Mahjong! Book Recommendations!
This is as close as I'm going to get to a gift guide!
Mahjong!
On Sunday I learned how to play Mahjong and won my first game and I’m now somewhat obsessed with it and signing up for another afternoon of it in January. Mahjong is a Chinese game played with cool little tiles that look like jello or some kind of candy on one side and have symbols on the other side. One of the people I played with compared it to the game Rummy. You play with four people and you win by getting a certain number of matching sets. Veronica Chan taught us how to play at Nin Hao, where we had delicious dim sum while we played. You should follow Veronica on Instagram (@veronicanotvictoria) so you can learn about the next Mahjong meetup. She’s planning another Dim Sum Mahjong afternoon in January!
Book Recommendations!
I have two favorite forms of escapism—going on vacation and reading novels. Reading is way less expensive than taking a trip so I buy a lot of books and think they make great gifts. On Instagram I recently shared some of the books I most enjoyed in 2025 and I promised to write a little bit about why I liked these books so here goes:
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy: You could say this is a book about friendship. It’s also a book about the meandering journey of two sisters—one older and one younger and the younger sister’s friends over the course of two decades. It’s about getting older—going from being a twentysomething to a forty something —from clubbing to parenting. From being broke to being quite solvent (at least for one or two of the friends).It also manages to have so many timely elements such as reference to social media, genocide, police violence. Weirdly, it reminded me of a serious literary version of Issa Rae show, Insecure. The perspective changes from one character to another in each chapter. The story mainly takes place in New York and LA. I really enjoyed the twists and turns in this book and look forward to reading it again.
Margot’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
Teenage pregnancy meets money problems meets professional wresting meets Only Fans. This is the funniest and most imaginative novel I read all year. I loved it. That’s all I’m going to say about this book.
Happiness & Love by Zoe Dubno
Have you ever wanted to publish a rant? This novel is essentially one very long rant from a character who just attended a memorial service and is now at a dinner party and actively realizing just how much she dislikes everyone she knows. The best part happens in the last 50 pages.
What a Time to Be Alive by Jade Chang
About a decade ago, Jade Chang wrote a hilarious novel called The Wangs Vs. The World so when I saw her latest book at the Center for Fiction I knew I had to buy it. The main character’s best friend dies and things take a weird turn and she becomes an influencer/cult leader. While reading this book I’m realizing that it is one of four novels I’ve read this year that really centers Instagram and our relationship with social media in our daily lives. I find that detail fascinating even though that’s not “what the book is about.”
Worry by Alexandra Tanner
This novel is about two sisters newly living together in Brooklyn and kind of making each other miserable. It’s also absolutely an examination of how we live with our phones today. The older sister is so chronically online/on her phone that it made me want to chuck my cell phone and get a landline. This is the first book that I have ever read that so aptly describes how we pick up and put down our phones and scroll about 300 times on a daily basis. It’s kind of funny too.
Murder on Sex Island by Jo Firestone
This is a book that made me laugh out loud several times. It’s an actual murder mystery that takes place within the backdrop of a reality show that’s about hooking up. Imagine if someone turned up dead on Love Island and you kind of get the drift. I don’t think a funnier murder mystery exists and if you need a good laugh (don’t we all?) you should read this book.
Suder by Percival Everett
I learned about Percival Everett thanks to seeing the movie American Fiction which is based on Everett’s novel, Erasure. He’s written somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 books!!! Last year I read his most recent novel, James, and I loved it (truly a must read) so when I saw Suder at the bookstore I bought it immediately. It’s about a baseball player who’s in a serious slump and goes on a trip to escape his blues and the journey is weird. It involves an elephant. It’s a page turner and one of the strangest stories I’ve read this year.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akad
I’m currently reading this book and the sentences are beautiful. It’s a gorgeously written book about what’s happening in Gaza and probably one of the most important books of the year. You should read it.
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Of all the books I read this year, this is the one I could most easily see being turned into a (Netflix) movie—the good kind. It starts out kind of dark—trigger warning for suicide ideation—but it becomes a rom com. I actually expect it’s probably being adapted for the screen right now. It’s a wedding story gone wrong for some but right for the main character and her new love.
Lies and Weddings by Kevin Kwan
I’ve been a fan of Kevin Kwan’s books ever since I read Crazy Rich Asians years ago. I love his books because they’re total soap operas and they make me feel like I’m eating cotton candy in luxurious places. Like all of his novels, this one takes place in about eight different countries and involves a lot of delicious food and expensive fashion and lots of family drama. If you enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians—the book or the film—you’ll like this book.
The People’s Project edited by Saeed Jones and Maggie Smith
This book is a compilation of essays and poems by 27 artists and writers in response to the presidential election that gave us Trump part two. The themes are community building, action, visions for ways forward. It’s a small but powerful book for these times.
The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
A few months ago my Dad and I took a course about Palestine taught by Rashid Khalidi at the People’s Forum in New York City. Khalidi was going to teach the course at Columbia but had to withdraw it so he opened it up to the public and what a gift that was. The course is available on YouTube on the People’s Forum’s page. His bestselling book is an ideal read to accompany the course or to replace it if you don’t think you’ll follow the online class.
They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey
I’ve written about my love of dance classes and this book drew me in because it’s about dancers—one old, a father, and one younger—his adult daughter who has come to visit him as he is now on his deathbed. The story is about how they became somewhat estranged—it’s also about dance and the West Village and being a gay man in New York in the 1980s and 1990s which is to say that HIV/AIDS is part of the story and gentrification and the difficulty of being a “creative person” and making a living and the question of home.
Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
I spent a lot of the past summer taking Italian lessons and then went on a trip to visit friends in Rome and Frascati. I saw this title and felt it was appropriate for me to read some short stories that take place in or around Rome. I love Jhumpa Lahiri’s writing. The funny thing is that I find the stories very serious and a bit sad but my experience with my Italian friends—and even strangers I interact with in Italy—is that there is almost always a very apparent joyfulness, humor or buoyancy that does not come across in these stories but I like them because I like Rome.
Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar
Currently reading! I think it’s kind of funny and clever but I’m not far enough in to give a proper description but I like it!
Josephine Baker by Jacques Pessis
I’m obsessed with Josephine Baker and try to read something in French from time to time so this biography is enjoyable. I got it in Paris when I went to see the Paris Noir exhibit at the Centre Pompidou and it is a perfect memento.
Please buy your books from independent bookstores! You probably have your favorite local independent bookstores—mine are: BEM Books & More, Harriet’s Bookshop, McNally Jackson, Books Are Magic, Greenlight Books, Center for Fiction, Liz’s Book Bar, Kitchen Arts and Letters, Now Serving, Omnivore Books, Book Larder.
Next week I will post some of my favorite Food Books of 2025.
