Why is it so wonderfully delightful to witness the dread and misery of characters who return to where they are from? Is it the sheer thrill of voyeurism when we get to peek behind closed doors into lives that may be a little worse off than our own? Is it the comfort of knowing we aren’t the only people out there that may find our loved ones a bit challenging from time to time? The world may never know. But why don’t we leave those questions to the gods and simply look at tales of homecoming. These 5 books are particularly perfect for those of you traveling back home for Thanksgiving.



|+| Add to Your Shelf Moonglow by Michael Chabon A friend recently said to me “I dunno, Chabon doesn’t do it for me.” I replied, “You’re a monster.” Okay, that might be a bit aggressive, but I’m a huge fan of Michael Chabon because he has this fantastic gift of emotion and wonder in his prose. His most recent work of fiction is somewhat autobiographical, informed by his experience returning to his mother’s home in Oakland, California, to visit his terminally ill grandfather. In this fictionalized account of Chabon’s life, the narrator also goes home to help his mother care for his ailing grandfather. Doped-up on pills, the grandfather begins to tell secrets and stories that the narrator has never heard before. They are as enthralling as they are bizarre and left me questioning everything I ever knew about my own grandfather. Two takeaways from this book: 1. When your mother calls to say that your dying grandfather is hopped-up on meds and spilling his guts to anyone who will listen, you get on the plane. 2. Never trust grandparents. They are all liars.