There’s nothing quite like hugging our loved ones. A hug from my grandma, for instance, reminds me that I am loved unconditionally and fills me with warmth. Our new reality, however, is a hug desert.
So for the new year of our Indy Book Club, a community reading collaboration with the Santa Barbara Public Library, we are bringing you some stories to fill your joy coffers just a little bit more. Here are some recommendations on our January theme, “Books That Feel Like a Hug.”
The Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers: These are, by far, my most recommended books. Becky Chambers’s feel-good sci-fi books are a delight to read. The first book in the series, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, follows the motley crew of a working spaceship as they make their way to their biggest gig yet. Chambers’s universe is unwaveringly accepting, kind, and good.