Paperback releases among 10 best books for December

A Hollywood satire, a Roosevelt biography and prize-winning poetry are must-reads.

- BETHANNE PATRICK

With apologies to T. S. Eliot, December might be the cruelest month — at least for publishing. As imprints focus on awards season and holiday sales, several of this month's best titles are out as paperback releases. Never fear, readers; these soft-covers deliver great plots and will also leave room in your budget for the best kind of gifts: more books! Happy holiday reading.

FICTION

Casanova 20: Ог, Hot World: A Novel By Davey Davis Catapult: 304 pp., $18 (Out now)

What if you were so beautiful you could seduce anyone, but lost that allure? Would you sink into depression, or would you seek a new path through the world? Adrian, at the end of his 20s with countless “friends” of all genders, exits the global pandemic with his mojo gone. The one person who loves him platonically, Mark, is older, ill, and living across the country. Together they grapple with how to be seen in a society that ignores so many of us.

The Definitions: A Novel By Matt Greene Henry Holt: 176 pp., $18 (Out now)

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live," said Joan Didion famously, and in Greene's new dystopian novel, survivors of a neurological virus have lost the ability to define words, let alone tell stories — they're in a place known as “The Center” but have no memories. The tension derives not from further illness or uprising, but from the absolute unrecognizability of a world where meaning exists only in fleeting moments and can rarely be shared.

Television: A Novel By Lauren Rothery Ecco: 256 pp., $28 (Out now)