Our #GoGirlReads December/January book is up for a vote! We have three awesome works of fiction to choose from. Take a look at each, choose which one will best accompany your holiday feasting, and vote in the form at the bottom of the page.

Backpack by Emily Barr

From Amazon.com:

“Emily Barr’s irrepressible first novel follows the trials and tribulations of Tansy, a Londoner who leaves behind her horrible boyfriend, too-trendy friends, and hotshot media job to find herself a continent away.

“Adrift in the wake of her long-suffering mum’s death, Tansy hopes her modest inheritance will help cast her in the role of glamorous “Englishwoman Abroad,” as she flits from Vietnam to China. Instead, she finds ungrateful locals who treat her like the tourist she is, a climate that’s hell on her skin, and a motley group of grimy back packers she likes more than she’ll ever admit. But when blond Englishwomen in Asia start turning up dead, what began as a grand adventure suddenly becomes a real-life murder mystery . . . and blond Tansy wonders if she’ll live long enough to tell the tale of her travels.

“Brimming with romance, humor, and a slyly self-deprecating wit, Backpack is Lisa Jewell meets The Beach.”

Lucy: A Novel by Jamaica Kincaid

From Amazon.com:

“The coming-of-age story of one of Jamaica Kincaid’s most admired creations–newly available in paperback

“Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. Lewis and Mariah are a thrice-blessed couple–handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Yet, alomst at once, Lucy begins to notice cracks in their beautiful facade. With mingled anger and compassion, Lucy scrutinizes the assumptions and verities of her employers’ world and compares them with the vivid realities of her native place. Lucy has no illusions about her own past, but neither is she prepared to be deceived about where she presently is.

“At the same time that Lucy is coming to terms with Lewis’s and Mariah’s lives, she is also unravelling the mysteries of her own sexuality. Gradually a new person unfolds: passionate, forthright, and disarmingly honest. In Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid has created a startling new character possessed with adamantine clearsightedness and ferocious integrity–a captivating heroine for our time.”

The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan

From Amazon.com:

“Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement is a sweeping, evocative epic of two women’s intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.

“Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement resurrects pivotal episodes in history: from the collapse of China’s last imperial dynasty, to the rise of the Republic, the explosive growth of lucrative foreign trade and anti-foreign sentiment, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign “Shanghailanders” living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II.

“A deeply evocative narrative about the profound connections between mothers and daughters, The Valley of Amazement returns readers to the compelling territory of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic insight and humor, she conjures a story of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and stubbornness of love.”