CRP's Blog

For the last staff reads post of the year we asked our staff what they’re looking forward to diving into over the long winter break. Check out the responses below and share what you’re reading in the comments or on Twitter using the hashtag #CRPreads.

If anyone needs a good serial podcast to pass the time during a long holiday drive or plane ride, I would highly recommend “Dirty John,” which was produced by the Los Angeles Times. Really good, and only six episodes. —Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

I am a creature of habit, especially around the holidays, so I will likely be enjoying my annual read of Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher during the winter break. It’s one of my mom’s favorite books, and ever since she was kind enough to loan it to me, it has been one of my little Christmastime traditions.  —Alex Granato, CRP intern

I just picked up a copy of Shirley Jackson’s Let Me Tell You: New Stories, Essays, and Other Writings at Chicago’s newest bookstore, The Dial Bookshop. I’ve read the big three from Jackson—“The Lottery,” We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and The Haunting of Hill House —and always enjoyed her writing and I’m looking forward to reading more. The Huffington Post blurb for the book says this is the closest we can get to sitting down and having a conversation with her—that sold me! —Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

My goal this December is to finish The Heart’s Invisible Furies, but it may get sidetracked because of the new season of Black Mirror. December 29 can’t come soon enough! I’m also loving Guy Raz’s How I Built This podcast. —Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

My sister passed on her copy of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at Thanksgiving, so I plan to read that over Christmas. After Christmas, my husband I are going to Spain for almost two weeks to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. (We got married on New Year’s Eve.) I’ll be lugging my paperback copy of A Little Life on that trip. I’ve been looking forward to reading that for a while. In the meantime I’ll probably be listening to a Spanish phrasebook on audiobook. No hablo español. —Lindsey Schauer, project editor

I just finished My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk and am planning to read In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women by Alice Walker. But that’s a short book so I’ll probably read a few others over winter break too. I just don’t know yet which ones.  —Yuval Taylor, senior editor