Seasonal
Best Long-Weekend Reads
A long-weekend read needs to fit in a three-day window with enough propulsion to pull you across the lazy Saturday afternoon and the Sunday morning coffee. These eight are the books our editors recommend when a friend asks for one book to finish over a holiday weekend.
8 books on this list.
The Silent Patientby Alex Michaelides
4.0“The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides 2019 review. A forensic psychotherapist works with an artist who has not spoken since the night she shot her husband. The thriller debut that topped the New York Times bestseller list for over a year and became the most-discussed contemporary psychological thriller of its decade.”
Verityby Colleen Hoover
4.0“Verity by Colleen Hoover 2018 review. A struggling writer hired to finish an injured bestseller's series finds an autobiographical manuscript in the family home. The Hoover thriller that broke out years after publication on BookTok and remains the most-discussed contemporary domestic thriller of the decade.”
Normal Peopleby Sally Rooney
5.0“Normal People by Sally Rooney 2018 review. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small Sligo town, attend Trinity College Dublin together, and orbit each other across four years of intermittent intimacy. The literary-fiction novel that defined the Rooney moment.”
Project Hail Maryby Andy Weir
5.0“Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 2021 review. A junior-high science teacher wakes alone on a deep-space craft with no memory. Andy Weir's third novel and the canonical contemporary hard science fiction novel about a single problem solved correctly.”
The Midnight Libraryby Matt Haig
4.0“A gorgeous concept executed with warmth and wit. The Midnight Library will make you think differently about the choices you have made - and the ones still ahead.”
Klara and the Sunby Kazuo Ishiguro
5.0“Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro 2021 review. Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches the children passing by the storefront and waits to be chosen. Late-career Ishiguro at his most patient and most strange.”
Fourth Wingby Rebecca Yarros
4.0“Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros 2023 review. Violet Sorrengail, a fragile scribe, is forced into the brutal dragon-riding war college. The first book of the Empyrean series and the romantasy novel that defined the 2023-2024 BookTok moment.”
Mexican Gothicby Silvia Moreno-Garcia
5.0“Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 review. Noemi Taboada is summoned to the remote Mexican mountain town of El Triunfo to rescue her cousin from her new husband's family. The canonical contemporary Latin American gothic horror novel and the 2020 Bram Stoker winner.”