5 Books You Can Read in One Sitting

You will finish this book in a day, but then you’ll spend a few weeks thinking about it. Daniel Magariel tells the story of a father, a 12-year-old boy, and his older brother—all navigating a new life in suburban New Mexico. After a bitter divorce and custody battle, the boys must reckon with their father’s abusive tendencies and master the art of survival. This is a book the New York Times Book Review called “Feral and tender... a gorgeously tight tale swelling with wisdom about the self-destructive longing for paternal approval and the devastating consequence of clinging to rotten models of masculinity.”

Have a sedative close by upon finishing this one. Iain Reid’s creepy and downright sinister debut novel is perfect if you need a Friday night at home on the couch with a completely distracting book to get your mind off of a long week. I’m not telling you that it will be relaxing, but I promise that you won’t be able to stop reading until the final reveal. When Jake takes his girlfriend home to meet his parents at a secluded farm, things start to seem a bit off. When he takes a sudden detour and they end up at an abandoned high school, things get seriously intense. Fans of Stephen King's MISERY and the film Get Out will find this one to be just their speed.

Read the full review of I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS.

Stephen King is no stranger to the short story and is often varied in his breadth of storytelling. In GWENDY’S BUTTON BOX, King pairs up with Richard Chizmar to revisit the mysterious town of Castle Rock. When 12-year-old Gwendy comes across a familiar King character in a black bowler hat (who fans might remember from the Dark Tower series), a series of events take place that readers will never forget. Finally, King is telling the story of one of his most intriguing and elusive characters.

Part research and part memoir, John Edgar Wideman seeks out the story of the father of Emmett Till. Emmett became a symbol in the Civil Rights Movement when his mother chose to leave his casket open to show what white men had done to her son. Wideman was also a 14-year-old boy at the time of Till’s death and the story always intrigued him. When he found out through his research that Louis Till, Emmett’s father, had been executed by the Army ten years earlier for rape and murder, he couldn’t help but see the similarities in the two fates. Wideman’s work tells an important story that has been too long buried.

Read the full review of WRITING TO SAVE A LIFE.

Tiffany Haddish is blowing up everywhere in entertainment right now. But you may want to sit down and take a look at where she is from. With incredible heart, humility, and humor, Haddish recalls a troubled childhood, teenage homelessness, and growing up in the foster care system in California. There are some deeply troubling stories told with incredible humor and tenacity. You will find yourself discussing this one with all sorts of people to make them laugh, to make them think, and to tell them that, in this book, you learned that truly anything is possible—even unicorns.