“Just One More Chapter” and Other Lies: 25 Books CNET Staff Are Reading Over the Holiday Break

Between holiday chaos, leftover-induced food comas and swearing we'll "only read for 20 minutes," the CNET team is currently tearing through books in every mood and genre. This list of 25 reads spans sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction and a generous helping of Terry Pratchett. And let's be real; the to-be-read pile never ends -- and after putting this list together, ours has only gotten longer. These are the books keeping us up well past a sensible bedtime this holiday season. I have a thing about feminine rage (insert the Anya Taylor-Joy clip here), and that's honestly the main reason I wanted to read this. The Palace of Illusions is a work of historical fiction that retells the Indian epic Mahabharata from Draupadi's, or Panchaali as she's often referred to, perspective. She's a central figure in the original and, in many ways, the catalyst for the devastating war that follows. But this book doesn't frame her as the usual damsel in distress. Instead, we see her rage, her tantrums, her sharp intelligence and the shrewdness with which she runs her household. We see her insistence on taking up space in a deeply patriarchal world. I've always viewed the characters of the Mahabharata, including Draupadi, as almost god-like, but this retelling strips that away and makes them feel human. This book came highly recommended to me by a close friend after learning I’d just finished the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and was looking for something to keep me busy for a while. The Unconventional Heroes series has an ever-expanding cast of characters is well-reviewed, and I am excited to see where this new (to me) set of adventures takes me. It’s been a long, cold winter, and I’m ready to curl up with this romance novel with a touch of magic. The premise alone is enough to make me bump it to the top of the holiday reading list: A woman gets stuck in a time loop after eating magical dumplings. I’m a few chapters in and already loving how engaging and fun Lau’s writing is. I’m reading John Dies at the End by David Wong (Jason Pargin). I’d been interested in reading it for a while but was assigned it as part of Tough Guy Book Club . The book is a supernatural comedy thriller, which was famously turned into a movie starring Paul Giamatti. It’s fine, I’m fine, you’re fine. This meticulously crafted far-future world is relayed through the sensors of the protagonist, a cyborg Security Unit who calls itself Murderbot. It has guns built into its arms, super strength and the ability to hack pretty much any space ship, security system and/or lesser bot, but the best part is its sarcastic, off-kilter voice. After I finish I'm absolutely going to binge the Apple TV series starring Alexander Skarsgård in the title role. As a lover of all things pop culture, this is a book I'm super keen to dive into. It explores the many cultural phenomena that have shaped the...

Preview: ~500 words