Ah, the gifts are wrapped and the kids are (finally) in bed! Before the chaos of Christmas morning, take some time tonight to enjoy a fun, maybe-things-really-will-be-okay read. Here are several titles that should be especially welcome on this long winter night.

A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever: The Story of Spinal Tap by Rob Reiner with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer (Gallery Books). Reviewed by Daniel de Visé. “As Reiner relates it, ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ opened on March 2, 1984, to small and mostly befuddled audiences. But the critics got it. In the weeks and months that followed, music heads found their way to theaters. Musicians, of course, loved it even more. For years after its release, it played on VCRs in tour buses across the nation. A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever is a cult book about a cult film. If you’re in the cult, you know who you are. Enough of my yakkin’.”

Anima Rising: A Novel by Christopher Moore (William Morrow). Reviewed by Drew Gallagher. “In this latest romp, his 19th, he takes us to pre-World War I Vienna — arguably the epicenter of artistic brilliance at the time — and then proceeds to take dozens of creative liberties with history. At the story’s opening, Gustav Klimt is making his way home after a night of carousing when he happens upon a dead, nude woman floating in the Danube Canal. Klimt, who built his reputation by painting naked women (most of them alive), is fascinated by the pale creature and pulls her to shore. Not wanting to draw attention to his late-night wandering or involvement with the body, Klimt decides not to call the police. When he detects a faint pulse in the clearly-not-a-corpse corpse, hilarity ensues.”

Magic Can’t Save Us: Eighteen Tales of Likely Failure by Josh Denslow (University of New Orleans Press). Reviewed by Molly McGinnis. “Josh Denslow’s charming third book, Magic Can’t Save Us, offers more than a hint of fantasy: Once readers look beyond the protagonists’ near worshipful devotion to their girlfriends, they might notice the dragon in the room (or the tooth fairy, living statue, or perverted mermaid). Many of the tales end with a twist, like the answer to the sort of riddle one might encounter in these pages. Happily, Denslow’s stories are reliable without being repetitive, which is as much a mark of his unique style as it is a nod to traditional fairytales.”

A Case of Mice and Murder: The Trials of Gabriel Ward by Sally Smith (Bloomsbury Publishing). Reviewed by Paul D. Pearlstein. “With its unique Inner Temple setting, A Case of Mice and Murder is an exciting story full of suspense, head-scratching complexity, and Dickensian coincidences, one that leaves readers guessing until the very end (which wraps up a bit too tidily). Having spent considerable time with its many interesting characters, I’m ready for more. Happily, a series is in the works, meaning we haven’t heard the last from barrister/sleuth Gabriel Ward.”

How to Dodge a Cannonball: A Novel by Dennard Dayle (Henry Holt and Co.). Reviewed by Carr Harkrader. “It can be difficult in comic novels to develop — and maintain — a voice, but Dayle has the uncanny ability to offer subtly poignant moments that leaven the literary slapstick. Few topics are more rife with hypocrisy and absurdity than war and race, so the Civil War offers the author plenty of fertile ground to plow. Indeed, it’s so obvious a topic that even the novel’s characters write about it. Anders’ immediate superior in the Union Army, Tobias Gleason, for one, claims that ‘America is the home of the new human’ and pens high-handed, pretentious plays about its possible racial future.”

John Candy: A Life in Comedy by Paul Myers (House of Anansi Press). Reviewed by Daniel de Visé. “Little is revelatory. I sense that Myers himself is too close to the industry to quote famous people saying things that might land them in trouble. That said, John Candy does an estimable job of narrating the great comedic actor’s life and of explaining what made him tick. Myers is a good writer, and he knows his material.”

Something Rotten: A Novel by Andrew Lipstein (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Reviewed by Chris Rutledge. “Still, while Lipstein uses his pen to expose his characters’ weaknesses, he never loses empathy for them. His ability to balance skepticism with concern allows him to get to the ‘truth’ about some of society’s ills without beating it to death. Yes, Reuben has been treated unfairly, but while he may dwell on it, the author, thankfully, does not.”