December is a significant time of gathering, spending time with family, and building community regardless of where you are in the world and what holidays you celebrate. While many cultural and religious holidays celebrated at this time emphasize togetherness, shared traditions, and reflection with a typical emphasis on themes like building relationships, hopefulness, gratitude, and generosity, these are universal themes that can include anyone and everyone regardless of how they choose to come together or to celebrate.

Whether it is a time for getting cozy and relaxing, feasting on cultural foods, strengthening bonds with others, gift giving, following traditions, building new ones, or something else entirely, this is the time of making lasting memories and connections. If you’re looking for a book that celebrates the winter season, check out our list from last year here. It includes many genres from seasonal romances, to fantasy, to thriller, and more.

That said, the winter season can be a stressful time for some. Seasonal pressures can include the financial (gift buying), social (showing up cheerfully to every event on an already overloaded calendar), health/mental health (chronic illness flare ups and seasonal depression), and familial (forced gatherings and potentially difficult family dynamics). Sometimes these are overwhelming. While many people love all of the happenings and bustle of the season, it’s not for everyone, and not everyone thrives with these expectations. So if that’s you, you’re not alone. You’re just human.

This booklist talks about family dynamics. It touches on themes like identity and belonging, secrets, lies, betrayal, loyalty, found family and nontraditional bonds, parent-child and sibling relationships — messy, complicated, complex, and more. If you’re looking for perspective, validation, growth, empathy, or even just to cope through fiction with relatable characters, these stories offer you a chance to feel seen, decompress, and practice self-compassion.