As the days grow shorter and long summer afternoons at the beach are replaced by long winter evenings by the fire, we wanted to offer you a list of books best read from cover to cover in one sitting. These are skinny books that pack a punch. Keep these small treasures close by for those unexpected evenings when the kids are at a sleepover or your partner is working late. Lock the doors, disconnect the phone, and dive in.

A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O’Nan

This book is haunting, powerful, sparsely written fiction. Told in the second person, the tone feels dream-like. I closed the book following my first read and immediately opened the front cover to begin again. AR

The Jump Off Creek by Molly Gloss

In the Oregon mountains of the 1890s, a woman gives her side of pioneering the west. JD

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

This book should be read once a year. AR

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Imagine a fountain of youth! The Tuck family is confronted with an agonizing situation when a 10-year-old and a greedy stranger discover their secret spring whose water prevents one from every growing any older. JD

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This piece is written in the first person by a woman slowing losing her mind. Jean and I read this work for our very first meeting of our feminist book group in 1989. Our facilitator asked us to draw the yellow wallpaper. I still have that vision in my head. AR

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

This is a true story of a 20-year friendship via letters between an outspoken aspiring American writer and a London bookseller. It’s filled with references to books for those of you books lovers who like to make lists. JD

-Jean Dunn and Ann Rulseh

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