It can be a challenge to take the time to read during the holidays, when things tend to get really busy and we’re all spending even more time shopping and baking than usual. But if you’re flying, or going on vacation, or even just trying to relax a bit, this can be a perfect time to enjoy a book or two.

I’ve read several books since I last shared some of my favorites, so I wanted to share a few more and see if you have any reads you’d recommend! Please let me know in the comments.

The Weight of Silence: My mom gave me this one to read on the way home from Thanksgiving, since I had finished the books I’d brought with me. It’s a story about two little girls who disappear from their beds in the middle of the night and the search to find them — told from the viewpoints of several different characters. One of the main characters is a little girl who has chosen not to speak for several years, much to the confusion and frustration of most the adults in her life.

The book is not perfect: The characters’ voices aren’t super distinct (I had to look back at the name at the beginning of the chapter a few times to determine who was narrating), and the ending wasn’t a huge surprise. But I liked most of the characters, and the story hooked me early, even though I thought I had an idea of how it might end. Definitely a good, and quick, read.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette: I somehow always end up reading really heavy books, so this fun satire was a nice change of pace. The book is technically about a middle school girl trying to find her (weird) mother, Bernadette, who disappeared from Seattle without a trace. But it is more funny than suspenseful, and almost all the characters are total nutjobs (and pretty entertaining). It’s told through emails and letters from several different people, as well as narration from the daughter, which works well for this story. Also, the author wrote for Arrested Development, so if you like that kind of thing… you’ll probably like this book, too.

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk: This is an Iraq war book… set at a Dallas Cowboys football game. I absolutely loved it. The soldiers in the book are on a brief “rest and relaxation” trip back to the United States in the middle of a deployment to Iraq, and they’ve become national heroes after their brief but intense firefight was broadcast live on cable news. And, in true military fashion, they’re being “honored” by being ordered to spend a freezing cold day shaking hands with rich civilians and marching around in a halftime show instead of spending time with their families.

This book captures the military-civilian divide perfectly, and the characters, story and dialogue are so true to life it’s hard to believe the author never served in the military. It’s hilarious, tragic, thought-provoking and all-around awesome. And it was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Tenth of December: I’m not really sure how to describe this collection of short stories, other than masterful. Be aware, though: These are not happy, feel-good stories, and while I was completely enamored, I know not everyone will be. I would recommend borrowing this book or reading part (or all) of one of the stories before you buy it, just in case.

The Hunger Games trilogy: I had been meaning to read these books for ages, and finally got around to it this summer (after seeing the first movie, which we liked). I didn’t love them as much as I did the Harry Potter books (maybe because it would be fun to live in Harry Potter world, but not so much in Panem), and they aren’t filled with beautiful, exquisitely crafted sentences, but they are good, and definitely worth reading (particularly if you have seen, or plan to see, the movies). There is a lot of nuance and backstory in the books that you would miss if you stuck just to the on-screen versions, and while Katniss started irritating me about halfway through “Catching Fire,” I really did enjoy reading all of them.

Plus, they are written for teenagers (though thankfully not in the incredibly annoying, seemingly unedited way “Twilight” was) so you should be able to get through all three pretty quickly.

The Tiger’s Wife: This was also a National Book Award finalist, and named one of the 10 best books of 2012 by the New York Times, but I had a pretty hard time getting into it. The writing itself is gorgeous, but the story (actually several stories that are kinda interwoven but not as much as I wish they were) is very slow. I was constantly waiting for something more to happen, but it never really did. The main character also was very strange to me — she kept making decisions that didn’t make sense, with no explanation of her odd actions.

So, I’m not really sure if I would recommend this book. Have any of you read it? What did you think?