As far as Thanksgiving reading recommendations go, I have nothing different to recommend from last year. My favorite Thanksgiving-esque book is Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen, by Laurie Colwin. It doubles as a cookbook, at least a little. And many of the recipes are perfect for this time of year. Beyond that, I can recommend “Turkey Remains and How to Inter Them with Numerous Scarce Recipes” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (in The Crack-Up (used)). “Thanksgiving in the Anthropocene, 2015” (a poem) by Craig Santos Perez. Also, the first chapter from Tommy Orange’s There There.

I began reading Book of Delights by Ross Gay last Thanksgiving but still haven’t finished it. And although I can appreciate it on some level, I have found it to be about almost anything except delights. I don’t know if I have time to add another Thanksgiving-themed book to the TBR this year.

Here are a few, random other Thanksgiving-related reads that I have not read but maybe you could try out:

The Ice Storm, Rick MoodyThanksgiving Night, Richard BauschOldtown Folks, Harriet Beecher StoweThe Thanksgiving Visitor, Truman CapoteStrangers at the Feast, Jennifer VanderbesBilly Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben FountainAmerican Pastoral, Philip RothThe Holiday Season, Michael Night

And here are some shiny new published books happening in November:

The City and Its Uncertain Wall, Haruki MurakamiThe Half King, Melissa LandersSomewhere Beyond the Sea, T. J. Klune (Cerulean Sea #2)The Magnificent Ruins, Nayantara RoyBelieve, Jeremy Egner (the story behind the making of Ted Lasso)The Authors’ Guide to Murder, Beatriz WilliamsMurder Town, Shelley BurrWe Shall Be Monsters, Alyssa Wee

And just because I want to mention it:

The Mythmakers, John Hendrix

I will be reading book club books this month, but I also am reading books like the one I am revising and trying to find an agent for. I added many, many titles to my check-it-out list last week while I had a crisis of comps. Comps in the publishing world (and probably other worlds) is short for “comparables,” and it means a brief list of recent, relevant books that are like the one you are trying to sell. They help a possible agent (or editor) understand where your book would fit in the current market. This is a different blog.

Here’s the book club reads:

Giovanni’s Room, James BaldwinTrail of Lightning, Rebecca RoanhorseThe Book Club Hotel, Sarah MorganSame Bed, Different Dreams, Ed Park

Here is the list of books I am pulling from to firm up my comps and read in my genre. The list might not make any sense to you or seem cohesive, but there are elements in each book which may (or may not) work (for my purposes):

City of Ghosts, V. E. SchwabHold Me Closer, Necromancer, Lish McBrideLost Man’s Lane, Scott CarsonWe Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley JacksonGhost Roast, Shawnee and Shawnelle GibbsNothing More to Tell, Karen M. McManusGideon the Ninth, Tamsyn MuirSabriel, Garth NixBelladonna, Adalyn GracesA Declaration of the Rights of Magicians, H. G. ParryMiles Morales: Straight Out of Brooklyn, Saladin AhmedThe Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1), Jonathan StroudTwo Sides to Every Murder, Danielle ValentineStalking Jack the Ripper, Kerri ManiscalcoVespertine, Margaret RogersonMoriarty, Anthony HorowitzThe Dysasters, P. C. CastRenegades, Marissa MeyerI’ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara

PS. I skipped all of my book clubs in October. Every single one. I was swamped with work, getting ready for a conference I’ll tell you about shortly, and my books clubs (and book club reads) were one of the many sacrifices to be made. Still, I read things.

Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett JohnsonHow to Write a Mystery, Mystery Writers of AmericaWhat Feasts at Night, T. KingfisherRebecca, Daphne du MaurierThe Emotion Thesaurus, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi

HERE’s a link to a list of movies and picture books you might want to watch and read for the Thanksgiving season.