9 Short Books To Help Meet Your Reading Goal
By: Amy Teegan
Tags: Books, Culture, Reading, Goals

Round about the last week of the year, you may be looking at your list of goals, comparing them to what you actually completed, and feeling a bit blue. It doesn’t matter how many factors are outside our control — many of us still feel like we should be able to hit our goals, come hell or high water.

We don’t have time to unpack all the reasons that kind of mindset is harmful.

What we do have time for, however, is reading a few more books before midnight on December 31st.

If you’re looking at your list of books read this year and hoping to add a few more, this is for you. There’s plenty of time, if you make reading a priority.

All of the books in this list are fewer than 200 pages (some by a lot). All of them are compelling, and you’ll find yourself flying through the stories of slavery or werewolves or Paris cafes. Grab one — or five — and make “Read X Books” the big goal you meet this year.

(in no particular order — links to buy books are all affiliate, so I will earn a few cents for each of your purchases)

Image: Goodreads

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Genre: Fantasy

This is the first book of a delightful portal fantasy series, Wayward Children. Which means, that you could probably binge-read the entire series before the end of the year if you’re committed to it.

At a core level, the premise of this series is simply brilliant. We all grew up with other portal fantasy stories — Wonderland, Narnia, etc — and this series of books looks at what happens to those children once they have returned to Earth from their magical lands. How can they reconcile who they have become in their fantasy world with the banality of everyday life again?

Some of them can’t. But for them exists Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children.

The series is Young Adult and easily one of the best series to celebrate differences between humans. Wayward Children offers the kind of magic and discussion of home that is perfect to end the year with.

Amazon | Bookshop

Image: Goodreads

Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones

Genre: Horror

Good news: Stephen Graham Jones is such a prolific author that if you love this book, he’s got at least a half dozen more novella-length stories for you to read.

Mapping the Interior follows a teenage indigenous boy as he tries to make sense of what he has seen in his house, starting with his father who died mysteriously. Soon the boy discovers that the house is bigger and even more dangerous than he had realized.

With Graham Jones’s typical imaginative structure and lyrical writing, Mapping the Interior is both literary and frightening. The story and the way he writes it make the reader feel both off-balance and intrigued as the main character explores deeper.

As soon as I finished reading this book, I immediately wanted to reread it.

Amazon | Bookshop

Image: Goodreads

Almost Everything by Anne Lamott

Genre: Inspirational Non-Fiction

Lamott is known for her non-fiction, especially among my writer friends — Bird by Bird was transformative for a lot of people.

This small book — Almost Everything — is a collection of essays about … well, life. In general. It’s framed more or less as a collection of what she knows “about almost everything” to give to a young family member.

You’ll find chapters on dieting, addiction, hate, god, families, and so much more, each examined with Lamott’s trademarked insight and humor.

Amazon | Bookshop

Image: Goodreads

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Genre: Memoir

This is Hemingway’s memoir of his year living in Paris, and includes stories about what it was like to be a young and poor journalist in the 1920s. You’ll see him meeting Steinbeck, frequenting cafes in the 1920s and glimpses of his marriage (at the time).

And, it’s one of my favorite non-fiction books ever. Especially as I am a writer.

I read it before I ever visited Paris, and now I need to reread it with my own memories of that city in mind.

Amazon | Bookshop

Image: Goodreads

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Genre: Literary/Classic

While this book is not technically historical fiction, it is a beautiful look at life for African-Americans in Florida, in the 1930s. It’s considered a classic of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the most influential books to both women’s literature and African-American literature.

It’s beautiful and heart-breaking and fascinating.

Look for themes of gender roles, particularly around money and class, as well as the role of women in a relationship and/or in society. There is so much going on in such a short novel, it’s no wonder it’s so highly regarded.

Amazon | Bookshop

Image: Goodreads

How To Marry a Werewolf by Gail Carriger

Genre: Paranormal Steampunk Rom-Com

A stand-alone novella in a wide web of steampunk supernatural series of books, How To Marry a Werewolf is exactly the right introduction to Carriger’s writing. Or, if you’re like me and already love her books, it’s exactly the right short, funny, romance set in this world to pull you out of a reading slump.

Luckily for us, Carriger has published many short books like this. They’re all light-hearted while still being substantial. The world building is so clear, you should be perfectly fine reading this stand-alone story even without having read any others by the author.

The main character of How To Marry a Werewolf is a “disgraced” American young woman, who shows up in London, hoping to find some man — some werewolf — who won’t be too picky about her past and previous indiscretions. It’s a sweet, sometimes silly, romance, that will have you rooting for the couple.

Amazon | Bookshop

Image: Goodreads

Red At The Bone by Jacqueline Woodson

Genre: Literary

It is amazing what Woodson is able to accomplish with such a short book. I was shocked.

This novel moves back in time, and examines the choices and relationships over several generations of an African-American family in Brooklyn.

The ambitions of the grandparents in the early/mid-twentieth century have meant particular costs for the following generations.

“As it explores sexual desire and identity, ambition, gentrification, education, class and status, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, Red at the Bone most strikingly looks at the ways in which young people must so often make long-lasting decisions about their lives — even before they have begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be.”

Amazon | Bookshop

Image: Goodreads

Up From Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T Washington

Genre: Non-Fiction

Written in 1901, this autobiography describes Washington’s efforts to build his life after living his childhood in slavery.

In particular, the author recounts the obstacles he overcame to get an education, and then later to establish the Tuskegee Institute and other educational programs.

In his life time, Washington was a controversial figure and is most well-known (I think) for his advocating of integration. He argued that if the Black community made an effort to integrate, progressing through education and entrepreneurship, it would reassure white leaders and eventually earn former slaves the political equity they sought.

W.E.B. Du Bois and other critics disagreed.

(But you should read the book and decide for yourself)

Amazon | Bookshop

Image: Goodreads

Poison by Amy Teegan

Genre: Literary / Short Stories

Yep, this is one of my books. I’m quite proud of it and it is perfectly short enough to squeeze in before the end of the year.

Poison is a collection of short stories that look how we destroy others and ourselves. Each person you know is sure they are doing what is right for them, regardless of how it hurts anyone around them.

Between these pages, you’ll find secrets, humor, manipulation, hurt, and hope.

Amazon | Bookshop

Now have at it! Go spend the rest of your day reading a book!

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