"I've got a lot of problems with you people, and now you're gonna hear about it!" So began our introduction to the Festivus, a winter holiday invented by Frank Costanza (Seinfeld, 1989-1998) as an alternative to Christmas. It involves a metal pole intead of a tree, The Airing of Grievances—where you tell everyone gathered why they've pissed you off—and the very exciting Feats of Strength (which is exactly what it sounds like). Since that episode aired, Festivus has become an actual holiday celebrated by many, and I'm not sure if it's a nod to the popularity of Seinfeld or to the fact that we, as an American people, just enjoy family drama.
Is that you? Do you live for the drama? (Are you the drama?) Here's a mini Festivus booklist to add fuel to the fires already burning in your familial relationships.
Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us by Allen Salkin
Looking to add a little bitterness to your holiday season? Then Festivus is the book you cannot do without!
It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle by Mark Wolynn
This groundbreaking book offers a compelling understanding of inherited trauma and fresh, powerful tools for relieving its suffering.
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
A dazzling, multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built.
The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding
Secrets can be very dangerous...this twisty, addictively page-turning suspense novel about a perfect family's perfect façade will keep you turning pages until its explosive ending.
Fight Night by Miriam Toews
Fight Night is a love letter to mothers and grandmothers, and to all the women who are still fighting—painfully, ferociously—for a way to live on their own terms.
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