My holiday dreams of living in sweatpants, showering minimally and reading (and boozing) non-stop came true! While Tony was off shredding the mountains of Tahoe, I was shredding the bag of books I hauled up to northern California with me while making a permanent dent on my parents’ La-Z-Boy. IT WAS HEAVEN. I finally finished last month’s Book Club pick, Fates and Furies, which was epic and gorgeous and sosososo good. (If you haven’t read it yet, get on it.) Here’s everything else I devoured over the holidays:

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

8 words: THE LATEST FROM THE AUTHOR OF GONE GIRL. (That was a mouthful, but if you are a bookworm like me, the most important eight words you can read in book news.) It’s a short-ish story that you can tear through in one sitting, but I am addicted to this lady’s words and characters and am jonesing so hard for her next novel. Until that happens, get into this ghost story. It’s as deliciously twisted as everything else Gillian Flynn has written.

What She Knew by Gilly Macmillan

This one was a Christmas gift from my mom, and a total page-turner. It’s a psychological thriller about every parent’s worst nightmare: Your child going missing. The book is about the aftermath of this terrible event, and a mother’s search for her son as she learns that no one is as they seem, especially her loved ones. It’s a debut novel and impossible to put down.

Prescence by Amy Cuddy

Another Christmas gift from my mom. Written by the Harvard professor who went viral with her TED talk on doing “power poses” before you head into an important meeting or audition, this is all about tapping into your personal power and liberating yourself from the fear and anxiety holding you back. It’s more than self-help: It’s about the science behind how our body reacts to high-pressure moments (and the science of those power poses!!), and is full of positive and uplifting personal stories, from the author herself as well as people from around the world who have shared with her how they learned to thrive in those once-crippling stressful moments. It’s feel good and helpful as I kick off this new year with high hopes of being better.

Happy Cooking by Giada De Laurentiis

Another Christmas gift from my mom (she knows her daughter: Thrillers, self-help and FOOD.) I’m obsessed with Giada, and her latest cookbook is full of simple and delicious recipes I can’t wait to tackle. It’s a fun read, too, filled with personal anecdotes and advice on healthy eating and living. While this isn’t a traditional book club pick, my fantasy is to do a night with some friends and have each person make their favorite recipe for a pot luck cookbook book club.

And if none of these strike your fancy, I love this list of books to read in January and can’t wait to tackle a few of them. Especially Good on Paper and The Restaurant Critic’s Wife.) What books have you loved lately?