The usual slate of the year’s best books arrives like another holiday to-do list we’ll never knock off. Here are five brief escapes that bring a little light, warmth, and coziness, to paraphrase Auntie Mame, right this very minute.
Glimpsing Heaven: The Stories and Science of Life After Death
by Judy Bachrach
Bachrach, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, tackles this enormous, fantastical topic with journalistic precision, mixing first-person accounts of death experiences—she eschews the term “near death”; her subjects have died—with research that suggests they’re more than the result of physiological responses, in a way that illuminates both.
Rather than testing belief against clinical fact, the author’s clear, compassionate perspective shows the wonder that these “death travelers” hold for scientists, who can’t deny them but still don’t fully understand them.
The Late Starters Orchestra
by Ari L. Goldman
Goldman (The Search for God at Harvard) joins a group of musicians as a cellist, hoping to impress his friends at his 60th-birthday party with a return to the instrument he abandoned more than 20 years ago. Instead, the leap grants him the grace to reconnect with his history. Dotted with beautifully detailed sketches by Eric Hanson, this is a book you think you wouldn’t ever pick up—and then, once you do, you can’t put down.
The Monogram Murders
by Sophie Hannah
Will fan fiction burnish or bury the legacy of authors we once considered inimitable?
The Agatha Christie estate, betting on the former, invited Sophie Hannah—who headlined this year’s Fall for the Book festival at George Mason University—to pen this Hercule Poirot mystery novel as an homage. Hannah channels Christie’s little Belgian detective, complete with an “exquisite moustache” and excessive coffee consumption—and adds a twist worthy of Dame Agatha herself.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
Set in a bookstore on a Nantucket-ish island, Zevin’s eighth novel follows the hapless A.J. Fikry as he worries over the decline of his shop, books, and humanity in general until the unexpected enters his life in the form of a stranger.
Determined to influence this newcomer through the books that have touched him over the years, Fikry winds up learning from them all over again. In doing so, he ends up showing even the non-readers in his tiny island community that they can be seduced by the right story—or person.
Conversations With God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans
Edited by James Melvin Washington
“Grant, that this highly favored country may continue to afford a safe and peaceful retreat from the calamities of war and slavery,” wrote Absalom Jones in 1808 in “A Thanksgiving Prayer for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade.”
Washington, a former professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York and a Martin Luther King Jr. scholar, selects searing prayers by men and women, slaves and free people, prominent and obscure that embody the deep roots and enduring legacy of African-American spirituality in the nation.
This article appears in our December 2014 issue of Washingtonian.
5 Must-Read Books for December
These quiet reads offer respite from the year-end holiday madness.
The usual slate of the year’s best books arrives like another holiday to-do list we’ll never knock off. Here are five brief escapes that bring a little light, warmth, and coziness, to paraphrase Auntie Mame, right this very minute.
Glimpsing Heaven: The Stories and Science of Life After Death
by Judy Bachrach
Bachrach, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair, tackles this enormous, fantastical topic with journalistic precision, mixing first-person accounts of death experiences—she eschews the term “near death”; her subjects have died—with research that suggests they’re more than the result of physiological responses, in a way that illuminates both.
Rather than testing belief against clinical fact, the author’s clear, compassionate perspective shows the wonder that these “death travelers” hold for scientists, who can’t deny them but still don’t fully understand them.
The Late Starters Orchestra
by Ari L. Goldman
Goldman (The Search for God at Harvard) joins a group of musicians as a cellist, hoping to impress his friends at his 60th-birthday party with a return to the instrument he abandoned more than 20 years ago. Instead, the leap grants him the grace to reconnect with his history. Dotted with beautifully detailed sketches by Eric Hanson, this is a book you think you wouldn’t ever pick up—and then, once you do, you can’t put down.
The Monogram Murders
by Sophie Hannah
Will fan fiction burnish or bury the legacy of authors we once considered inimitable?
The Agatha Christie estate, betting on the former, invited Sophie Hannah—who headlined this year’s Fall for the Book festival at George Mason University—to pen this Hercule Poirot mystery novel as an homage. Hannah channels Christie’s little Belgian detective, complete with an “exquisite moustache” and excessive coffee consumption—and adds a twist worthy of Dame Agatha herself.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
by Gabrielle Zevin
Set in a bookstore on a Nantucket-ish island, Zevin’s eighth novel follows the hapless A.J. Fikry as he worries over the decline of his shop, books, and humanity in general until the unexpected enters his life in the form of a stranger.
Determined to influence this newcomer through the books that have touched him over the years, Fikry winds up learning from them all over again. In doing so, he ends up showing even the non-readers in his tiny island community that they can be seduced by the right story—or person.
Conversations With God: Two Centuries of Prayers by African Americans
Edited by James Melvin Washington
“Grant, that this highly favored country may continue to afford a safe and peaceful retreat from the calamities of war and slavery,” wrote Absalom Jones in 1808 in “A Thanksgiving Prayer for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade.”
Washington, a former professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York and a Martin Luther King Jr. scholar, selects searing prayers by men and women, slaves and free people, prominent and obscure that embody the deep roots and enduring legacy of African-American spirituality in the nation.
This article appears in our December 2014 issue of Washingtonian.
Most Popular in News & Politics
Meet DC’s 2025 Tech Titans
The “MAGA Former Dancer” Named to a Top Job at the Kennedy Center Inherits a Troubled Program
White House Seriously Asks People to Believe Trump’s Letter to Epstein Is Fake, Oliver North and Fawn Hall Got Married, and It’s Time to Plan Your Apple-Picking Excursion
Scott Bessent Got in Another Argument With a Coworker; Trump Threatens Chicago, Gets Booed in New York; and Our Critic Has an Early Report From Kayu
Trump Travels One Block From White House, Declares DC Crime-Free; Barron Trump Moves to Town; and GOP Begins Siege of Home Rule
Washingtonian Magazine
September Issue: Style Setters
View IssueSubscribe
Follow Us on Social
Follow Us on Social
Related
These Confusing Bands Aren’t Actually From DC
11 Fall Book Sales in the DC Area You Won’t Want to Miss
Fiona Apple Wrote a Song About This Maryland Court-Watching Effort
The Confusing Dispute Over the Future of the Anacostia Playhouse
More from News & Politics
How a DC Area Wetlands Restoration Project Could Help Clean Up the Anacostia River
Pressure Grows on FBI Leadership as Search for Kirk’s Killer Continues, Kennedy Center Fires More Staffers, and Spotted Lanternflies Are Everywhere
What Is Free DC?
Manhunt for Charlie Kirk Shooter Continues, Britain Fires US Ambassador Over Epstein Connections, and Sandwich Guy Will Get a Jury Trial
Can Two Guys Ride a Rickshaw over the Himalayas? It Turns Out They Can.
Trump Travels One Block From White House, Declares DC Crime-Free; Barron Trump Moves to Town; and GOP Begins Siege of Home Rule
Donald Trump Dines at Joe’s Seafood Next to the White House
White House Seriously Asks People to Believe Trump’s Letter to Epstein Is Fake, Oliver North and Fawn Hall Got Married, and It’s Time to Plan Your Apple-Picking Excursion