pages a week for your classes (the life of a humanities major). So now that the semester is coming to a close, I’ve created a list of books you can read for leisure this winter.

“Life of the Party” by Olivia Gatwood
Olivia Gatwood’s debut full length poetry collection is absolutely stunning. In the book’s introduction, she writes, “the language of true crime is coded—it tells us our degree of mourning is contingent on the victim’s story.” In addition to being an investigation into society’s obsession with true crime, “Life of the Party” is a chilling and extremely vulnerable coming-of-age narrative. Gatwood fuses her intricate knowledge of true crime with beautifully-worded experiences from her own girlhood, writing lines about adolescence including, “what is more teen girl than not being loved, but wanting it so badly you accept the smallest crumb and call yourself full?” This evocative collection showcases Gatwood’s phenomenal work.

“They Can’t Kill Us All: The Story of the Black Lives Matter Movement” by Wesley Lowery
New York Times reporter Wesley Lowery spent nearly three months on the ground reporting the events that happened in Ferguson after Mike Brown’s murder. In addition to his real-time reporting, Lowery also delineates the trajectory of Black Lives Movement from its inception. “They Can’t Kill Us All” is an in-depth and intriguing examination of protest culture, and Lowery even mentions Brittany Packnett, a Washington University alumna.

“Her Body and Other Parties” by Carmen Maria Machado
Ironically enough, I know about this book because I read two short stories from it for a class this semester. But from my limited introduction to “Her Body and Other Parties,” it seems like a thrilling collection of stories. Machado uses speculative fiction to critique our society’s notions around sexuality, gender and violence against women. As a genre, speculative fiction is titillating in the way that it almost makes sense but leaves audiences searching for just a bit more clarity, and Machado’s collection of stories are in line with this generic convention. I’ll be reading “Her Body and Other Parties” this winter break, and you should too.

“They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us” by Hanif Abdurraqib
I read this during winter break last year, and it was by far my favorite read of the break. Released by cultural critic and essayist Hanif Abdurraqib in 2017, “They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us” is a stimulating and beautifully written collection of essays about music and the African-American experience in America. Abdurraqib effortlessly writes about Carly Rae Jepson, the Obama administration, Bruce Springsteen and his mother’s death during his childhood, all in one collection. Abdurraqib’s writing is unforgettable, and I’d definitely recommend not only this book but any of his other works.