The genius of jólabókaflóð — Iceland’s treasured Yuletide tradition — is its comforting simplicity. And if you’ve been reeling from the horrifying headlines du jour like we have, you could probably use some “Yule Book Flood” comfort right about now. To ensure all is calm and bright around your place tonight (whether Santa swings by or not), tuck into one of these soothing reads. They’ll make everything better, if only for an evening.

Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop: A Novel by Hwang Bo-reum; translated by Shanna Tan (Bloomsbury Publishing). Reviewed by Alice Stephens. “The plot mostly unfolds through probing conversations among the characters as they dissect how they’ve failed in the ‘rat race’ and how they can nevertheless achieve fulfillment and purpose. Guidance is offered by those who’ve found the courage to live as they wish and not as society demands, including Seungwoo and Sungchul, who don’t wait for the world to give them permission to call themselves writers but claim the title for themselves.”

Beep: A Novel by Bill Roorbach (Algonquin Books). Reviewed by Mariko Hewer. “This prophecy thread is the only part of the book that feels a bit tacked-on, as though Roorbach thought higher stakes were needed at the end of the story. But it’s hard to imagine Beep, who’s grown to care for Inga and other people, doing anything to hasten their destruction. That aside, Beep brims with hilarity, kindness, and humor and is a great choice for lovers of tall tales, animals, or both.”

The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic by Daniel de Visé (Atlantic Monthly Press). Reviewed by Michael Causey. “Thanks to de Visé, we now have an excellent time capsule that captures — via the bond between Aykroyd and Belushi — the electric joy of making special connections, the exhilaration of riding the arc of a flourishing partnership, and the pain of inevitable loss which, for all of us, remains the price of allowing others into our lives.”

Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life: Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life by Joseph Epstein (Free Press). Reviewed by Patricia Schultheis. “Now 87, Epstein remains enthralled by ‘life’s variety, its richness, its surprises and astonishments’ and is somewhat dismayed to realize that ‘the minutes, hours, days, months, years pass at roughly the same speed, and it is only the decades seem to fly by.’ Departed those decades may be, but they return in lovely recollection in these pages.”

Clara Reads Proust by Stéphane Carlier; translated by Polly Mackintosh (Gallic Books). Reviewed by Anne Eliot Feldman. “Stéphane Carlier’s Clara Reads Proust is a one-of-a-kind novel about the power of literature to spark transformation in a reader’s life. Tinged with humor and peppered with quotes lifted straight from Marcel’s own writings, this engaging story set in the charming French village of Chalon-sur-Saône provokes thought as it inspires.”

Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts by Adam Sass (Viking Books for Young Readers). Reviewed by Nick Havey. “Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts is a certified stunner from this point on. It has everything: fairytale elements…Oh, no, there’s only one more bed conundrums, exes for days, helpful elders, and, yes, magic spells. Sass deftly hits every beat and more, weaving in Grant’s incredibly self-aware mental-health journey and personal growth. He’s sure of himself even though he suspects he’s been hexed, reminding readers (like this one) going through a breakup that they’re ‘more than just an obstacle on the way to someone else’s happy ending.’”

Nicked by M.T. Anderson (Pantheon). Reviewed by Marcie Geffner. “Despite its overtly spiritual subject matter, M.T. Anderson’s Nicked isn’t a story about religion. Rather, it’s a fluffy, irreverent, and often hilarious mashup of a heist, a quest, and…wait for it…a rom-com. The novel’s philosophy might best be described as ‘seize the day’ — and if you can corrupt an innocent young monk while you’re at it, all the better.”

For the Blessings of Jupiter and Venus: A Novel by Varun Gauri (Washington Writers’ Publishing House). Reviewed by Terri Lewis. “This is a novel about marriage, and couples haunt the story, beginning with Meena, who just wanted a decent guy, and Avi, who chose Meena because she represented the kind of girl he was proud to attract. It will appeal to readers who enjoy wry humor and rooting for characters struggling to define themselves amid strong, sometimes stifling cultural strictures.”

Time of the Child: A Novel by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury Publishing). Reviewed by Alexandra Grabbe. “Although set in the mid-20th century, Time of the Child made me feel as if I’d taken a marvelous trip to the distant past. This is a story to read slowly, to savor, and to return to again and again. I suspect that when I pick it back up in years to come, rediscovering Williams’ characters will feel like a reunion with old friends.”

The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures by Sarah Clegg (Algonquin Books). Reviewed by Randy Cepuch. “While her exhaustive historical and firsthand research is clear, her text only rarely seems academic, and she clearly enjoys cutting loose in the footnotes. In a section describing the Feast of the Holy Innocents (a 15th-century celebration, on December 28th, of King Herod’s massacre of infants in an attempt to kill baby Jesus), the main text mentions a devil with ‘gun powder burning pipes in his hands and in his ears and in his arse.’ Her bottom-of-the-page comment adds, ‘I’m starting the petition here for school Nativity plays to include fire-farting devils.’”