Reading, watching, listening, and gaming recommendations from the staff of the American Writers Museum.
We can’t recommend these books, films, albums, and games highly enough! Check back every month for more entertainment recommendations, from classics that we revisit over and over to new favorites. If you’re looking for your next book or movie or show or whatever, you came to the right place.
Many of our December staff picks are also available on Bookshop.org, which benefits independent bookstores. We also strongly encourage you to support your local bookstore by visiting them in person or ordering online through them directly.
Let us know what you’ve been into recently in the comments!
Amma, Tell Me About Diwali! by Bhakti Mathur, illustrated by Maulshree Somani
From the publisher: “Celebrate Diwali, the Indian festival of lights by reading this wonderful children’s picture book to your kids. Join the two brothers Klaka and Kiki as they light diyas and firecrackers, buy new clothes, and get Amma to answer their countless questions — Why do we celebrate Diwali? Why do we pray to Ganesha and Lakshmi on Diwali? And hear the story of Rama and his homecoming. A perfect book to introduce the stories behind Diwali to your children. For ages 2 to 8.”
—Sonal, Assistant Director of Programming & Education
Amma, Tell Me About Durga Puja! by Bhakti Mathur, illustrated by Maulshree Somani
From the publisher: “Join Amma, Klaka and Kiki as they celebrate the biggest outdoor festival in the world, Durga Puja. Join the three as they enjoy a week full of festivities as they go pandal hopping, offer Pushpanjali to Ma Durga, dance to the beat of the dhaak and finally bid farewell to Ma Durga. Hear Amma narrate the story of the birth of Ma Durga, how she defeated the shape shifting demon Mahishasura and achieved a feat no man had!”
—Sonal, Assistant Director of Programming & Education
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson
From the publisher: “The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, and swear. So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant. None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale—the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies—has a lot of people up in arms. And their wild antics cause havoc throughout the play’s production. But the actual pageant is full of surprises for everyone, starting with the Herdmans themselves, as they ultimately lead the town in finding the true meaning of Christmas. They will make this year’s pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.”
—Annie, Education Associate
Beyond a Steel Sky written and directed by Charles Cecil, a game from Revolution Software
Set in a futuristic world where most people live in megacities after global disaster and war have laid waste to a large portion of the planet. We play as Robert, someone born in a megacity but who has lived in the Gaplands for a long time. The cities are designed and run by robots and the writer, Cecil, examines how AI might interpret a prime directive of keeping people happy. This is a low-key game that guides the player through a mystery and puzzle solving instead of shooting enemies. It will keep you playing until you figure it out.
—Christopher, Director of Operations
The Billboard by Natalie Y. Moore
From the publisher: “The Billboard is about a fictional Black women’s clinic in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood on the South Side and its fight with a local gadfly running for City Council who puts up a provocative billboard: ‘Abortion is genocide. The most dangerous place for a Black child is his mother’s womb,’ spurring on the clinic to fight back with their own provocative sign: ‘Black women take care of their families by taking care of themselves. Abortion is self-care. #Trust Black Women.’ The book also has a foreword and afterword and Q&A with a founder of reproductive justice. As a play and book, The Billboard is a cultural force that treats abortion as more than pro-life or pro-choice.”
—Isabel, Storyteller
A Christmas Story screenplay by Jean Shepherd, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark
From Rotten Tomatoes: “Based on the humorous writings of author Jean Shepherd, this beloved holiday movie follows the wintry exploits of youngster Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley), who spends most of his time dodging a bully (Zack Ward) and dreaming of his ideal Christmas gift, a ‘Red Ryder air rifle.’ Frequently at odds with his cranky dad (Darren McGavin) but comforted by his doting mother (Melinda Dillon), Ralphie struggles to make it to Christmas Day with his glasses and his hopes intact.”
—Annie, Education Associate
Emilia Pérez screenplay by Jacques Audiard
From Rotten Tomatoes: “From renegade auteur Jacques Audiard comes Emilia Pérez, an audacious fever dream that defies genres and expectations. Through liberating song and dance and bold visuals, this odyssey follows the journey of four remarkable women in Mexico, each pursuing their own happiness. The fearsome cartel leader Emilia (Karla SofÃa Gascón) enlists Rita (Zoe Saldaña), an unappreciated lawyer stuck in a dead-end job, to help fake her death so that Emilia can finally live authentically as her true self.”
—Isabel, Storyteller
Exceptional X-Men (Issue #1) by Eve L. Ewing, illustrated by Carmen Carnero
From the publisher: “KATE PRYDE LEADS A TEAM OF ALL-NEW X-MEN! After the fall of Krakoa, Kate Pryde is trying to get as far away from all things X as she possibly can. She’s just a regular-degular bartender now. Definitely NOT getting ready to head up an ALL-NEW TEAM of wayward young mutants while avoiding the watchful gaze of Emma Frost. Nothing in this title but work, dating and staving off depression. That’s it. No never-before-seen EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN to see here!”
—Cassidy, Guest Services Manager
Finding Me by Viola Davis
Listen to the audiobook if you can, it’s free on Spotify! Hearing her story in her own voice is a truly magical experience and in my opinion one of the most well deserved Grammy wins.
More from the publisher: “In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever…Finding Me is a deep reflection, a promise, and a love letter of sorts to self. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.”
—Maya, Marketing & Creative Associate
Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin
From the publisher: “Weaving together memories, recipes, and wild tales of years spent in the kitchen, the acclaimed author of Happy All the Time delivers a beloved cookbook manifesto on the joys of sharing food and entertaining. From the humble hotplate of her one-room apartment to the crowded kitchens of bustling parties, Colwin regales us with tales of meals gone both magnificently well and disastrously wrong. Hilarious, personal, and full of Colwin’s hard-won expertise, Home Cooking will speak to the heart of any amateur cook, professional chef, or food lover.”
—Isabel, Storyteller
How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mark Teague
From the publisher: “Brimming with humor and familiar good-night antics, here is a playful peek into the homes of dinosaur children and their parents at bedtime. Perfect for sharing and reading aloud, this is one nighttime book your own little dinosaur will want to read again and again. Simple verse and hilarious illustrations present common scenes of sly humor as enormous dinosaur children yawn and fuss and throw their toys about—before finally going to sleep.”
—Sonal, Assistant Director of Programming & Education
How to Read a Play: Script Analysis for Directors by Damon Kiely
From the publisher: “How to Read a Play outlines the crucial work required for a play before the first rehearsal, the first group reading or even before the cast have met. Directors and dramaturgs must know how to analyze, understand, and interpret a play or performance text if they hope to bring it to life on the stage…Contributions, reflections and interjections from a host of successful directors make this the ideal starting point for anyone who wants to direct a play, or even devise one of their own. This wide range of different approaches, options and techniques allows each reader to create their own brand of play analysis.”
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
Interior Chinatown created by Charles Yu
From Hulu: “Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural trying to find his way into the larger story—and along the way discovering secrets about the strange world he inhabits and his family’s buried history.”
Interior Chinatown is based on Yu’s novel of the same name, which won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction.
—Isabel, Storyteller
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
From the publisher: “Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his 30s…But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women…Ivan is a 22-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.”
—Maya, Marketing & Creative Associate
I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones
From the publisher: “1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton—and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, seventeen, and about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, and shared sense of unfairness of being on the outside through the slasher horror Jones loves, but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.”
I had the pleasure of interviewing Jones for the most recent episode of the Nation of Writers podcast. This episode focuses on James Welch (see below), who had a major influence on Jones. You can listen to this episode here.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin directed by Benjamin Ree
From Netflix: “Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, when they started receiving messages from online friends around the world…[The film] takes a deep dive into Steen’s digital life, interviewing his friends and plumbing the Steen family’s archives. The film takes viewers on a journey through the breadth of Mats Steen’s adventurous life online—introducing us to Ibelin, his charismatic World of Warcraft persona—and underscores how community and soulful relationships can transcend the boundaries of the physical world.”
—Linda, Director of Development
River of Books: A Life in Reading by Donna Seaman
From the publisher: “With the infectious curiosity of an inveterate bibliophile and the prose of a fine stylist, Donna Seaman charts the course of her early reading years in a book-by-book chronicle of the significance books have held in her life. River of Books recounts Seaman’s journey in becoming an editor for Booklist, a reviewer, an author, and a literary citizen, and lays bare how she nourished both body and soul in working with books. Seaman makes palpable the power and self-recognition that she discovered in a life dedicated to reading.”
Seaman will visit the American Writers Museum later this month to discuss her highly anticipated memoir with AWM President Carey Cranston. Get your tickets to attend in person here. Or, sign up here to watch the livestream.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Shrinking created by Brett Goldstein, Bill Lawrence, and Jason Segel
The final episode of Season 2 will air on December 25, 2024. I literally re-upped my Apple TV subscription just for this show, which is from the creator of Ted Lasso, Scrubs, Spin City and Cougar Town.
More from IMDB: “A grieving therapist starts to tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge changes to people’s lives—including his own.”
—Annie, Education Associate
Stop Kiss by Diana Son
From the publisher: “‘A poignant and funny play about the ways, both sudden and slow, that lives can change irrevocably,’ says Variety. After Callie meets Sara, the two unexpectedly fall in love. Their first kiss provokes a violent attack that transforms their lives in a way they could never anticipate.”
—Isabel, Storyteller
There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
From the publisher: “Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling…There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it’s basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.”
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Visit to a Small Planet by Gore Vidal
From the publisher: “The fun comes fast and furious in the riotous frolic about a visiting spaceman who lands his flying saucer on earth…and almost wrecks the lives of two young lovers, a TV news analyst, and a pompous Pentagon general.”
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
YA ghost/horror novel. It was a favorite when I was very young and I recently reread it (because Isabel and I both realized we had been into it, actually). It absolutely holds up to the reread. Great prose, spooky story.
More from the publisher: “Ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn spins a suspenseful yarn about two children who dislike their malicious younger stepsister, Heather—and tensions that escalate when Heather starts talking to a ghost named Helen.”
—Hunter, Storyteller
Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
From the publisher: “Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family…In a novel that is by turns shattering and wondrous, Orange has conjured the ancestors of the family readers first fell in love with in There There—warriors, drunks, outlaws, addicts—asking what it means to be the children and grandchildren of massacre. Wandering Stars is a novel about epigenetic and generational trauma that has the force and vision of a modern epic, an exceptionally powerful new book from one of the most exciting writers at work today and soaring confirmation of Tommy Orange’s monumental gifts.”
—Carey, President
Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation by Jim O’Heir
From the publisher: “Jim O’Heir, who played Jerry (or Garry or Larry) on Parks and Recreation and co-hosts the hit podcast Parks and Recollection, brings fans a heartfelt behind-the-scenes look at one of America’s most beloved sitcoms, brimming with never-before-told stories featuring the cast and crew, along with dozens of unseen photos…As the show found its footing, the cast quickly bonded into a tight-knit family. Here O’Heir shares all his favorite unforgettable memories both on and off camera, from hilarious unscripted moments and epic dance-offs in the hair and makeup trailers, to iconic birthday parties at Rashida Jones’s house and quiet bonfires in Nick Offerman’s backyard. Welcome to Pawnee is O’Heir’s loving tribute to Parks and Recreation, imbued with the same warmth and humor that endeared the show to millions.”
—Annie, Education Associate
Whitney directed by Kevin Macdonald
From Rotten Tomatoes: “Filmmaker Kevin Macdonald examines the life and career of singer Whitney Houston. Features never-before-seen archival footage, exclusive recordings, rare performances and interviews with the people who knew her best.”
—Isabel, Storyteller
Wicked (film) screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
My favorite film of the year, Wicked is the long-awaited thrillifying adaptation of the hit musical (also one of my favorites). Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were perhaps born to play Elphaba and Glinda. John Chu’s work of bringing this musical to the screen is nothing short of life changing. Congratulations to entire cast, crew, and all the incredible writers involved in this swankified project.
—Matt, Community Engagement Manager
Winter in the Blood by James Welch
From the publisher: “During his life, James Welch came to be regarded as a master of American prose, and his first novel, Winter in the Blood, is one of his most enduring works. The narrator of this beautiful, often disquieting novel is a young Native American man living on the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana. Sensitive and self-destructive, he searches for something that will bind him to the lands of his ancestors but is haunted by personal tragedy, the dissolution of his once proud heritage, and Montana’s vast emptiness. Winter in the Blood is an evocative and unforgettable work of literature that will continue to move and inspire anyone who encounters it.”
You can learn more about Welch on the latest episode of the Nation of Writers podcast, in which I interview bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones (see above) about Welch’s influence on his life and writing. You can listen to this episode here.
—Nate, Manager, Content & Exhibits
Visit our Reading Recommendations page for more book lists.